Baegert, Christoph Johannes Jakob b. December 22, 1717; Schlettstadt, Alsace d. September 29, 1772; Neustadt an der Weinstraβe, Palatinate
German Jesuit who traveled to lower California and studied the lives of the native tribes.
Jakob Baegert became a member of the Societas Jesu (Jesuits) in 1736, studied theology, and entered the priesthood.
In 1751, he traveled to lower California in order to work as a missionary in San Luis Gonzaga. During the years of his missionary work, Baegert engaged in cultural, ethnographic, and linguistic studies of the native societies in North and Central America. When the Jesuits were forced to leave Mexico in 1767, Baegert returned to his home via Spain. Summarizing his American experiences, Baegert published anonymously in 1772 his Nachrichten von der amerikanis- chen Halbinsel Californien mit einem zwey- fachen Anhang falscher Nachrichten (the English translation was published under the title Observations in Lower California in 1863—1864). In this book, Baegert analyzed and criticized the writings of other authors, especially the work of his fellow Jesuit Miguel Venegas, who had published his account on California in 1757 in Spanish. The Nachrichten was divided into three parts: in part 1, Baegert described the natural conditions of the peninsula; part 2 was dedicated to the living conditions and customs of the native people; and part 3 dealt with the history of the Jesuit mission in this area. In the appendix, Baegert refuted the wrong assumptions of other authors. He presented California as a land lacking sufficient precipitation or vegetation and considered the landscape to be entirely worthless in economic terms. In the second part, Baegert described with open sympathy and envy the simple and uncivilized lifestyle of the natives: their nomadic lifestyle, small and dispersed tribes, customs and traditions, family structures, and language (Guaicura), which he was the first to put into writing. In his concluding part, Baegert detailed the hard life, full of deprivation and sacrifices, of the Jesuits. This part was clearly intended to diminish any prejudgments and stereotypes about the Jesuits. With his Nachrichten, Baegert provided the first scholarly introduction to lower California’s culture and people.Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Mexico, German Jesuits in
References and Further Reading
Dunne, Peter Masten. “Baegert Pictures a Lower California Mission.” Mid-America: An Historical Review 30 (1948): 44—65.
Oehme, Ruthardt. “Baegert (Begert), Christoph Johannes Jakob.” Neue Deutsche Biographie. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1953, 1: 517.
Schaefer, Ursula. “Father Baegert and His Nachrichten” Mid-America: An Historical Review 20 (1938): 151-163.