Friedrich Traugott Wettengel (9 February 1750, in Asch, Austria-Hungary (now Aš, Czech Republic) – 24 June 1824, in Greiz, Germany) was a Bohemian Lutheran theologian.
The son of the Reichsadlich-Zedtwitz court administrator Johann Adam Wettengel and his wife Johanne Sophie Steidel, Friedrich Wettengel received his education first in his parents' house. After getting into public school in his native town for his first school lessons, he came under the guidance of a tutor with the necessary scientific knowledge for Wettengel's first year of high school in 1765 was included in the local courts. There he gave the proofs of his lectureship in Latin and Greek language three times in public school examinations. At the University of Jena in 1768, he devoted himself to theological and philosophical studies, which he completed in 1770 at the University of Erlangen. There, he was influenced by Georg Friedrich Seiler to pursue an education in science.
In 1771, he earned his master's degree and was a little later the tutor to the Zedtwitz noble family in Nentschau. The encouragement during one of his preaching sermons had given him the favor of Colonel von Falkenstein. Recommended by von Falkenstein, Wettengel went to Greiz in 1775, where he was appointed chaplain for and by Heinrich XI, Prince Reuss of Greiz. In 1780, he became a court preacher and the directorate of the orphanage there. In 1792, he was the superintendent and the first Konsistorialassessor. For a number of years, his restless activity had proved itself, especially in 1792 by the establishment of a seminar for preachers and school teachers. As an old believer, he had prevented vocal reform in Greiz in 1806. In April 1824 he was awarded, in recognition of his services, the creation of a church council. A hemorrhage in that year, however, ended his life.
Wettengel was married twice. On 15 February 1784, he married Juliana Barbara Catharina (1758 – 28 February 1784, Greiz), the daughter of Johann Christian von Maunz in Regensburg. After being widowed, he married again in 1796 to Christiane Friedericke (11 April 1766, Plauen – 28 February 1848, Greiz), the daughter of the Plauen tax collector Johann Benjamin Eberhardt. After the death of their son, Friedrich Wilhelm Traugott Wettengel (4 August 1800, Greiz – 12 March 1843), Friedericke donated 5000 Reichstaler to the poor and children's baths.
Wettengel, who had a thorough knowledge of the various branches of theological knowledge and in the older languages, acquired a name in his time as a popular speaker in the pulpit. This is documented especially his published sermons from 1779 on the sayings of Jesus on the cross. In 1790, with much ingenuity, he answered the question whether the symbolical books were a yoke for the free evangelical church or not. In 1808, he tried to meet the religiously inclined who, in his mind, were reluctant to believe that Christian ministries and public worship in their time was less necessary than at the time of the Reformation. He also made a name for himself as a poet.