Albert Grühn

Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Grühn even Gruehn (* April 22 ^{. Jul} / 4. May  1859 ^greg. In Courland spots Kandau today: Kandava , Latvia , † May 11 ^jul. / 24. May  1906 ^greg. In Lubbenschen Forest, parish Elected by Talsen , Kurland Governorate , today: Ārlava , Latvia), Latvian Frīdrihs Vilhelms Alberts Grīns , was a Baltic German Protestant theologian and martyr of the 20th century.

Life

Albert Grühn, son of the merchant and Kandauschen head of the patchwork August Grühn (1833–1911) and Auguste Grühn, b. Streit (1833–1916) was already strongly influenced by his pietistic mother in his youth . He was taught from 1868 to 1871 in a private school in Kandau, from 1871 to 1879 in the Bergmann's boys' school in Doblen , now Dobele , and from 1874 to 1879 he attended the grammar school in Mitau , now Jelgava . In 1879 he passed his Abitur exam at the Rigas high school and studied Protestant theology at the University of Dorpat from 1880 to 1884 . Grühn passed the Konsistorial-Examina in Mitau in 1884 and did his practical year with Pastor Hans Friedrich Bernewitz in Kandau. In 1885 he was ordained in Mitau and was then pastor adjunct in Samiten ( Zemīte ) to Pastor Edmund Arnold Steinfeld, who taught him the finesse of the Latvian language. From 1886 Grühn was pastor in the small "hunger parish" Balgallen ( Balgale ) and in 1891 took over the large parish of Erwahlen ( Ārlava ) with the branch churches in the village of Saßmacken ( Valdemārpils ), and Rohjen ( Roja ) on the Baltic Sea beach . His marriage to Valentine Freiberg (1861–1949) in 1885 resulted in three daughters and five sons, including the religious psychologist Werner Gruehn .

Grühn not only advocated the improvement of the school system and the social needs of his community, but also strove for the isolated from society leprous people for whom he supported a wealthy peasants and nobles leprosarium was built. During the Russian Revolution in 1905 , he received death threats from revolutionaries, but did not leave his community. When the consistory gave its pastors the option of temporarily giving up their office, Grühn said that he did not want to leave the office where God had placed him. He rejected Cossacks who were sent to protect the services from interference. On the morning of Ascension Day in 1906, Albert Grühn was ambushed and shot by a seven-man revolutionary gang in the Lubben forest on the way to his confirmation in Rohjen. In the Düna newspaper of May 20, 1906, it read: “An old mother from the poor house kneels by the coffin and speaks loudly: 'Dear Pastor, please God, he may graciously forgive the great sin that the Latvian people have committed against you and us poor people and orphans made fatherless, for he was tirelessly ready not only to comfort us with words, but also to assist us through action '”. Grühn's grave in the Wahlenschen cemetery is still looked after by the Latvian community today.

The same fate as Grühn suffered in the years 1905 to 1907 four other Protestant clergymen, namely Karl Schilling († September 10 ^jul. / 23. September  1905 ^greg. ), Provost Ludwig Zimmermann († August 18 ^jul. / August 31  1906 ^greg. In Lennewarden ), Wilhelm Taurit († 23 November ^July / 6 December  1906 ^greg. ) And Julius Busch († 29 July ^July / 11 August  1907 ^greg. In Nerft).

In May 1909, the Livonian MP, Baron Hans von Rosen, gave a speech to the Duma in which he mentioned the murders of the Orthodox priest Jānis Līcis and the evangelical clergy. He called them martyrs, emphasized the importance of the evangelical clergy as pillars of the state and advocated an end to the legal disadvantage of the evangelical church compared to the orthodox.

swell

• Estonian Historical Archive, Fond 402: Acta des Conseils of the Imperial University of Dorpat, relating to Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Grühn , starting February 11, 1880.
• State Archives of the Russian Federation, 102 / 7e / 8725, 1906: Police report of May 15, 1906 on the murder of Grühn (in Russian).
• Düna newspaper from May 20, 1906.

literature

• Theodor Kallmeyer: The Protestant Churches and Preachers of Courland , 2nd edition, p. 382. Riga 1910.
• Oskar Schabert: Baltic Martyrs Book , Furche-Verlag, pp. 59–61. Berlin 1926.
• The Christian Conservator, December 11, 1929, p. 5: Friedrich Albert Gruehn .
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Gruehn, Friedrich Albert. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 365.
• Jānis Zilgalvis: Mācītājmuižas Latvijā , pp. 98-100. Riga 2002.
• Stephan Bitter: Grühn (Gruehn), Friedrich Albert . In: "Your end looks at ..." Evangelical Martyrs of the 20th Century , Ed. H. Schultze et al., Pp. 499–500. Leipzig 2006.

Portrait photo

• Portrait photo of Albert Grühn (top, right)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Günther Schulz: Church in the East , Volume 39-1996, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996 , ISBN 3-525-56385-X
2. ↑ Friedrich Bienemann (editor): Baltic Monthly , Volume 51, Volume 67, Jonck & Poliewsky, Riga 1909, available at www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDkQFjAC&url = http% 3A% 2F% 2Fdspace.utlib.ee% 2Fdspace% 2Fbitstream% 2Fhandle% 2F10062% 2F19026% 2Fest_a_1457_67_ocr.pdf% 3Fsequence% 3D5 & ei = vO8lUqrcMIHChAf9zoCAAw & usgyGjc8
3. ↑ The speech of the Livonian MP H. Baron Rosen in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 117, May 26, 1909, online at [1]

Web links

• Album academicum of the Imperial University of Dorpat