Franz Ludwig Jörgens

Franz Ludwig Jörgens (born January 16, 1792 in Gütersloh ; † February 6, 1842 in Hermann (Missouri) ) was a German Protestant preacher and hymn poet. His song “Where does the soul find the home of peace” (1827) achieved particular fame.

Life

Born the son of an innkeeper and businessman, Jörgens first completed an apprenticeship in Bielefeld . 1815-17 he studied in Göttingen , 1817-18 in Berlin theology . Since he had "surrendered to an immoderate life" and had come into conflict with the authorities, he emigrated to North America in 1821 at the urging of his family , where he worked for ten years as a travel preacher and began to compose spiritual songs .

When he found himself exposed there, too, “which compromised his moral character in the strongest possible way”, Jörgens returned to Germany in 1831 and settled first in the Tecklenburg district and then in Wuppertal . Here he soon made a name for himself as a great revival preacher , who gathered numerous followers and admirers around him with his emotional and anecdotal rhetoric , which was trained on American Methodist models. Both Lutheran and Reformed pastors made their pulpits available to him; In 1832 and 1833 a part of the Lutheran congregation in Elberfeld tried twice to get him a permanent position as a third preacher, but in vain. During this time Jörgens also published his spiritual songs, composed in America and Germany, in two volumes under the title Times of Refreshment from the Face of the Lord .

Jörgens' time of success ended abruptly when his homosexuality became known: Young men came out with appropriate "revelations", possibly he was also "surprised by a heinous act". He immediately lost his following and left Wuppertal. He moved to Westphalia , where he again came into conflict with the law and was sentenced to several years in prison in Hamm in 1834 “for embezzling charitable gifts and immoral acts” .

After his release, Jörgens returned to America in 1838. In 1841 he found a job as a pastor in the city of Hermann (Missouri) , which had been founded a few years earlier, but fell "back into his old sins" and was tarred and feathered for it . In a forest six miles from town, he cut his wrists and was later found dead by a hunter.

Publications

• Times of refreshment from the face of the Lord. Songs written down in the years 1824–1831. Hassel, Barmen 1832. [140 pages, 52 songs]
  • 12 songs from it also in Albert Knapp : Evangelical song treasure for church and house. A collection of spiritual songs from all Christian centuries, collected and edited according to the needs of our time. 2 volumes. Cotta, Stuttgart / Tübingen 1837. (Digitized: No. 76 , 120 , 1727 , 1736 , 1834 , 1902 , 2069 , 2073 , 2219 , 2237 , 2254 , 2407 )
• Times of refreshment from the face of the Lord. Songs written down in the years 1824–1832. Second ribbon. Hassel, Elberfeld 1833. [136 pages, 56 songs]
• Report on the emergence and expansion of the temperance societies in North America. In: Der Menschenfreund 9 (1833), Heft 2, pp. 25-28. ( Digitized version )

"Where does the soul find the home of peace"

Jörgens' best-known song was published with the creation note " Montreal , May 27, 1827" in Volume 2 of his Times of Refreshment from the Face of the Lord (1833). Lyrically and melodically, it is based on the American Home, Sweet Home (1823) by John Howard Payne and Henry Rowley Bishop , whose concept of home is transferred to the afterlife:

   [1.] Where does the soul find the home of peace?
Who covers them with protective feathers?
Oh, does the world offer me no sanctuary
where sin cannot come, cannot contest?
No, no, no, no, it is not here:
the home of the soul is above in the light!

   2. Leave the earth to see
the home , the home of the soul, so wonderful, so beautiful!
Jerusalem above, built of gold,
is this the home of the soul, the bride?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, this alone
can only be the resting place and home of the soul.

   3. How blessed is the rest with Jesus in the light!
Death, sin and pain are not known there.
The rustling of the harps, the lovely sound,
greets the souls with sweet singing.
Rest, rest, rest, rest, heavenly rest
in the bosom of the mediator, I rush to you!

One contemporary reviewer praised Jörgens' songs as “the free, unaffected effusions of a pious soul in which the spirit of Jesus expresses itself as a living one”, another criticized them as “poetic inundation”; the song “Where does the soul find?” was not particularly emphasized by either of them.

After Jörgens' “Fall”, efforts were first made to erase the memory of him: “His poems were thrown into fire everywhere or became maculature ”. In the 1840s, however, “Where Finds the Soul” - the only one of his songs - regained increasing popularity; From the 1850s it was included in a number of hymn books, often without mentioning the author's name and with the addition of further stanzas of unknown origin.

Not least, its inclusion in the Reichs-Lieder , the high-circulation hymn book of the community movement , ensured that the song remained well known to this day ; here - as in several earlier prints - the first line has been slightly changed ("die Heimat, die Ruh"), and the original three stanzas have been supplemented by the following fourth:

4. In spite of all the confusion and lamentation here
, O my Savior, I am happy with you!
I am at home
with your people, but I stretch out with them upstairs.
Home, home, home, home, yes, oh, just home!
So come, O my Savior, and take me home!

In the 20th century the song was increasingly accused of sentimentality, especially by the regional church; wherever something of the author's life was known, it was occasionally rejected for this reason. The Frankfurt pastor Wilhelm Lueken described it in 1930 as a "questionable usury", "which must be ruthlessly exterminated"; Two years later, his Berlin colleague Curt Horn castigated it as “vile rubbish” and “lying mischief”, “of exactly the same sad character as his poet”. It was added to the hymn book of the Brethren Movement , the Small Collection of Spiritual Songs , in 1936, but removed again in 1959/61 because “the author of this song, which is beautiful in itself, led such an evil way of life in the last years of his life that he himself was ostracized and cast out by the world. Its end should have been accordingly. [...] It is therefore no longer available in new songbooks from other circles. "

Literature (chronological)

• Friedrich Engels : Letters from the Wuppertal. Written in March 1839. In: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Works. Volume 1. Dietz, Berlin / GDR 1976. pp. 413–432, here 419. ( online )
• F [riedrich] W [ilhelm] Krug: Critical history of Protestant-religious enthusiasm, sectarianism and the entire un- and anti-church innovation in the Grand Duchy of Berg, especially in the Wupperthale. Lectures. Friderichs, Elberfeld 1851. pp. 316–318, 324, 333. ( digitized version )
• M [ax] Goebel: On the history of the Rhenish church. (Hochmann, Dippel, Marsay, Jörgens, Tersteegen, Ronsdorf, Hasenkamp, ​​Lindl, Kohlbrügge, Buntenbecker). Literary advertisements. In: Monthly for the Protestant Church of the Rhine Province and Westphalia (1852), January to June, pp. 12–23, 49–72, here 18–20. ( Digitized version )
• Carl Pöls: The Lutheran Congregation in Elberfeld. A contribution to the history of the city of Elberfeld. According to archival files, taking into account all printed messages. Langewiesche, Elberfeld 1868. pp. 249f. ( Digitized version )
• Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher : A autobiography. Wiegandt and Grieben, Berlin 1869. pp. 101-104. ( Digitized version )
• [Paul] Eickhoff: [Jörgens and his song “Where does the soul find home?”] In: Blätter für Hymnologie 6 (1888), pp. 119f.
• W. Langewiesche: Answers from the history of literature. In: Deutsche Dichterhalle 2 (1873), pp. 117f., 131. ( digitized version )
• O [tto] Wetzstein: The Religious Poetry of the Germans in the 19th Century. A contribution to the literary history of modern times. Printing and publishing of the Barnewitzsche Hofbuchhandlung, Neustrelitz 1891. p. 308.
• [Wilhelm] Nelle: H. Meier and LB Gesenius, pastors at Dinker. A contribution to the Hymnology of County Mark. In: Yearbook of the Association for the Evangelical Church History of Grafschaft Mark 1 (1899), pp. 94–145, here 109. ( digitized version )
• Heinrich Zillen (ed.): Claus Harms' life in letters, mostly from himself (= writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History. I, 4). Cordes, Kiel 1909. pp. 292f.
• Carl E. Schneider: The German Church on the American Frontier. A Study in the Rise of Religion among the Germans of the West. Based on the History of the Evangelical Church Society of the West 1840–1866. Eden, St. Louis, MO 1939. pp. 37, 199. ( digitized version )
• Karl Goedeke : Outline of the history of German poetry from the sources. Second, completely revised edition. Edited by the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Central Institute for the History of Literature. Volume XVI, Delivery 1, by Herbert Jacob. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983. pp. 200-202. ( Digitized version )
• Rainer Witt: Jörgens, Franz Ludwig. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon . Justified and ed. by Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz, continued by Traugott Bautz. Volume 3. Bautz, Herzberg 1992. Sp. 138f .; online ( Memento from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).

