Julius Busch (pastor)

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Julius Theodor Wilhelm Busch (* 7. October 1879 in Birsgallen , Courland Governorate , Russian Empire , † July 29 . Jul / 11. August  1907 greg. In Nerft , Courland Governorate), to distinguish him from his father and Julius Busch junior named Latvian Jūliuss Teodors Vilhelms Bušs , was a German-Baltic pastor . He is considered a Protestant martyr and is mentioned in Oskar Schabert's Baltic Martyrs Book.

The dates in this article are based on the Julian calendar for the period up to 1918 unless otherwise noted.

family

Members of the Busch family in Courland were pastors of Birsgallen for generations.

Julius Busch jun. was born the son of the Lutheran pastor and provost Julius Wilhelm Busch (Julius Busch senior, 1842–1914) and the Emmy Anna Amalie Busch (née Lippinger, * 1844). His older brothers were the pastor and senior teacher Carl Christian Gottfried Busch (* 1872), Maximilian Busch (* 1873) and Alfred Otto Adolf Busch (1875–1912), his younger brothers Johannes Theodor Wilhelm Busch (* 1881) and Ernst Robert Johann Busch (* 1883), his younger sister Elisabeth Emmy Clara Busch (* 1885, married Böttiger). Julius Busch jun. remained single until his death.

Until 1894 Julius Busch sen. Pastor of Birsgallen. Then he became pastor of Nerft in Oberkurland and provost of Selburg . He faced the Russian Revolution of 1905 with its atheistic and violent aspects as an energetic opponent. The majority of the congregation stood behind their pastor in this matter and firmly rejected the ambassadors of the socialist fighting organizations, but a minority followed the socialists and wanted to get rid of the pastor. There were even death threats. The conflicts between the two wings increased. Finally, Julius Busch sen. took up his pastor's office in Nerft and moved back to Birsgallen to avoid violent confrontations between the two groups. The decision was difficult for him because the church was close to his heart. He was happily accepted in Birsgallen.

Life

Training and administration

Julius Busch jun. attended the city high school in Riga from 1894 to 1900. He then studied theology at the University of Dorpat from 1900 to 1905 . In 1900 he was accepted into the Curonia student fraternity, where he became treasurer and charge officer. He completed his studies as a graduate student.

In 1902 he became a tutor in Samm in Estonia . In 1906 he became a senior teacher for religion in Saint Petersburg , namely at the Wiedemann Gymnasium and other schools. He spent his candidate year in the same city, where he was reluctant to let go, because his theological knowledge was considered thorough, his character as philanthropic and his faith deep. The career opportunities that resulted from this, he turned down when he was called back to Courland. From June to November 1906 he was pastor's adjunct in Old and New Rahden .

Julius Busch jun. was diocesan adjunct in Sonnaxt for the diocese of Selburg from 1906 to 1907 . In this role he was in charge of the vacant parishes of Nerft, Salwen, Saucken and SET . He entered the service of the diocese at the time when his father left his pastor in Nerft. He was able to quickly win over the Nerft community, where he also preached a sermon. The church wanted him to be a pastor.

From Christmas 1906 Julius Busch provided services in Nerft, and from March as a pastor. In May or June 1907 Julius Busch jun. then officially his father's successor as pastor of the predominantly Latvian congregation in Nerft. Julius Busch jun. was warmly received by his community. He had to rebuild the community after the turmoil of the revolution and gave himself up enthusiastically to his office. He made a special effort to work with young people to protect young people from the dangers that he saw in the spreading socialist-nationalist and atheist ideas. He organized his own youth worship services, personally gave religious instruction in the parish school and visited the parents of the young people on their farms. The socialists realized that Julius Busch continued his father's work with youthful energy. There were death threats after the situation appeared to have calmed down for the church. The influence of Julius Busch jun. rose what could only be ended by his death.

On July 15 jul. / July 28,  1907 greg. Julius Busch found a document in the bell bag during a service. In it he was threatened with death if he did not stop preaching against the revolutionaries. Nevertheless, he also preached on the following Sunday in Ilsenberg (today: Ilgė in Lithuania ) against unrest and blasphemy in his congregation.

