Alexander Bernewitz

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Alexander Bernewitz (born May 26, 1856 in Kandau ( Latvian Kandava ), Courland ; † January 16, 1919 in Kandau), Latvian Aleksanders Bernevics or Aleksandrs Bernevics , was a Protestant martyr .

Life

The pastor's son studied in Dorpat , was ordained on August 14, 1888 and was later provost of the Kandau diocese, general superintendent and vice-president of the Kurland Consistorial District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. He is a cousin of the Courland general superintendent of the same name (1908–1919) and later first regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran. Regional Church in Braunschweig Alexander Bernewitz .

In addition to his spiritual activities, Alexander Bernewitz, as well as pastor Karl Schilling , murdered in 1905, was provost Ludwig Zimmermann , murdered in 1906, pastors Hans Bielenstein , Xaver Marnitz , Arnold von Rutkowski , Paul Fromhold-Treu , Christoph Strautmann , Karl Schlau , who were executed by Bolsheviks in 1919 , Eberhard Savary , Eugen Scheuermann and Wilhelm Gilbert and like the pastors Gustav Cleemann and Erwin Gross , who died as a result of their imprisonment with the Bolsheviks, full members of the Latvian-Literary Society , which was dedicated to the study of the Latvian language, folklore and culture . This society was mainly supported by German-Baltic pastors and intellectuals. For the Latvians themselves, a higher education was hardly accessible at the time of the imperial Russian rule, their culture led a shadowy existence.

During the revolution of 1905/06 and around the turn of the year 1918/19 he stayed with his community and did not join the retreat of the German troops . On the night of January 16, 1919, he was arrested by the Bolsheviks, taken to prison and soon afterwards shot.

Riga Martyr's Stone

In memory of Bernewitz and other Baltic martyrs, the Riga Martyrs Stone was erected in the Great Cemetery in Riga in the 1920s next to the New Chapel . It was a black granite obelisk with the names of the pastors killed in the Riga Central Prison in the upper area (see the article about Marion von Klot , who was also killed in the process) and in the lower area the names of 32 other clergymen Victims, including Bernewitz, were listed.

After the Second World War , the stone was destroyed by the Soviet administration. In the course of efforts to restore the Great Cemetery, the Martyr's Stone was rededicated in 2006.

literature

Portrait photo

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. 1914.
  2. ^ Members of the Latvian Literary Society ( Memento from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) from 1901, on roots-saknes.lv
  3. ↑ Memorial plaques and monuments on the website of Domus Rigensis ( Memento from March 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Bernewitz, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernevics, Aleksanders (Latvian); Bernevics, Aleksandrs
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic evangelical clergyman and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Kandau
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1919
Place of death Kandau