Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz

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Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz (born May 6, 1831 in Moringen ; † August 25, 1903 ) was a German Lutheran theologian and from 1886 to 1903 General Superintendent of the General Diocese of Bremen-Verden .

Life

Hermann Steinmetz was born into a pastor's family that came from Waldeck . His father Rudolf Steinmetz had come to Hanover from there and in 1849, after various positions as parish pastor in the Kingdom of Hanover, became general superintendent of the General Diocese of Grubenhagen and in the Harz region . Hermann received his first school education from private tutors and from 1846 attended the high school in Clausthal, where he first lived in the house of his maternal grandfather, the Oberbergrate Christian Zimmermann. When his father took office in Clausthal in 1849, Hermann briefly moved back into his parents' house and passed his Abitur with distinction in the same year. Hermann Steinmetz studied theology in Göttingen with Lücke and Ehrenfeuchter and in Erlangen with Hofmann , Delitzsch and Thomasius . Through Delitzsch he seems to have developed a "great love" and mastery of the Hebrew language .

After completing his studies (Praevium) in 1852, he was a private tutor for the von Alten family for a few years and in 1855 received a main teaching position at the Alfeld seminary, which was granted to him on a permanent basis after he had passed the tentamen in 1856 . Transferred to Lüneburg as seminar inspector in 1859, he was transferred to Celle as a second deacon in 1860 and married a Deichmann from Lüneburg, with whom he had a son. Since Steinmetz had been pushed through from Hanover against the liberal preferred candidate of the Celle electoral body, he was met with suspicion, who, according to Rudolf Steinmetz, insisted on a "firm position on Scripture and the Confessions". In the Hanoverian catechism controversy (see Albert Lührs , Bremen-Verden ), Steinmetz took the side of the state authorities and thus acquired further enemies in Celle; Rudolf Steinmetz found, however, that the steadfastness and honesty of the conduct of office have increasingly drawn respect from more people. In the quarter of a century of his activity in Celle (later as first deacon) he set up the house " Siloam ", in which Bible lessons and children's services were held, the deaconesses received a station and young girls were trained.

Memorial for Hermann Steinmetz in Himmelpforten

In 1885 he was appointed general superintendent in Stade and took up his post on January 1, 1886 to “work in silence”. He campaigned for the Stade Preachers' Library and also set up children's services here, for which he wrote Christmas carols, and founded a “ rescue house ” in Himmelpforten for charitable purposes. Steinmetz is strongly "fused with his district"; the Geestemünder Provinzialzeitung wrote that he had "grown more and more into a patriarchal position". After the death of the general superintendent Karl Schünhoff in 1899, Steinmetz received the administration of the General Diocese of Harburg with transferred; With the reorganization of the structure in 1902, both merged into the new General Diocese of Stade.

Rudolf Steinmetz describes Hermann Steinmetz's sermons as "plain and simple"; "Everything made and artificial was alien to him". The obituary of the Geestemünder Provinzialzeitung describes a man of "almost too great [r] modesty ...; who did not attract attention and who hated praise ...; who did not know that 'from above' ”. In 1894 Steinmetz was awarded his doctorate by the theological faculty in Göttingen. In the middle of his work, Hermann Steinmetz died of a heart attack in August 1903.

Works (selection)

  • Hold what you have Sermon at the Reformation Festival in 1862 in the town church in Celle. Schulze'sche Buchhandlung, Celle 1862.
  • Lord show me your ways. Two conversations about marriage and marriage and indecency and separation. Hanover 1877.
  • On training and leading missionaries according to the principles of the Lutheran Church. Lecture at the Mission Conference in Hanover on October 14, 1884. Pockwitz, Stade [1884].

literature

  • Eberhard Nestle : death survey. In: Theological Annual Report. Vol. 23, 1903, No. 2, pp. 196-200, here p. 200 .
  • Wilhelm Rothert : General Hanoverian biography. Volume 1: Hanoverian men and women since 1866. Sponholtz, Hanover 1912, pp. 284–287.
  • Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134-145 (digitized version ) .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ 1786–1853, from Marburg, see Wilhelm Rothert : The leading officials of the mining town of Clausthal, from the earliest times to the present. Grosse, Clausthal 1898, p. 41 and p. 45 .
  2. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 136 .
  3. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 137 .
  4. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 144 .
  5. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 143 .
  6. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 139 f .
  7. ↑ Quoted from Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 140 .
  8. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 139 .
  9. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 140 f .
  10. ^ Rudolf Steinmetz: D. Hermann Christian Ludwig Steinmetz 1885 to 1902 (1903). In: ders .: The general superintendents in the duchies of Bremen-Verden. Bacheratz, Stade 1907, pp. 134–145, here p. 145 .
personal data
SURNAME Steinmetz, Hermann Christian Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinmetz, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lutheran theologian and general superintendent from Bremen-Verden
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Moringen
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1903