The cabinetmakers\u2019 guild considered Ackermann to be an immigrant who married a master\u2019s widow while he himself was still a journeyman. He inherited the master\u2019s workshop, he did not intend to join the guild, a child was born to him who had been conceived before his marriage \u2013 all this was an egregious violation of the customs that were in effect at that time. When Ackermann was hired by St. Nicholas\u2019 Church and he asked an assistant from Riga to come work with him, the local cabinetmakers\u2019 guild brought a court case against Ackermann, demanding that the town council punish the interloper B\u00f6nhase<\/em> (this is what masters who worked outside of the guild were called). The displeasure of the cabinetmakers did not intimidate Ackermann. Instead, he started fighting for his rights.<\/p>\n Ackermann evidently knew how much better his work was compared to that of local masters. He did not want to submit to the guild. He arrogantly declared that the local masters knew nothing about the art of woodcarving and were also not competent to assess the quality of his works. The guild masters accused Ackermann of arrogance and complained that Ackermann was behaving as if he were the famous antique sculptor Phidias.<\/p>\n To the guild\u2019s surprise, the town council sided with Ackermann, signing a decision on 9 March 1677 that allowed Ackermann to work as an independent master, to hire journeymen, and to recruit them from elsewhere beyond Tallinn.<\/p>\n His quarrel with the cabinetmakers had been resolved but debts inherited from his predecessor Elert Thiele threatened Ackermann. His fees were still initially those typical of artisans and they were insufficient for coping with his inherited obligations. Ackermann sold his house in 1679 and settled down in Toompea. His fame grew and his job opportunities expanded. At the same time, more and more children were born into the family and larger commissions forced him to hire more assistants. Economic difficulties continued to be part of the everyday life of Ackermann\u2019s family. When a great fire devastated Toompea in 1684, Ackermann\u2019s property and workshop were also destroyed. The master had to once again find a new place for himself to live and work.<\/p>\n In 1705, we find Ackermann living in T\u00f5nism\u00e4e, where he also had his workshop. In 1707, he had left that house yet was still located somewhere in the near vicinity. He became a godfather of a child of one of his colleagues in the summer of that same year, and received remuneration for carving the Swedish St. Michael\u2019s Church pulpit.<\/p>\n It is not known what became of Christian Ackermann after 1707. It has been believed that he was in Tallinn until the plague of 1710 and additionally created the epitaph for Pastor Johann Gottfried Stecher of St. Nicholas\u2019 Church during the plague. It can be assumed that he died of the plague together with wife. Only a fifth of the city\u2019s population survived that particular plague epidemic. There is no information from later times regarding the independent master Ackermann and the greater portion of his family. One of the ten children who had been born into the family was still alive in Tallinn in the years after the plague. It can be speculated that three persons were Ackermann\u2019s descendants, yet it is only Christian Ackermann\u2019s oeuvre that most definitely lived on.<\/p>\n Sten Karling has proposed a fascinating possibility regarding the subsequent fate of Ackermann\u2019s descendants. He speculated that Christian Ackermann, who became the Hannover court sculptor in 1737, could have been Christian Ackermann the Younger, who was born in 1681 as the son of Tallinn\u2019s sculptor. Christian as a forename and Ackermann as a surname are admittedly very common in Europe\u2019s German-speaking regions, yet since there are no concrete counterarguments, there is no reason to refute Karling\u2019s speculation.<\/p>\n <\/div><\/div> Christian Ackermann\u2019s and Anna Martens\u2019s first child, Johan Christoffer, was christened on 26 September 1675 in the superintendent\u2019s house. A notation that only 22 weeks and 3 days had passed since their wedding, which was held on 22 April of that same year, is added to the entry in the birth registry. The remark draws attention to a scandalous circumstance that violated society\u2019s moral requirements, namely that the child was conceived before his parents were married.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> In his letters to Tallinn\u2019s town council, Ackermann complained about harassment by the guild masters and justified his work as an independent master by referring to the limited professional skills of the guild masters. The guild denied all of these accusations and accused Ackermann of arrogance and breaking the law.\r\n\r\n10 September 1675, Ackermann\u2019s letter to Tallinn\u2019s town council:\r\n[\u2026] I do not want to and cannot under any circumstances in the interests of my honourable name and my honest art allow myself to be suppressed; rather, I demand a complete explanation and answer from the joiners\u2019 guild. I humbly turn to the venerable and exceedingly wise town council with the request that my rights be recognised, and that it be declared that the joiners\u2019 guild has done a great deal of injustice [\u2026]\r\n<\/em>\r\n23 November 1675, Christian Ackermann\u2019s response to the letter from the guild:\r\n[\u2026] Thereat I would very much like to know which master from among the joiners here has had to produce a masterpiece of wood carving or would want to study it. Not one of them has the faintest idea about the art of woodcarving.[\u2026] the joiners\u2019 guild should worry not at all that I could join their ranks. Nothing of the sort has ever even occurred to me.