Johann Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner was a German polymath, promoting the Enlightenment in Bavaria. While working as a civil servant for the Bavarian court, he published a hymnal which contained a complete German High Mass and songs such as "Das Grab ist leer, der Held erwacht" for which he is known. These hymns and especially his German mass, used in settings by Michael Haydn, remain popular to this day.
Career
Beginning life as Johann Franz Seraph Kohlbrenner in Traunstein on 17 October 1728, he was the son of Rupert Kohlbrenner, a worker in a salt works. After attendingthe localVolksschule, he worked as a clerk at the salt works, responsible for the company's archives. At age 25, Kohlbrenner was called to Munich to revise and supervise the Registry of the Exchequer. In 1762, he installed a tree garden in the elector's Aerarium in Lechhausen. From 1766, he published a journal of the type, the Intelligenzblatt der Churbaierischen Lande. In 1777, together with the priest and composer, Kohlbrenner published in Landshut the first part of a Roman Catholic hymnal, Der heilige Gesang zum Gottesdienste in der römisch-katholischen Kirche, which promoted liturgical singing in German, in the spirit of the Enlightenment. After this hymnal was also published in Salzburg in 1781, he added a second part, published there in 1783. Part of the hymnal was his Singmesse, for singing the complete mass ordinary in German instead of the traditional Latin. His German mass in ten songs was set to music by Michael Haydn several times, called Deutsches Hochamt. On 26 June 1778 Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, made Kohlbrenner a Reichsritter. Unmarried, he died at age 54 on 6 June 1783, in Munich and was buried at the cemetery of Unserer Lieben Frau Gottesaker zu St. Salvator. The inscription read: Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner is still known for his German High Mass and for his hymn which appears in the regional section of the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob for Austria as GL 710. "Das Grab ist leer, der Held erwacht" is frequently sung in Easter services. His hometown, Traunstein, has named a Mittelschule after him.
Works
Das baierische und pfälzische Landmann in der verbessernden Landwirthschaft. Munich 1769
Geographische Mauth-Charte von Baiern.Augsburg 1764
Der heilige Gesang zum Gottesdienste in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Landshut 1777
Materialien für die Sittenlehre, Litteratur, Landwirthschaft, zur Kenntnis der Producte, und für die Geschichte alt und neuer Zeiten.München 1774.
Literature
Cornelia Baumann: "Wie wenig sind, die dieses wagen!" Franz von Kohlbrenner, Traunstein 1728 – München 1783. Drei-Linden-Verlag, Grabenstätt 1985.
Cornelia Oelwein: Franz von Kohlbrenner . Ein berühmter Traunsteiner. Chiemgau Dr., Traunstein 1996.
Daniel Schlögl: Der planvolle Staat. Raumerfassung und Reformen in Bayern 1750 – 1800. C.H. Beck, München 2002,.
Lorenz Westenrieder: . Strobl, München 1783
anon.: Kohlbrenner, wie er war. oder Anmerkungen und Anekdoten zu dem von Hr. Prof. Westenrieder verfaßten Leben des Johann Franz Seraph Edlen von Kohlbrenner. 1793
Clemens Alois Baader: Das gelehrte Baiern, oder Lexikon aller Schriftsteller, welche Baiern im 18. Jahrhundert erzeugte oder ernährte. Nürnberg 1804, Sp. 606–610
