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Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (18 September 1786, inLudwigsburg,Baden-Württemberg,Germany – 21 February 1862, inWeinsberg, Baden-Württemberg) was a Germanpoet, practicing physician, and medical writer. He gave the first detailed description ofbotulism.
He was born atLudwigsburg inWürttemberg. After attending the classical schools ofLudwigsburg andMaulbronn, he was apprenticed in a cloth factory, but, in 1804, owing to the good services of ProfessorKarl Philipp Conz, was able to enter theUniversity of Tübingen. He studied medicine but also had time for literary pursuits in the company ofLudwig Uhland,Gustav Schwab and others. He took his doctor's degree in 1808, spent some time travelling, and then settled as a practising physician inWildbad.
Here he completed hisReiseschatten von dem Schattenspieler Luchs (1811), in which his own experiences are described withcaustic humour. He next collaborated with Uhland and Schwab in thePoetischer Almanach for 1812, which was followed by theDeutscher Dichterwald (1813), and in these some of Kerner's best poems were published. In 1815 he obtained the official appointment of district medical officer (Oberamtsarzt) in Gaildorf, and in 1818 was transferred toWeinsberg, where he spent the rest of his life.
His house, the site of which at the foot of the historicalSchloss Weibertreu was presented to him by the townspeople, became a mecca for literary pilgrims, all of whom were made welcome.Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden came with a knapsack on his back. The poets,Christian Friedrich Alexander von Württemberg andNikolaus Lenau were constant guests, and in 1826Friederike Hauffe (1801–1829), the daughter of a forester in Prevorst, asomnambulist andclairvoyante, arrived; she forms the subject of Kerner's famous workDie Seherin von Prevorst, Eröffnungen über das innere Leben des Menschen und über das Hineinragen einer Geisterwelt in die unsere (The Seeress of Prevorst, revelations of the human inner life and about the penetrations of the spirit world into ours, 1829; 6th ed., 1892). In 1826 he published a collection ofGedichte which were later supplemented byDer letzte Blütenstrauß (1852) andWinterblüten (1859). Among others of his well-known poems are the charming balladDer reichste Fürst; a drinking song,Wohlauf, noch getrunken, and the pensiveWanderer in der Sägemühle.
In addition to his literary productions, Kerner wrote some popular medical books, dealing withanimal magnetism, the first treatise onsebacic acid andbotulism,Das Fettgift oder die Fettsäure und ihre Wirkung auf den tierischen Organismus (1822), and a description of Wildbad and its healing waters,Das Wildbad im Königreich Württemberg (1813).[1] He also gave a vivid account of his youthful years inBilderbuch aus meiner Knabenzeit (1859) and, inDie Bestürmung der württembergischen Stadt Weinsberg im Jahre 1525 (1820), showed considerable skill in historical narrative.
In 1851 he was compelled, owing to increasing blindness, to retire from his medical practice, but he lived, carefully tended by his daughters, at Weinsberg until his death. He was buried beside his wife, who had died in 1854, in the graveyard of Weinsberg, and the grave is marked by a stone slab with an inscription he himself had chosen:Friederike Kerner und ihr Justinus.
InBilderbuch aus meiner Knabenzeit, Kerner recallsGeorge Rapp's visits to his father, the Oberamtmann atMaulbronn. Kerner's father had helped shield Rapp from religious prosecution by the authorities in Germany, and Kerner well remembered Rapp and his long black beard.[1] George Rapp and his followers eventually left Germany in 1803, settled in the United States, and started theHarmony Society.Die Seherin von Prevorst and its tale about Kerner's relationship withFriederike Hauffe — the latter reputed to have visionary and healing powers, and who had produced a strange 'inner' language containing Hebrew-like elements — made quite an impression among the members of theHarmony Society in 1829, who saw it as confirmation of the approachingmillennium and of their religious views.[2]
The Saw was translated byWilliam Cullen Bryant and was included inGraham's Magazine in 1848.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This work in turn cites:
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