Carl Polnick

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Carl Polnick (born April 26, 1858 in Heinsberg ; † May 24, 1919 in Barmen ) was a German businessman and the founder of the Evangelical Alliance Mission .

Life

Polnick's father was a border official at the Dutch border. The family moved to Düsseldorf in 1872 . For financial reasons he could not attend grammar school and began training as a businessman after finishing secondary school. In his spare time he learned foreign languages ​​and was also interested in literary and art history. After his apprenticeship, he worked as a business traveler. A business customer encouraged him to think about God, which ultimately led to an inner breakdown. Polnick now accompanied Peter Samanns on his lecture tours and both represented doctrines in public events that constructed a connection between sin and illness. Polnick was an advocate of healing. Various exorcisms occurred at the events.

In September 1885, Polnick moved with his now widowed mother and sister to Wuppertal-Barmen, where he founded the Blue Cross in 1888 and the Alliance Mission Association in 1890. In 1890 he married Bertha Priebk. Together with the American evangelist Fredrik Franson , he set up the German China Alliance Mission in 1889 . The members of the committee came from various churches and free churches and, as their representatives, underlined the non- denominational character of the mission, which contrary to the principles of the Inland China Mission (CIM) by Hudson Taylor did not see itself as a pure "faith mission " and was open to donations asked. As an associate mission of the China Inland Mission, the mission sent the first three missionaries to China that same year .

Polnick took part as a speaker at the Blankenburg Alliance Conference and in 1910 was an official participant for the German China Alliance Mission at the World Mission Conference in Edinburgh, which increased the awareness of his mission. Sun also began Free Protestant congregations on Polnick and the China Alliance mission to pay attention and to support their work. Finally, in 1911, Polnick spoke at the Federal FeG Conference. Under the influence and with the help of Eduard Zantop and Karl Engler, the China Alliance Mission gradually approached the Union of Free Evangelical Congregations theologically and methodically. On a trip abroad, Polnick had an accident so badly that one of his arms had to be amputated after several operations.

literature

  • Bertha Polnick: Carl Polnick. A picture of life. Barmen 1920.
  • Werner Schnepper: Fredrik Franson. In: Kurt Zimmermann: Fifty Years of Allianz China Mission. Witten 1939, pp. 31-38.
  • China calls. 60 years of Allianz China mission . Barmen 1949.
  • August Jung: From the struggle of the fathers. Enthusiastic movements in the late 19th century. Bundes-Verlag, Witten 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Weyel: The future needs a past. Biographical portraits from the history and prehistory of free evangelical communities . Ed .: Wolfgang Heinrichs, Michael Schröder, Hartmut Weyel. tape 2 , no. 2 . SCM Bundes-Verlag, Witten 2010, ISBN 978-3-933660-03-9 , pp. 25 .
  2. ^ Stephan Holthaus: Healing - Healing - Sanctification. The history of the German sanctification and evangelization movement (1874–1909) . Theological Publishing Community (TVG) in Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 2005, ISBN 3-7655-9485-7 , p. 383 .
  3. ^ Stephan Holthaus: Healing - Healing - Sanctification. The history of the German sanctification and evangelization movement (1874–1909) . Theological Publishing Community (TVG) in Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 2005, ISBN 3-7655-9485-7 , p. 256 .
personal data
SURNAME Polnick, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman and the founder of the Evangelical Alliance Mission
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Heinsberg
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1919
Place of death Barmen