Francis Daniel Pastorius
| Francis Daniel Pastorius | |
|---|---|
Bas-relief impression of Francis Daniel Pastorius, c. 1897.
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| Born |
Franz Daniel Pastorius September 26, 1651 Sommerhausen, Franconia |
| Died | c. 1720 (aged 68–69) Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | lawyer, poet, scholar, schoolteacher, abolitionist, founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania |
| Spouse(s) | Ennecke Klostermanns (1658-1723) (m. 1688) |
Francis Daniel Pastorius (September 26, 1651 – c. 1720) was a German born educator, lawyer, poet, and public official. He was the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania, now part of Philadelphia, the first permanent German-American settlement and the gateway for subsequent emigrants from Germany.
Franz Daniel Pastorius was born at Sommerhausen in the German Duchy of Franconia, to a prosperous Lutheran family. He received a Gymnasium education in Windsheim (also in Franconia), where his family moved in 1659. He was trained as a lawyer in some of the best German universities of his day, including the University of Altdorf, the University of Strasbourg and the University of Jena. He started his practice in Windsheim and continued it in Frankfurt-am-Main. He was a close friend of the Lutheran theologian and Pietist leader Philipp Jakob Spener during the early development of Spener's movement in Frankfurt. From 1680 to 1682, he worked as a tutor accompanying a young nobleman during his Wanderjahr through Germany, England, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Pastorius’ biography reveals increasing dissatisfaction with the authoritarian Lutheran church and state of his German youth in the Age of Absolutism. As a young adult his Christian morality even strained the relationship with his father Melchior Adam (1624-1702), a wealthy lawyer and burgomaster in Windsheim. These difficulties came to a head in 1677-79, years of tumult in this imperial city. After Pastorius had completed his doctorate in law, returned to Windsheim and begun his law career, his family and friends (with Hapsburg backing) suppressed a popular insurrection against abuses of oligarchic rule. It was in this context that he left his home in 1679, joined the Lutheran Pietists in Frankfurt, and repeatedly urged adherence to Christ’s Golden Rule. He emigrated to Pennsylvania four years later, but never went back to Windsheim.
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