August Heinrich Dittrich
August Heinrich Dittrich (born February 4, 1797 ( July ) in Fürstenau ; † June 27, 1855 (July) in Moscow ) was a German church missionary , pastor and author.
biography
Dittrich was educated and instructed by his brother Johann Heinrich from Dittersdorf in the theological direction of his life's work. From 1812 he attended the grammar school in Freiberg . From 1816 to 1819 he studied law and philosophy in Leipzig . In 1818 he got engaged to Eleonore Klemm from Torgau . Through the mediation of Pastor Gustav Ernst Christian Leonhardi from the Dresden Kreuzkirche , he joined the Basel Mission on January 5, 1820 .
He studied Arabic and Turkish in Paris and Persian and Armenian in Cambridge .
On June 18, 1821 he was in Basel ordained and traveled through St. Petersburg to Astrakhan . On July 20, 1821, he began his missionary work there together with Felician Martin Graf von Zaremba . They proselytized Jews and Muslims and from 1822, with restrictions, also Muslims and Tatars in the Armenian - Russian Caucasus region . Dittrich was the first preacher of a large group of ethnic Germans who had settled in Georgia .
Together with Count Zaremba, he wrote his own church ordinance and inaugurated Armenian schools. He acted as a translator of New Armenian Christian literature, created his own dictionary , various school books, a language teaching, and translated the New Testament and the Psalms . He also taught Armenian priests.
Dittrich traveled to Saint Petersburg with Felician Martin von Zaremba in order to personally collect permission to perform missions at the court of the Tsars. Since the evangelical minister of education, Alexander Nikolayevich Golitsyn, was very open to this project , Tsar Alexander I had nothing against it.
In Şuşa (Armenia) he worked as a missionary from 1823 to 1833. Then he was pastor in Tbilisi until 1838 , where he was appointed senior pastor .
In Gatchina he began his activity in a German-Finnish-Estonian parish in 1839 . After Moscow he was called on March 23, 1840 as the first pastor at the St. Michaelis Church. St. Michaelis was one of the oldest church plays in Moscow and is continued today by the Petri-Pauli parish. In the period from 1852 to 1855 he was a member of the ev.-luth. Consistory .
According to archival information from the Basel Mission, he died on July 9, 1855, but according to documents from the Martin Luther Ring, on June 27, 1855. The difference can be explained by the fact that the Julian calendar was still in force in Russia and the Gregorian calendar in Basel .
He was the author of the book Dr. Martin Luther's little catechism .
literature
- Community letter of the ev.-luth. Parishes of Fürstenwalde-Fürstenau, Lauenstein-Liebenau and Geising from winter 2012/2013, author: Gerd Kadner
- Google Books, page 8
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dittrich, August Heinrich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dittrich, August H. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German missionary |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 4, 1797 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fürstenau (Altenberg) |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 27, 1855 |
| Place of death | Moscow |