Paul Winckler
Paul Winckler was a 17th-century figure born on November 13, 1630, in Gross-Glogau, Silesia, which is now in Poland. Coming from a Protestant background, he faced early challenges, including the death of his father and neglect after his mother's remarriage. His educational journey began at home due to a lack of Protestant schools, and he eventually attended multiple universities, including Frankfurt an der Oder. Winckler experienced various professional roles, including serving as a tutor and later as a legal advisor to a nobleman.
In the face of political and religious turbulence, particularly from the Hapsburgs' attempts to enforce Catholicism, he chose to relocate to Pressburg. Winckler's literary contributions include an autobiography that features prose and poetry, detailing his life's experiences, and a novel titled "Der Edelmann." He also published collections of aphorisms, reflecting his philosophical insights. Winckler's life was marked by both personal and professional struggles, including health issues that prompted him to document his story, which was posthumously published in 1860.
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Paul Winckler
Writer
- Born: November 13, 1630
- Birthplace: Gross-Glogau, Silesia (now in Poland)
- Died: March 1, 1686
- Place of death: Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland)
Biography
Paul Winckler was born on November 13, 1630, in Gross-Glogau in Silesia, which is now a part of Poland. His father was a merchant and his mother was the sister of German poet Andreas Gryphius. Although he was born into a Protestant family, German law at the time required that he be baptized as a Catholic. He was educated at home because there were no Protestant schools.
Winckler’s father died when he was four. His mother remarried but when she died in 1641, her second husband quickly remarried and Winckler became the ward of Mathias Nitsche, who neglected him. Nitsche was about to arrange for Winckler to enter the service of a Polish officer when the principal of the Fraustadt school offered the boy a position at the school. Winckler did well in school, and in 1649 he enrolled at the university in Frankfurt an der Oder. He also attended the universities at Wittenburg and Leipzig but returned to Gross- Glogau in 1650 because he had no money. He became a tutor for a noble family for three years.
Winckler left his relatively secure position and set off on a journey through Germany. He arrived in Regensburg in 1653 and was able to watch the coronation of King Ferdinand IV. His attempts to find suitable work in Regensburg were unsuccessful and he moved on to Strasbourg. While in Strasbourg, he became ill. He was recommended for a position as a tutor by his friend, Johann Heinrich Calisius. Winckler arrived at the estate of Johann Wilhelm von Stubenburg exhausted and seriously ill, and Stubenburg’s wife nursed him back to health.
Winckler’s troubles were not over, however. Because the Hapsburg rulers were attempting to reestablish Catholicism in the German empire, all non-Catholic employees were required to convert to the religion or face banishment. Refusing to convert, Winckler, his pupil, Rudolph Wilhelm, and Frau Stubenburg traveled to Pressburg, where Winckler was nominated to join the prestigious German-language society, Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, or the Fruitbearing Society.
By 1658, Winckler was working as a legal advisor to a nobleman near Breslau. He served in this position for six years until he went into private law practice. Although his law practice was successful, he gave it up in 1668 to work for another nobleman. He married Christina von Logau that same year, and the couple had three children.
During the 1670’s, Winckler began to suffer from severe bouts of gout. Believing that he did not have long to live, Winckler wrote his autobiography. Although primarily written in prose, the autobiography was punctuated by the inclusion of four poems, amusing anecdotes about his life, ghost stories, and his recollections of catastrophes and adventures. The autobiography was not published until 1860, when it appeared in a German periodical. Winckler reworked certain sections of the autobiography into his novel, Der Edelmann (1696). In addition to his novel and autobiography, Winckler also wrote two collections of aphorisms, Zwey Tausend gutte Gedancken zusammen gebracht von Dem Geübten(1685) and Guter Gedancken Drey Tausend zusammen gebracht von Dem Geübten (1685).