August Liebig

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August Liebig

August Liebig (full name: August Gustav Alexander Liebig ; born February 14, 1836 in Bernstein , today: Pełczyce in Poland ; † August 19, 1914 in Pleasant Valley , North Dakota , USA ) was a trained locksmith, Baptist craft missionary and clergyman. Its action areas were the time for Turkey is part of Dobrogea , Southern Federal District , and is currently known as Russian Poland . In doing so, he worked beyond the narrow boundaries of his own denomination. Liebig worked in the United States for the last 20 years of his life, among both Baptists and members of the Mennonite Brethren .

Life

August Liebig's birthplace Bernstein around 1890
Hermann, Friedrich Wilhelm and August Liebig

August Liebig came from a Lutheran Bernstein family. His parents were the master dyer Friedrich Wilhelm Liebig and his wife Henriette. The family included eight children, seven boys and a girl.

August Liebig was the fourth oldest child. Liebig's father died in 1843, ten years later - August was seventeen years old - his mother passed away. Friedrich Wilhelm, the eldest of the orphaned children, took on the role of father. After finishing school, August learned the metalworking trade.

Beginnings

In 1834, Johann Gerhard Oncken , who was born in Varel, founded the first German Baptist church in Hamburg together with six other believers . It was the nucleus of a rapidly spreading church planting movement, which reached the small town of Reetz in Neumark via Stettin in the early 1850s . The Liebig children got in touch with the Reetz community and attended their services. In 1854 Friedrich Wilhelm converted to the Baptists and was baptized . Two years later, August Liebig and six other siblings in the family followed. After another year, all Liebig children were members of the Preetz Baptist church. In addition to August, four other Liebig sons later became preachers and missionaries of the Baptists: Ludwig Liebig , Hermann Liebig , Friedrich Wilhelm Liebig and Helmut Liebig .

August Liebig moved to Hamburg in 1857 at the latest and joined the aforementioned Hamburg Baptist congregation.

Craftsman missionary

Oncken recognized the talents and abilities of the young amber locksmith, ordained him after a short training and sent him in 1863 as a “craft missionary ” to Bucharest ( Romania ), where a group of Baptists had formed within the German-speaking population. The initiator of this community was the carpenter journeyman Karl Scharschmidt sent by Oncken in 1856 . The community that was constituted after Liebig's arrival was small. For the year 1864, the mission report that August Liebig sent to Hamburg recorded four baptized persons and a total of twelve admitted participants in the sacrament. Ten years later, the growth of the Bucharest community remained below expectations. The meetings were attended by an average of 20, rarely more than 25 people. Nevertheless, the congregation received official recognition from the state authorities and became one of the nucleus of the later Romanian Baptist Union .

August Liebig (7th from left) as a participant in the mission course in Hamburg (1865)

Service within the Mennonite Brethren

In 1865 Liebig returned to Germany and completed a six-month intensive course at the mission school , which has now been founded in Hamburg and the nucleus of today's Elstal Theological University .

Deposit on the Dnieper in the Khortitza colony

During his first years in Romania, Liebig met South Russian exiles, including Mennonites. In Turkey, too, where he had been briefly exiled, he met members of this Reformation free church of German origin and baptized some of them by going into hiding . After his return to the Black Sea region (May 1866), Liebig - initiated by Johann Gerhard Oncken - made contact with the Mennonite Brethren Congregation founded in 1860 in Einlage ( Colony Chortitza ). Liebig was able to help with the creation of a community code and, among other things, ensured that business hours within the community ran smoothly. Five years later he returned to Einlage to give the congregation assistance in practical theological questions. In May 1872, the Baptist preacher was entrusted with the management of a Mennonite organizing committee, which was supposed to prepare a major conference of the Mennonite fraternities. The success of the organizational work that was carried out led to the fact that in the following years he also led the conferences and conducted Bible school courses. His service among the then still young Mennonite Brethren gave structure to the free church movement in southern Russia and gave it orders that had an impact on the entire movement.

Pastor in Odessa, Lodz and Stettin

August Liebig was appointed pastor of the German Baptist congregation in Odessa in 1874, where he worked successfully until 1887. He then spent several years in Baptist congregations in what was then Russian Poland , for example in Łódź and Stettin .

United States

In 1892 the Liebig family emigrated to America, where they worked with German Baptists and Mennonite brothers. Liebig became a pastor of Plum Creek Baptist Church in South Dakota and settled in Bridgewater. In 1903 the family moved to Denhoff, North Dakota , where Liebig founded the Denhoff First German Baptist Church . He also re-established relationships with the Mennonite brothers who had settled in various communities in North and South Dakota. Most of all, it was preaching services and Bible courses that he was invited to.

family

During his time at the Hamburg Mission School (1865) August Liebig married Sophia Ratzeburg (* 1844). The connection resulted in 10 children. Five of them died before they reached adulthood.

Liebig's daughter Martha (1873–1915) married Peter Wedel in 1895. The two went to the Cameroon Baptist Mission as a missionary couple , but were also supported by members of the Mennonite Brethren.

