Hans Tonnesen

Hans Tonnesen (born January 1, 1854 in Bastrup; † March 25, 1935 in Sonderburg ) was a German pastor.

Origin and education

Hans Tonnesen was a son of the farmer Tonnes Tonnesen (1818-1899) and his wife Kjestine, née Hørlyck (born January 28, 1823 in Bastrup; 1910 in Hoptrup). Her father Hans Hørlyck (1780-1851) was a Bastrup farmer.

Tonsen's father was considered to be German-minded and, after the Peace of Vienna, criticized the associated new border line and the resulting cession of eight parishes from the Duchy of Schleswig , which were incorporated into the Kingdom of Denmark . In the spring of 1865 he therefore gave his court, which was located in one of the parishes affected, to his Danish-minded brother. In exchange, he received his farm in Rödding , Schleswig , where Tonnesen moved in 1865. He lived in a home German household where Platt Danish was spoken. His parents lived in the spirit of the pietistic Herrnhut Brethren in Christiansfeld .

In Rödding, Tonnesen met Pastor Hans Sveistrup and received Bible lessons in the first Danish bed. Thus he dealt for the first time with Christianity in the sense of Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig . From 1868 to 1874 he attended the Johanneum von Hadersleben , whose rector Peter Hinrich Jessen encouraged him to study theology. Tonnesen studied at the universities in Leipzig and Erlangen and passed the exam in Kiel in 1878. During his studies his teacher Franz Hermann Reinhold had a lasting influence on Frank Tonsen's theological orientation. He was considered a conservative Lutheran who was influenced by Pietism and Grundtvig. He himself said that for a long time he did not want to fully join Grundtvig because he shared subjective, individualistic aspects of Søren Kierkegaard's religious considerations , which he had studied at an early age.

First positions as pastor

In 1879 Tonnesen studied at the preacher's seminary in Hadersleben. The following year he completed a year of military service in Aabenraa. During this time he got to know the deacon Theodor Kaftan better. In 1880 he took over his position in church service and quickly found a loyal congregation consisting of Germans and Danes. From 1883 he published the edification sheet “Sædekornet” (The Seed), initially every two weeks. In 1895 he changed it to a weekly rhythm. He edited the paper himself, which within a short time found readers all over North Schleswig, until 1920.

In November 1886, Tonnesen and four other pastors and two lay people called the "Church Association for Indre Mission in North Schleswig" (Kirkelig Forening for Indre Mission in North Schleswig) into being. The association was supposed to create the basis for a revival movement adopted by lay preachers in Denmark. Tonnesen initially took on the duties of secretary and in 1907 its chairmanship. His "Sædekorn" served as an organ of the association and in 1911 went to the association. Tonnesen was the driving force behind the association's activities and strictly adhered to its purely Lutheran teaching. He chose Emil Wacker as the authoritative advisor on theological issues .

The fact that Tönnesen's association work was carried out with the help of lay preachers caused regular conflicts with pastors until around 1900. In addition, Kaftan in his new position as general superintendent only accepted the work of the association as long as the pastors of the parishes agreed. Initially, the Indre Mission did not take any political positions and only wanted to deal with the souls of the faithful. The Prussian rulers therefore showed goodwill towards the work of the association; the Danish public, however, saw in the association a weakening of their national unity. Tönnesen's association established itself successfully throughout Schleswig and made him a well-known and popular person.

Political Conflict

From around 1905 Tonnesen worked with pastors of a younger generation such as his own son Johannes Tonnesen . This led to the fact that he also took up the content of a more modern theology and, for example , dispensed with verbal inspiration . At the same time he considered Grundtvig's ideas about the interaction of people and religion to be increasingly important. Wilhelm Beck, who led the Danish Indre Mission and who had inspired Tonnesen when it was founded in North Schleswig, now developed into Tonnesen's role model. He considered it to be Beck's most important achievement that he had combined the subjective aspects of Kierkegaard with Grundtvig's socio-ethical thoughts and that he could implement them in the daily work of the awakening movement. Therefore, Christianity, folk life, culture and national feeling are inseparably united in the Danish Church.

Tonnesen now campaigned to preserve and strengthen the folklore of the Danish North Schleswig region. In 1909, the newspaper Die Christliche Welt put the anti-Danish actions of the Prussian government in North Schleswig at the center of publicly aggressive discussions.

In 1914, complaints about Tonnesen, North Schleswig pastors and caftans were repeatedly discussed in the Prussian state parliament, which would not have sufficiently opposed the Danish-minded people. Tonnesen was banned from speaking in meeting houses and preferred Danish-language church services that were very well attended to poorly attended German-language masses on Sunday mornings. For this reason, the Kiel consistory started disciplinary proceedings against Tonnesen in the spring of 1914. Another reason for this was probably an invitation he had issued to a meeting in the Hoptrup church. At this meeting, the participants rejected the wish of German-minded people to build a memorial in front of the church to commemorate the battles at Hoptrup from the years 1848-1850 and 1864. The parishioners contradicted the request out of concern for the peace of the church. The trial ended after the outbreak of the First World War .

The national conflicts in the region came to a head during the war to such an extent that Tonnesen could no longer mediate. The Danish-minded members of the Indre Mission saw in him a home German and thus an opponent. It was increasingly marginalized and during this time concentrated on pamphlets and circulars for soldiers in Northern Schleswig.

After the First World War

In 1918/19 Tonnesen worked in a church committee set up by the North Schleswig voters' association, which was supposed to deal with problems that the merger of the churches of North Schleswig and Denmark could cause. He participated, albeit not in a significant role, in a corresponding committee of the Folketing , which prepared the legal framework under the title "Det kirkelige Udvalg".

With the cession of North Schleswig to Denmark in 1920, the North Schleswig Indre Mission became part of the Danish organization. Tonnesen was as good as not included. The Hoptrup congregation confirmed him in the pastor's office, which he held until his retirement in 1927. He then spent a few years with his son Johannes in Rendsburg . In 1932 he moved to Sonderburg, where he lived completely withdrawn and died.

family

On December 1, 1880, Tonnesen married Meta Christine Burmeister in Aabenraa (* December 16, 1860 in Hadersleben; † January 1, 1903 in Hoptrup). She was a daughter of the master baker Hans Jacob Burmeister (1794–1866) and his second wife Berta Maria Julius (1824–1903).

The Tonnesen couple had five children.

The Royal Library in Copenhagen owns portrait photos .

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Tonnesen, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 346-350.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Tonnesen, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 346.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Dieter Lohmeier: Tonnesen, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 347.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dieter Lohmeier: Tonnesen, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , page 348.
4. ↑ Figure