Web links

• Friedrich (sic!) Ludwig Jörgens in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
• "Where does the soul find the home of peace" in the folk song archive
• "Where does the soul find the home of peace" on YouTube (sentence for male choir a cappella by Bernhard Hayo)

Remarks

1. ↑ The Lexicon of Westphalian Authors names Friedrich as the first name; the entries in the databases Germany Baptism, 1558-1898 , New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891 and New York, Index to Passenger Lists, 1820-1846 , however, consistently confirm the name Franz, who is also in Goedeke and BBKL place .
2. ↑ Eickhoff (1888), p. 120.
3. ↑ Krummacher (1869), p. 102; Emphasis in the original.
4. ↑ After a hint by Claus Harms, he worked mainly in the villages of Lotte , Leeden and Ledde ; see Zillen (1909), pp. 292f.
5. ↑ Engels (1839/1976), p. 419; Eickhoff (1888), p. 120.
6. ↑ Pöls (1868), p. 249f.
7. ↑ Krug (1851), p. 317 speaks of the "pagan vices of sodomite ".
8. ↑ Krummacher (1869), p. 102.
9. ↑ Langewiesche (1873), p. 117.
10. ↑ Wetzstein (1891), p. 308, note 1.
11. ↑ Goebel (1852), p. 18; the location of Hamm is also given in Engels (1839/1976), p. 419.
12. ↑ Eickhoff (1888), p. 120.
13. ↑ Schneider (1939), p. 199, note 13.
14. ↑ Eickhoff (1888), p. 120. As early as June 1841, the Lutheran Church newspaper ( St. Louis ) had warned against him; see Schneider (1939), p. 37, note 82.
15. ↑ Eickhoff (1888), p. 120 speaks differently of hanging.
16. ↑ Quoted from one of the earliest known reprints: Evangelical hymns, according to the old reading and singing style, with altar liturgies, alternating chants and a little confession and communion book , 6th edition, Verlag des Evangelische Bücherdepot, Darmstadt 1860, p. 123, no. 204. ( Digitized )
17. ↑ General Repertory for Theological Literature and Church Statistics 4 (1834), Volume 1, p. 8. ( digitized version )
18. ↑ CS in Theologisches Literaturblatt zur Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung (1834), Issue 95, Sp. 776. ( digitized version )
19. ↑ Krummacher (1869), p. 102f.
20. ↑ Friedrich Eickhoff calls it in 1863 a "song that has been sung far and wide for about twenty years" ( ecclesiastical lovely songs with tried and tested ways of singing and four-part piano accompaniment , Bertelsmann, Barmen ²1863, p. 55; digitized version ).
21. ↑ Langewiesche (1873), p. 118; Nelle (1899), p. 109.
22. ↑ So z. B. three more stanzas in Reisepsalter , 27th edition, Magazin der Bibelgesellschaft, Falkenhagen 1863, pp. 286f., No. 338 ( digitized ), or four more stanzas in Die Geistliche Viole, or a collection of witty songs for the use of the Evangelical Community and souls seeking salvation in general , 4th edition, self-published by Ev. Community, Nürtingen 1868, p. 591, no. 443 ( digitized version ).
23. ^ Reichs-Lieder , Gerhard Möbius Evangelischer Verlag, Neumünster 2007 (reprint from 1909), p. 283.
24. ^ Wilhelm Lueken: Zur Gesangbuchreform der Gegenwart , in: Theologische Rundschau NF 2 (1930), pp. 363–399, here 386.
25. ↑ Curt Horn: The new hymn book for Brandenburg-Pomerania , in: Monthly publication for worship and church art 37 (1932), pp. 209–217, here 212.
26. ↑ A conversation about the new songbook , in: The Message 105 (1964), volume 2, cover page III – IV, here IV.