Beckedorff, Georg Philipp Ludolf Von

Beckedorff, Georg Philipp Ludolf Von a pedagogue, statesman, and author, of Germany, was born April 14, 1778, at Hanover. At first he studied theology at Jena, and afterwards medicine at Gottingen, where he was also promoted in 1799 as M.D. In 1810 he accepted a call as tutor of the electoral prince of Hesse, and in 1811 he went to Ballenstedt as tutor of the prince of Anhalt-Bernburg. When, in 1818, the union between the Reformed and Lutheran Church was decreed, his mind was greatly occupied with questions concerning the Church, and at that time he already regarded the Catholic Church as the historical development of the Apostolic Church. To this time belongs his Zur Kirchenvereinigung (Halle, 1814), and Briefwechsel zwischen zwei Geistlichen bei Gelegenheit der Versuche zur Kirchenvereinigung (Leipsic, 1818). In 1819 he was called into the Prussian ministry for worship and instruction, but his joining the Church of Rome, in 1827, resulted in his discharge from office. When Frederick William IV ascended the throne in 1840, he did justice to Beckedorff by appointing him to some high position, on which occasion he published his An gottesfurchtige protestantische Christen. Worte den Friedens und der Wiederversohnung (Weissenburg, 1840). Besides, he wrote, Das Verhiltniss von Haus und Staat und Kirche zu einander, etc. (Berlin, 1849): Offenbarung und Vernunft, (Ratisbon, 1853). He also founded some charitable institutions, and died February 27, 1858, at Grunhof, in Pomerania. See Rosenthal, Convertitenbilder, 1:466-475; Clarus, Simeon oder Heimkehr und Wanderungen eines christlichen Forschers (Schaffhausen, 1862), 2:371- 380; Zuchold, Bibl. Theol. 1:88; Binder, in Wetzer u. Welte's Kirchenlexikon, s.v. (B.P.)