Johann Georg Kerner
| Georg Kerner | |
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Georg Kerner
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| Born |
Johann Georg Kerner 9 April 1770 Ludwigsburg, Württemberg |
| Died | 7 April 1812 Hamburg |
| Occupation | Physician Political journalist and essayist |
| Spouse(s) | Johanna Friederike Duncker |
| Children | Bonafine Klara Theone Sacontala Georg Reinhold |
| Parent(s) | (1744-1799) Friederike Luise Stockmaier (1750-1817) |
Johann Georg Kerner (9 April 1770 - 7 April 1812) was a physician and a political journalist who became a critical chronicler of the French revolution.
(Johann) Georg Kerner was the elder brother of the poet-writer Justinus Kerner. The brothers were born in Ludwigsburg, a short distance to the north of Stuttgart. Their father, (1744-1799) was an in Württemberg (like his father before him), a loyal servant of Duke Karl Eugen and a stern father to his sons.
Through their maternal grandmother, born Wilhelmine Luise Herpfer (1730-1788) Johann Georg and Justinius Kerner shared an illustrious pedigree. Ancestors included the physicians (1624-1686) and (1580-1626) along with the Lutheran theologian and church organist Lucas Bacmeister (1530-1608).
Georg was the eldest of his parents' twelve recorded children. (Justinus was the youngest.) However, only two of the daughters and four of the sons survived to adulthood. One of the daughters later became the mother of the industrialising politician (1807-1893). One of the other sons, served in the Württemberg army, ennobled in 1806 and later becoming Interior Minister, in which capacity he made an important contribution to modernising the steel industry.
As a schoolboy attending the Latin school (classical/grammaer school) in his home town Kerner, who was physically small and weak, suffered both from his father's severity and from bullying by schoolmates. His contrarian spirit remained unbroken, however, even after his father secured his admission in 1779 to the élite Karlsschule (military and general academy) in Stuttgart, described by one source as "the duke's prestigious institute intended to supply loyal government officials, half boarding school, half university". Other pupils included Friedrich Schiller. Despite the military academy, Kerner never conformed intellectually to what was expected of him. In a speech on the Name day of the academy's founder, Württemberg's aging ruler, Duke Karl Eugen, Kerner called for the establishment of a system of state run welfare for the poor. Schiller quit the academy in favour of a career in theatre in 1782, but Kerner was still a student in 1789. He established a political club within the academy devoted to support for the French revolution. Other members included Christian Heinrich Pfaff, and Joseph Anton Koch. On 14 July 1790 they held a secret celebration to mark the first anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille. These and similar actions on the part of Kerner and his friends provoked an adverse reaction in conservative Württemberg among the citizens and the aristocratic French emigrants whom they took to their hearts. With help from friends Kerner produced a dissertation that concluded his studies and earned him his qualification, in Easter 1791, as a physician. Now, accompanied by the first serious love of his life, he moved to Strasbourg under the pretext of wishing to improve his medical knowledge at the university.
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