Literature (selection)

  • Abe J. Dueck: August GA Liebig and his North American Legacy . In: Mennonite Historian , No. 38/3. Quarter 2012, p. 1; 6-7
  • Albert W. Wardin Jr .: August GA Liebig: German Baptist Missionary and Friend to the Mennonite Brethren . In: Journal of Mennonite Studies , No. 28/2010. Pp. 167-186
  • Ian M. Randall: Communities of Conviction. Baptist Beginnings in Europe . Neufeld Verlag: Schwarzenfeld 2009. ISBN 978-3-937896-78-6 . P. 130f
  • J. Pritzkau: History of the Baptists in Southern Russia (Ed. Historical Commission of the BTG ). Logos Verlag: Lage 1999. ISBN 3-927767-52-2 . Pp. 70–79 ( The calling of brother A. Liebig )
  • Heinrich Löwen: Forgotten relationships. Early Encounters of the Mennonite Brethren Congregations with Baptism in Southern Russia - An Overview . Volume 1 in the series Contributions to Eastern European Church History (Eds. Johannes Reimer , Heinrich Löwen). Logos Verlag: Bielefeld 1989. ISBN 3-927767-01-8 . P. 17; 19-21; 55; 58
  • Rudolf Donat: The growing work. Expansion of the German Baptist congregations for sixty years (1849–1909) . JG Oncken Published by Kassel 1960. S. 40; 163; 174; 258; 383f; 390
  • Hermann Liebig : From Stettin to Berlinchen (story of the Liebig family in six sequels). Appeared in the Baptist journal The Truth Witnesses . JG Oncken Published by Kassel; Issues from November 16 to December 21, 1912.
  • Peter M. Friesen: The Old Evangelical Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789-1910) . Halbstadt: Raduga 1911

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The data and facts in this section are based (unless otherwise stated) on Albert W. Wardin Jr .: August GA Liebig: German Baptist Missionary and Friend to the Mennonite Brethren . In: Journal of Mennonite Studies , No. 28/2010. Pp. 167-186
  2. ^ Hermann Liebig: From Stettin to Berlinchen (story of the Liebig family in six sequels). Appeared in the Baptist journal The Truth Witnesses . JG Oncken Published by Kassel; here: The Truth Witness of December 7, 1912. p. 386
  3. ↑ Joseph Lehmann: History of the German Baptists. Second part from 1848 to 1870 (second completely revised edition by FW Hermann). JG Oncken Nachf .: Cassel 1922. p. 137
  4. ↑ For the history of the Reetz Baptist church and its numerous stations in the surrounding area, see Rudolf Donat: The growing work. Expansion of the German Baptist congregations for sixty years. 1849-1909 . JG Oncken: Kassel 1960. p. 43f
  5. ↑ Short biographies of the four Liebig brothers mentioned can be found in Joseph Lehmann: History of the German Baptists. Second part from 1848 to 1870 (second completely revised edition by FW Hermann). JG Oncken Nachf .: Cassel 1922. P. 293f
  6. ↑ Eduard Scheve: Trust the Lord . Oncken Verlag: Wuppertal and Kassel 1979. S. 21; against J. Lehmann, who mentions the year 1859 here. See Joseph Lehmann: History of the German Baptists. Second part: Work, struggles and expansion of the communities in Germany and surrounding countries from 1848 to 1870 . Publishing house of the German Baptists JG Oncken Successor: [o. O.] 1900. p. 318
  7. ↑ So-called craft missionaries were significantly involved in the expansion of the Baptist movement in the 19th century. They financed their living with their craft. See Wilfried Bohlen : On the history of church planting in the BEFG . In: FOUNDER: TIME. Congregation planting in the BEFG (Ed. Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Congregations in Germany ). Wustermark-Elstal 2014. pp. 28–30; here: p. 28
  8. ↑ Bucharest-Info.de: Baptist congregations in Bucharest ; accessed on December 28, 2017
  9. ^ Albert W. Wardin Jr .: August GA Liebig: German Baptist Missionary and Friend to the Mennonite Brethren . In: Journal of Mennonite Studies , No. 28/2010. P. 168
  10. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work. Expansion of the German Baptist congregations for sixty years. 1849-1909 . JG Oncken Verlag: Kassel 1960. Plate in front of p. 529: Students and teachers at the mission school in 1865
  11. ↑ GAMEO.org: Liebig, August GA (1836-1914) ; accessed on January 30, 2018
  12. ↑ Heinrich Löwen: Forgotten relationships. Early Encounters of the Mennonite Brethren Congregations with Baptism in Southern Russia - An Overview . Logos Verlag: Bielefeld 1989. P. 20
  13. ↑ Abe J. Dueck: More on August Liebig . In: Mennonite Historian. A Publication of the Mennonite Heritage Center and the Center for MB Studies in Canada (Eds. Alf Redekopp, Jon Isaak, Conrad Stoesz). Volume 38 / No. 4. Winnipeg December 2012. p. 3
personal data
SURNAME Dear, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Liebig, August Gustav Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Baptist pastor
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Amber
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1914
Place of death Pleasant Valley , North Dakota , USA