Johannes Mensinga

Johannes Aletta Marinus Mensinga (born August 15, 1809 in Utrecht , Netherlands ; † August 6, 1898 in Flensburg ) was a Dutch preacher , writer and architect of the Remonstrantenkirche Friedrichstadt .

Origin and education

Mensinga was born as the son of the merchant Eento Lesterhuis Mensinga and his second wife Johanna Aletta Suidhof. He studied theology in Utrecht in 1826 and in 1834 became pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Sijpekarspel, a small congregation in West Friesland . There he married Pieternella Jacoba Barbas (1810–1895) in the same year. A year later he took over the position of preacher, which he held until 1850. During this time he wrote numerous papers and treatises. His three-part work “The Adoration of Mary , the Mother of Our Lord” (Haarlem 1846/47), which attracted particular attention due to a hitherto unique art-historical analysis, attracted particular attention. Art and religion also ran through numerous other works by Mensinga. The famous Dutch writer Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint (1812–1886) was one of his greatest admirers, shared his passion for culture and history and - as a frequent guest in his parsonage - was inspired by the conversations he shared.

Builder of the new Remonstrant Church in Friedrichstadt

In 1850 he followed a call from the Remonstrant community to Friedrichstadt in Schleswig-Holstein - without being a member of the Remonstrant Brotherhood. This position was considered a special honor, because Friedrichstadt was the first parish of this Protestant religious community with its own church. As early as 1621, the then King of Denmark and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein , Frederick III. , brought the Dutch to Friedrichstadt with the promise of freedom of belief and only four years later the first Remonstrant church was inaugurated there in 1625. Mensinga reached Friedrichstadt at the beginning of 1850 in the midst of the turmoil of the Schleswig-Holstein War . Danish troops had occupied the strategically important city with their crossing over the Eider , the Schleswig-Holsteiners wanted to recapture it. From September 29 to October 4, 1850, Friedrichstadt was besieged and shot at by Schleswig-Holstein troops, although the residents were considered supporters of Schleswig-Holstein's independence . A reconquest was not successful, however, the Schleswig-Holsteiners lost the war. Among the 137 houses that burned down completely, in addition to the town hall, was the old Remonstrant church, which had been used as military quarters.

Mensinga, who fled to Husum with many other Friedrichstadt residents, campaigned for the new building immediately after the end of the war, carried out collections, arranged book publications and established foundations to finance the building. His years of art historical and architectural self-study helped him with the planning, which was implemented in 1852–1854 exactly according to his ideas by the architect Johann Friedrich Holm from Rendsburg . Mensinga had the building erected in the late classical style - "clear, bright, simple, open and free". On May 3, 1854, the new Remonstrant Church was consecrated. The 38 meter high church tower quickly became a symbol of the city.

In the period that followed, Mensinga published other ecclesiastical and cultural-historical writings and essays, now also in German. In 1858 Mensinga, who until then had only been loaned by the Dutch Reformed Church, joined the Remonstrant brotherhood. In the German-Danish War of 1864 he helped in the hospital in Friedrichstadt and took care of the treatment of Prussian wounded, for which he received the Prussian Order of the Crown , 4th grade a year later . Nevertheless, Mensinga was critical of the Prussian incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1867 he refused the obligatory feudal oath on the Prussian king, pointing out that he had been appointed as a preacher by the state of Holland . On the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm I on March 22, 1871, Mensinga refused to ring the bell of the Remonstrant Church and his presence for the pageant of the Friedrichstadters to plant a peace oak on the occasion of the won Franco-German War . He published the justification for his behavior critical of Prussia in the Eiderstädter and Stapelholmer Wochenblatt. It was then published primarily in the country's friendly Danish newspapers, but also in the German Democrat of April 9, 1871 (Kaiserslautern), which wished the "Schleswig-Holsteiners sincere luck in owning such a valiant citizen". The school office of the Prussian government in Schleswig under President Carl von Scheel-Plessen then withdrew from him the right of the school inspection to give lessons in Dutch. Further personal consequences for Mensinga could only be prevented through the mediation of the Friedrichstadt mayor Wiese.

In 1871 he also published his work on old and new astrology, which is still in the current reprint on the book market today. Mensinga retired in 1881 . In 1887 he supported his son Wilhelm Mensinga , the famous gynecologist and pioneer of birth control, in the struggle for the recognition of his contraceptive methods with the text About Religious Thanks Against Arbitrary Infertility (Facultative Sterility) . Mansinga died in 1898 and was buried in the Remonstrant cemetery behind his church, where the family grave can still be seen today. His son Wilhelm Mensinga is also buried there.

Honors

• His hometown Friedrichstadt honored him by naming the "Pastor-Mensinga-Straße".

