Hermann Garlichs

Hermann Garlichs

Hermann Garlichs (born January 31, 1807 in Bremen , † June 24, 1865 in Brooklyn ) was a German theologian , founder of the first Protestant congregations west of the Mississippi and President of the "German-Evangelical Church Association of the West" of the USA . He was married to Adelheid von Borries . The life of the couple became the subject of emigrant research . In Anglo-Saxon literature, his name is occasionally changed to Herman Garlichs (also Garlich).

Origin and youth

Garlichs came from a family that was mainly based in Oldenburg and Jeverland . He grew up in Bremen in a wealthy Protestant family . Gerhard Christian Garlich's father (1778–1830) was a businessman and was known for having a deeply religious and classical education. The mother Jnsea Katharina Elise Lambertz (1782–1816) came from a respected Oldenburg family. Hermann had two sisters, including Emma Caroline Garlichs, married Eggers, who later became known as Clara Schumann's friend and to whom Clara dedicated the “valses romantiques pour le pianoforte” (op. 4, 1835). The Schumann couple made frequent visits to both the Garlichs and Eggers families, both families were known for owning important art collections.

Training and emigration

Garlichs learned several languages ​​and to play the violin and studied philosophy for four years at the universities of Göttingen , Bonn , Leipzig and Münster , received his doctorate in philosophy and accepted a position as an educator at the Steinlake manor of district administrator CL Philipp von Borries. There he fell in love with the daughter of the house, Adelheid von Borries (born June 12, 1815 Gut Steinlake, † April 21, 1873 Hanover ). Probably mainly because of her young age, he emigrated to the USA in 1833, initially without her, but with Meller and Westerkappelner emigrants. Inspired by Gottfried Duden's very well-known accounts of the good conditions in Missouri , the group settled there. A descendant of these emigrants from 1833 later describes the costs and circumstances of traveling across the Atlantic at that time, the establishment of an existence in the USA and the "vigorous pastor Hermann Garlichs"

Foundation of German Protestant congregations in Missouri

Before his ordination , Garlichs founded the first Protestant congregations west of the Mississippi in the small towns of Femme Osage and St. Charles in 1833, before his ordination . In 1835 he returned to Westphalia, married Adelheid von Borries, was ordained a pastor in Bielefeld and traveled back to Femme Osage with his wife. At first, like the other settlers, the couple lived under very modest circumstances in a wooden hut five miles from the nearest town, Femme Osage. Garlichs described:

"We arrived in the middle of the unusually harsh winter from 1835 to 1836 and moved into the log cabin, which stood on the property I had bought earlier, but which did so little in keeping with its purpose of protecting against the cold that on some days, Despite all the heating, the air could not even be warmed up to the zero point Reaumur [0 degrees Celsius]. "

In addition, there were still Indians in this area outside of reservations , who had largely not yet been missionized . Garlichs and the other settlers had actually settled in the Wild West . It was not until mid-1837 that Garlichs had a stone parsonage built next to the Femme Osage church at his own expense. It has been preserved, is traditionally valued there and is considered an example of the architecture of German immigrants in Missouri.

In addition to St. Charles and the Peace Church (1834), Garlichs founded and looked after numerous other parishes from Femme Osage, for example in Holstein (Immanuel Church, 1839), Warrenton (Harmonie Church, 1842), Washington (St. Peter, 1844) and Schluersburg (Bethanien, 1884). Because of the great distances alone, this work was very time-consuming. At his request he was therefore temporarily supported by assistants, including those whom his friend Johann Hinrich Wichern from the Rauhe Haus lent him.

Dealing with other faiths

Garlichs was influenced by the Uniate Prussian state church. Like the Germans who emigrated from rural areas, he represented a more conservative interpretation of the Bible , which in today's USA would be called " evangelical ". He stood in contrast to other German-speaking immigrants of his time who were Reformed Protestants, but above all to those who had "liberal" religious views and such as Pastor Friedrich Münch from Dutzow and others from urban communities such as Berlin , Gießen , Barmen and Basel saw the Trinity merely as a concept, not as a literal dogma and called themselves “ free thinkers ”, “ rationalists ” or “ enlightened people ”. Some of these immigrants also held deist views and declared Christian views to be superstitions . There were lively disputes between these directions, including a change of denomination. Ultimately, however, Garlichs succeeded in enforcing his religious views in the communities he was in charge of. From 1839 he supported him in femme Osage Kasper Bode , who was ordained by Garlichs in 1845 and was his successor from 1846. Today a plaque in front of the church of Femme Osage (rebuilt in 1888) commemorates Garlichs and his successor Bode:

“Church of Femme Osage - First German Protestant congregation west of the Mississippi. Founded in 1833 by Pastor Hermann Garlichs from Bremen, Germany. His successor for over 45 years in office was Pastor Kasper Bode "

German Evangelical Church Association of the West

In an effort to bring together Protestant believers in the German language regardless of their orientation, the "German Evangelical Church Association of the West" was founded in St. Louis in 1840 . Garlichs became his secretary, then his president until 1846 and thus determined the development of the German-speaking Protestant communities far beyond Missouri. One year after the death of Garlichs, the church association went together with other Protestant denominations of German immigrants in the "German Evangelical Synod of the West", which since 1929 on the name "German" (German) in their Name omitted.

