Johann Ulrich Heiniger

Father Heiniger

Johann Ulrich Heiniger , also Hans-Ulrich Heiniger , called father Heiniger (born February 8, 1808 in Wyssachen , † May 28, 1892 in Bern ) was a Swiss city missionary in Bern.

As the son of a wooden shoemaker, he grew up in poor circumstances on the Schwendihüttli farm on the shady side of the upper Wyssachengraben in the Emmental . The mother had to support the family. During the inflation of 1816 and 1817 , when only turnips were left to feed the poor , he learned about hunger. An uncle taught him the craft of panting .

He reports about his youth: on Sundays I usually went to church in the morning, in the afternoons I went to throw balls, on dance Sundays to the pub; dancing became my passion. And yet I was not always comfortable with this life. I still remember well how I ran away from the dance floor several times into the dark night and bright tears wept with inner melancholy, then, when I had cried, washed my eyes at the fountain to return to the merry dance. It goes without saying that, according to world custom, I hosted a girl. My low earnings were often lost on a single Sunday .

When a new master urgently warned him, he changed his way of life, but only experienced a religious awakening after marrying "Mareili", the maid of a neighbor . The theologian Gottlieb Ringier, who at that time worked as a pastor's helper in Wasen in the Emmental , prepared him for teaching by taking private lessons. He attended several advanced training courses, including a. 1836 in Burgdorf BE with Jeremias Gotthelf , then came to Eriswil as a teacher and found access to community groups through the mediation of the Reformed local pastor Friedrich Küpfer-Hahn . In winter 1845 / 1846 occurred among his pupils a real revival . Heiniger also experienced severe depression and material hardship there, as he had to support his wife, eight children and his old parents.

On February 7, 1853 , he was elected city ​​missionary of Bern by the committee of the Evangelical Society of the Canton of Bern and consecrated on February 14 . Here he developed a rich activity, including visiting sick people and home visits to families in difficult social circumstances, leading Bible studies and intensive pastoral care - in the course of his life he is said to have written 18,914 pastoral letters.

Heiniger's life is described in Franz Eugen Schlachter's book What Father Heiniger tells us .

literature

• Hansueli Ramser: The Evangelical Society of the Canton of Bern in the service of the expansion of the Kingdom of God . In: Rudolf Dellsperger u. a .: On your word. Contributions to the history and theology of the Evangelical Society of the Canton of Bern in the 19th century . Verlag Haller, Bern 1981, ISBN 3-85570-081-6 , pp. 68-77.
• Franz Eugen Schlachter : What father Heiniger tells us and what others say about him . Free Brethren Congregation, Albstadt 2005, (reprint of the Bern issue 1892).