Johannes Jaenicke

This article is about the German preacher Johannes Jaenicke. For the Protestant bishop in the ecclesiastical province of Saxony see Johannes Jänicke , for the chemist of the same name see Johannes Jaenicke (chemist)

Johannes Jaenicke , (also Jänicke, Jännecke, Jenjk, Jeník, Johann), (* July 6, 1748 in Berlin ; † July 21, 1827 there ) was a preacher and founder of the first mission school in Germany.

Jänicke was initially a journeyman weaver, began a teaching career in Dresden, but from 1774 studied Protestant theology and philosophy in Leipzig . He was initially employed as a teacher in 1778, became second in 1779 and first clergyman in 1792 in the Bohemian Lutheran congregation at the Bethlehem Church in Friedrichstadt zu Berlin, which was used simultaneously with the Bohemian Reformed congregation , where he worked until his death.

Together with August Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Schirnding (born October 14, 1753 in Schleusingen; † June 11, 1812 in Dobrilugk ), appointed director of the Mission for Germany by the London Mission Society , he opened the first German one with seven students on December 1, 1800 Mission school at which around 80 missionaries received up to four years of training until 1824 before they were taken on by various, often foreign, missionary societies.

He was inspired to found the mission school by the death of his younger brother Joseph Daniel Jänicke (born July 27, 1759 in Berlin, 1776 teacher at the Bohemian congregation in Dresden, after studying in Halle, ordained 1787 in Wernigerode), who had been a missionary in Wernigerode since 1788 India and died there on May 10, 1800 in Tanjore.

In 1805 he founded the "Biblical Society" and initiated the " Prussian Main Bible Society" that emerged from it in 1814 . He also founded a tract association in 1811/12, which from 1816 on was known as the Berlin “Main Association for Christian Devotionals in the Prussian States”.

The " Berliner Missionsgesellschaft " emerged from the Berlin Mission School in 1823 under his successor and son-in-law Johann Wilhelm Rückert .

The most important students of the mission school were Karl Gützlaff ("the missionary of China", who was active in East Asia, especially in Korea) as well as Karl Th. E. Rhenius (missionary and opponent of the caste system in South India) and Johann Hinrich Schmelen (the missionized in South Africa and Namibia).

Johannes Jaenicke died in Berlin in 1827 at the age of 79 and was buried in the cemetery of the Bethlehem community in front of Hallesches Tor . The grave has not been preserved.

His successor in the pastoral position at the Berlin Bethlehem Church was Johannes Evangelista Goßner , who was mainly active in the Inner Mission .

literature

• Karl Friedrich Ledderhose :  Jänicke, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 699 f.
• Karl Friedrich Ledderhose: Johann Jänicke, the Evangelical Lutheran preacher at the Bohemian or Bethlehem Church in Berlin: depicted after his life and work. Berlin: self-published by the publisher 1863
• E. Strümpfel, JJ, in: AMZ 27, 1900, 308-315
• Julius Richter : History of the Berlin Mission Society 1824-1924. 1924
• Walter Holsten : Jänicke, Johannes. In: RGG ³ III, 513f.
• Gunda Wittich:  Johannes Jaenicke. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 1440-1441.

Web links

• The Janicke Mission Institute

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 221.