Nitzsch, Karl Immanuel
NITZSCH, KARL IMMANUEL (1787-1868), Lutheran divine, was born at the small Saxon town of Borna near Leipzig on the zist of September 1787. His father, Karl Ludwig Nitzsch (1751-1831), who at that time was pastor and superintendent in Borna, and afterwards (1790) became professor at Wittenberg and director (1817) of the seminary for preachers, has also left a name of some distinction in the theological world by a number of writings, among which may be mentioned a work entitled De discrimine revdationis imperatoriae et didacticae prolusiones academicae (2 vols., 1830). Theologically, he represented a combination of supernaturalism and rationalism (supernatural rationalism or a Kantian rational supernaturalism). Karl Immanuel was sent to study at Schulpforta in 1803, whence he proceeded to the university of Wittenberg in 1806. In 1809 he graduated, and in 1810 he became a Privatdozent at the university. Having become diaconus at the Schlosskirche in 1811, he showed remarkable energy and zeal during the bombardment and siege of the city in 1813. In 1817 he was appointed one of the preceptors in the preachers' seminary which had been established at Wittenberg after the suppression of the university. From 1820 to 1822 he was superintendent in Kemberg, and in the latter year he was appointed professor ordinarius of systematic and practical theology at Bonn. Here he remained until called to succeed Marheineke at Berlin in 1847; subsequently he became university preacher, rector of the university, provost of St Nicolai (in 1854) and member of the supreme council of the church, in which last capacity he was one of the ablest and most active promoters of the Evangelical Union. He died on the 21st of August 1868. He represented the Vermittelungstheologie of the school of Schleiermacher.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
