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My father was a poor man all his days, nor could the whole of my acquaintance show forth one wealthy man. [...] All our friends and kindred are people of little means, and I have never heard otherwise concerning all our forebears. Scarcely one of them bore any office, no matter how lowly. [...] I know that my grandfather and his father before him were poor men who had to toil to make their living, that my father inherited not a single penny, that poverty oppressed him all his life, and that not seldom did he sigh over his small burden of debts. But I am far from being ashamed of my parents and forefathers on this account. On the contrary, I have some little pride in them. For despite their poverty I have never heard of any kind of thief or criminal among them who fell foul of the law, nor of any profligate or glutton, swearer or slanderer, none who could be regarded as other than a honest upright man, none who did not make his living honestly and respectably, none who begged his bread. And against this I know of many a worthy and pious man of tender conscience. Of this alone I am proud and wish that you should be proud also, my children! So that we seek not to sully this reputation but to maintain it. This too I wish to recall often to your minds in this story of my life.
2. My birthday (22nd December 1735):
For me a day of some importance. I appeared in the world a little before my time, so they used to tell me
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. My parents must have been responsible for that. It could be that even in my mother's womb I longed for the light of day - indeed this longing for Light has remained with me all my days! Besides, I was my father's first-begotten, for this too I render thanks to him in his grave! He was a passionate, hot-blooded man. I have thought upon this a thousand times, and sometimes wished I had a different origin, whenever flaming passions raged in my breast and I had to struggle violently with them. But as soon as the storm was past, I would thank him once more for having shared his fiery temperament with me, for by it I am enabled to enjoy numberless innocent pleasures more keenly than many other men. Enough, on this 22nd December I reached the light of day. My father would often tell me that he had not been at all pleased with me, I was a poor wretched creature, nothing but little bones covered with crumpled skin, yet day and night I raised such a hideous caterwauling that it could be heard even far off in the forest. He would often make me quite angry by saying this. I would think: Ha, to be sure I behaved the same as other newborn infants! But mother always backed him up. Well, it could be so.On Christmas Day I was baptised in Wattwil, and it has always pleased me to think that this happened on the very day when we celebrate the birth of our glorious Redeemer. And if this is a simple pleasure, what matter - are there not many yet more childish, to be sure? Hans Georg Hartman of Kappel, from the Au, and Anna Maria Müller of Schamatten were my godparents. He was a hot-tempered and wealthy bachelor, she a pretty and well-to-do spinster. He died unmarried, she still lives as a widow
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.In my early years I may well have been pampered a little, as is wont to be the case with firstborn children. Soon enough, however, my father wanted to use the rod on me, but mother and grandmother protected me. My father was seldom at home, he went up and down the countryside and to neighbouring villages, burning saltpetre. When he came home he was a stranger to me, I fled from him. This vexed the good man so greatly that he would try to tame me
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Bräker's parents married on 14th June 1735 [Chronik, p 517]. A premature baby would be unlikely to survive, given the infant mortality rate of the time. Intercourse between unmarried people was considered very sinful, even if they later married; the church could impose severe punishments such as fines or even imprisonment. Possibly Bräker did not know the date of his parents' marriage, or may have glossed over the facts because his mother was still alive.
4
It was common to appoint unmarried people as godparents, probably in the hope that they would help their godchildren materially as well as spiritually. Böning [biog. p 11] says that in some parts of Switzerland there were laws against naming more than four godparents per child.
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