Financial and health exhaustion

Garlichs justified that he left Missouri in 1846 with two circumstances: On the one hand, as is customary in American congregations, he was dependent on donations from local believers for maintenance:

“The (sic) salary that I received, which had to be raised entirely from voluntary contributions, was literally nothing in the first few years, but it did not rise to 200 dollars from all the congregations together, most of which were still in kind came in, and mostly stayed below it, so that I regularly added very significantly every year from my own property to a family which gradually increased to five children, and to the various demands of a different kind that my situation brought with it. "

The “claims” paid by the Garlichs themselves not only included the construction of the rectory, but also, in part, the construction of the stone church in Femme Osage and its organ. It is true that Garlichs had emigrated to America in 1833 with considerable wealth of his own and had repeatedly received donations from Germany, for example after the auction of the collection of paintings from his father's estate. In the end, however, his resources were exhausted.

On the other hand, his health required a change of activity. Since 1833 he has looked after several widely separated communities:

“At that time I had no fewer than four, but for a considerable time, five different congregations to look after, which, at least in part, were far apart. Especially in the unhealthy time when most of the sick visits had to be made, I had to walk miles and miles almost every day; once, by the way, forty English Miles to see a sick man. During the church festivals I often preached as many sermons as there were days in the week, always going from one congregation to another. But every Sunday, year out of the year, regularly two, in different places, so that I had to spend half the day on horseback. "

Above all, these constant journeys as a “circuit pastor” led increasingly to the Garlichs' physical exhaustion.

Move to Brooklyn

Garlichs therefore ended his work in Missouri in 1846 when he had found a good successor in Bode, traveled with his family to Germany and in 1847 accepted the offer of the better paid and less healthily stressful successor to a pastor in Brooklyn. For the return trip to America he had to claim the result of an appeal for donations by the Elberfeld community . From Brooklyn, he continued to influence the Protestant German-speaking congregations on the east coast of the United States. He was co-editor and editor of the magazine The American Ambassador , which belonged to one of the pietistic treatise societies that were supported at the time by institutions and persons of the evangelical congregations in Europe, including Johann Hinrich Wichern . In addition, Garlichs was a member of the "Evangelical Society for Protestant Germans in North America" ​​and repeatedly traveled back to Germany for further training courses. At that time, such journeys were not only lengthy and exhausting, but also dangerous: in 1854 every sixth passenger became seriously ill or died while traveling across the Atlantic.

Attitude to education and politics

One of the Garlichs' upbringing principles was “one must break the will of children and make them obedient while they are young. Loving and soft as he was, he faithfully needed the rod with his children at their tender age. [...] The consequence of this upbringing was that all his children grew up in obedience and love towards their parents. "

Garlichs, like most immigrants from Germany (including those who, like him, lived in the slave-holding southern states at first ), was against slavery . When tensions arose between the southern and northern states of the USA, he justified the preparations of the republican north for the civil war in 1861 as follows: “Our authorities have shown themselves to be a servant of God to us, and are therefore now fully entitled and the indisputable duty to act as an avenger to punish the evildoers. "

Posterity and offspring

When Garlichs died in Brooklyn in 1865, a detailed appraisal of his pastoral and church services appeared along with some of his sermons. Garlichs and his wife had each kept a diary for themselves over many years . These records and other sources found their way into several works in emigrant literature. In addition, Garlichs is recognized by both today's Evangelical Church in Germany and the United Church of Christ as the founder of supra-regional church associations and many parishes.

