Hermann Witte (clergyman)

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Herman Witte, portrayed by Johan Henrik Scheffel

Hermann Witte , also Herman Witte (* December 7, 1666 in Dünamünde , † March 24, 1728 in Åbo ), was a German-Baltic Evangelical clergyman.

Life

Witte's doctoral theses, Greifswald 1696

Born as the son of a customs inspector in Dünamünde in Swedish Livonia , Witte attended the Lyceum in Riga and studied from 1688 at the University of Wittenberg , where he was expelled in 1692 for quarreling, and then at the University of Greifswald . Then he worked briefly as a professor at the University of Dorpat , but in 1695 was appointed pastor at the Marienkirche in Stettin in Swedish Pomerania , provost of the Old Stettin Synod and teacher at the Carolinum grammar school . 1696 he was at the University of Greifswald theses against Johann Philipp Pfeiffer to Dr. theol. PhD.

In 1707 he went back to his homeland Livonia, where he was pastor in Arensburg on the island of Ösel , superintendent and president of the Ösel consistory . When the island of Ösel was conquered by Russia in the course of the Great Northern War in 1710, Witte went to the Swedish capital Stockholm. An appointment to the Bishop of Växjö was broken because of a lack of knowledge of Swedish, but he became court preacher to the princess (and later queen) Ulrika Eleonore . In 1717 he obtained the nobility for his wife and daughters under the name of Witten .

After Bishop Johannes Gezelius the Younger died in 1718, the cathedral chapter of Åbo ( Turku in Finland) met in Stockholm because of the Russian occupation of Finland to elect a successor. At first Gezelius' nephew Johannes Gezelius was the youngest favorite, but in 1721 he was appointed Bishop of Viborg . After lengthy disputes, Witte was appointed Bishop of Åbo in September 1721 and consecrated in Uppsala on October 8, 1721 by Archbishop Mattias Steuchius . However, he first ran the business from Sweden and did not sail to Åbo until June 1722. Through visitations he restored the ecclesiastical order in the country and, above all, fought pietism . As a bishop, Witte was also procurator of the Åbo Academy , which was reopened in November 1722 after it had been closed due to the war. At the Swedish Diets 1723 and 1726–1727 he took part as a representative of the pastorate.

See also

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Commons : Hermann Witte  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Witte, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witte, Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic German Evangelical clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1666
PLACE OF BIRTH Dünamünde
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1728
Place of death Åbo