Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem (21 March 174730 October 1772) was a German lawyer. His suicide in Wetzlar became the model for that of ''

The Sorrows of Young Werther ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (; german: Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) is a 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, which appeared as a revised edition in 1787. It was one of the main novels in the '' Sturm und Drang'' period in Ge ...

'' by Goethe.

Life

He was born in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest ...

to the Lutheran natural theologian

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem (22 November 1709 - 2 September 1789) was a German Lutheran theologian during the Age of Enlightenment. He was also known as "Abt Jerusalem". He was court-preacher and a major advisor to Charles I, Duke of Brun ...

. He attended

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

, where he met but did not like

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

. He then became a legation secretary to the

Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (german: Fürstentum Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. It had an area of 3,828 ...

. He studied litigation at the Reichskammergericht in Wetzlar, where he again met Goethe and

Johann Christian Kestner Johann Georg Christian Kestner (28 August 174124 May 1800) was a German lawyer and archivist. He is also notable as the model for Lotte's husband Albert in ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' by Goethe, with Kestner's fiancée Charlotte Buff used a ...

. His middle-class background meant that he was not respected by the nobility and often clashed with his superiors. Like Goethe in Frankfurt, he found little or no job satisfaction in everyday legal work. Jerusalem also fell in love with the countess Elisabeth Herd, already engaged to a Palatinate legation secretary. With a broken heart, he shot himself in his apartment at 5 Schillerplatz in Wetzlar (now a house-museum named the

Jerusalemhaus The Jerusalemhaus is a house museum at Schillerplatz 5 in Wetzlar, Germany. On October 30, 1772, the Braunschweig legation secretary Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem shot himself here in a two-room apartment on the second floor. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ...

) on 29 October 1772 and died the following day.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the develop ...

's tragedy ''

Emilia Galotti ''Emilia Galotti'' () is a play in five acts by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), which premiered on 8 March 1772 in Brunswick ("Braunschweig" in German). The work is a classic example of German '' bürgerliches Trauerspiel'' (bourgeois ...

'' was afterwards found on Jerusalem's table. After ''Werther'' came out, Lessing wrote a sharp polemic protesting against Goethe's presentation of Jerusalem's "Philosophische Aufsätze" ("Philosophical Essays"), one of which was a defence of suicide Lessing particularly objected to his presentation of his friend Jerusalem as a "sentimental fool" whereas Lessing saw him as a "true, reflective philosopher". Beer (ed.): ''Philosophische Aufsätze von Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem.'' 1900, S. V.

Works

(ed.): ''Philosophische Aufsätze von Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem.'' Buchhandlung des Fürstlichen Waisenhauses, Braunschweig 1776. * Paul Beer (ed.): ''Philosophische Aufsätze von Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem.'' (1776). Mit G. E. Lessings Vorrede und Zusätzen. Berlin 190
(Online version)
* Heinrich Schneider (ed.); Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem: ''Aufsätze und Briefe.'' Weißbach, Heidelberg 1925.

Bibliography

* * * Friedrich Koldewey: ''Werthers Urbild.'' In: Friedrich Koldewey: ''Aufsätze und Vorträge aus verschiedenen Wissensgebieten.'' Band 2: ''Lebens- und Charakterbilder.'' Wolfenbüttel 1881, S. 167–202. * Roger Paulin: ''Der Fall Wilhelm Jerusalem. Zum Selbstmordproblem zwischen Aufklärung und Empfindsamkeit.'' Wallstein, Göttingen 1999, . * Isa Schikorsky: ''Jerusalem, Karl Wilhelm''. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent u.a. (Hrsg.): ''Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8. bis 18. Jahrhundert''. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, , S. 376f. * ''"...Kein Geistlicher hat ihn begleitet." Dokumente aus dem Nachlass von Johann Christian Kestner über den Selbstmord Carl Wilhelm Jerusalems am 30. Oktober 1772 in Wetzlar.'' Hrsg. Magistrat der Stadt Wetzlar. Textkommentar: Manfred Wenzel. Petersberg 2015,

External links (in German)

*
''Jerusalem, Karl Wilh.''
In: ''Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon.'' fünfte Auflage. Band 1. Leipzig 1911, S
896

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jerusalem, Karl Wilhelm 1747 births 1772 deaths Suicides by firearm in Germany 18th-century German lawyers 18th-century German philosophers People from Wolfenbüttel Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Sorrows of Young Werther 18th-century German writers 18th-century German male writers