Emil Meyer (Evangelist)

Robert Emil Meyer (born March 26, 1869 in Rheinbach , † October 16, 1949 in Gelsenkirchen ) was a German preacher and evangelist of the Pietist community movement who played a significant role in the development of the Pentecostal movement in Germany. He was also active as a writer and publisher .

Life

Meyer's father Eduard Julius Meyer (born March 20, 1825 in Prittag, Grünberg district ; † November 7, 1911 ) came from Silesia and was a mounted gendarme , his mother Auguste Wilhelmine Radke (born August 13, 1838 in Polch ) came from the Rhineland . The parents' marriage took place on May 27, 1857 in Flamersheim . She had seven children. Emil Meyer, b. 1869, was the second youngest.

Emil Meyer was a soldier in the Rhineland for twelve years, from 1887 to 1899. It is not known where he was stationed. In 1892, triggered by sermons, he had a revival experience in Cologne . This is how he came into the kingdom of God : “God saved me as the only one out of a large family. As a young soldier he saved me from a regiment of comrades. "

In the autumn of 1899 Meyer entered the Johanneum Evangelist School in Barmen as a guest . At that time Koblenz was registered as his place of residence , as his profession " Paymaster- Aspirant". Just one year later (Meyer had meanwhile married the Nümbrecht factory owner's daughter Ida Louise Geldmacher) he completed his time at the evangelist school. A school stay of just a few months was also unusual at the time; A three-year training was planned. However, Meyer has been one of the brothers sent out since 1900. In the first ten years after graduation, they were not allowed to take on new positions without the approval of the management in Barmen. In an annual report by the Johanneum, Meyer is counted among the brothers “who do community work in big cities”.

When Emil Meyer was called to Hamburg in September 1900 , the Christian Community of Hamburg , which he was supposed to lead, already had fixed organizational structures. Preses was Pastor Johannes Mau and Secretary Emil Koehn , who played an important role for the Hamburg YMCA . Pastor Paul Stritter , who had been director of the Alsterdorfer Anstalten since 1899, was one of the other board members . Helene Beckmann was responsible for women and girls, and Baroness von Nettelbladt chaired the virgin association. The groups and people connected to the buildings and the network at the old horse market and the YMCA formed a bridge between the traditional church structures in Hamburg and the new initiatives. Communion celebrations did not take place in the main churches, but either in the collegiate church in St. Georg or on the Anscharhöhe.

Meyer's work initially referred to three locations: the old horse market, the original connection; Norderstraße as an already established assembly point and Niedernstraße as a new mission project. The Niedernstrasse in the middle of Hamburg's old town belonged to the Gängeviertel , the overpopulated half-timbered houses in which the residents lived under precarious conditions. Alcoholism, unemployment, violence and prostitution marked these streets. Paul Fleisch speaks of the "criminal cellars on Niedernstrasse".

In a brief autobiographical flashback, Meyer wrote:

“I come from a church background as a child, I was baptized and confirmed as a child, I was converted to God as a young soldier and immediately began to offer salvation to others, worked among the youth, in the leafing mission, and finally judged in my own apartment a soldiers' home that I ran for five years. God took me out of the military after twelve years; I attended an evangelistic school for a year and got the sentence in my testimony: 'He represents the teachings of the Church out of conviction.' Called to head a Christian community in Hamburg, rescue work quickly developed among the deeply fallen, 'the beach mission in Hamburg'. So I worked from 1900 to 1905 in the great blessing, recognized far and wide by the people of God. "

Meyer lived and worked in Hamburg for about twenty years. Emil Meyer occupied his own field in the already existing network of Christian initiatives that were working with each other or also side by side. In the Guide through the Church of Hamburg published by Friedrich Sauerlandt in 1903 , the Christian Community Hamburg led by Emil Meyer is mentioned with the characterization “Mission among the drinkers, unemployed and homeless in the streets, courtyards and pubs; standing on the floor of the regional church . ”During her five-week assignment in Hamburg in 1903, the evangelist Adeline Countess von Schimmelmann got to know and appreciate the work of Emil Meyer.

His work as an evangelist in the Hamburg beach mission was benevolently accompanied by the board of the Johanneum. In 1907 the first indication emerged that Meyer was inclined to the then so-called tongue movement . It was not until 1910 that the school declared that Meyer no longer belonged to the Johanneum Association "because he worked in the spirit of the Pentecostal movement and as a businessman".

After Meyer had made a significant contribution to establishing the Pentecostal movement in Germany, he was also expelled from the most important association of Pentecostal congregations . From 1911 he was no longer considered a member of the communities that had come together in the course of the Mülheim conferences.

