Adam Jende

Adam Jende

Adam Jende (* October 16 ^{. Jul} / 28. October  1861 ^greg. In Rujen , Governorate of Livonia , Russian Empire ; † 24. February 1918 in Kawershof ), Latvian Ādams Jende , was a Latvian priest and educator. He is considered a Protestant martyr and is recorded on the Riga Martyrs Stone.

The dates in this article are based on the Julian calendar for the period up to 1918 unless otherwise noted.

Life

Education, Marriage and Revolution of 1905

Dorpat University around 1860

Rauna / Ronnenburg

Adam Jende attended Jānis Cimze's teacher training college in Walk and studied theology at Dorpat University . He was ordained on August 1, 1893. From 1897 he served as a pastor in Ronnenburg (Rauna in Latvia). At that time, Ronnenburg was numerically one of the largest parishes in Livonia and the election of the ethnic Latvian Jende against several Baltic German candidates was sensational. Latvian pastors were usually sent to the interior of Russia at this time. Jende placed great emphasis on his Latvian ethnicity. He had obtained his education in German, but used it to represent Latvian interests. This often brought him violent conflicts with Baltic Germans.

In May 1897 he married Elsa Margaretha Einberg (1877-1967), who later worked as a folklorist and linguist.

The Russian Revolution of 1905 got Jende into trouble in several ways. At the Livonian Synod, which dealt with the revolutionary movement, Jende spoke with Provost Irbe and other Latvian clergy about the situation from their specific point of view.

The revolutionary situation became personally problematic for Jende when he buried a person who was killed in an altercation with the police. The newspaper coverage meant that Jende had to deliver a detailed report of the funeral to the Livonian Lutheran Consistory. It was claimed that Jende portrayed the death of the deceased as exemplary and stylized him as a hero of freedom. After examining his speech and the accompanying circumstances by the consistory, no criminal acts could be proven.

Oskar Schabert later judged in his Baltic Martyrs Book (see chapter "Literature") that Jende had a positive attitude towards the revolution as his people's struggle for freedom and regarded him as a Latvian nationalist, but also a staunch Protestant Christian. Jende endeavored to create religious literature in Latvian. With his sermons he tried to educate people to a Christian life.

Between the revolutions

Jende held various offices and posts in society. As chairman of the agricultural cooperative and the savings bank, he took care of the development of the center of Rauna in 1909. He gave his sermons exclusively in Latvian and was thus in a dispute with the Baltic German landowners there.

In September 1909 he gave a lecture at the 75th Livonian Synod of Preachers on teaching the most important hymns to schoolchildren. His suggestions were passed on to the districts.

Jende published a large number of spiritual and educational books, for example an arithmetic book.

Capture

The Bolshevik (oil painting by Boris Kustodijew ; 1920)

After the October Revolution and before the invasion of German troops in the course of the First World War , at the end of January 1918, Latvian communists took control of Livonia. Adam Jende turned against their ideology in sermons and personal conversations. All the surrounding church buildings were used by the communists as meeting halls. Speakers also approached Jende to use the Ronnenburg Church for a meeting. The pastor refused and had the majority of his congregation behind him. In doing so he drew the enmity of the Bolsheviks . The Latvian rifle press agitated him and made threats. These were to be put into practice only a little later.

The armistice between the German Reich and Russia ended on February 18, 1918. A German offensive in Livonia began immediately from Riga . The Latvian Bolsheviks reacted to their rapid loss of power with reprisals against as many opponents as possible before they quickly withdrew.

On February 19, the local Bolshevik committee carried out a house search in Jendes pastorate, allegedly for hidden grain. The search yielded no results, but Jende was taken to Smilten for interrogation . He was accused of having signed the petition asking for the German invasion to drive out the communists. Over 60 people were arrested in the Wolmar region. The detainees were to be taken to Pleskau as hostages .

Due to the advance of the front, the departure was delayed again and again until the train with the prisoners could leave for Pleskau at the end of the month.

Violent death

Shortly before reaching the intended destination, the prisoners were told: "The German took Pleskau and Petersburg, if you think you can greet him alive, you are mistaken." In the early morning of February 24th, these words were followed by the appropriate deeds. The prisoners were pulled one by one from the cattle wagon in which they were transported and killed with several shots. Everyone in the car wondered in fear who would be next and reacted in their own way. So was prayed aloud; Another prisoner stepped forward with the words: “Perhaps my death will help my homeland.” According to Kārlis Beldavs (see chapter “Literature”), Adam Jende tried to excuse the soldiers from the shooting of his fellow prisoners with the words

"Brāļi, brāļi, ko jūs darāt!"

in German:

"Brothers, brothers, what are you doing!"

