Gerrit Roosen

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Gerrit Roosen 1705

Gerrit Roosen (born March 8, 1612 in Altona ; † November 20, 1711 in Hamburg ) was an important deacon and preacher of the Mennonite community in Altona and a Hamburg merchant.

Life

Gerrit Roosen was the son of the Mennonite deacon and tannery owner Paul Roosen (1582–1649) and Hannchen Quinns (1591–1663). His grandfather was Cord Roosen, who is considered the progenitor of the Roosen family. He was born in Kassenbrook in the Duchy of Jülich in 1495 , was a powder maker and also a mennonite. He died in 1553 in Steinrade near Lübeck . The family became one of the most influential Mennonite merchant families in Hamburg until the 19th century . His descendants include Rudolph Roosen , Salomon Roosen, Berend I Roosen and Berend III Roosen, all of whom were among the largest shipowners and merchants in Hamburg and also played a major role in the Mennonite community of Altonas .

In 1628 Gerrit Roosen moved to Michaelisstraße in Hamburg and on August 28, 1640 married Maria Amourn, daughter of the merchant Hans Amourn and Elisabeth Stockmann from Hamburg, with whom he had been an apprentice in his grocery store from 1628 to 1636. His wife Maria Amourn was born on September 25, 1622 and died on September 6, 1695. In 1641, he and his wife moved into their own household on Böhmkenstrasse in Hamburg.

From 1636 Gerrit Roosen started a hosiery business , which expanded to such an extent that the Hamburg hosiery makers kept three roses in their guild emblem from then on.

plant

After the death of his father Paul, the oldest deacon of the Mennonite congregation, Gerrit was elected as his successor in 1649. He held this office until 1659 and on the one hand preserved the division of the community through his wisdom and at the same time mildness and the influence of the Quakers . In 1660 Gerrit Roosen was appointed preacher. In the first three years in half service - on April 8, 1660 he was appointed teacher - from July 6, 1666 in full service.

As a preacher who delivered over 700 sermons, Gerrit Roosen had a major impact on the growth and unity of the Mennonite church. Due to his lively correspondence and his travels to other communities (for example in 1676 to Prussia and Poland; 1660, 1665, 1670, 1673 in the Netherlands), his influence expanded very far. Throughout his life he created a number of written documents that are still significant today for the Mennonites as well as for the city of Hamburg. Between 1650 and 1699, Gerrit Roosen very conscientiously maintained a new membership book for the community until shortly before his death. Based on this membership book, the development of the early Mennonites in Hamburg and Altona can be traced.

Due to skillful merchant activities and the merger of Mennonite shipowners initiated by him and joint contributions to the community, land was acquired near the Nikolaikirche and St. Michaelis and the first Mennonite church was built on the Große Freiheit in Altona (destroyed in the Swedish fire in 1813) . In 1668 he also donated the first tower of St. Michaelis Church in Hamburg . Members of the Roosen family followed suit twice.

In his funeral speech, Gerhard Karsdorp said of him: “We can regard him as the founder of the good order that can be found in the household of the community. Never before had baptism and the Lord's Supper been served so regularly and so eloquently as through him. (...) He acted very moderately in the case of divisions within the congregation as well as in his extensive correspondence with foreign congregations, and when you asked the latter for advice, he recommended the least amount of measures he presented them to the community, the for and the Dawider very carefully. "

He died sprightly and in full possession of his mental faculties at the old age of 99 years of blood poisoning which he contracted while chopping wood.

His last motto to the community was: "Everyone weed his yard and I mine mine, so the weeds will soon no longer appear."

family

Gerrit Roosen had ten children: Paul Roosen (1642–1708); Elisabeth Roosen (1648-1731); Hans Roosen (1649–1706), preacher and deacon; Maria Roosen (1653-1745); Sara Roosen (1655-1723); Johanna Roosen (1658-1693); Esther Roosen (1661–1745), married to Carl de Vlieger, one of the largest Hamburg shipowners. Three children died in childbed.

Fonts

  • 1659 written report on some particular points of the English, which are also called Quakers
  • 1680/81 description of the fate of the Thirty Years' War
  • 1683 Notes from the gender book
  • 1683 History of the war experiences of his time
  • 1692 innocence
  • 1692 writing about more functional tiled stoves
  • 1702 innocence and counter-report of the evangelical baptismal Christians, so called Mennonites
  • 1702 Christian conversation about the spiritual and saving faith
  • 1710 The fear of God

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Roosen, Gerrit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hamburg merchant and preacher of the Mennonite congregation in Altona
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1612
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1711
Place of death Hamburg