Johann Burckhard Mencke dominated the literary and intellectual scene in Leipzig during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. He was a popular professor of history and administrator at the University of Leipzig; he was the editor of a leading international journal; and he held important posts in the Saxon court of August the Strong. In addition, he was the sponsor of an important poetry society and patron of some of the best-known literary figures of the first half of the eighteenth century. He published four volumes of poetry, one of which included a significant discussion of poetic theory, as guides for beginning poets.

The Menckes had been businessmen and leading citizens in Oldenburg, but the cousins Otto and Lüder became professors in Leipzig. Lüder, an ancestor of Otto von Bismarck and H. L. Mencken, taught law, while Otto, the father of Johann Burckhard...