A Scandal In Konigsberg – Christopher Clark

He attacked Ebel in various sermons and the two-volume treatise he published in the form of a dialogue in 1823 and 1824 (under the unwieldy title: Philagathos. Insinuations about the Kingdom of Goodness. An Explanation of Christian-Religious Truth for Friends of the Same) was widely read in Königsberg as a lightly disguised attack on Ebel and his followers.

At one point in this text, Kähler describes a young woman’s initiation into a community of ‘saints’ who welcome her with a shower of passionate kisses. Only when she is approached by a young man known to be a sexual profligate does she flee the scene and seek the counsel of her parents. In 1828, Kähler had urged his colleagues on the Consistory to appoint an adjunct to the preacher’s post at the Old City Church, who could be used to keep Ebel under surveillance and undermine his independence.

The Consistory, as the senior provincial disciplining authority of the Church, supported this proposal, but the city government did not, and nothing came of it.[6] From the very beginning, the Consistory went out of its way to build a case against Ebel and Diestel. Among those whom Kähler invited to make a deposition to the Consistory was Dr Ludwig Wilhelm Sachs, who had left Ebel’s circle under a cloud and was known to be a hostile witness.

On the basis of depositions by Finckenstein and Sachs, Kähler composed an official statement on behalf of the Consistory. The statement itself is no longer extant – the bulk of the East Prussian consistorial archive was destroyed at the end of the Second World War and only fragments made it to the GDR State Archives at Merseburg and later to the Geheimes Staatsarchiv in Berlin. But according to the summary of Count Kanitz, who read this document in the spring of 1836, it affirmed that Ebel and Diestel had propagated a ‘dangerous doctrine’ irreconcilable with the official teachings of the Church, and whose ‘corrupting effects’ had made themselves felt in the ‘immoral behaviour’ of those who preached and adopted their doctrine.

In following this course, Kähler departed from standard procedure. By calling witnesses to testify against Ebel, the Consistory acted as an investigative body, when its official task was simply to monitor the progress of the case between Finckenstein and Diestel. Sachs did not make his deposition in the official premises of the Consistory, as was standard procedure, but in the private apartments of Dr Kähler himself.

Had Kähler intended to produce an expert opinion (Gutachten) worthy of the name, he ought to have conducted an independent investigation aimed at ascertaining what the ‘Schönherr–Ebel doctrine’ actually was, whether it was in fact propagated systematically by Ebel or Diestel, whether it indeed conflicted with the official teachings of the Church, and whether it could truly be said to have had ‘corrupting’ effects.

Copyright © 2025 by Christopher Clark Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. PP colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Illustrations and photo credits appear on this page. Cover design: Stephanie Ross Cover image: Alamy Stock Photo Interior design adapted for ebook by Cora Wigen library of congress control number: 2025043954 Hardcover ISBN 9798217060948 Ebook ISBN 9798217060955 First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, 2025.

The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland, https://eu-contact.penguin.ie. prhid_prh_7.4a_155318083_c0_r0 1kitap1.com/en Contents Dedication Maps Author’s Note 1. The City of Almost 2. News from Königsberg 3. The Prophet of the Pregel 4. Ida’s Awakening 5. Varieties of Religious Understanding 6. The Difficult Ascent of Johann Ebel 7. The Ebelians 8. Charge and Counter-Charge 9. Building a Case 10. The Trial Begins 11. Diestel Testifies 12. A Media Sensation 13. Dr Sachs Accuses 14.

The End of the Road 15. Closing Thoughts Notes Acknowledgements List of Illustrations and Photo Credits About the Author 1kitap1.com/en In memory of Jonathan Steinberg (1934–2021) 1kitap1.com/en 1kitap1.com/en Between 1835 and 1842, scandal tightened around two clergymen in the Baltic port city of Königsberg. It destroyed their reputations, drove them out of their jobs and into prison, and banished them from public life. Their legal exoneration of the most serious charges against them came too late to reverse the damage. I have been thinking about this small vortex of turbulence ever since I happened on the relevant files in the early 1990s.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: dd0f180add65cea4
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 29,025,804 bytes (27.681 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9798217060948, 9798217060955
• Pages: 182
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 245.35 minutes
• Total Words: 49,070
• Total Characters: 300,934
• Average Words per Page: 269.62
• Average Characters per Page: 1653.48

Most Frequent Words

ebel (326), back (228), note (224), reference (216), königsberg (199), von (159), diestel (140), against (106), one (106), der (97), berlin (95), church (89), schönherr (86), schön (84), und (80), people (78), two (77), sachs (75), religious (73), between (73), altenstein (73), city (72), also (70), iii (66), vol (65), ebel’s (62), women (60), public (58), even (58), ibid (58), prussia (57), die (57), see (56), finckenstein (56), himself (54), sexual (53), time (51), around (49), wrote (49), consistory (48), man (47), ida (47), life (45), among (45), many (44), made (44), prussian (43), world (43), religion (43), reason (43), rep (43), sekt (43), abt (43), became (42), gsta (42), xvi (42), men (41), state (41), light (41), old (40), letter (40), circle (40), fols (40), years (39), young (39), god (39), first (38), later (38), johann (37), theodor (37), new (36), whose (36), teachings (36), kanitz (36), now (35), never (35), official (35), known (34), found (33), des (33), great (32), wilhelm (32), way (32), sect (31), fol (31), court (30), primordial (30), mucker (30), rosenkranz (29), like (29), kitap (28), com (28), asked (28), good (28), schönherr’s (28), count (28), friend (28), investigation (28), william (28), scandal (27).

PDF Download