In the summer of 1913 Meyer went to visit his relatives on his father's side in Silesia and the province of Posen . He wrote about it to his mother and siblings, who had been widowed for a year and a half, and shared a special incident with them:

“Then I came to Unruhstadt (Prov. Posen) on June 2nd . I had heard that a daughter of Hermann Meyer (us. Uncle) was supposed to live there. I found her close by where I lived. Her name is Berta Meyer, 61 years old. The surprise and joy was great when I introduced myself to her as a cousin. She has remained unmarried, has been a housekeeper for an estate family for over 40 years, has owned crosses and brooches for 25, 30 or 40 years of faithful service (the latter in gold from the Empress ). We chatted a lot. I.a. told her that her as he on Father Hermann wandering , without knowing it, to our father to have been Jülich had come into the house to beg. Father got over it, asked for the papers and then found his own brother. Nice, isn't it? "

In the 1920s, Meyer moved his residence to southern Schleswig-Holstein near the small town of Kellinghusen . In the Rotensande district belonging to Brokstedt , he turned to different priorities than in the big city. In addition to writing in his own publishing house, Meyer devoted himself to caring for the sick; the mission house built by him invited to stay in the country like a cure. The Meyer couple had five children, some of them already grown up: Samuel (* January 2, 1902), Johannes (* September 5, 1903), Ruth (* January 20, 1905), Hanna (* March 2, 1908), Emanuel (born April 10, 1910); Phoebe, born on June 4, 1906, died on August 19, 1906 in Hamburg.

At an evangelism in Kassel in the early 1930s, the journalist Karl Fix heard a sermon from Meyer's, through whose writing Out of Satan's Spell he had already come to the knowledge of his sin. Meyer's persistent prayer healed him mentally and physically. After his conversion, Fix initially put himself at the service of Meyer with his literary talent and then founded the Pentecostal-oriented people's mission of determined Christians in 1934 .

The difficulties that led to the failure of all Emil Meyer's projects began with the National Socialist seizure of power . The book Aus Satan's Bann published in Rotensande in 1930 was indexed by the National Socialists , which means that distribution was made a criminal offense. A whole bunch of other elements intensified the conflict between the evangelist and the new rulers. Publicly propagated healing of the sick through prayer was not in the sense of the National Socialist image of man.

Another point that escalated the confrontation was Meyer's plans to build a settlement with at least 60 houses in Rotensande. This new village was to be named "Alone with God". The notes and drawings that have been preserved speak of a holiday resort with a chapel in the forest and opportunities for boat trips on the nearby sturgeon . Roads for car connections and thus regional and supra-regional connections were also planned.

Meyer had advertising brochures printed for the estate, which presented the project in great detail. Plans of the surroundings and photos document the idyll. In addition to its own consumption, the village should also have a tailor, a shoemaker and a barber. The hotelier Heinrich Burkert is presented as the caretaker. "Rooms with pension" are available on request. It is expressly pointed out that people with the following illnesses are excluded from the stay: “Sick people with infectious u. Sexually transmitted diseases are not included. "

From 1934 onwards, Meyer was not allowed to continue any of his work in Rotensande. Presumably because the financial basis broke away as a result, he had to move out of the house he had built in the same year, his wife and some children had already left Brokstedt beforehand. Where they turned cannot be determined. With the remaining children he moved into a small stable-like building on the farm, which is still preserved today in a modified form. On January 7, 1941 Meyer sold his property in Rotensande; possibly he stayed there, however, because he continued his publishing activities. In 1945 he was definitely still living in Rotensande. The last verifiable book to be published in Rotensande was published in 1948. Meyer could, however, have retained the publishing rights without actually living on site. Meyer's children, who grew up in Rotensande, came by occasionally in later years to see the place of their childhood and to get information about their families.

Emil Meyer died on October 16, 1949 in Gelsenkirchen. The details are unknown. One of the employees of his Hamburg mission project, Ernestine von Trott zu Solz , notes in her memories about the last phase of Meyer's life:

“He was persecuted and went through severe hardships in the ' Third Reich ' because he couldn't take part and he was then expropriated. Despite his old age, after he had recovered from our friends, he went on an evangelistic trip again. Then the Lord called him home. "

According to her, these friends were supporters of the Salem country home (near Asendorf ) who took him in and looked after him. It can therefore be assumed that Meyer stayed in Hamburg or near the Hanseatic city after the end of World War II .

evaluation

“Emil Meyer is one of the few figures in the Protestant renewal movements around 1900 who developed into loners with a decidedly idiosyncratic program. Initially involved in the most important networks of community and sanctification movements, the YMCA and the Pentecostals, he occupied a social-diaconal field in Hamburg that was not served satisfactorily by any of the existing church, state or municipal initiatives in the economic needs after the turn of the century could. His support for the homeless and unemployed as well as alcoholics and prostitutes met with a positive response from like-minded people in the first few years. Meyer seems to have had organizational skills, because in a short time he succeeded in setting up numerous projects in which women and men found accommodation and work. However, from various quarters he was attested to being unable to provide structural and financial security for his projects. In keeping with his origins in the Johanneum, Meyer saw himself as a preacher, evangelist and missionary who primarily wanted to encourage people to convert. Meyer's plans and also his theological preferences are characterized by continuous changes, so that one can speak of a discontinuity in his person and his work. At the same time, he always pursued similar goals - albeit in a different format. "