Violent death

On Sunday, July 29 jul. / August 11,  1907 greg. In the morning the cattle keepers of the landlord P. saw two suspicious men, probably contract killers, walking up and down the country road to the branch church in Ilsenberg. One had a black beard and was wearing a black coat. The second had a blonde mustache and was dressed in light colors. At 9:30 a.m., Julius Busch passed a small wood near the church while driving to the service in the branch church with his one-horse carriage on this country road about 6 km from his pastorate. He was pretty much on the border between Nerft and Ilsenberg. The two people met him in secret. Busch drove between them. From a jagged hill by the road, one of them fired a shot from a Browning pistol at him from among the bushes , but it didn't hit. Busch called out to the coachman Eewin to drive faster. Another shot followed. The horse was hit and died instantly. The driver received one shot in the abdomen and one in the head, which killed him instantly. Next the pastor was met. When he tried to jump out of the carriage, more shots were fired at him. He received a total of two grazing shots; another bullet struck him in the neck and came out of his ear. He immediately collapsed dead. The bullets hit one of the travelers from the lower left, the other from the lower right. Busch died at the age of only 27.

The shots were heard from the surrounding servants. The assassins were seen before and after the crime by a shepherd girl and a man, who the perpetrators were later able to describe. Busch and Eewin were found in a trench in the Nerft region. Busch's finger rings and Eewin's silver pocket watch had been stolen. The car had overturned and was on the feet of the dead. A board had been attached to the car. It had a revolutionary slogan on one side and an obscenity on the other. The horse found itself 100 paces further in the Ilsenberg area.

In view of Busch's short term in office and the description of the witnesses, it was suspected that the attackers were not parishioners but strangers; political motives were considered certain. Possibly there was an execution order against Busch, perhaps the assassins were also paid. One possible motive was a demonstration of power by the revolutionaries, another the fact that Busch belonged to the German-Baltic ethnic group, with which he was perhaps viewed by the revolutionaries as unsuitable for a predominantly Latvian community that should not be patronized.

Afterlife

The local country gendarme reported the act on July 29th . / August 11,  1907 greg. In the morning at 11 o'clock by telephone to the district chief who is currently in Jakobstadt . At 1.30 p.m. he went to the crime scene on horseback with his assistants and a group of Cossacks from Gross-Salwen , who had also been notified by telephone. The area was searched. There were several arrests; the police expressed confidence that those arrested included those whose exact number was unknown. If the perpetrators had crossed the nearby border to Kovno Governorate, prosecution would have been difficult. Among those arrested were not the assassins themselves, but guides who knew the place and who had helped the foreign assassins. Ten people were arrested, four of them women, including a 16-year-old. After being transferred, they were imprisoned under strict guard in Jakobstadt. Police checks were carried out at the stations on the Mitau - Kreuzburg line , on July 30th . / August 12,  1907 greg. at 12 noon a train traveling from Kreuzburg to Riga near the Riga II station was also searched. There were no further arrests.

The act had a very disturbing effect on the local population, also because of the expected penalties and reprisals. The discussion about the political stance of the small landowners was attributed by some to the fact.

Julius Busch was born on August 2nd . / August 15,  1907 greg. buried in the churchyard in Nerft. The guests included eight pastors, local landowners and some members of his congregation who laid a wreath. His father gave a speech in which he said: “I speak it boldly before God and the whole world that it was not Nerft church members who attacked him, but those who drove me out of Nerft and who sought my blood. Oh! Why didn't you do it to me, an old man? "

The Rigas Awise suspected that the murder of Busch would turn the population against the revolution, and ruled that a revolution that the population had behind it did not have to resort to such methods. The "Latwija" expressed its disappointment that the murders would continue after the long previous pause.

Despite initial hopes and intensive investigations, the real perpetrators were on August 6th July. / August 19,  1907 greg. not yet determined.

O. Baronin von der Ropp mentioned the act in her diary “In der Fremde” published in the “Rigaschen Rundschau”.

On October 27, 1908, the temporary court martial in Riga pronounced the verdict against two people involved in the murder of Busch and Eewin. It was confirmed by the Baltic Governor General.