Seven of the eleven children of the Garlichs lived at least until their father's death in 1865, for example in Femme Osage Carl Garlichs (* 1836, stockbroker in Brooklyn, † 1888 in Brooklyn), Franz Garlichs (1838–1892 in Femme Osage), Annette Garlichs ( * 1845, † 1890 Gut Oberbehme ) and in Brooklyn Philipp Garlichs (* approx. 1850, businessman in San Francisco ), Bertha Adelheid Karoline Luise (* December 31, 1853 in Brooklyn, † April 12, 1889 at Gut Steinlacke) and Hermann Garlichs (1859–1920 in Brooklyn, mountain engineer). Adelheid Garlich's mother returned to Germany with three of her children in 1870.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Floyd Calvin Shoemaker 1924: Missouri historical review , Volume 18, State Historical Society of Missouri
2. ↑ Berthold Litzmann (Ed.) 1907: Clara Schumann, an artist's life: years of marriage, 1840-1856. Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house
3. ^ Nancy B. Reich 2001: Clara Schumann: the artist and the woman. 2nd ed., Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-801-43740-7
4. ^ John Daverio 1997: Robert Schumann. Herald of a new poetic age. Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-199-83931-X
5. ^ Eva Weissweiler (Ed.) 2002: The complete correspondence of Clara and Robert Schumann , Vol. 3, p. 310, Verlag P. Lang, ISBN 0-820-42446-3
6. ^ ^{A b c} Charles van Ravenswaay 2006: The arts and architecture of German settlements in Missouri: a survey of a vanishing culture . 2nd ed., 539 pp., University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1700-1
7. ↑ Family von Borries: Adelheid von Borries [1]
8. ↑ Gottfried Duden 1829: Report on a trip to the western states of North America and a stay of several years on the Missouri (in the years 1824, 25, 26 and 1827), with regard to emigration and overpopulation, or ... , Elberfeld, Verlag Samuel Lucas, 348 S. [2]
9. ^ ^{A b c d} Paul C. Nagel: The German Migration to Missouri. My Family's Story . Kansas City Star Books, 1st ed. 2002. The Jackson County Historical Society. ISBN 0-972-2739-6-4
10. ^ Carl E. Schneider 1932: Review of John W. Flucke "Evangelical Pioneers" , in: Church History, Vol. 1, pp. 185 f
11. ↑ ^{a b} waymarks: Femme Osage, first Evangelical church west of the Mississippi [3]
12. ^ Johann Gottfried Büttner 1844: The United States of North America , Vol. 1, Verlag M. Geber
13. ↑ ^{a b} Friedrich Schütte 2005: Westphalia in America . 256 pp., Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster (2005), ISBN 3-7843-3356-7
14. ↑ ^{a b} Walter D. Kamphoefner 2006: From the White House to the Log Cabin: The diary of the pastor's wife Adelheid Garlichs, b. von Borries , S. 123-140 in: Harzig, Christiane (Ed.): Migration and Remembrance: Reflections on experiences of migration in Europe and North America. Vol. 4 of Transcultural Perspectives, 228 S., Verlag V&R unipress. ISBN 3-899-71338-9
15. ↑ ^{a b c} Robyn Burnett et al. a. 2005: Adelheid Garlichs, b. von Borries , pp. 60-62, in: Immigrant women in the settlement of Missouri. Missouri heritage readers. University of Missouri Press, 149 pp. ISBN 0-826-21591-2
16. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} C. Wossidlo (ed.) 1865: Memory of the venerable Hermann Garlichs, pastor of the German evangelical congregation in Brooklyn ... , 104 p., Verlag H. Ludwig, Buchdrucker, New-York
17. ↑ ^{a b c d e} United Church of Christ: The German Evangelical Synod [4]
18. ↑ ^{a b c d} Bill Schwab 2010: The German Evangelical Church Association of the West pdf (English) Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 42 kB) 
19. ↑ Ancient faces: House of the Garlichs-von Borries family in Femme Osage [5]
20. ^ Concordia Historical Institute quarterly 2004: Immanuel congregation in St. Charles based on a foundation by Hermann Garlichs , p. 245 in vol. 77-78
21. ^ Johann Hinrich Wichern 1845: Third message about the Brothers of the Rauhen Haus as a seminar for internal mission among German Protestants , Agency of the Rauhen Haus Brüderanstalt, Horn near Hamburg
22. ^ ^{A b} Jakob Conzett, Johann Launitz 1878: p. 110, 121 in: Evangelical, historical yearbook: for all German Confessions of America , Verlag Ernst Luft
23. ↑ ^{a b} Ruth Freese 1998: History of the German Evangelical Congregation St. John, Missouri [6]
24. ↑ The State Historical Society of Missouri: Bode Family Papers Archive Link ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
25. ↑ Evangelical Church from 1888 in Femme Osage jpg [7]
26. ↑ Femme Osage: Memorial plaque for Garlichs and Bode jpg [8]
27. ↑ ^{a b} Evangel. Church of Germany (EKD): German-Evangelical Church Association of the West Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
28. ^ ^{A b} Albert Mücke 1915: History of the German Evangelical Synod of North America . Edited by Eden Pub. House, Chicago
29. ↑ Louis H. Gunnemann 2007: "From the Continent of Europe: The Evangelical and Reformed Story", in: American Church Life, chap. 7 pdf [9] (PDF; 1.9 MB)
30. ^ Philip Schaff 1848: Der Deutsche Kirchenfreund: Organ for the common interests of the American-German churches , Vol. 1, Verlag Rice, Schaefer and Koradi
31. ↑ George Unangst Wenner 1918: Evangerlical: FT Winkelmann, Ludwig Mueller, Hermann Garlichs, Johannes Bank, Carl F. Haussmann, Theo. H. Dresel , in: The Lutherans of New York, their story and their problems , 160 p., The Petersfield Press
32. ^ Johann Hinrich Wichern (Ed.) 1852: Flying leaves from the rough house in Horn near Hamburg, ninth series. Organ of the Central Committee for the Inner Mission of the German Evangelical Church. Publishing agency des Rauhen Haus
33. ↑ Evang. Central Archive Berlin: Report of the Evangelical Society for Protestant Germans in North America in Langenberg, Elberfeld and Barmen Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
34. ↑ Peace Congregation of the UCD in St. Charles, Missouri: German Evangelical Peace Congregation : A Brief History ... Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.