Upbringing and Early Career
Born at Halle an der Saale and baptized at Kirche St. Moritz on 7 August 1737, Struensee was the third child of six born to Pietist theologian and minister Adam Struensee (baptized in Neuruppin on 8 September 1708 – Rendsburg, 20 June 1791), Pfarrer ("curate") in Halle an der Saale in 1732, "Dr. theol. (h. c.) von Halle" ("Doctor of Theology from the University of Halle) in 1757, pastor in Altona between 1757 and 1760, "Kgl. Generalsuperintendant von Schleswig und Holstein" ("Royal general superintendent of Schleswig and Holstein") between 1760 and 1791, and his wife (m. Berleburg, 8 May 1732) Maria Dorothea Carl (Berleburg, 31 July 1716 – Schleswig, 31 December 1792), a respectable middle-class family that believed in religious tolerance. Three of the Struensee sons went to University, but none became theologians like their father; two of the daughters married ministers.
Johann Friedrich entered the University of Halle on 5 August 1752 at the age of fifteen where he studied Medicine, and graduated as a Doctor in Medicine ("Dr. Med.") on 12 December 1757. The university exposed him to Age of Enlightenment ideals, and social and political critique and reform. He supported these new ideas, becoming a proponent of atheism, the writings of Claude Adrien Helvétius, and other French materialists.
When Adam and Maria Dorothea Struensee moved to Altona in 1758, where the elder Struensee became pastor of Marienkirche (Mary’s Church), Johann Friedrich moved with them. He was soon employed as a public doctor in Altona, in the estate of Count Rantzau, and in the Pinneberg District. ("Stadsfysikus i Altona og Landfysikus i Grevskabet Rantzau") His wages were meager, and he expected to supplement them with private practice.
His parents moved to Rendsburg in 1760 where Adam Struensee became first superintendent (comparable to bishop) for the duchy, and subsequently superintendent-general of Schleswig-Holstein. Johann Struensee, now 23 years old, had to set up his own household for the first time. His lifestyle expectations were not matched by his economics. His superior intelligence and elegant manners, however, soon made him fashionable in the better circles, and he entertained his contemporaries with his controversial opinions.
He was ambitious, and petitioned the Danish government in the person of Denmark’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff for funds. He tried his hand at writing Enlightenment treatises, and published many of them in his journal Zum Nutzen und Vergnügen ("For benefit and enjoyment").
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