TOLKNIĘTY: Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien's Amsterdam (1766


Old Lutheran Church in Amsterdam by the Singel Chanel. It might have been the German chuch where Lutheran Tolkien attended

From The Methodist Magazine for the year 1813, p. 949–950:

"[Daniel G. Tolkien, 1746–1813] coming [from Danzig/Gdańsk] to Amsterdam, at the age of twenty, he was providentially placed in a religious family, in which, by the instrumentality of social prayer and religious conversation, he was awakened to a sense of his guilt and danger. So painful were his convictions for sin, and so strongly was he tempted to despair of mercy, that he was ready to wish he had never been born. In this state of despondency he remained, until he opened his mind to a religous friend, whose conversations and prayers the Lord blessed to his profit. Coming to London in 1770, he attended on the ministry of Mr. Burgman, then minister of the Lutheran church in Savoy (...)"

Furrier Johannen's house is very close (300 m)
to the Old Lutheran Church and Begijnhof
with its English Church

My theory is that Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien in the years 1766-1770 lived at Kalverstraat 100, Amsterdam (Johan Godliep Johannen's house, a furrier; another furrier of that time was George Benjamin Kreitzig from St.-Luciensteeg 5) and he had only 300 m to the Old Lutheran Church by the Singel Channel. Kalverstraat is "Calf Street", after the cattle market that was held here from 1486 until 1629. Daniel could meet the religious friends in the English Reformed Church at Begijnhof, about 150 m from the Johannen's furrier workshop. He left Holland for London in 1770 and immediately joined the Pietist London Lutherans and then John Wesley.

I was to Amsterdam on the very frosty day of March 1, 2018. The chanels were to my wonder completely frozen. The Beast from the East – as the English say. I could walk to Kalverstraat which is the main street in the center of Amsterdam. I also visited the famous Begijnhof, the centre of religious piety and the place where Daniel could meet English Proto-Methodists in its English Reformed Church. I also visited the Amsterdam Museum where I saw many traces of the eighteenth century life. I was also to the famous Rijksmuseum. My most favourite Dutch painter is of course Vermeer. Below I present few photographs from my Amsterdam walk: