Ferdinand Huhold

Ferdinand Huhold (born September 29, 1802 in Heiligenthal ; † August 27, 1880 in Hausberge ) was a Lutheran theologian, parish priest and first superintendent of the church district Vlotho . He is the father of Marie Schmalenbach, who worked as a song poet and pastor's wife in Mennighüffen, and the father-in-law of the local pastor and revival preacher (and later superintendent of the Herford parish ) Theodor Schmalenbach .

origin

Huhold was born on September 29, 1802 in Heiligenthal, a village in the County of Mansfeld in the Prussian province of Saxony . His parents were the landowner and administrator Johann Gerhard Huhold and his wife Sophie née Lukas. After attending the Heiligenthal village school and the Latin school in Gerbstedt , Huhold moved to Halle (Saale) and attended the secondary school of the Francke Foundations there . The father died in 1820.

Fraternity members and prison inmates

In 1821 Huhold began studying Protestant theology in Halle and joined the Old Halleschen Burschenschaft / Allgemeine / Quellengesellschaft in 1821 and the Youth Union in 1823 . Since the fraternities in Prussia had become suspicious after the murder of the writer August von Kotzebue by the theology student and fraternity member Karl Ludwig Sand in 1819 and were banned, Ferdinand Huhold was arrested in January 1824 and after eight months of pre-trial detention in the city ​​district of Berlin and two more Years imprisonment in the fortress Wesel sentenced by the Prussian Higher Regional Court in Breslau to nine years imprisonment. After serving a third of his sentence, however, Huhold was pardoned and released from prison on January 1, 1828. Meanwhile his mother had died too.

Private tutor in Eckendorf and pastor in Holtrup

He first became a private tutor in the family of District Administrator Franz von Borries in Eckendorf in what is now Leopoldshöhe near Bielefeld. In 1829 and 1830 he was able to take the theological exams in Münster. Through the mediation of Mr. von Borries, Huhold was first sent to Holtrup in 1830 as an assistant preacher , then part of the Hausberge department in the Minden district. On Sunday, May 1st, 1831, he was ordained in Holtrup and at the same time introduced as the pastor there. He stayed there until 1840.

Ferdinand Huhold married Christiane Wilhelmine Bartholly from Hausberge on April 26, 1832 in Minden . In the first four years of their marriage, the Huhold couple had four children in Holtrup, three of which had died again by September 1837. The only remaining child, the daughter Marie Emilie Huhold, born on June 23, 1835 in the parsonage in Holtrup, the pastor's wife and song poet Marie Schmalenbach, who later worked in Mennighüffen , was already critically ill several times.

Pastor Huhold's spiritual and theological attitude changed during his time in Holtrup. From a strong proponent of rationalism he turned into a theologian who increasingly emphasized the traditional Lutheran creed and the resoluteness of faith. This change can be seen not least in his changed attitude towards the Minden hymn book, which was shaped by rationalism, as well as in the different importance that he accorded classical literature to the Holy Scriptures in the course of his life.

Superintendent of the church district Vlotho, pastor in Vlotho and Hausberge

On October 6, 1840, Ferdinand Huhold was elected the first superintendent of the newly formed church district Vlotho (from parts of the church districts of Minden and Herford) . With the assumption of the office of superintendent in 1841, the change to the pastoral position of the Evangelical Lutheran parish Vlotho -St. Stephan connected. Five years later he took over the pastor's position in Hausberge, which he held for 34 years before he died there on August 27, 1880.

In the early days of his office as superintendent, the dispute with the Holzhauser pastor Dr. Karl August Schrader , who in April 1846 published a book entitled “The Antipietist or Defense of Reasonable Christianity Against the Pietist Attacks”. Based on human reason, essential parts of the traditional teaching of the Evangelical Church, such as that of the Trinity, the sons of God of Jesus Christ and justification, are disputed in this writing. Huhold immediately took decisive action against Schrader and, in November 1846, brought about a resolution by the Vlotho District Synod, in which the publication of the said publication was described as incompatible with the official duties of a Protestant clergyman.

However, at the same district synod, Huhold failed with the second, more far-reaching resolution proposal to apply to the responsible consistory in Münster, disciplinary against Dr. Schrader proceed. As a consequence of these events it may be seen that Huhold temporarily ceased to hold the office of superintendent since 1849. Only from 1854 until his death did Huhold hold this office again.

As superintendent, he was also an ex officio member of the Westphalian Provincial Synod. In particular, he worked on their hymn book commission, which was responsible for revising the Minden-Ravensberger hymn book, which was committed to the awakening movement .

literature

• Theodor Schmalenbach: Superintendent Huhold in Hausberge [obituary], in: Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung, Berlin 1880, No. 38, Sp. 740–735.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bauks: The Protestant pastors in Westphalia from the Reformation period to 1945 , in: Contributions to the Westphalian Church History , Vol. 4, Bielefeld 1980.
• Karl August Schrader: The antipietist or defense of rational Christianity against the pietistic attacks , Holzhausen 1846.
• Thomas Ijewski: 200 years of Ferdinand Huhold , unpublished manuscript of a lecture, 2002.
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 2: F-H. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0809-X , pp. 411-412.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} F. W. Bauks: The Protestant pastors in Westphalia from the Reformation period to 1945 , Bielefeld 1980, p. 228.
2. ↑ Th. Schmalenbach: Superintendent Huhold in Hausberge , Sp 741.
3. ↑ Th. Schmalenbach: Superintendent Huhold in Hausberge , Sp. 742f.
4. ↑ Th. Schmalenbach, Superintendent Huhold in Hausberge , Col. 743, gives an "illness" as the reason for the interruption in office.