Baumgarten, Jakob Siegmund

One of the great theologians of the Lutheran church, Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten was born in Wollmirstadt (not far from Magdeburg) on 14 March 1706. He died on 4 July 1757 in Halle. Together with his younger brother Alexander Gottlieb, he studied under the direction of his father, a clergyman-scholar who owned a good library. After the death of his father in 1722, he went with his brother to the Waisenhaus in Halle, where he completed his education, while embracing the positions of the Pietists. In 1726 he became inspector of the Latin school at the Waisenhaus, and in 1728 adjunct to August Hermann Francke’s position as a pastor in the Marktkirche. In 1732 he obtained the degree of Magister at Halle, and he became a lecturer in the same year. In 1734 he was promoted to ordinary professor of theology, and was asked to resign from both his inspector and adjunct pastor positions. In 1744 he succeeded Joachim Lange as the director of the theological seminary in Halle.