Adolf Fuchs (clergyman)

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Adolf Fuchs

Carl Adolf Friedrich Fuchs , also Carl Adolph Friedrich Fuchs (born September 19, 1805 in Güstrow ; † December 9, 1885 at the Goeth Ranch near Cypress Mill , Blanco County , Texas ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman, author, emigrant and settler in Texas.

Live and act

Adolf Fuchs was a son of the theologian Adolf Friedrich Fuchs (1753-1828) and his third wife (Margarete) Dorothea, geb. Schröder (1765–1811), who died in 1811 at the age of 46. At the time of his birth, his father was the rector of the Güstrow cathedral school and from 1811 until his death the superintendent in Güstrow.

Fuchs attended the cathedral school in Güstrow , passed the Abitur at Easter 1823 and studied Protestant theology at the universities of Rostock , Jena , Halle and Göttingen from 1824 . In Rostock he became a member of the Corps Vandalia in 1826 .

After completing his studies, he initially worked as vice principal in goods . In 1835 he was appointed pastor in Kölzow . After years of difficulties, he began to be interested in emigrating to America and in 1842 wrote the spiritual novel Robert , which has autobiographical features. In 1845 he resigned and gave his farewell sermon, which was printed shortly afterwards, in which he said: “I am tired of the abundance of the rich and the sweat of the poor. I preach courage to you poor and humility to you rich. With my ax on my back and my little Lies by the hand, I am going from my fatherland and my friendship, to the land on the other side of the ocean. "

With his wife Louise, b. Rümcker (* 1809), a Rostock merchant's daughter, whom he married in Rossow in 1829, and seven children, Adolf Fuchs joined the emigrant group of the Mainz Aristocracy Association . The trip went via Bremen to Galveston (Texas) . In honor of his farewell, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , who at that time was living in exile in Mecklenburg on Gut Hohenfelde, wrote the farewell song Der Stern von Texas on October 10, 1845 . The Hoffmann collection of Texan songs from the following year was also inspired by Fuchs, who is also mentioned in the publisher's statement San Felipe de Austin bei Adolf Fuchs & Co. (deliberately wrong to circumvent the German censorship laws) .

Adolf Fuchs and his family soon separated from the aristocratic colony, which promised more than it could deliver . He earned his living first as a music teacher at Baylor Female College in Independence, Texas, the predecessor of Baylor University , and fought for public support for a school for immigrant children, which he gave the impetus for the public school system in Texas. He made friends with the settler and poet Johannes Romberg , who also came from Mecklenburg . Later, two of Romberg's daughters married two of Fuchs' sons.

Fuchs described his experiences to the Mecklenburg residents in a positive way in a letter from Texas for emigrants to America

Before they left, the Mayor of Marlow , Carl Friedrich Lüders , had given them a land grant that his late brother had received from the Republic of Texas as thanks for his work in the Battle of San Jacinto . In December 1853, the Fuchs family succeeded in having their claim recognized and in possession of the Lüder grant at Marble Falls in Burnet County . The family was one of the first settlers west of the Colorado River (Texas) .

His daughter Ottilie (1836–1926) later became known as a writer by her married name (Goeth).

Works

  • Robert - a spiritual novel. Leopold, Rostock 1842.
    Reprint: Robert: a spiritual novel; together with a farewell sermon held at Kölzow in Mecklenburg-Schwerin on XX. S. n. Tr. 1845. [Edit text. and annotated by Kenneth W. Fuchs]. Laugwitz, Buchholz in der Nordheide 2006 (Farewell to the Old World; Volume 1) ISBN 978-3-933077-20-2
  • Farewell to the old world. A farewell sermon, held at Kölzow in Mecklenburg-Schwerin on XX. S. n. Tr. 1845. Unknown, undated
    Digitized , University of Texas at Arlington Library

literature

  • Friedrich Walter: Our regional clergy from 1810 to 1888. Biographical sketches of all Mecklenburg-Schwerin clergy. Self-published, Penzlin 1889, p. 142
  • Lota M. Spell: Fuchs, Adolph. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff, accessed April 29, 2012. (English, tshaonline.org ).
  • Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 3042 .
  • Ottilie Fuchs Goeth: What Grandmother Tells. San Antonio: Passing Show Printing, 1915; Translated into English by Irma Goeth Guenther: Memoirs of a Texas Pioneer Grandmother. Austin 1969. - New edition 1982
  • Rudolph L. Biesele: The History of the German Settlements in Texas 1831–1861. Boeckmann-Jones, Austin TX 1930. - New edition 1964.
  • Esther Richter Weaver: Hill Country History… Adolf Fuchs - Pastor, Poet and Pioneer. In: The Highlander , February 10, 1972. Various versions of digitized material .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 3041 .
  2. ↑ enrolled on October 25, 1824, see his entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  3. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910 , 185 , 124.
  4. ↑ See Hoffmann's collected works by Fallersleben. Seventh Volume: My Life Volumes I – IV. Fontane, Berlin 1892, p. 395
  5. ↑ For emigrants to America (decision) (PDF; 274 kB) In: Freimüthiges Abendblatt 1847, Sp. 647f.
  6. ↑ published in 1847 in the Freimüthigen Abendblatt ; Digital copies: Part 1 (PDF; 259 kB), Part 2 (PDF; 274 kB).
personal data
SURNAME Fuchs, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fuchs, Carl Adolf Friedrich (full name); Fuchs, Carl Adolph Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman, author, emigrant and settler in Texas
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Guestrow
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1885
Place of death at Cypress Mill , Blanco County , Texas