Georg August Ludwig Schmidtborn

Georg August Ludwig Schmidtborn (born May 2, 1798 in Wißmar ; † February 8, 1860 in Koblenz ) was a German Protestant pastor, superintendent in the parish of Wetzlar and most recently general superintendent of the Evangelical Church in the Rhine Province .

Life and education

Schmidtborn was born the son of the pastor of Wißmar, Johann Ludwig Gottfried Julius Schmidtborn (1765–1823), and his wife Wilhelmine Christine Philippine, née Kurz. The Schmidtborn pastors were civil servants especially in the neighboring Krofdorf . His father prepared him at home for admission to the Prima , which he then attended from 1813–1815 at the Pädagogium in Gießen. From 1815 he studied theology at the Ludwig University of Giessen . For the last semesters from 1817-1818 he studied in Jena, where he became a member of the original fraternity . He passed his first theological exam in 1818 before the consistory in Koblenz. He received his practical training from 1819 to 1820 at the Royal Preacher Seminar in Wittenberg , which was founded as a replacement for the university that had been relocated to Halle and which existed until 2002 as the Augusteum . In 1820 Schmidtborn became vicar in Lützellinden in the parish of Wetzlar; His ordination followed in 1821 . 1822-1827 he was pastor in Eckweiler in the synod Sobernheim, then until 1832 in Kirn . Here he made his first experiences as a pastor at a simultaneous church . Finally, from 1832 to 1851, he became a Lutheran pastor in the first of the two pastors and at the same time senior pastor and superintendent in Wetzlar, whose Wetzlar cathedral is still a simultaneous church today. In Eckweiler he married Katharina Auguste Friederike Lautenschläger from Schwetzingen (1806-1825), who died young. Shortly after her, their child also died. In Wetzlar Schmidtborn married Sophie Amalie Lydia Seidensticker (1806-1894) from Hermannstein in 1835 . From this marriage there were six children. In Wetzlar, which became part of Prussia in 1815 , he campaigned for the union of Lutheran and Reformed congregations desired by the government, which came about in 1833; the schools were merged a year later. 1835 was by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. the Rhenish-Westphalian church order introduced, which he was now responsible for implementing. His work in Wetzlar and in the church district was varied, among other things he campaigned for missions as President of the Biblical and Missionary Society, in 1845 the Wetzlar branch of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk was founded and the first deaconesses from Kaiserswerth came to Wetzlar. Schmidtborn also taught at the Wetzlar grammar school . In 1847 Schmidtborn was elected President of the newly established Provincial Synod, whose meetings he chaired until 1850. So it was not surprising that the king appointed him general superintendent in the Rhine province, seat of Koblenz, in 1851 , an office that he held until his sudden and early death.

Honors

In 1853 Schmidtborn received an honorary theological doctorate from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , in 1858 he was awarded the Prussian Red Eagle Order, second class.

literature

• Peter Kaupp (edit.): Stamm-Buch of the Jenaische Burschenschaft. The members of the original fraternity 1815-1819 (= treatises on student and higher education. Vol. 14). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-156-3 , p. 171.
• Frank Rudolph: 200 years of evangelical life. Wetzlar's church history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Tectum, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-9950-6 , pp. 510-512.

Web links

• Frank Rudolph: Schmidtborn at rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de (with picture)