Ferdinand Brockes

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Ferdinand Brockes (born July 10, 1867 in Orle , Berent district , West Prussia ; † April 3, 1927 in Oschersleben ) was a German Protestant clergyman and author. His travel report Across Asia Minor from 1900 is an important source on the situation of the Armenians between the massacre of the Armenians in 1894–1896 and the genocide of the Armenians in 1915.

Life

Ferdinand Brockes was the son of the owner of the Orle manor. In 1869 the family moved to Dresden, then to Berlin, where he was confirmed by Karl Büchsel . From autumn 1885 he studied Protestant theology at the University of Berlin . During his student days he was shaped by the community movement . He was involved in a student department of the Christian Association of Young Men and was one of the founding members of the German Christian Student Association .

From 1895 he was pastor in Prittag, district of Grünberg i. Schles. in Silesia (now part of Gmina Zabór ). A youth group of determined Christians emerged from his confirmation classes . In 1896 he was elected chairman of the German association at the annual meeting of the German groups of the Youth Association for Decisive Christianity (EC ) in Berlin.

In the same year, at the suggestion of Ernst Lohmann, in response to the massacre of the Armenians in 1894–1896, the German Aid Association for Christian Love in the Orient . In April 1897 Brockes took over the management of the orphanage established by the Aid Association in the Istanbul suburb of Bebek . In the winter of 1898/99 he went on an inspection trip with Ernst Lohmann to the other institutions of German aid organizations. It first took him by ship from Constantinople to Smyrna ( Izmir ), then overland to Mersin , Tarsus , Adana , Sis ( Kozan (Adana) ), Hajin ( Saimbeyli ), Marasch ( Kahramanmaraş ) and Zeitun ( Süleymanlı ). Aintab ( Gaziantep ) and Urfa followed ; then it went to Mesereh ( Elazığ ) and through Cappadocia to Sivas and from there via Amasya to the coast and back to Constantinople. In a speech he gave in Zeitun, he used the word redeem , which was understood by the Turkish policemen present as liberating the Turkish equivalent (the Armenians from Turkish rule) and thus inciting rioting. There was diplomatic intervention; the Hohe Pforte demanded his recall from the German government, and Brockes was effectively expelled from the Ottoman Empire. He published his travel reports in the conservative Berlin newspaper Der Reichsbote and in 1900 in book form. The reports and illustrations give an insight into the world of the Armenian population group who perished in 1915.

Brockes returned to Germany, then went to Stuttgart and worked here as Christian Dietrich's assistant for the Old Pietist Community Association . Together with Dietrich he published the first documentation about the private building communities within the Protestant churches in Germany .

In 1902 he received a call to the deaconess mother house in Bern , where he stayed until 1905. On July 1, 1905, he was appointed pastor to Graefenhainichen by the Prussian Evangelical High Church Council. Here he had the Paul Gerhardt House built in 1907 for Paul Gerhardt's 300th birthday .

From Graefenhainichen he became superintendent in Oschersleben an der Bode.

Since 1897 he was married to Olga, b. Ledoux. The couple had eight children.

In addition to his travelogue and lectures, he published a historical novel Cajus von Derbe, the companion of Paul , which reached several editions, in 1913 , and in 1923 an equally well-read future novel The Lords of the Earth.

Fonts

  • Negotiations of the Easter conference at Nakel 1894 , 48f .; Conversion and rebirth according to the Scriptures, lecture at the Gnadenberg Community Conference, 1895, 18962;
  • Across Asia Minor. Pictures from a winter trip through the Armenian emergency area. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann 1900
Digitized at Hathi Trust, viewable with US proxy
  • with Christian Dietrich: The private building communities within the Protestant churches in Germany. 1903
  • The legacy of the Reformation and the modern ecclesiastical turmoil. (Talk) 1911
  • Cajus von Derbe, the companion of Paul. A picture of fighting and becoming in the oldest Christianity. 1913
eight editions by 1923
  • The preaching of guilt and atonement for the people of our time. Lecture. 1914
  • In the last hour. A reminder to all who love our church and our people. 1917
  • The second coming of Christ in its significance for the church of God and for humanity. 1922
  • The masters of the earth. A tale of days to come. 1923/1925
  • All of Christ for our youth. Lecture, 1924
  • The Acts of the Apostles of Luke. With text illustrations by Sigmund von Sallwürk and a foreword by Otto Borchert, 1925
  • Regional churches and communities in their responsibility for one another. 1927

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Brockes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Feigel: The Protestant Germany and Armenia: the Armenian aid of German Protestant Christians since the end of the 19th century in the context of German-Turkish relations. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1989 (Church and Denomination 28) ISBN 9783525565315 , p. 71ff
  2. ↑ See also Axel Meißner: Martin Rades "Christian World" and Armenia: Building blocks for an international ethics of Protestantism. (Studies on Oriental Church History 22) Münster: LIT 2010 ISBN 9783825862817 , p. 314f.
personal data
SURNAME Brockes, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German evangelical clergyman and author
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Orle , Berent district , West Prussia
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1927
Place of death Oschersleben