Schenck, Gottfried Anton

Protestant pastor, chronicler

Born: 1699 in Wiesbaden

Died: 1779 in Wiesbaden

Schenck was the son of the former Nassau-Idstein valet de chambre and later Wiesbaden's Oberschultheißen Johannes Schenck and Anna Margarethe, daughter of the former Oberschultheißen Hermann Pobge. He graduated from the grammar school in Idstein from 1716-19, studied theology and held the office of deacon from 1724-29 and from 1729 of pastor and court preacher in Mosbach. In 1731, he moved to Rödelheim, where he served as pastor and church inspector. In 1767 he settled in Wiesbaden and bought a house in Langgasse.

With his work "Memorabilia urbis Wisbadenae oder Merkwürdigkeiten der Stadt Wiesbaden" (1736), which he published in 1758 under the title "Geschicht-Beschreibung der Stadt Wiesbaden" in an expanded and revised version, Schenck is considered the first critical-scientific historian of the city. The Wiesbaden City Archive holds his corrected copy of this work. He also wrote a chronicle of Rödelheim. A street there is named after him.