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LTR XII (Academic Year 1999-2000): 56-94 FRIEDRICH MICHAEL ZIEGENHAGEN (1694-1776) GERMAN LUTHERAN PIETIST IN THE ENGLISH COURT Norman J. Threinen or many years, there has been a tendency for historians writing about Pietism to focus almost exclusively on the two founders of this eighteenth-century religious movement in Germany: Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) and August Hermann Francke (1663-1727). Spener provided many of the intellectual impulses for Pietism; Francke worked out the practical implications of the movement in the area of education, missions, and social concern. With the death of Francke, Pietism has been generally regarded as having reached a plateau and then having declined into an inward-looking, individualistic expression of piety, often with a law- and works-orientation. Yet, this view of Pietism overlooks the fact that most of the significant ventures emanating from Halle really occurred in the decades after Francke’s death. Heinrich Melcheor Muehlenberg, for example, was sent to be the great organizer of Lutheranism in North America by the Pietist centre in Halle in 1742, fifteen years after the death of August Hermann Francke. Perhaps this view of later Pietism as static and lifeless was encouraged right from the beginning. For, if a late eighteenth-century history of the Francke Foundations in Halle is correct, this view may already have been held de facto by Gotthilf August Francke, the son of the elder Francke, who succeeded his father as the head of the extensive pietist enterprises in Halle. In this early history of the Francke Foundations, Gotthilf Francke is depicted as having had one fundamental guiding principle: to keep everything exactly as his illustrious father had set it up and to carry on in his Spirit. 1 F This approach of the younger Francke toward Halle Pietism after the death of its founder had the effect, according to the writers of this early history, of maintaining the positive things which had been achieved by the elder Francke. However, it had the disadvantage of discouraging any creative attention to the new challenges occasioned by the spirit of the times. The view of Pietism as a movement which ceased to develop and which lacked vitality after the death of its founders is being questioned today. This has resulted in a closer look at the second generation of Halle Pietists, i.e., those who lived and worked in the half century after the death of August Hermann Francke. It has also resulted in an examination of Halle Pietism on 1 J. L. Schulze, G. C. Knapp, and A. H. Niemeyer, Franckens Stiftungen (Halle: Commission der Buchhandlungen des Waisenhauses, 1796) 3:277.
THREINEN: FRIEDRICH MICHAEL ZIEGENHAGEN 57 a broader scale, i.e., as it was manifested in locations other than Halle. Among the eighteenth century centres of Halle Pietism which are currently receiving greater attention is London, England, where the German Lutheran Court Chaplain of the day served an important function in facilitating Halle Pietism to make an impact as far away as India and North America. That the work of Halle Pietists in London was done in co-operation with organizations like the Anglican Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and, in the case of the Tranquebar Mission in India, also with government authorities in Denmark, adds to the complexity of the historical developments of Halle Pietism in London and to the difficulty of understanding the historical happenings associated with it. As evidence that a more serious look is being taken at Halle Pietism in London, we have two recent studies on Anton Wilhelm Boehme (Boehm) the first German Lutheran Court Chaplain in London with a Halle Pietist orientation. 2 So far no one has seriously focussed on Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen, who followed Boehm and served a much longer time in office. While he receives some attention in one of these studies, no similar study to what has been done with Boehm has yet been undertaken on Ziegenhagen. As was the case with August Herman Francke in Halle, the reason may again be that Boehm serves the function of a founder; it is often more difficulty to get excited about the person who builds on the work of the founder. It is not that researchers in the field have lacked an appreciation of Ziegenhagen entirely. Renate Wilson, who typifies the people conducting current research into Halle Pietism, has expressed disappointment that no serious work on Ziegenhagen has been done in spite of “his prominence during the period and in the field at issue.” 3 Similarly, a standard work in the field describes Ziegenhagen as “an organizing middleman between London and the Franckes … with their plans to meet the Protestant crisis in Central Europe, and to provide for the needs of the rocketing German population in America. From the point of view of the Franckes, Ziegenhagen was indispensable.” 4 Finally, Daniel Brunner correctly makes the comment that “Ziegenhagen’s years marked the pinnacle of the German Lutheran Royal Chapel.” 5 2 Daniel L. Brunner, Halle Pietists in England: Antony William Boehm and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), volume 29 of Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Pietismus, edited by K. Aland, E. Peschke, and G. Schaefer; Arno Sames, Anton Wilhelm Boehme (1996), volume 26 of the same series. 3 Renate Wilson, “Continental Protestant Refugees and their Protectors in Germany and London: Commercial and Charitable Networks”, in Pietismus und Neuzeit (Goettingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995) 20:109. 4 W. R. Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge University Press, 1992) 307. 5 Brunner 58.
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