Nicolaus Zinzendorf - Formative Years

Formative Years

The Zinzendorf family belonged to one of the most ancient of noble families in Lower Austria. They were feudal lords over many places in the Wachau area of the Danube Valley. Family members occupied many important positions in the imperial household, at the Reformation they became Lutherans. Among the Zinzendorf ancestors was the Emperor Maximillian I. Zinzendorf's great grandfather was made an Imperial Count. His son Erasmus Maximillian von Zinzendorf chose to sell his Austrian possessions and emigrate to Franconia rather than accept forced conversion to Catholicism. His children entered the service of the Electors of Brandenburg and of Saxony Zinzendorf's father was in the service of the Saxon Elector at Dresden at the time of his youngest son's birth. He died six weeks later and the child was sent to live with his maternal grandmother and an aunt. His parents were engaged in Pietist circles and had Philipp Jakob Spener appointed as his godfather. His mother married again when he was four years old, and he was educated under the charge of his pietistic Lutheran grandmother, Henriette Catharina von Gersdorff, who did much to shape his character.

His school days were spent at Halle where Pietism was strong, and in 1716 he went to the university of Wittenberg, to study law so as to be ready for a diplomatic career. Three years later, he was sent to travel in the Netherlands, in France, and in various parts of Germany, where he made the personal acquaintance of men distinguished for practical goodness and belonging to a variety of churches. On his return he visited the branches of his family settled at Oberbürg near Nuremberg and at Castell. During a lengthened visit at Castell he fell in love with his cousin Theodora; but the widowed countess, her mother, objected to the marriage, and the lady afterwards became the wife of Count Henry XXIX of Reuss and Zinzendorf married Reuss's sister Erdmuthe Dorothea.