Hermann Dechent

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Honorary grave of Hermann Dechent in the Frankfurt main cemetery

Georg Jacob Friedrich Paulus Hermann Dechent (born September 15, 1850 in Westhofen , † November 19, 1935 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German Lutheran theologian and pastor.

Life

Dechent was born on September 15, 1850 in Westhofen as the son of pastor Johannes Dechent (1789–1873) and his wife Marie Wilhelmine. Kloß (1817–1901) was born. Since his wife was a daughter of the Frankfurt doctor and incunabula collector Georg Kloß , Johannes Dechent acquired citizenship of the Free City of Frankfurt upon marriage . In Marie Wilhelmine Kloß's family tree there are numerous long-established Frankfurt families, including Lindheimer , Steitz and Goethe .

Hermann Dechent attended elementary school in Westhofen from 1856 to 1859. From 1859 to 1863 he received private tuition from his parents before entering the lower secondary school of the Worms grammar school at Easter 1863. At the age of 16 he passed the school leaving examination there in 1866, but then attended the upper prima of the Frankfurt grammar school for a year in order to obtain a school leaving certificate that was also valid in Prussia. In 1868 he began studying theology in Heidelberg , and in 1869 he moved to Göttingen . There he was a member of the 1869 Schwarzenburg Bund - connection Burschenschaft Germania .

In autumn 1871 he passed his first theological exam in Frankfurt, in autumn 1872 the second. At Christmas 1872 he was ordained by Senior König and took up a position as a preacher at the supply house in Hammelsgasse. At the same time he served from September 1871 to the end of 1872 as private tutor of Freiherr von Leonhardi in Frankfurt, from 1873 to April 1875 in the house of the printing company owner August Osterrieth.

In 1873 he was at the University of Jena with a dissertation on Das I., II. And XI. Book of Sibylline Prophecies for Dr. phil. PhD.

On October 5, 1879, Dechent was elected pastor at the Paulskirche . In 1891 he moved to the Weißfrauenkirche because of vocal problems with the poor acoustics of the Paulskirche. In 1896 he initiated the establishment of a church building association. The Weißfrauenkirche, located in the western old town , had become much too small for the growing community in the newly created western districts of the Bahnhofsviertel and Gallus . First of all, an emergency church was built in Niddastraße, followed by the Friedenskirche in Gallus in 1909. In 1897 he became a member of the Frankfurt Debt Deputation, in 1906 a member of the royal consistory of the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt am Main .

In 1915 the theological faculty of the University of Marburg made him a doctor theologiae . On April 1, 1924, he retired after 52 years of service. He died on November 19, 1935 and was buried in the Frankfurt main cemetery. The grave on Gewann A is an honor grave . His estate is in the Institute for City History .

In addition to his work in the service of the Protestant Church, Dechent wrote numerous academic papers in the field of church history and literary studies, e. B. on Goethe research. Since 1879 he was a member of the board of the Frankfurt Association for History and Archeology , and since 1888 he has published the Frankfurt church calendar.

family

On September 17, 1878, Dechent married the Frankfurt bourgeois daughter Rosa Finger , who like him came from a long-established family. The Lindheimer, Textor, Staedel, Starck and Goethe were among their ancestors. He had three children with his wife:

  • Johanna (born July 2, 1879)
  • Caroline Helene (born July 2, 1883)
  • Friedrich Carl Ludwig (born June 9, 1885)

Works

Dechent issued around 4,000 publications in the course of his life. His most important work is the church history of Frankfurt am Main since the Reformation , published in two volumes in 1913 and 1921. The first volume covers the period from the Reformation to 1618, the second volume from 1618 to the First World War . Further works on Frankfurt church history are the 1885 history of the Dutch congregation of the Augsburg Confession , which was transplanted from Antwerp to Frankfurt am Main, and the 1892 Development of Church Life in Frankfurt am Main .

Among his literary-historical works are to be emphasized: Goethe's beautiful soul Susanna Katharina von Klettenberg (1896) and Pastor Passavant, a childhood friend of Goethe (1897).

In addition, he wrote a collection of aphorisms ( Was mich das Leben taught , 1927), numerous poems and several dramas ( Luthertage in Frankfurt am Main , a Reformation play from 1899; stage version by Turbo or the erring knight of the spirit ) and 18 articles for Allgemeine Deutsche Biography .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Hermann Dechent  - Sources and full texts

Individual references and sources

  1. ↑ Stadtblatt der Frankfurter Zeitung from September 15, 1935
  2. ^ Hermann Goebel (ed.): Directory of members of the Schwarzburgbund. 8th edition, Frankfurt am Main 1930, p. 60 No. 498.
personal data
SURNAME Dechent, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dechent, Georg Jacob Friedrich Paulus Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian and pastor
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Westhofen
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1935
Place of death Frankfurt am Main