Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann

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Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann

Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann (born October 23, 1799 in Hamburg , † February 21, 1882 in Berlin ) was a German engraver and later founder and pastor of the first Baptist congregation in Berlin. Along with Johann Gerhard Oncken and Julius Köbner, he is one of the founding fathers of the German Baptists .

Life

Lehmann was born in Hamburg , but grew up in Berlin , where his father Gottfried Arnold Lehmann (1766–1819) worked as an engraver from 1800. In the hope of being able to take over the business of his uncle, who was childless until then, he began an apprenticeship as a saddler in his workshop in Leer in East Frisia . During these years he made contact with a convent of young men and attended revitalizing meetings that were held in various private homes. In his notebook there are a number of names from the circle of friends and members of the Brethren, including that of the Moravian preacher Jakob Friedrich Plessing.

The hope of taking over his uncle's business was dashed for various reasons. Lehmann returned to Berlin and began an apprenticeship as a copperplate engraver and lithographer with Johann Gottfried Schadow at the Berlin Academy of the Arts in 1819 . His religious home was initially the Bohemian Lutheran congregation in the Bethlehem Church in Friedrichstadt in Berlin , of whose preacher Johannes Jaenicke he made a portrait engraving. Through his wife Maria Johanna Eleonora, née Eichner, whom he married on October 26, 1827, Lehmann got to know the Moravian Brethren , whose worship life also impressed him very much. He was active in various associations of the revival movement, including the main association founded by Samuel Elsner for Christian edification writings in the Prussian states and (as secretary) in the abstinence association headed by Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Kranichfeld .

On a trip to Leer in 1835 in Hamburg he met Johann Gerhard Oncken , who had just founded the first German Baptist church there. After intensive occupation with the Baptist understanding of baptism and the congregation , he invited Oncken to Berlin in 1837 and was baptized by him there on Pentecost Sunday. With some of those also baptized by Oncken, he founded the first Prussian Baptist congregation in Berlin and became its pastor and elder . For this he was ordained in England in 1840 . After initial difficulties with the authorities, his congregation was sponsored by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV from 1854 at the instigation of Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen , but was only able to acquire corporation rights in 1879.

Grave site in the Luisenstadt cemetery in Berlin-Kreuzberg

Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann died in 1882 and was given a grave of honor in the Luisenstadt I Evangelical Cemetery in Berlin-Kreuzberg . He had three daughters and four sons, including the theologian Joseph Lehmann .

meaning

Gottfried W. Lehmann brought pietistic piety to the still young German Baptist movement . Lehmann's influence on community life, songs and piety of the Baptists is still noticeable today. With his Lutheran conception of the sacrament , Lehmann could not prevail against the Calvinist Oncken. The foreign mission of the German Baptists also has its roots in Lehmann. However, Lehmann gained the greatest importance for the young free church because he stood up for the religious tolerance of his church at the highest level . It was not until 1875 that this was enshrined in law in Prussia . The first regional association of German Baptists - the “Prussian Association” - can also be traced back to Lehmann's work. This association, founded in 1848, became the model of the national Baptist Union founded in 1849 (today: Union of Evangelical Free Churches ).

In 1851 Lehmann founded the German branch of the Evangelical Alliance together with Pastor Eduard Kuntze .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jost Galle: Gottfried Arnold Lehmann . In: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland Vol. IV, Aurich 2007, pp. 279–281.
  2. ^ Hans Luckey: Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann and the emergence of a German free church , Kassel 1939, p. 12f.
  3. ↑ www.graphikportal.org .
  4. ↑ Hans Luckey: Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann and the emergence of a German free church , Kassel undated (1939?), P. 53
  5. ↑ Ulrich Schöntube: Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann. The emergence of the Baptist community in Berlin and religious freedom in Prussia. In: Yearbook for Berlin-Brandenburg Church History 70, 2015, pp. 159–178, here p. 165.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Schöntube: Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann. The emergence of the Baptist community in Berlin and religious freedom in Prussia. In: Yearbook for Berlin-Brandenburg Church History 70, 2015, pp. 159–178, here pp. 166–174.
  7. ↑ Directory of the graves of honor on the homepage of Stadtentwicklung Berlin  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed May 17, 2010@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de  
  8. ↑ Erich Beyreuther: The way of the Evangelical Alliance in Germany , Wuppertal 1969, p. 18 f.
personal data
SURNAME Lehmann, Gottfried Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engraver and theologian and one of the founding fathers of the German Baptists
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1799
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1882
Place of death Berlin