Johannes Kepler - Biography

Johannes Kepler was born on 27 December 1571, in Weil der Stadt, Württemberg. Being the son of Heinrich Kepler, a mercenary soldier, and Katherine Kepler, the daughter of Melchior Guldenmann, an innkeeper, and the niece of a woman who had been burnt at the stake for practicing witchcraft. Kepler's paternal grandfather, Sebald Kepler, was a respected craftsman who had once been the Burgomaster of Weil. Johannes Kepler was the first of six children, three of which who died while they were still infants; he himself was described as a sickly child, having been born nearsighted and afflicted with multiple vision. The young Kepler also suffered from all manner of gastro-intestinal ailments, but those were the least of his problems, considering the turbulent life he endured as the result of his father being a rather unpleasant man with questionable values, who often abandoned his family, once even having tried to sell one of Johannes' younger brothers.

Katherine, who herself was described by Kepler as a small, thin, and quarrelsome busybody who was generally unpleasant, received help from her father, who let her and her children stay at his inn in Eltingen while Heinrich was away. But soon enough, Katherine decided to join her husband in the Netherlands where he had been fighting as a soldier, leaving her children with her parents at the inn. Young Johannes is said to have had to work at the inn to earn his keep, and have been mistreated by his grandparents, who cared little for him or his siblings. The fragile young Johannes contracted small pox, from which he nearly died. Two years later, his parents returned, and they moved to Leonberg, but it wasn't long until his father would abandon the family for good. Johannes was only 5 years old at the time, but he was old enough to know he would not be missing his wayward father anytime soon.

It's not surprising, given the above description of Kepler's early family life, that it took him five years to complete three classes at the Württemberg German school he had been attending, classes he needed to finish in order to be accepted in a Latin school, which was the more desirable of learning institutions for any child with his potential. Moving around and having to work, not to mention his poor health, meant he was often taken out of school. At the age of 12, Johannes Kepler had completed his Latin studies, and at the suggestion of his teachers, would soon enter the the convent-school Adelberg, where he would be studying to join the Lutheran clergy. There, he would be able to use his mind, rather than subject his weak body to arduous physical tasks.

Kepler was generally content to be studying at the convent, but he nonetheless had difficulty fitting in with the other students, at some point even telling others he had been created by God to ponder the "difficult" things others would turn away from. Like all geniuses, it was Kepler faced oppositions from those around him who would rather not deviate from the norm. From a young age, Johannes knew he was different, having perhaps inherited some of his parent's eccentricity and "adventurous" spirit, as he himself credited them for having turned his eyes towards the night sky; his mother calling attention to a passing comet, and his father having taken him out one night to witness a lunar eclipse. Johannes Kepler had been very religious from a young age, often

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