Hermann Niehaus

Hermann Niehaus (painting)

Hermann Niehaus (born July 28, 1848 in Steinhagen (Westphalia) ; † August 23, 1932 in Bielefeld-Quelle ) was the second Chief Apostle of the New Apostolic Church (NAK).

Childhood and origin

Niehaus was born on July 28, 1848 in Steinhagen near Bielefeld. The parents ran a small farm. The father was sickly and so the mother worked on the loom. In 1867 the Protestant pastor Friedrich Menkhoff moved his residence from Amsterdam to Bielefeld. He had heard from Franz Huebner and Apostle Schwarz about the New Apostolic faith and his church authorities gave him the choice of either continuing to preach evangelical doctrine or giving up his pastorate. He converted and served as an evangelist for the Apostolic Congregation. Niehaus made his own house available to him for meetings.

Beginnings of the New Apostolic Church

In the summer of 1868, Apostle Schwarz visited Bielefeld. In the first service he held there, Hermann Niehaus was also sealed with his parents , and on the following Sunday he was entrusted with the office of deacon by Apostle Schwarz. When Apostle Schwarz came to Westphalia from Holland for the second time in 1869, he was able to seal around 100 souls in Bielefeld. Hermann Niehaus was ordained an evangelist and the evangelist Menkhoff was ordained a bishop.

In 1872 Niehaus was in Amsterdam for the installation of Bishop Menkhoff as apostle and was ordained bishop himself there. However, he initially did not accept this office, but remained an evangelist. In the 1970s he was appointed elder and served in this office until 1894. At that time, Apostle Menkhoff was no longer fit for service and Niehaus was again transferred to the office of bishop. On May 8, 1880, Hermann Niehaus married Johanne Hellweg, the daughter of a deacon. His wife died in June 1901. He married Wilhelmine Niehüser for the second time.

The apostle FW Schwarz, who worked in the Netherlands, was the highest teaching authority for the apostles. After his death in 1895 the apostles placed themselves more and more under the leadership of the apostle Friedrich Krebs . Since 1897 he has been referred to as Chief Apostle . After Menkhoff's death, on July 21, 1896, Krebs installed Hermann Niehaus as apostle for the Bielefeld area. In 1898, in a divine service in Berlin, he named him as his successor as Chief Apostle. On January 20, 1905, Krebs died and Niehaus took over the office. At that time, many parishioners regarded him as the direct "bearer of the spirit of the deceased Chief Apostle Cancer". Its importance for the development of the NAC in terms of internal consolidation, expansion and profiling is extremely great.

In August 1906, Niehaus appointed the apostle helper Johann Gottfried Bischoff as district apostle for Central Germany and Württemberg for the deceased Apostle Ruff . In addition, in 1907 he renamed the community from the New Apostolic Congregation to the New Apostolic Church and acquired the status of a corporation under public law . He appointed numerous younger ministers and convened regular apostle meetings. In addition, in 1909 he replaced the church writings Der Herold und Wächterstimme from Ephraim with the New Apostolic Review . In 1908 he published the General House Rules and in 1916 the first textbook on the New Apostolic Faith Questions & Answers . This is still available today in its 1992 edition.

On August 19, 1909, he and Apostle Carl August Brückner were the first Chief Apostle to visit the American congregations. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 put great strain on the community. For the soldiers, the Lord's Supper was sent as a field post with a host drizzled with three drops of wine. In 1917 the hosts were introduced in this form in all parishes.

Succession planning and retention of power

On October 10, 1920, Niehaus appointed the Apostle JG Bischoff as Chief Apostle Helper and on December 14, 1924 he appointed him his successor. The Saxon apostle Carl August Brückner was actually intended for this. However, since 1917 he had questioned the leadership of Niehaus, which was increasingly guided by dreams and visions, and the claim to power of the Chief Apostle's office and was expelled from the church on April 17, 1921. From today's sources, the reasons for his exclusion suggest an intrigue by JG Bischoff. Brückner founded the Reformed Apostolic Congregation Association with Apostle Max Ecke and around 6,000 followers . There was a further split in the New Apostolic movement in 1911 when, after a meeting of the Apostles, the Australian Apostle Heinrich Friedrich Niemeyer was expelled from the church on the way home. Like Brückner, he had tried to defend himself against the Chief Apostle's claim to power. On his return he founded the Apostolic Church of Queensland . As a reaction to these crises, Niehaus had all the apostles express their trust in Bielefeld on September 21, 1921, and formed their own association, the Apostle College of the New Apostolic Congregations in Germany .

Consolidation of the function of the Chief Apostle

A distinctive personality cult developed around the Chief Apostle, which was particularly evident in the celebrations on his birthday and was promoted and staged by Chief Apostle Helper Bischoff. For the 80th birthday and 60th anniversary of the office of Niehaus, a book The Greatest Among Them was published by the Apostle College. Chief Apostle Niehaus celebrated his silver wedding anniversary on October 3, 1926, then on January 25, 1930 an accident on the eve of the celebrations for his 25th Chief Apostle anniversary forced him to retire from his work. He did not recover, and on September 21, 1930, the Apostles Quorum retired him. He died on August 23, 1932 at the age of 84. Within the church he was given the name: Father Niehaus . Niehaus was buried in the cemetery in Steinhagen, which is known today as the old cemetery, with great sympathy among the population.

Record of his activity

In 1905 Chief Apostle Niehaus took over six Apostle districts with 488 congregations; At the end of his term of office, this had become twelve European apostolic districts with around 1,600 parishes, including 200 overseas parishes that emerged during this period. In 1925, the NAK had 138,000 members in Germany.

swell

• New Apostolic in Cologne
• Helmut Obst: New Apostolic Church - the exclusive end-time church? Bahn, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1996, ISBN 3-7615-4945-8

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich Krebs	Chief Apostle of the New Apostolic Church 1905–1930	Johann Gottfried Bischoff