Johann Georg Wermelskirch

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Johann Georg Wermelskirch in official costume

Johann Wilhelm Georg Gottfried Wermelskirch (born February 22, 1803 in Bremen , † December 20, 1872 in Erfurt ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian and pastor of the Old Lutheran Church in Prussia .

Life

Johann Georg Wermelskirch first grew up in a reformed Bremen family. He came under the influence of the revival movement and became interested in the mission . He received training as a missionary at Johannes Jänicke's mission school in Berlin . Following his training, he became a missionary to Jews in Warsaw , and from 1826 in Posen . Through his missionary work, however, he reached more awakened Christians than Jews. In the 1830s, Wermelskirch came to the realization that the Lutheran confession was the one that most clearly corresponds to the testimony of the Bible . In December 1834 a Lutheran congregation, independent of the Uniate Prussian regional church, was founded in Posen, which appointed Wermelskirch as its pastor. With the appointment of Wermelskirch, the congregation in Posen became part of the Old Lutheran Church in Prussia. As a result of his work, other old Lutheran congregations emerged in the province of Poznan . Wermelskirch had good contacts to the revival movement around Adolf von Thadden-Trieglaff , with whom he was trying to collect Lutheran congregations in Pomerania .

In 1835 Wermelskirch, in the course of the persecution of the Old Lutherans by Friedrich Wilhelm III. , expelled from Prussia because he was a Bremen “foreigner” and went into exile in Dresden . There he became the first director of the Dresden Mission Association in 1836 and helped a. a. together with Johann Gottfried Scheibel , in the process of establishing this as a denominational-Lutheran and church-bound mission institution. This mission association later became the Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk Leipzig . The Leipzig Mission was therefore viewed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia as its missionary work. During the time at the Dresden Mission Association, contacts arose with the most important Lutheran theologians of his time, such as Wilhelm Löhe and Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach .

When the Old Lutherans were tolerated in Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm IV , Johann Georg Wermelskirch became pastor of the Old Lutheran congregation in Berlin and negotiated with the government about the state recognition of the Old Lutheran Church. In 1844 he was appointed pastor of the Christ Church in Erfurt, from where he looked after a large parish, some of which extended into the Prussian Rhine Province . So Löhe could even call him the " Bishop of Thuringia ". After his death in 1872 it was said of him that he “was one of the few who, in difficult times, did not discuss each other with flesh and blood, but rather put everything that is dear to the flesh behind and sacrificed it only to the to save and maintain the Lutheran Church ”.

Johann Georg Wermelskirch was the father-in-law of the medical doctor and ENT specialist Rudolf Voltolini .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Gottfried Scheibel: From the innermost essence of Christianity: Excerpts from the writings of the Breslau Lutheran (1783-1843) . Ed .: Peter Hauptmann. V & R 978-3-89971-527-9, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-89971-527-9 , pp. 117 .
  2. ↑ Christian Neddens: From the Annals - Volume 7: Johann Georg Wermelskirch and the rectory in Erfurt (1845-1846). (pdf; 312 kB) In: Der Rufer - News for the parishes of the independent Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saarland. April 2014, pp. 4–5 , accessed April 9, 2018 .
  3. ^ W. Klän: Life report of Pastor Johann Wilhelm Wermelskirch. Hans Bove website, October 10, 2015, accessed April 9, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Wermelskirch, Johann Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wermelskirch, Johann Wilhelm Georg Gottfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Evangelical Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1872
Place of death Erfurt