Heinrich Bechtolsheimer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinrich Bechtolsheimer
Heinrich Bechtolsheimer, around 1915
Heinrich Bechtolsheimer's grave
Memorial plaque on the birthplace
Book by Heinrich Bechtolsheimer, 1926
Book by Heinrich Bechtolsheimer, new edition

Heinrich Bechtolsheimer (born October 29, 1868 in Wonsheim , † May 18, 1950 in Hanover ) was a Protestant pastor and local writer from Rheinhessen .

Life

Heinrich Bechtolsheimer was born as the son of a primary school teacher in Wonsheim, Rhineland-Hesse, and attended high school in Bad Kreuznach from the age of 12 . This city became his second home in his youth. Even as a senior prime minister, he tried his hand at writing and his articles appeared in the "Deutsche Zeitung" in Munich.

Bechtolsheimer studied Protestant theology in Giessen and received his first pastor's position in Lampertheim in 1894 . From 1899 to 1907 he worked as vicar of the rural community of Mainz, based in Mombach , which also included Gonsenheim .

From 1907 to 1938 Heinrich Bechtolsheimer was pastor of the Lukas parish in Gießen . He spent his old age with his daughter in Hanover. He died there in 1950, but was buried in the local Wonsheim cemetery as he wished.

Commemoration

In Wonsheim , where he was born, there is a “Friends of Heinrich Bechtolsheimer” that fosters the memory of the local poet and his work. There and in Mainz one street is named after him . In 2009, in memory of the important son of the community, the “Heinrich Bechtolsheimer plaque” was created in Wonsheim as an award for deserving citizens; there is a memorial plaque with a portrait relief on the house where he was born.

plant

Heinrich Bechtolsheimer was very interested in local history. He began his research as a schoolboy and never stopped doing it all his life. His brother Karl writes about him:

"... How was it? A high school student sneaks up to the old people under the linden tree or on the gate bench and gets reports from the father's days. He saw the old bricklayer Saß walking through the courtyard, the man who was a soldier under Napoleon I, leaning on his stick. His son Anton told the boy how his father once went to Lyon and further into Spain to fight. He won't leave old Dietrich Peter alone either. As a seven-year-old he lived through the year 1813; what he kept in his mind from that time he had to tell over and over again. A friend had old French purchase documents from great-grandfather's time, which were rummaged through, translated and interpreted. Research was carried out in other families, and in later years the study of literature and the holdings of the archives was added. And what he experiences and seen, all of this adds up above him to a picture of the time, which he describes to us in a plain, simple, true-to-life form. It is condensed into three volumes, "Between the Rhine and Donnerberg" , "The Hunger Year" and "Stories from the Palatinate and its Neighborhood" "

- Karl Bechtolsheimer about his brother Heinrich in the preface to “Between the Rhine and Donnersberg” , edition 1925

During his time at the Peace Church in Mainz , the two main works mentioned, “Between the Rhine and Donnersberg” (1903) and “The Year of Hunger” (1907) were created. They belong to the most beautiful historical stories that the Rhine-Hessian-Palatinate native poetry has produced. Both books are set in the early 19th century and deal with the Napoleonic period and the subsequent epoch in the Rhine-Hessian- Palatinate border area around Wonsheim and Niederhausen an der Appel . Pastor Bechtolsheimer describes in a lively and gripping manner the customs, life, joys and sorrows of the village population, embedded in the context of the exciting events of the day. The stories made the author known nationwide.

During the Giessen time, other, similar local poems were added, such as the volumes of short stories "Stories from the Palatinate and their Neighborhood" (1914) or "Wheat Ears, Rebenblatt und Tannenzapfen" (1926).

Heinrich Bechtolsheimer also wrote purely historical and theological works. He also left autobiographical records under the title “Memories of a Diaspora Pastor” . Almost all of Bechtolsheimer's works have seen multiple editions, some up to the most recent times.

Work overview

(Selection)

  • "Between the Rhine and Donnersberg" , 1903
  • “Rheinhessen under foreign rule” in memorial 38–54
  • "Rheinhessen at the time of French rule 1792-1814" , Worms 1905
  • "The Hunger Year" , 1907
  • "The misery of foreign rule: When Germany awoke" Pictures of life and time from the Wars of Liberation, Hamburg 1910
  • “Stories from the Palatinate and its Neighborhood” , 1914
  • "The province of Rheinhessen in the first two decades of its existence"
  • “Contributions to the history of Rhine Hesse. Festschrift of the province of Rheinhessen for the centenary 1816-1916 ” together with Julius Reinhard Dieterich and Kurt Strecker, Mainz 1916
  • "A loyal heart - a love story from the grand ducal Hessian village of Gonsenheim"
  • “Plow and Trumpet - The Fate of a Palatine Musician” , 1913
  • “Rhenish Land and Rhenish People” , 1926
  • "Wheat ear, vine leaf and pine cone" , 1926
  • "Memories of a Diaspora Pastor" , 1928
  • "Pastoral care in the industrial community"
  • “The voice of conscience - a crime story from old Kreuznach” , in Bad Kreuznacher Heimatblätter, 1985
  • “The village chronicle of Wonsheim” , in “100 Years of the Wonsheim Voluntary Fire Brigade ” , Wonsheim, 1991. pp. 47–62

literature

  • Christian-Erdmann Schott: The years 1848/49 in the work of the Mombach-Gonsenheim pastor Heinrich Bechtolsheimer (1868-1950) in Gonsenheimer Jahrbuch 1997
  • Christian-Erdmann Schott: On the 50th anniversary of the death of the Mombach-Gonsenheim diaspora pastor and local writer Heinrich Bechtolsheimer (1868 - 1950) in Gonsenheimer Jahrbuch 1999
  • Viktor Carl: "Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities" , Hennig Verlag Edenkoben, 2004, ISBN 3-9804668-5-X , page 44.
  • Ludwig Bamberger: "Life pictures of famous Rheinhessen personalities" ; in "The great Rheinhessenbuch" , Mannheim publishing house, 1967
  • Egon Busch: "Pastor and author of the" Hunger Year ", Heinrich Bechtolsheimer - A narrator of our region" , in Donnersberger Jahrbuch, 2003, pages 220–222
  • Anke Gersie: "A Rheinhesse heard with the heart - Heinrich Bechtolsheimer from Wonsheim left a picture of his homeland in his books" , in Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 2001, no. 43, p. 21
  • Volker Gallé : "The Donnersberg, the French and a novel -" Between the Rhine and Donnersberg "by Heinrich Bechtolsheimer" , in Heimatjahrbuch Alzey-Worms, 2004, pp. 237-238
  • Volker Gallé: "" The Hunger Year "- a local novel and its theory" , in Heimatjahrbuch Landkreis Alzey-Worms, 2007, pp. 231–237
  • Wolfgang Diehl: "Heinrich Bechtolsheimer - A love for home that has never been broken" , in "Alzeyer Geschichtsblätter" , Volume 37, 2008, pp. 127–132

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The history of Protestantism in Mainz. Festschrift for the 200th anniversary of the Evangelical Church Community in Mainz. November 20, 2002, archived from the original on April 19, 2006 ; Retrieved July 3, 2016 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bechtolsheimer, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor and local writer from Rheinhessen
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Wonsheim
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1950
Place of death Hanover