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15th Jan. Monday fair in Lichtensteig. "Wine and women make fools of wise men. O why should they not have the power to deceive me also, poor wretched fool that I am. From this evil serpent today I received a friendly glance, which gravely wounded me inwardly" [Chronik, p 28]
[Entries such as these strongly suggest that Bräker is writing of events in real life, not only as allegory of events in his spiritual life, though it is hard to be sure. Even in his diary, which he can hide from other readers, he hides, to some extent, the true story of his misdeeds].
19th Jan. Bräker sees the night sky blood-red in colour, "which learned men call the Northern Lights. But God alone knows their meaning. From very love He never fails to give sinners a warning".
The true Aurora Borealis is extremely rarely seen so far south, the phenomenon that Bräker saw was more probably caused by a dust cloud. [Chronik, p 28]
3rd Feb. Bräker's enemies, his "rotten, useless flesh" and the "spirit of wrath" threaten him; against which he calls upon his "soul's friend" Jesus [Chronik, p 30]
[A tendency to violence and sensuality were his besetting sins at the time, particularly when he had to go among gatherings of people such as market-day at Lichtensteig, where he was tempted into bad company. Although his cryptic style makes it hard to be sure exactly how far his imaginings were becoming reality, it looks as if even at this early date Bräker's struggles with baser instincts were attracting the attention of other people, who meant him no good.]
13th May The annual meeting of the commune of Wattwil to elect local officials takes place, but Bräker does not attend. [Chronik, p 36]
7th July Bräker makes the first mention of food shortages [Chronik, p 38]
8th July "Break through all dark clouds of my understanding. O gracious sun Jesus and warm my heart with Thy love. As Thou now warmest the world with Thy sun" [Chronik p 40]
[This short passage contains themes which are very important to Bräker in later life: near-worship of the sun and the incomprehensibility of God by human reason. Only the personification of Jesus as the sun fades out as he takes on more of the Enlightenment way of thinking.]
16th Sept. "Kilbe"89
"In the same way that all Sabbaths are profaned, so especially is today's made into a heathen day of abomination in our village, in which more sins are committed than in many others. For very few people know correctly why it is called Kilbi or Kirchweihtag. To my simple mind it is truly a great favour of God's that we can come together freely and publicly to visit God in a church built for that purpose. How we should on the present day remember the first assembly in our temple and thank God heartily for it. But how people celebrate Kilbi, everyone knows that has eyes to see. May God have mercy on those who are rededicating their hearts to the devil!" [Voellmy, v 2 p 143]
************************************************************************************************************29th Oct. Bräker spends the day at market at Lichtensteig [Chronik, p 46] "Such a high price for victuals I have never before experienced, that a Müth
90
of corn should cost 20 florins, a quarter of meal 20 batzen, a quarter of porridge-oats 16 batzen and a pound loaf 10 kreutzer, and besides, no-one here rightly knows the cause of it up to the present. There are all kinds of opinions about it. Most people say that the embargo on grain is to blame, although we have grain enough. Others say that coinage is to blame. The prince of Bavaria91
would give us grain enough if we would completely accept his currency. Other ascribe it to the profiteers and others to the great89
Anniversary of the dedication of the local church, involving a holiday, a fair and general junketing. Bräker reminds his readers that freedom of religious observance for Protestants was only just over half a century old at this time.
90
Equivalent to about a hundredweight.
91
Switzerland could not grow enough grain to feed the population and imported it from the southern German states.
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