August Friedrich Wilhelm Haese
August Friedrich Wilhelm Haese (born September 23, 1824 in Stettin , † December 12, 1912 in Weener ) was a Baptist clergyman. His church marriage to Metta Schütte from Varel (1855) was preceded by the first civil law marriage in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.
Life
August Haese, who grew up in Pomerania , learned the tailoring trade and came into contact with the young Baptist movement as a traveling journeyman. He experienced an inner turning toward the Christian faith and was on January 28, 1846 by the Jeveraner Baptist pastor Johann Ludwig Hinrichs in Berlin baptized . Just six months later, the newly founded Baptist congregation in Stettin elected him to the deacon office .
In the winter of 1849/50 Haese took part in the first missionary course offered by Johann Gerhard Oncken in Hamburg . After completing this brief training, Oncken ordained him on April 28, 1850 as a missionary. His first missionary trips took him to Schleswig-Holstein and the Memelland .
Haese's stay in Memel lasted only a few months, but it set the course for the spread of Baptism in Eastern Europe. Just fourteen days after his arrival, Haese baptized seven people to profess their faith in Jesus Christ , and a short time later another ten people. These activities caught the attention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Memelland. Those in charge of the Lutheran Church put the state authorities under pressure and demanded strict action against the missionary activities of the Baptist missionary. Haese wrote in a letter addressed to Oncken: “ I was again prohibited from administering baptism and the Lord's Supper . But I declared quite emphatically that I would continue with it. ” The result was interrogations and fines, which, however, could not prevent the Baptist movement in Memel and the neighboring areas from expanding to Vilnius and Riga .
In December 1851, Haese followed an appointment from the Baptist Church of Oldenburg (Oldenburg) and became its first pastor . Two years later he moved to the northern Oldenburger Land as a missionary, where he took up residence in Varel and joined the Jever Baptist congregation , which was founded by Oncken in 1840 . A short time later she appointed him to be her elder and entrusted him with the task of looking after and gathering the parishioners who were scattered in Varel and Butjadingen .
Haese and the introduction of civil marriage in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
Haese met Metta Schütte in Varel. They got engaged and immediately the question of the marriage arose, which up to this point could only be valid before an official of the Protestant or Catholic Church . Haese is not prepared to follow the example of the Ammerland Baptist Frerich Bohlken and to follow the path of civil disobedience . He therefore made contact with the consistory of the Oldenburg Evangelical Lutheran State Church. Haese's request to perform his intended marriage before a Baptist clergyman was refused in 1853, but led the Oldenburg state government to think about a legal regulation for the marriage of dissidents . Two years later, on May 31, 1855, the Oldenburg Grand Duke promulgated the law on civil marriage in the state of Oldenburg . The Baptist pastor August Haese and Metta Schütte were the first to get married on the basis of this law. In the German Empire , civil marriage was introduced on February 6, 1875, twenty years later.
A certificate was issued for the act of civil marriage, which has the following wording:
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Following the civil law act, Johann Gerhard Oncken performed the church wedding of the Haese couple in the garden of the Schütte house at Mühlenstraße 43 in Vareler.
Haese was heartily grateful to the Grand Duke for the law on civil marriage. Every year he therefore personally congratulated the Oldenburg monarch on his birthday and in return received cigars, which - as one reads in Haese's diary entries - he smoked "in later years gradually in a festive mood".
Church planting in Varel
Haese worked in Varel with great missionary and pastoral commitment. This effort did not remain fruitless: on July 20, 1856, 31 members of the Jever Baptist congregation, living in Varel and the surrounding area, gathered to constitute themselves as an independent congregation of baptized Christians in Varel . In addition to the Jever congregation elder Anton Friedrich Remmers , Johann Gerhard Oncken, who was born in Varel and chaired this inaugural meeting, was also present. At Oncken's suggestion, August Haese was unanimously appointed elder and head of the new congregation and then ordained . Haese worked in this management position for more than 39 years. During his period of service, he founded Sunday School , youth work and many other community groups. A particular highlight was the construction of the Varel Baptist Church, which was inaugurated on July 25, 1858.
Haese took care of nine preaching stations in the Varel region. From this further independent communities developed: Seefeld (today: Nordenham) and Wilhelmshaven (June 13, 1886). From 1882 to 1884, after the death of the aforementioned Anton F. Remmers, he temporarily took over the office of elder in Jever.
Retirement
The last few years in Varel were not without tensions. Younger people pushed for responsibility and Haese found it difficult to gradually transfer his diverse services to other hands. In order to avoid more serious conflicts he accepted an appointment from the Baptist congregation in Forst (Lausitz) at the age of 73 . He stayed until 1903 when he finally retired. First he lived in Geestemünde , then in Duisburg and Gevelsberg . He spent the last years of his life in Weener , where he died in 1912 after a long sick bed. His wife Metta Margaretha died in Varel in 1895.
Literature and Sources
- Community archive of the Evangelical Free Churches in Jever: Protocol books I - VI
- Margarete Jelten: Under God's roof tiles. Beginnings of Baptism in Northwest Germany , Bremerhaven 1984
- Heinz Buttjes: 150 years of Baptists in Jever , Jever 1990
- Herbert Gudjons : 125 years of the Evangelical Free Church in Varel 1856 - 1981 , Varel 1981
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Haese, August Friedrich Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Baptist clergyman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1824 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Szczecin |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 12, 1912 |
| Place of death | Weener |