Adam Jendes grave site

to hold. These were Jende's last words, he finally received the fatal shot himself without a word. Other victims were Mr. Haecker from Mehrhof, the lawyer Teikmann from Wenden, the pharmacist Tusch, the administrator Ballod from Marzenhof and the Swiss Kübli.

The shooting was stopped when the train received the message that the route to Pleskau was not yet blocked. Instead, it was decided to continue the journey. The dead prisoners stayed on the railway line, while the Bolsheviks got back on the train and ate breakfast as they did after a normal daily activity. They talked in a way that was humorous to them, but deeply shocking to the remaining prisoners. From the content of the conversation it could be concluded that one of the shooters had once been confirmed by the pastor who had just been killed. It is noteworthy that Jende, whose work for the interests of his Latvian people was so committed that opponents regarded him as a nationalist, died at the hands of other Latvians.

The Rauna pastor candidate J. Ķullītis was present at Jende's arrest, transferred the body to the home parish and researched the exact circumstances of death. Adam Jende was buried in the Ronnenburg cemetery. At the funeral, Pastors K. Avots, K. Beldavs and A. Niedra spoke . In total, the Bolsheviks killed 7,342 civilians in Latvia, some after massive torture .

Theology: dispute over the catechism

Martin Luther

Traugott rooster

Under the influence of the revolution of 1905, Adam Jende campaigned for an improvement in the teaching of catechism and the corresponding teaching material. The explanations should refer to the main parts of the catechism and not to Martin Luther's explanations, as these are incomplete. For example, he observed that, based on the teaching material, when discussing the Seventh Commandment , students came to the erroneous conclusion that property is fundamentally a bad thing. In Jende's opinion, further confessional writings of the Lutheran Church, in particular the Confessio Augustana, should be included. Memorizing Luther's explanations is not necessary. The word of God is eternal, but the proclamation is adapted to the circumstances of the time. Abbreviated reproductions of Jende's position on Luther's statements again led to conflict.

In particular, a lecture he gave at a meeting of the Scientific Commission of the Latvian Association on pedagogical books drew sharp criticism. Jende used a humorous, free presentation style in which he emphasized his statements with gestures. Some listeners concluded that he wanted to make fun of the catechism, even of the faith itself. That position was also weakened by the fact that his lecture received particular applause from those who wanted to abolish religious education . It was proposed to vote on the quality of Luther's explanations regarding their alleged shortcomings and poor memorization, but this was rejected on the grounds of the nature of the meeting. The lecture, together with the scandal surrounding the above-mentioned funeral, led to calls for Jendes to be released in the press.

Jende gave another lecture on the catechism question at the Livonian Provincial Synod in Wenden on Friday, August 22nd ^. / 4th September 1908 ^greg. . Magister Hahn (shot by Bolsheviks in 1919) from Dorpat replied that Luther's statement on the catechism was a classic work and irreplaceable. The gaps that Jende pointed out are an indication of the restriction to the essential and religiously relevant and not a defect. All of the following speakers commented negatively on Jendes' remarks, but the topic should be discussed further at the Sprengel synods following a suggestion by Provost Falck, since religious education should be reformed anyway and Jendes lecture could not stand without further discussion. The reference to the Explosive Synods in turn gave the public the impression that the Provincial Synod shared Jendes' view. This prompted the Livonian general superintendent Theophil Gaehtgens to publicly distance himself from Jende's position.

anecdote

• The Baltic German President of the Church Consistory opened Jende before he took office in Rauna that he had seen indications in a dream face that it would be better if Jende went to Russia. Jende asked for a day to think about it. The next day he appeared at the consistory and said that he had had a dream that night too: he should definitely stay in Rauna.