In May 1909, the Livonian deputies Baron held Hans von Rosen , a speech to the Duma, in which he murders of the Orthodox priest Jānis LĪCIS and the Protestant clergyman William Taurit , Karl Schilling , Ludwig Zimmermann , Alphons Fuchs, Julius Busch and Albert Grühn mentioned . (According to other sources, Fuchs survived the attack despite the initial report of death.) Rosen referred to the named as martyrs. He also emphasized the importance of the Protestant clergy as pillars of the state and campaigned for an end to the legal disadvantage of the Protestant church compared to the Orthodox.

literature

  • Murder of Pastor Julius Busch-Nerst in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 175, July 31, 1907, online at Busch Julius Busch | issueType: P
  • Another nefarious pastor murder. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 175, July 31, 1907, online at Busch Busch | issueType: P
  • On the murder of Pastor Busch in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 176, August 1, 1907, online at Julius Busch | issueType: P
  • On the murder of Pastor J. Busch-Nerst in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 176, August 1, 1907, online at Busch Julius Busch | issueType: P
  • On the murder of Pastor Busch in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 176, August 1, 1907, online at Busch Julius Busch | issueType: P
  • On the murder of Pastor Busch in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 177, August 2, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • List of the dead in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 177, August 2, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • Report on the murder announcement in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 179, August 4, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • Report on the funeral in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 189, August 16, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • List of murder victims in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 2, January 3, 1908, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • Court martial in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 249, October 27, 1908, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • Confirmation of judgment in the Düna newspaper , No. 254, November 1, 1908, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • v. Sieber: Directory of the Germans murdered in Liv-Est-Kurland during the revolution 1905-7 in the Baltic Monthly , No. 01–06, January 1, 1909, online at Busch | issueType: P
  • Baltic patricians and writers in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 50, March 3, 1925, online at Busch Busch Busch | issueType: P
  • Oskar Schabert: Baltic Martyrs Book , Furche-Verlag. Berlin 1926. P. 61 ff. The report is based on the notes of a brother Julius Busch, Carl Christian Gottfried Busch.
  • Wilhelm Wheels: Album Curonorum . Historical Commission of Curonia, R. Ruetz, Riga 1932, p. 213, no. 1560, pdf under dspace.ut.ee/bitstream/handle/10062/37391/est_a_1245_2_ocr.pdf
  • Harald Schultze and Andreas Kurschat (editors): "Your end looks at ..." - Evangelical Martyrs of the 20th Century , Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-374-02370-7 , Part II, Section Russian Empire / Baltic States , P. 525

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What do the latest terrorist murders prove? and Courland. On the murder of Pastor Busch in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 177, August 2, 1907, online at Pastor Pastor | issueType: P
  2. ↑ Nerft. On the murder of Pastor Busch in the Düna-Zeitung , no. 180, August 6, 1907, online at Busch's | issueType: P
  3. ^ Courland. About the murder of Pastor Busch in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 179, August 4, 1907, online at Busch Pastor | issueType: P
  4. ↑ On the murder of Pastor J. Busch in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 180, August 6, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  5. ↑ Domestic. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 188, August 15, 1907, online at Busch Pastor | issueType: P
  6. ↑ Press votes. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 177, August 2, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  7. ^ Courland. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 180, August 6, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  8. ↑ Nerft. In the matter of the murder of Pastor Busch in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 183, August 9, 1907, online at Pastor Busch | issueType: P
  9. ↑ Jakobstadt. On the murder of Pastor Busch in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 183, August 9, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  10. ↑ In a foreign country. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 233, October 6, 1907, online at Busch | issueType: P
  11. ^ Court martial. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 249, October 27, 1908, online at Busch | issueType: P
  12. ↑ The speech of the Livonian MP H. Baron Rosen in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 117, May 26, 1909, online at [1]
personal data
SURNAME Busch, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Busch, Julius Theodor Wilhelm; Busch jun., Julius; Bušs, Jūliuss Teodors Vilhelms
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic pastor and evangelical martyr
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Birsgallen , Courland Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1907
Place of death Nerft , Courland Governorate , Russian Empire