Camill Gerbert

Pastor Camill Gerbert

Georg Friedrich Camill Gerbert (born February 1, 1861 in Schiltach , Grand Duchy of Baden , † May 26, 1918 in Biebrich , Hessen-Nassau ) was a Protestant pastor and initiator of the building of the Orange Memorial Church in Biebrich.

Life

Origin and professional career

Camill Gerbert was the eldest son of the high school teacher Anton Gerbert and his wife Karoline geb. Neidhardt. The family came from Alsace , but was forced to relocate to Germany, as the father with the politics of Emperor Napoleon III. came into conflict. When Alsace and Lorraine became part of the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 , the family returned to their original home in Colmar . His parents died at the age of 15.

Gerbert attended the Royal Lyceum in Colmar , after graduating from high school on July 27, 1880, he began studying theology and philosophy at what was then Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasbourg in 1880 . He lived in the theological college of St. Thomas, whose director was Albert Schweitzer . Since he was penniless, he had to earn his living as a tutor from the age of 16. From 1882 he studied at the University of Zurich , where he became a student of the theologian Alois Emanuel Biedermann . In May 1884 he left Zurich and moved to the University of Tübingen , where he received his doctorate in 1885 at the Philosophical Faculty. The subject of the dissertation, which was highly regarded at the time, was the Strasbourg sect movement at the time of the Reformation. A few years later he earned a second doctorate (theology) at the University of Jena . The doctoral certificate is dated July 15, 1900; from then on pastor Gerbert was “Dr. phil. and D. (theol) ”.

Pastor in Lorraine

The composition of the Luther song A strong castle is our God . A treatise by Camill Gerbert, Zurich 1884

After his return to Strasbourg, Gerbert entered the service of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Alsace-Lorraine . After graduation he was pastor filed on June 4, 1886 ordained . After a vicariate in Hangenbieten and Metz , he received his first pastor's post in Saarburg (Lorraine) on January 1, 1887 . The office was a great challenge for the young pastor; he had to look after a total of 64 diaspora communities with evangelical believers, at the same time he was military pastor for the garrison in Saarburg. He met several times with Kaiser Wilhelm II when he visited the Saarburg garrison. He also looked after the emperor with pastoral care when he was at his Urweiler castle (Urville).

He also campaigned for the interests of the evangelicals in general. Lorraine was in the diaspora . With the help of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk he succeeded in having four new churches built in Lorraine. It was the garrison church in Saarburg and three other Protestant churches in Saarburg, Avriust and Alberschweiler .

Biebrich on the Rhine

After more than ten years of activity in Lorraine, Pastor Gerbert moved to the then still independent Biebrich am Rhein (now the district of Wiesbaden). On June 12, 1898, Dean Rudolf Eibach introduced him to his office as the first preacher of the Biebrich community.

Camill Gerbert's name is forever associated with the building of the Orange Memorial Church . Thanks to his good connections to the imperial family, he received numerous discounts for the community. So he received the land required to build the church almost as a gift. In particular, the design of the interior of the Orange Memorial Church and the motifs of the glass windows are based on his ideas. In addition to his efforts to rebuild, his work also extended to the renovation of the main church in Mosbach. On May 15, 1905, the Oranier Memorial Church was inaugurated. In front of the church, the architect of the building, Karl von Loehr, presented the general superintendent Heinrich Maurer with a gold-plated key. He passed the key on to parish priest Gerbert via the dean of Eibach.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the Orange Memorial Church, Pastor Gerbert was awarded the Knight's Cross 3rd Class of the Nassau Military and Community Service Order of Adolph von Nassau .

Camill Gerbert was filled with profound Protestant consciousness. He was linked to the Evangelical Union , which was founded to protect German-Protestant interests.

Pastor Gerbert was married twice. On October 21, 1890 he married Anna Sophia geb. Straw from Kirn on the Nahe . From this marriage there were three children. Two died in childhood, only the son Martin survived. That marriage later ended in divorce. In his second marriage, he was with the doctor of gynecology Elisabeth Friederike, born on December 5, 1911. Föllinger married. From this marriage two children had emerged: the daughter Ruth and the son Eckerhardt.

Last years and death

Pastor Gerbert was - according to the zeitgeist - extraordinarily patriotic. After the outbreak of World War I “he hurried to the flags as early as 1914 (together with his son Martin)” and at the age of 53 he volunteered, as a field preacher in Belgium . Because of his bravery, he received numerous awards ( Iron Cross II. Class, Mecklenburg Medal for Bravery).

On January 1, 1918 Pastor Gerbert returned from the theater of war at the request of the Biebrich parish. On May 26, 1918, a stroke ended his life and on May 29, 1918 he was buried with great sympathy from the population of Biebrich. "As a convinced legitimist , he was spared the defeat of the German Reich and the abdication of the emperor, whom he greatly admired, as well as the turmoil of the revolution in post-war Germany."

literature

• 100 years of the Orange Memorial Church 1905–2005 (a house of God through the ages). A commemorative publication; Published by the Evangelical Orange Memorial Church Community, Wiesbaden-Biebrich 2005

Web links

• Article in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, registry office Biebrich, death register (HStAMR Order 925 No. 140), document No. 145 from May 27, 1918 digital
2. ^ The castle of Urweiler (Urville) was in Lorraine near Kurzel (Courcelles-Chaussy); it dates from the 16th century and had been used by Kaiser Wilhelm II since 1890.
3. ↑ After a request for an intermediary was submitted to the emperor, the community received the property for 2,000 marks by "highest decree"  ; the real value of the property was 75,000 marks.
4. ↑ Mosbach was once an independent village that later merged into the small town of Biebrich on the Rhine.
5. ↑ Report on the funeral in the Biebricher Tagespost from May 31, 1918.
6. ↑ Quoted from a contribution by Rolf Faber: The Orange Memorial Church - an architectural monument in the course of time (in the above-mentioned Festschrift)