Works (selection)

• Textbooks:
  • Dziesmas un katķisms Vidzemes skolām
  • Dziesmas un katķisms Kurzemes skolām , G. Landsberga komisijā. Jelgava 1908. 68 pages.
  • Baznīcas vēsture pamat- un papildu skolām , O. Jēpe. Cēsis 1922. 54 pages, 8th, modified edition.
  • Ticības mācība: pamat-, pirm- un papildu skolām , O. Jēpe. Cēsis and Riga 1926. 213 pages, 10th revised edition.
  • Mājas mācība līdz skolas laikam
  • Rēķinu uzdevumi tautskolām

• Children's books:
  • Mahjas behrneem: pasaziņas, stahstiņi un pamahzibas , edited by the author. Cēsis 1899-1901. 2 volumes.
  • Skaistākās pasakas bērniem

Web links

• Nekropole.info (Latvian)
• Adam Jende on the website of the Central Library of Cēsis ( Memento of April 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Latvian)
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. 1914.
• Ādams Jende datubāzē "Latviešu grāmatniecības darbinieki līdz 1918. gadam" (Latvian)

literature

• Pastor Oskar Schabert: Baltic Martyrs Book , Furche-Verlag. Berlin 1926. p. 68 ff. Sources:
  • Notes of the wife Adam Jendes, Elsa Margaretha Jende, née Einberg.
  • E. Bergmann: Deported , Spoonbill. Riga 1918.
• Elīna Kļaviņa, Sarma Ruska: Izcilo personību pedagoģiskais darbs. Sarma, IU Cēsis 2000.
• Pastor Richards Zariņš: Adams Jende. Biography in Mājas draugs magazine . Chicago, July 1, 1954, pp. 7-9. on-line
• Harald Schultze and Andreas Kurschat (editors): "Your end looks at ..." - Evangelical Martyrs of the 20th Century , Evangelical Publishing House, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-374-02370-7 , Part II, Section Russian Empire / Baltic States , P. 539
• Kārlis Beldavs: Mācītāji, kas nāvē gāja. Valters and Rapa. Riga 2010, ISBN 978-9984-753-56-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary. In: Līdums. No. 209 of November 8, 1918.
2. ^ ^{A b} Richards Zariņš: Adam's Jende. Biography in Mājas draugs magazine . Chicago, Jul. 1, 1954, p. 7
3. ↑ levies In: Rigasche city leaves . No. 18, May 1, 1897.
4. ↑ Elza Jende
5. ↑ Th. Gaehtgens: On the negotiations of Livl. Synod on the Revolutionary Movement. In: Düna newspaper . No. 215, September 29, 1905.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Article on Jende In: Jaunākās Ziņas. No. 43, February 22, 1940.
7. ^ The 75th Livonian Synod of Preachers. In: Düna newspaper. No. 208 of September 10, 1909.
8. ↑ 77th Annual Meeting of the Latvian Literary Society on December 5th in Mitau. In: Düna newspaper. No. 285, December 8, 1907.
9. ↑ List of people displaced from Livonia. In: Rigasche Zeitung. No. 48, February 27, 1918.
10. ↑ Andrievs Niedra : Tautas nodevēja atmiņas. Piedzīvojumi cīņā pret lielimiecismu. Zinātne, Riga 1998, ISBN 5-7966-1144-5 , pp. 95 ff.
11. ^ Baltic affairs. In: Libausche Zeitung . No. 62, March 15, 1918.
12. ^ Richards Zariņš: Adam's Jende. Biography in Mājas draugs magazine. Chicago, Jul. 1, 1954, p. 7
13. ↑ The Forgotten. In: Rigasche Rundschau. No. 234, October 13, 1933.
14. ↑ Letter to the editor Jendes. In: Düna newspaper. No. 173, July 29, 1908.
15. ↑ Pastor Jende again. In: Rigasche Zeitung. No. 193, August 21, 1908.
16. ↑ The Lutheran Catechism and Pastor Jende. In: Düna newspaper. No. 193, August 21, 1908.
17. ^ Pastor Jende and the Small Lutheran Catechism. In: Rigasche Zeitung. No. 164, July 18, 1908.
18. ^ Pastor Adam Jende-Ronneburg and the little Lutheran catechism. In: Düna newspaper. No. 165, July 19, 1908.
19. ^ The Livonian Provincial Synod. In: Rigasche Zeitung. No. 198, August 27, 1908.
20. ^ Pastor Jende. In: Düna newspaper. No. 199, August 28, 1908.
21. ^ Letter from the General Superintendent to the Editor. In: Düna newspaper. No. 206, September 5, 1908.