Jean-Louis-Alexandre Herrenschneider

J.-L.-A. Herrenschneider by Strintz, 1834 (Koch Hall, St.Thomas' Chapter Collection, Strasbourg) Jean-Louis-Alexandre Herrenschneider (German: Johann-Ludwig-Alexander Herrenschneider) (23 March 1760 – 4 February 1843) was a philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, physicist, meteorologist and lawyer.

Early life and family He was born in Gaugrehweiler ('Grehweiler' in biographical texts and personal documentation) in the Rhineland Palatinate to Marguerite Salomé Walter and Jean Herrenschneider. His father was a grammar-school principal, then a protestant court pastor and ecclesiastical inspector for Carl Magnus von Rheingrafenstein, the last count of the Gaugrehweiler line. In 1773, in a murder attempt on his father, his ten-year-old sister was shot to death as the family sat to dinner; his father was badly injured; his beloved sister's death, and his father's survival – which he considered miraculous – had a lifelong effect on him. The attacker was later found to be a subordinate of his father, one Pastor Valentin, who later took his own life. It was later suggested during the investigation that his father's authoritarian nature might have been a contributory factor to the crime. Because of this incident, the family moved to Ribeauvillé, in the Alsace region, where his father again became a pastor. In 1777, the family moved to Strasbourg where his father became deacon at St.Thomas' Church and later a pastor at Saint Aurelia’s Church. His uncle, Johann Samuel Herrenschneider, was a professor of mathematics at the University of Strasbourg.

Career Herrenschneider enrolled at the University of Strasbourg and studied mathematics and astronomy under Johann Jeremias Brackenhofer. On 26 September 1782, he gained his PhD with the dissertation "On Consciousness." On the death of his uncle in 1784, he took over his mathematics lectures at the university in October that year. He studied law at his father's behest and became licensed to practise in 1785. His passion was for the sciences and mathematics, however. In 1789, he was called to chair of astronomy, taking his recently deceased former professor Brackenhofer's role.

In 1823, he founded a society to help young people freed from prison. A painting by Strintz was commissioned in his honour in 1823. He was made a knight of the Legion of Honour on 29 April 1838.

From 1839, his health began to fail. In 1843, he died and was buried in a tomb at St.Thomas' Church in Strasbourg. A bust of Herrenschneider stands before it.