Fonts

• De haan: eene oudheidkundige voorlezing, Gehouden in de Amsterdamsche afdeeling the Hollandsche Maatschappij van fraaije kunsten en wetenschappen, without place and year.
• Four empty words with eenige bijlagen, Johannes van der Hey, Amsterdam 1843.
• Diorisms over Kerkzang en kerkmuzijk in "De Gids", Jaargang 9 (1845).
• De Maria der kerk en de Maria der Kunst in "De Gids", Jaargang 9 (1845).
• De Leviet en zijn Bijwijf in "De Gids", Jaargang 10 (1846)
• Het gebruik van het heilig licht (nimbus, gloria, aureool) in de christelijke Kunst, Amsterdam 1846.
• Luther's sterfdag: door eenenhung leerar met zijne gemeente godsdienstig herdacht, Johannes van der Hey, Amsterdam 1846.
• De Vereering van Maria de Moeder onzes Heeren, EF Bohn, Haarlem 1846/47.
• Studiën about sacred art in "De Gids", Jaargang 11 (1847)
• Beoordeelingen en aankondigingen in "De Gids", Jaargang 11 (1847)
• Oldenbarneveld, de Staten Van Holland En Leycester in 1585 en 1586 (with Hugo Beijerman), 1847.
• Over gebreken en verbeteringen in het bestuur en de organisatie der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk, Amsterdam 1847.
• Three hoofdsteden. Eene historical study in "De Gids", Jaargang 12 (1848)
• De zaag der formulate van eenigheid in de Nederlandsche herrormde kerk, Johannes van der Hey, Amsterdam 1848.
• About vertegenwoordiging en Verkiezing in de Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk: een woord ter Lageheid van de grondwetsherziening, gelijktijdig in die Kerk en in den Staat, Amsterdam 1848.
• De godsdienstvrede van 1648 in 1848 herdacht, 1848.
• Het gebed voor den landverhuizer, PB van Waning Bolt, Amsterdam 1849.
• Overdrukken en Recensien in de Boekzaal der leerde wereld 1845–1850, 1851.
• Negotiating over de liturgical writings: de Nederlandsche herrormde kerk, E. Thierry en Mensing, Gravenhage 1851.
• Mijne twee weirdest empty words. Uitg. ten behoeve van den keinopbouw der kerk van de remonstrantschgereformeerde gemeente te Frederikstad aan den Eider, PN van Kampen, Amsterdam 1852.
• Bibliographical album (together with Johan Carl Zimmermann) in "De Gids", Jaargang 18 (1854)
• Reorganization of the government of the Protestant church of the Netherlands in 1848 (together with A. Francken; Gerard Heinrich van Senden; Hendrick Jan Spijker; OG Heldring; APA Du Cloux; J. Borsius; C. Hooijer; CW Pape; Adrianus Bakker; JW Tydeman), 1847-1855.
• Look into the history of Christian music. Church speech at the inauguration of the new organ in the Remonstrant-Reformed church in Friedrichstadt, with many historical explanations, namely about the history of the organ, for the best of the organ building in the Evangelical-Lutheran church there, Schleswig and Tönning 1855.
• Bijdragen tot de divorced onzer Middeleeuwsche Koloniën, bijzonder die in Holstein, 1860.
• Brieven uit Sleeswijk, 1864.
• The common intradencasse: Contribution to the financial history of Friedrichstadt, Friedrichstadt 1868.
• Theological and edifying; On the persistence of personal consciousness after death, in Langes Zeitstimmen 1870.
• About old and new astrology, C. Habel, Berlin 1871 (reprint 2012).
• The secret of the Armada van 1639 in "Vaderlandsche letteroefeningen", Jaargang 1875,
• The Ranziongeld in the Eiderstedter and Stapelholmer Wochenblatt 1876, No. 30.
• The landmarks of our houses in “Ditmarser and Eiderstedter Bote”, Friedrichstadt 1876, No. 96 and No. 98.
• De Hollandsche Familien In Frederikstad aan de Eider, in: Bijdragen voor Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde II, 9/1877, pp. 331-354 (reprint 1991).
• The badges of religion in the coats of arms, in: Vierteljahresschrift für Heraldik, Sphragistik und Genealogie, 7/1879, pp. 224-253.
• De Nederlandsche taal in Duitschland, 1879.
• Religious freedom in Friedrichstadt in the Eiderstedter and Stapelholmer Wochenblatt 1880, no.36.
• Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis owzer middeleeuwsche colonies, bijzonder die Holstein, Gravenhage 1880.
• De Hollandsche taal in Frederikstad, 1880.
• The municipal leases at the end of the 17th century in the Eiderstedter and Stapelholmer Wochenblatt 1881, no.58 .
• The youth bloom of our city in the Eiderstedter and Stapelholmer Wochenblatt 1881, No. 69.
• Friedrichstadt in the wars of the 17th century in the Eiderstedter and Stapelholmer Wochenblatt 1882 No. 75 and 76.
• De godsdienstvrijheid in Frederikstad in "Bijdragen voor vaderlandsche geschiedenis en oudheidkunde", ISSN  0920-5284 (1882), pp. 103-118
• De borders of Taalkundige Germanophobia, 1883.
• Catalogus van de precious library over godgeleerdheid en kerkgeschiedenis (with A. de Vlieger), HG Born, Amsterdam 1884.
• Frederikstad gedurende de oorlogen in Sleeswijk-Holstein in de 17de eeuw: bijdrage tot de divorce of the Hollandsche colony aan de Eider in "Bijdragen voor vaderlandsche geschiedenis en oudheidkunde", ISSN  0920-5284 (1885), pp. 128-135.
• De Marseillaise, C. Ewings, 1886.
• On religious gratitude against arbitrary infertility (facultative sterility), Heuser, Berlin 1887.
• Sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, in: Journal of Scientific Theology, Vol. 34, 1891.

literature

• Eduard Alberti: Lexicon of the Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburgischen and Eutinischen writers from 1866-1882. Following the author's lexicon from 1829–1866. Vol. 2, Biernatzki, Kiel 1886, p. 24 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Carl Frederik Bricka: Dansk biografisk Lexikon 1887–1905, Volume M, pp. 260–261.
• Hans Beyer: Johannes Mensinga in Nordelbingen, Volume 26 (1958), pp. 244-250.
• Society for Friedrichstädter Stadtgeschichte: Pastor Mensinga und die Friedenseiche, 13. Mitteilungsblatt, autumn 1978, pp. 8-16.
• Biografisch Lexicon voor der Geschiedenis vam het Nederlandse Protestantisme Part 2, JH Kok - Kampen, 1984, Ed .: Nederlandseorganati voor Zuiver Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, p. 323.