RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Otto Overberg
Diderot. After residing at the courts of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Paris, and The Hague, the Princess Amalie withdrew from society to devote herself entirely to the education of her two children, Dmitri (see Gallitzin, Demetrius Augustine) and Marianne, at the same time studying mathematics, classics, and philosophy with the non-Christian Franz Hemsterhuis. Even after her return to the Roman Catholic Church, Amalie continued her literary and scientific correspondence with Hemsterhuis, who, under the pseudonym of Diodes, addressed to her, as Diotima, his celebrated Lettres sur VaMisme (1785). In 1799 she removed to Munster, where for four years she resisted all attempts of Von Fiirstenberg, whom she highly esteemed, to convert her. In 1784, however, she fell seriously ill, and though she declined the services of the confessor whom Von Fiirstenberg sent her, she promised that, if she recovered, she would at least make a serious theoretical study of Christianity. This was the more imperative since she had resolved to give her children a purely historical presentation of religion, that they might freely choose their faith; and to this end she devoted herself to the study of the Bible. She gradually became convinced of the power of Christianity, and on her thirty-eighth birthday received the communion. Her conversion was promoted also by reading the lectures of Hamann on Socratic memoirs and other subjects. After visiting Herder and Goethe she was easily overcome with the temptation to prefer esthetic philosophical attainments to the humble deeds of Christian service, but was again reclaimed by association with Hamann, whom, as also Hemsterhuis, she attended in his last illness (1788). After the death of these, the princess felt the need of some man to be her spiritual guide, and, having become acquainted with Overberg through Von Fiirstenberg, she invited him (Jan. 10, 1789) to become her father confessor. Overberg accepted the invitation and removed from the episcopal seminary to the home of the princess. Here he took a prominent part in Amalie 's literary and personal association with such men as Jacobi, Lavater, and Goethe, and also exercised a weighty influence in the conversion to Roman Catholicism of Count Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg (q.v.), which was finally realized on July 1, 1800.
The next three years after the death of the princess Overberg remained in the house as confessor and guardian of her daughter. In 1809
Overberg he was appointed regent of the episco-
after the pal seminary, where he henceforth Death resided. He was at the same time of the synodical examiner, a member of the
Princess, school commission, and director of the normal school in the autumn vacation. In 1816 he was created consistorial counselor and member of the royal administration of education, and shortly before his death was made supreme consistorial counselor. He was likewise honorary canon of Munster. Among his works special mention may be made of the Biblische Geschichte des Alten und Neuen Testaments (1799); Christkatholisches Religionshandbuch (1804); Katechismus der christ-katholischen Lehre (1804) ; Haus-
segen, oder gemeinschaftliche Hausandacht (1807); and the posthumous Sechs Biicher vom Priesterstahde (Munster, 1858).
Besides Overberg, Von Fiirstenberg, and the Princess Amalie, the Gallitzin circle was represented not only by Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg and Johann Theodor Hermann Katerkamp (qq.v.), but also by the three brothers Von Droste-Vischering: namely, Caspar Maximilian, bishop of Munster
Other (1825-46); Franz Otto, canon of Miin- Members ster (d. 1826); and Clemens August
of the (see Droste-Vischering) . Here, too, Gallitzin belongs Amalie's only son (see Gae-
Circle. litzin, Demetrius Augustine). Next to Katerkamp the most learned and prolific theologian of the circle was Johannes Hyacinth Kistemaker (b. 1754; d. 1884), professor at Munster, and the author, among other works, of the Commentatio de nova exegesi prcecipue Veteris Testamenti ex collatis scriptoribus Graecis et Romanis (1806), the Canticum canticorum illustratum ex hierographia orientalium (1818), and a translation of and commentary on the entire New Testament (7 vols., 1818-25). He likewise published an edition of the Vulgate in 1824 in an unsuccessful attempt to counteract the work of Leander van Ess (q.v.). Others of the Gallitzin coterie were Anton Maria Sprickmann, professor at Munster after 1780; Johann Heinrich Brockmann (b. at Liesborn, near Beckum, which is 23 m. s.e. of Munster, 1767; d. at Munster 1847), professor of moral and pastoral theology at Munster after 1800, and the author of a life of St. Aloysius (1820) and other works; and Georg Kellermann (b. at Freckenhorst, near Munster, 1776; d. at Munster Mar. 29, 1847), chaplain and tutor to Count von Stolberg (1801-17), dean of St. Ludger's at Munster (1817-26), professor of New-Testament exegesis at Munster (1826—47), bishop-elect at his death (1847), and the author of pedagogical or edifying works, such as the prayerbook, Gott meine Zuversicht (1845). More transitory relations to the Gallitzin circle were sustained by Georg Hermes (q.v.), Clemens von Brentano, Johannes Michael Sailer (q.v.); such Protestants as Thomas Wizenmann, Johann Friedrich Kleuker (q.v.) ; and the historian Franz Bernhard von Bucholtz (b. 1790; d. at Vienna 1838), the author of a history of Ferdinand I. (9 vols., Vienna, 1831-38).
(O. Zockler f.)
Bibliography: On Overberg consult: C. F. Krabbe, Leben B. Overbergs, Munster, 1831, Eng. transl., Derby, 1843; (J. Reinermann), B. Overberg in seinem Leben und Wirken, Munster, 1829; H. Herold, Franz von Fiirstenberg und Bernhard Overberg in ihrem gemeinsamen Wirken fur die Volksschule, Munster, 1893; A. Knoppel, Bernhard Overberg, Mainz, 1896; ADB, xxv. 14 sqq.
On the circle consult: The correspondence and diary of the princess, published Munster, 1874-76; J. T. H. Katerkamp, Denkwiirdigkeiten aus dem Leben der Furstin A. von Gallitzin, Munster, 1828; W. Esser, Franz von Fiirstenberg, Munster, 1842; C. F. Krabbe, Geschichtliche Nachrichten tiber die hoheren Lehranstalten in Munster, Munster, 1852; J. Galland, Die Furstin Amalie von Gallitzin und ihre Freunde, Cologne, 1880; J. Janssen, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, Freiburg, 1882; F. Nielsen, Aus dem inneren Leben der katholischen Kirche im 19. Jahrhundert, i. 221-243, Carlsruhe, 1882; F. Nippold, Kleine Schriften, i. 209-258, Jena, 1899; ADB, vm. 232- 244; KL, iv. 2087-91, vii. 366-367, 735 sqq. ,
Overton Owen