Fonts

• Aus Satans Bann , Rotensande 1930 ( http://d-nb.info/575107464 ), Barnstedt 2nd edition 1985 ( http://d-nb.info/944689795 )
• Das Lamm und die Lämmer , Rotensande 1931 ( http://d-nb.info/575107499 ), Barnstedt 2nd edition 1980 ( http://d-nb.info/94471904X )
• Ready for the rapture! From a fellow companion in the tribulation and in the kingdom and in the patient expectation of the revelation of Jesus Christ , Rotensande 1934 ( http://d-nb.info/575107472 ), Barnstedt 3rd edition 1978 ( http: // d-nb. info / 944718981 )
• Made healthy through the faith of Jesus Christ! Evidence of the healing of faith according to St. Font , Rotensande 1934 ( http://d-nb.info/575107480 ), Barnstedt 4th edition 1980 ( http://d-nb.info/944719333 )
• All Jews to Egypt , Rotensande 1939

literature

• Paul Fleisch : The modern community movement in Germany. An attempt to portray and appreciate the same according to its origins , Leipzig 2nd edition 1906, 3rd edition 1912.
• Paul Fleisch: The tongue movement in Germany , Leipzig 3rd edition 1914.
• Ernestine von Trott zu Solz : Outside the usual. Life and work in Salem. Mission to stranded women and girls , Jesteburg 1967.
• Ludwig David Eisenlöffel: Free Church Pentecostal Movement in Germany. Interior views 1945–1985 , Göttingen 2006.
• Ruth Albrecht, Solveig Nebl: Emil Meyer and the beginning of the Pentecostal movement in Germany , in: Journal for Schleswig-Holstein Church History , Volume 2, 2015, pages 57–126.

Web links

• Evangelische Hochschule Tabor : The separation of the Pentecostal movement and the community movement ( online at eh-tabor )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Family tree of the Meyer family, privately owned, accessed on March 31, 2016.
2. ↑ Meyer, Lamm ... , p. 34.
3. ↑ Members of the Geldmacher family have been running the Homburg paper mill since 1806, making it one of the oldest in the Oberberg district . About the marriage of Emil Meyer and Ida, geb. Money makers, confusing information is available, they may have married twice, in 1900 and 1945, a date of the divorce is not known; see Albrecht and Nebl: Emil Meyer ... , p. 62 ff.
4. ↑ Luise Wilhelmine Charlotte Freifrau von Nettelbladt, b. von Bonin (1846–1933), widow of Friedrich von Nettelbladt
5. ↑ Annual report of the Christian Community Hamburg for 1900/1901. Mission among flotsam. Along with a review of the first 5 years of existence , p. 5.
6. ↑ Paul Fleisch: The modern community movement ... , 3rd ed. 1912, p. 176.
7. ↑ Meyer: Lamm ... , p. 55.
8. ↑ "Around 1900, in addition to the Lutheran parishes and free churches that had been based here for a long time, such as Methodists , Baptists , the Salvation Army and Moravians , there were many different groups that can be assigned to different wings of the revival, community and sanctification movement." Albrecht and Nebl: Emil Meyer… , p. 65. For these groups and their history in Hamburg, see Wolfgang Grünberg u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon of the Hamburg religious communities. Religious diversity in the city from A to Z , Hamburg 2nd edition 1995.
9. ^ Friedrich Sauerlandt (ed.), Guide through the Church of Hamburg , Hamburg 1903, p. 78 f.
10. ↑ It was above all the strong expectation of a new baptism of the Spirit in the community movement that opened the door to the Pentecostal movement in Germany . Some German representatives of the sanctification movement therefore traveled to Norway in 1907 to get their own picture of the new awakening, including Emil Meyer, the head of the Hamburg beach mission . He asked the two Norwegians Dagmar Gregersen and Agnes Telle to come to Germany. Their appearance led to occasional tongues in the beach mission and in a youth association . Emil Meyer then asked the evangelist Heinrich Dallmeyer to evangelize in Hamburg. There Dallmeyer came into contact with the Norwegians and began to work with them. From July 7th to August 2nd, 1907, Dallmeyer then evangelized with the Norwegians in the hall of the Kassel Blue Cross Association . At first, the news of the new movement was received with open hearts, especially in community circles. After the Blankenburg Alliance Conference separated itself from the new Kassel movement, the autumn of 1907 was marked by general confusion in the community movement. On the one hand - especially in the East - stood the enthusiastic supporters of the new movement, who were faced with a large group of rejecters, cautious and disappointed. (Evangelische Hochschule Tabor: The beginning of speaking in tongues in Germany online at eh-tabor ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this notice. )  
11. ↑ The information on Meyer's stay in the Johanneum and his assessment by the management there come from the director of the Johanneum Burkhard Weber, quoted in Albrecht and Nebl: Emil Meyer… , pp. 59–61.
12. ^ Letter of June 4, 1913 from Hamburg, Niedernstrasse 113/14, with the letterhead Mission under Stranded , head: Emil Meyer; Privately owned by the Meyer family, viewed on March 31, 2016.
13. ^ Family tree of the Meyer family, privately owned, accessed on March 31, 2016.
14. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ Quoted in Albrecht and Nebl: Emil Meyer ... , p. 109.
16. ↑ Ernestine von Trott zu Solz: Outside the usual ... , p. 57.
17. ↑ Albrecht and Nebl: Emil Meyer ... , p. 126.