\r\n<\/em>\r\n22 February 1676, letter from the guild to Tallinn\u2019s town council:\r\n[\u2026] fourth, he finds that his sculpting, which he engages in with the greatest of pleasure, together with his master\u2019s widow, and about which he immoderately boasts, has nothing at all to do with us. As an honest man, he allegedly keeps his word and needs the work of journeymen, such as other independent sculptors, but he claims to not use our journeymen. What Christian Ackermann has further additionally revealed that slanders our honourable guild \u2013 that local masters have no understanding whatsoever of carving statues or have very little such understanding, for which reason they supposedly do not know how to do anything in this field \u2013 is pure defamation [\u2026]\r\n[\u2026] seventh, this sculptor in his haughtiness fancies that our whole guild is so very interested in him, in his hewing of sculptures, and in his fantasies, as if we have nothing better to do and as if there was anything at all to discuss here. Nobody wants to take this kind of shame upon themselves to appear before the eyes of this honourable guild solely because of his person, as if he should be treated here like Phidias from Athens or Archilas from Tarento or someone else who made the Colossus of Rhodes [\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> Soon after arriving in Tallinn, Ackermann settled down to live with Anna Martens, the widow of the guild master Elert Thiele. Ackermann gained the opportunity to freely use the recently deceased woodcarver and master cabinetmaker Elert Thiele\u2019s well-furnished workshop. The house was located in the Olevim\u00e4gi district (at 4 Olevim\u00e4gi Street). Thiele gained possession of the house after marrying Maria, the daughter of the woodcarver L\u00fcdert Heissmann, as her dowry. Heissmann had purchased the house from the heirs of Hinrich Lanting in 1652. Heissmann failed to pay part of the purchasing price. This debt was the start of a quarrel that was to last for years.\n\nAfter Thiele\u2019s death, two children from Thiele\u2019s first marriage lived in the house together with his second wife Anna Martens and her new-born baby, who soon died. Even before a year had passed since Thiele\u2019s death, his widow married Christian Ackermann in April of 1675 when she was already four months pregnant. Together with Thiele\u2019s house and workshop, Ackermann also inherited Thiele\u2019s debts and similarly Heissmann\u2019s debts. For this reason, Ackermann did not continue to live in that house. Instead, he was forced to sell the house in 1679 and to move away from Tallinn to Toompea.\n\nThe harbourmaster and French teacher Peter Claudius de Champs purchased the house. After his death and when the difficult war years had passed (the Great Northern War), cabinetmakers and master woodworkers once again inhabited the house and the workshop there.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> Ackermann\u2019s first child, Johan Christoffer, was born in September of 1675, five months after the marriage of his parents. Ackermann\u2019s second child, Maria Elisabeth, was christened in St. Olev\u2019s congregation in 1677. When Regina Elisabeth was born in April of 1680, the family already lived in Toompea, and the child was christened in Tallinn\u2019s Cathedral. All their subsequent children were also christened in Tallinn\u2019s Cathedral.\n\nTen children were born to the family. The last of them were the twins Johan Magnus and Judith, who were born in 1694. At least two of their children are known to have died. It is not known how many children Ackermann\u2019s family succeeded in raising. We find Maria Elisabeth (born in 1677), Christian (born in 1684), Gustav (born in 1686), and Johan Magnus (born in 1694). Additionally, we find Friedrich Wilhelm in the sources as having been associated with Ackermann\u2019s family. He might perhaps have been a child born to them in 1681 whose name was not recorded in the church\u2019s birth registry.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/div> Christian Ackermann worked as an independent master for over thirty years (1674 \u2013 circa 1710). Over that period of time, he had at least three workshops, one in Tallinn\u2019s lower town, another in Toompea, and a third in T\u00f5nism\u00e4e.<\/p>\n Ackermann acquired his first workshop<\/strong> when he married Anna Martens, the widow of the guild master Elert Thiele. It was located at 4 Olevim\u00e4gi Street. As the inventory of the deceased Thiele demonstrates, the workshop was abundantly equipped. At least initially, a bountiful selection of tools of that time (drills, planers, saws, axes), workbenches (cutting benches and carpenter\u2019s benches), and all manner of working materials and implements, starting with glue and ending with screws, were all at his disposal. Unfortunately, the tools did not remain in Ackermann\u2019s possession for long. The tools were taken away from him in the course of his quarrel with the cabinetmakers and only a few items were left to him. The town council later forced the local cabinetmakers to pay for the tools since they were part of Thiele\u2019s inheritance proceedings and belonged to all of his heirs, who included Thiele\u2019s children from his first marriage in addition to his widow.<\/p>\n Ackermann acquired a quite a large quantity of wood (blocks of oak and linden, and boards of linden) for a large sum of money (20 riksdalers) from Thiele\u2019s house in addition to household items and clothing. He acquired few tools. Some of them were mentioned simply as \u2018tools\u2019 without further specification, yet he had purchased them for a relatively large sum of money (3 riksdalers). Additionally, he acquired two cutting benches (for 2 riksdalers), glue, and a file. Ackermann also obtained for his own use the pattern sheets and engravings left behind by Thiele, which woodcarvers used as models.<\/p>\n Ackermann set up his second workshop<\/strong> in Toompea at the end of 1679 or the start of 1680. He probably took all the tools he had acquired from Thiele\u2019s inheritance along with him from his previous workshop, along with the additional tools he had acquired himself during the intervening years. The new owner of his house and workshop in Olevim\u00e4gi was a French teacher and harbourmaster who did not need the tools of the woodcarver or the cabinetmaker. It is not known exactly where in Toompea Ackermann\u2019s workshop was situated, yet since it burned down at the time of the great fire of 1684, it had to be located in the area surrounded by Toompea\u2019s wall.