Jakob Böhme

Timeline

1. 1575–1599Görlitz · Upper LusatiaBorn into a peasant family in Upper Lusatia, he settled in Görlitz around 1594 to learn the cobbler's trade. A devout Lutheran, he was long taciturn, living a life of faith through labor and meditation.
2. 1600–1610Görlitz · Upper LusatiaAfter experiencing a 'vision of light' in 1600, he claimed to have perceived the 'light-darkness' tension underlying the origin of all things. Around 1610 he began writing his first major manuscript, expounding creation, the Fall, and redemption in symbolic language.
3. 1612–1621Görlitz · Upper LusatiaIn 1612 a transcribed copy of the Aurora manuscript was leaked and he was denounced by the pastor Gregor Richter. In 1620 he was forced to publicly recant his works and promise no further publication, but he continued writing in secret, producing the later highly influential body of mystical texts.
4. 1621–1624Görlitz · Upper LusatiaBetween 1621 and 1624 he completed major works such as the Three Principles of Philosophy and the Threefold Life of Man, systematically expounding a mystical theology of the 'Ungrund', free will, and the heart of Christ. He died of illness in November 1624; after his death his works were published in the Netherlands and elsewhere and influenced Pietism and Romanticism.