Friedrich Heinrich Otto Melle

Friedrich Heinrich Otto Melle (born August 16, 1875 in Liebengrün , Province of Saxony , † March 26, 1947 in Berlin ) was a German Methodist bishop .

Life

Melle was the son of the farmer Heinrich Friedrich Melle and his wife Wilhelmine Karoline geb. Krauße. From 1900 he worked as a missionary in Hungary and later became superintendent in Vienna . In 1920 he was elected director of the Methodist seminary in Frankfurt am Main . In 1936, when the German Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church , headed by the US Bishop John Louis Nuelsen , who was based in Zurich, was given the right to elect a bishop from its own ranks for the first time, she elected Melle, who continued to serve in Frankfurt. He also remained in this office when the Methodist Episcopal Church merged with the Methodist Protestant Church to form the Methodist Church in 1939 . In 1946 he retired. His successor was Johann Wilhelm Ernst Sommer .

Melle was ecumenically engaged, especially in the Evangelical Alliance and the Christian World Student Union . He served as president of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches for several years. In 1937 he was the only German delegate to the World Ecumenical Conference on Practical Christianity in Oxford, along with the Baptist Paul Schmidt . There he defended National Socialist politics in a plenary speech , which led to a deep rift with the Confessing Church and later also put a strain on the relationship between regional and free churches.

See also

• Free churches in the time of National Socialism

Fonts

• The rule of God in German Methodism. Bremen: bookstore u. Verl. D. Tract house 1925
• The German Free Church and its mission: Lecture, go to d. Conference d. Main Committee Evang. Free churches in Kassel on October 16, 1928. Bremen: Verlagshaus d. Methodist Church [Buchh. u. Publishing house d. Tract House] 1928
• A picture of life - dedicated to his students and friends . Bremen around 1930
• The struggle of the German people for freedom and justice and the Christians of America. Kassel: Christl. Traktatges. [Publishing house d. German Baptists] 1932 (Friedensbotenheft No. 83)
• (Ed.): 50 Years of the Blankenburg Conference: Festschrift. Bad Blankenburg: Buchdr. u. Verl. "Harp" 1936
• German Methodism and the New Era: [Opening speech to d. Central Conference d. Bishop Methodist Church in Germany, 8.-11. Oct. 1940]. As. Ms. gedr., Bremen: Anker-Verlag 1940
• Footprints of God in my life. Memoirs of life 1875-1936 , ed. by Klaus Schneider. Self-published, Rübgarten 2005.

literature

• Karl Heinz Voigt :  Melle, Friedrich Heinrich Otto. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1226-1229.
• Karl Heinz Voigt: Ecumenism in Germany: From the founding of the ACK to the Charta Oecumenica (1948–2001) , Volume 65 of Church - Confession - Religion, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-847004-17-2

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich Heinrich Otto Melle in the catalog of the German National Library
• Discussion: Free churches under National Socialism on the website fundamentalismusdebatte.de