<\/p>\n Ackermann established his third workshop<\/strong> in T\u00f5nism\u00e4e. His house was somewhere in the vicinity of the current Tuvi Street, or it was located in the area that is currently covered by the eastern side of the present day Estonian National Library. Ackermann lived in house no. 50 as a tenant. The house had one warm room and a workroom, which could similarly be heated. Additionally, the house had a small room that could not be heated. The large room was roughly 6 x 5 metres. The house was built of logs and had a board roof or sod roof. It resembled other houses in the area in terms of its living conditions. Ackermann often worked at home, even when he was working on large objects. He ordinarily worked together with a journeyman and an apprentice, but he could have had more assistants for larger jobs. One or two journeymen and just as many apprentices consistently lived with the master. His dwelling was probably a sculptor\u2019s workshop in the first place, and his large family had to find space for living in between objects that were necessary for work.<\/p>\n <\/div><\/div> The inventory indicates that the wood carver Elert Thiele had all manner of tools in large quantities: planers, drills, hammers, cutting blades, glue jars and other such items. Local cabinetmakers divided a large portion of these tools up among themselves since they confiscated them from Christian Ackermann as a B\u00f6nhase<\/em> (a master artisan who worked outside of the applicable guild, which was prohibited). They were later forced to pay for those tools since according to the decision of Tallinn\u2019s town council, the tools did not belong to Ackermann but rather to all of Thiele\u2019s heirs.\n\nChristian Ackermann purchased quite a large quantity of implements and materials from his predecessor\u2019s estate as well. He acquired two workbenches, glue jars, a file, and simply some quantity of tools (for 4 riksdalers). His largest purchase was materials: Ackermann bought 70 linden blocks, 10 oak blocks, and an additional 30 linden boards (for a total of 20 riksdalers). Pattern papers and engravings for 4 riksdalers were also among the purchased implements (TLA.230.2.41, p. 61).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div> A comparison of the different statues of the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul, the figures of the pulpit of Tallinn\u2019s cathedral completed in 1686, with the figures of the cathedral\u2019s retable carved ten years later provides a vivid example of Ackermann\u2019s changing style. It appears that over the years it was not only Ackermann who had aged, but that the Peter and Paul created by him had also grown ten years older.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/div> About 20 works of woodcarving art have been ascribed to Ackermann judging by their style. The greater portion of his surviving works are by their nature church art (with the exception of the interior door in H\u00f6pner\u2019s house).<\/p>\n Ackermann\u2019s authorship has been documentarily verified in reference to individual works:<\/p>\n Additionally, there is documented information on several other works, concerning the appearance of which we have no idea whatsoever (since these works have perished and no photographs of them have survived).<\/p>\n The retable of Tallinn\u2019s Cathedral (1694\u20131696) is the masterpiece of Ackermann and his workshop. This is Estonia\u2019s largest retable with the most interesting iconographic programme in the country. It was completed in the course of the restoration of what was the most important church in Estland at that time after it had suffered fire damage. Based on critical stylistic analysis, the corpus of the pulpit of Tallinn\u2019s Cathedral as well as the church\u2019s Calvary have been attributed to Ackermann.<\/p>\n The following works in Estland\u2019s other churches have been attributed to Ackermann: the retables in the churches in Hageri, J\u00e4rva-Madise, Martna, T\u00fcri, Simuna and Vigala, the pulpits in the churches in Juuru, Karuse, Rapla and several other localities, the dial of Tallinn\u2019s Church of the Holy Spirit clock, and a few sculptures that have singly been preserved.<\/p>\n <\/div><\/div>How did the independent master Ackermann\u2019s subsequent fate develop?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What became of Christian Ackermann and his family?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>\n Birth registry of St. Olev\u2019s Church<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Correspondence between Ackermann and the guild<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Thiele\u2018s house \u2013 Ackermann\u2019s first home<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Ackermann's children<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
What is known about Ackermann\u2019s workshops?<\/h2>\n
Where was Ackermann\u2019s first workshop located?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What is known about Ackermann\u2019s second and third workshops?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ackermann.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Bt-12-V-00004p-e1512562000364-768x1184.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n Thiele\u2019s inventory \u2013 Ackermann\u2019s purchases<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
The Cathedral\u2019s Peters and Pauls<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
What does the sphere of Ackermann\u2019s works look like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ackermann.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/11.M\u00c4RJAMAA-e1512562086825-768x1059.jpg\")
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