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Johann Peter Süssmilch, 1707-1767.

18th Century Prussian cleric, state official and demographic statistician.

Born in Zehlendorff, near Berlin, Prussia, the son of a brewer, in a pietistic evangelical Protestant family.  Johann Peter Süssmilch (or Süßmilch, or Suessmilch), was primarily raised by his grandfather, who arranged for his education.   At parental request, Süssmilch  give up his early aspirations to medicine, and enrolled at the University of Halle to study law in 1727, but went on to dabble in medicine and theology instead, continuing his studies at Jena.  Süssmilch became a Lutheran pastor, and his movement in pietistic circles gave him contacts that helped him access higher echelons.  He was appointed in 1736 as army chaplain, attached to the von Kalckstein regiment.  He also preached at the parish of Etzin. 

Johan Peter Süssmilch is best known for his remarkable 1741 work on population, connecting  natural law and "political arithmetic".  Süssmilch sought to show the "natural" constancy of population patterns and classes over time ("God's order", as the title of his 1741 work indicates).  His capable use of the "law of large numbers" in appraising demographic statistics has led him to be considered one of the fathers of statistics and econometrics.  

Around the time of its publication, Süssmilch was accompanying the Prussian army in the First Silesian War.  On his return, in 1742, Süssmilch became the senior pastor (provost) at the parish of St. Peter-Cölln in Berlin. He became a member of the Royal Prussian Higher Consistory Counsel and was invited into the Prussian Academy of Sciences. 

Never tiring of data, Süssmilch continued gathering more, and published ever-larger editions of his work in 1761-62 and 1775-76 (posthumous, edited by his nephew, Christian Baumann).

Süssmilch's work was referenced extensively by Robert Malthus (1798).  He recognized not only the "geometrical ratio" of human fertility, but also the effect of higher standards of living on the population problem.  

 

  

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Major Works of Johann Peter Süssmilch

  • Die göttliche Ordnung in der Veränderungen des menschlichen Geschlechts aus der Geburt, dem Tode und der Fortpflanzung desselben erwiesen, 1741 [bk],  [1761-62 ed, v.1, v.2 ] [1775-76 ed., v.1, v.2, v.3]  [Englisth title: The Divine order in the changes in the human sex from birth, death and reproduction of the same"]
  • Die Wichtigkeit einer guten Erziehung, 1743 [bk]
  • Die Göttliche Ordnung in den Veränderungen des menschlichen Geschlechts, besonders im Tode, durch einige neue Beweissthümer bestätiget, und gegen des Königl. Gross-Brittannischen Berg-Raths Herrn von Justi Erinnerungen und Muthmaassungen in zweyen Send-Schreiben an selbigen gerettet, 1756 [bk]  (letters from Justi)
  • Gedancken von den epidemischen Kranckheiten und dem grösseren Sterben des 1757ten Jahres, in einem Sendschreiben an die Herren Verfasser der Göttingischen Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen, 1758 [bk]
  • Versuch eines Beweises, daß die erste Sprache ihren Ursprung nicht von Menschen, sondern allein vom Schöpfer erhalten habe, 1765 [bk]

 
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Resources on Johann Peter Suessmilch

 

 
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