David Nitschmann (Bishop)

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David Nitschmann

David Nitschmann (to distinguish people with the same name in the Moravian tradition usually with the surname Bishop or David Nitschmann V .; * December 18, 1695 in Zauchtenthal ; † October 8, 1772 in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) ) was a German-Moravian missionary and Bishop of the Moravian Brethren .

Live and act

Nitschmann, who was one of the Bohemian Brothers persecuted in Moravia , was persuaded by Christian David to emigrate to Saxony together with his namesakes, the later archivist and the “confessor” who died in prison in 1729 , where he became one of the founders of the Brethren in 1724 Herrnhut belonged. He then went on missionary trips to Moravia, Bohemia and England. In 1731 he accompanied Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf to the coronation of King Christian VI. to Copenhagen. Motivated by reports from a West Indian slave who was taken to Herrnhut from the situation on the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas , the Brethren decided to do missionary work there. Nitschmann traveled there with Johann Leonhard Dober in 1732 and founded a mission station as the first Moravian mission station in West India. After sixteen weeks, however, he returned and worked for the settlement of Herrnhutern in Holstein .

In 1735 Nitschmann was ordained bishop in Berlin by Daniel Ernst Jablonski . He went on a mission trip to Georgia and made friends with John and Charles Wesley on the ship . In 1736, however, he returned and took part in the installation of Zinzendorf as bishop in 1737. In 1738 he led the negotiations for the establishment of the Herrnhaag colony in the Wetterau. Back in Pennsylvania , he established the Bethlehem branch in 1741 . On his return to Europe in 1744 he was captured by the Spanish but was released and promoted Herrnhut branches in Denmark, Norway and Silesia over the next few years. From 1749 to 1754 he lived in Herrnhaag and then returned permanently to Pennsylvania, where he first lived in Lititz , and from 1761 back in Bethlehem as a retiree.

literature

  • Friedrich Martin, David Nitschmann, Friedrich von Wattewille and Petrus Böhler are shown in brief outline . In: Brief descriptions of the lives of strange men from the Brethren. Third edition, Rothenburg: JB Pohl, 1842.
  • Hermann Arthur Lier:  Nitschmann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, pp. 712-714 (in the family article).
  • HW Reichel: David Nitschmann, the first bishop of the renewed Brethren Church . Herrnhut: Missionsbuchhandlung, 1922 (Life Pictures from the Brethren; H. 1).
  • Claus Mannsbart: David Nitschmann: První biskup obnovené jednoty bratrské , Suchdol: Klub Přátel Suchdolu Nad Odrou, 1995 (Edice Suchdol; 13).
  • Dietrich Meyer :  Nitschmann, David . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 4th edition. Volume 6, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, Sp. 347.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to RGG. The older tradition also has other dates, ADB e.g. B. December 27, 1696.
personal data
SURNAME Nitschmann, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of the Moravian Brethren and German missionary
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1695
PLACE OF BIRTH Zauchtenthal
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1772
Place of death Bethlehem, Pennsylvania