Julius Koebner

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Julius Koebner

Julius Johannes Wilhelm Köbner , originally Salomon Købner , (born June 11, 1806 in Odense , Denmark , † February 2, 1884 in Berlin ) was one of the founding fathers of the German Baptists with Johann Gerhard Oncken and Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann . In addition to his extensive missionary and teaching activities within the then still young free church , his work as a hymn poet and writer is particularly noteworthy.

Life

Köbner's church Eben-Ezer-Kapelle in the Wuppertal district of Barmen

Köbner was of Jewish descent and the first of nine children of the rabbi and businessman Isaak Aaron and his wife Hanna, née Matthies. Although the family was based in Denmark, their ancestors came from Lissa in Poland. From there there must have been a connection to Silesia , because the name Köbner is derived from the name of the Silesian town of Köben .

The German language was cultivated in the Köbner family. After attending grammar school in Odense, where Salomon Köbner received lessons in French and English in addition to German and Danish, he learned the profession of copperplate engraver , but also showed great talents in other areas. In 1824 he embarked on the then obligatory journey as a journeyman and came to Lübeck via Hamburg . In addition to his learned job, he dealt with literature and history as an autodidact . He wrote dramas, poems and essays, some of which have been published.

After numerous encounters with the reformed Lübeck revival preacher Johannes Geibel , Köbner converted to Christianity in 1826 and joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church. With his baptism on July 31, 1826 in Hamburg, Köbner changed his Jewish first name. He was named Julius Johannes Wilhelm after his fiancée Juliane Johanna Wilhelmina von Schröter , who came from a Mecklenburg officer family in the service of the Danish crown and whom he married shortly after converting to Christianity .

In 1835 Julius Köbner got to know the Hamburg Baptist Church. Under the impression of the proclamation of Oncken, the elder and pastor of the congregation founded only a year earlier, he received the baptism of faith on May 26, 1836 and placed himself in the service of the young movement. Only a few weeks later, his wife Juliane was baptized in the young Hamburg Baptist congregation. Three of Köbner's siblings were also baptized as believers.

Köbner initially translated Baptist literature from English, corrected Oncken's publications and wrote a wealth of religious writings. In 1837 he published the first Baptist creed together with Oncken . At the same time, Köbner made his first experiences in the field service. He also held religious meetings in and around Hamburg and was imprisoned several times in Hamburg for holding religious meetings that were not permitted .

On October 6, 1844, Köbner was ordained a Baptist preacher. At the same time he joined the American Baptist Convention as a missionary for the German-speaking area . Extensive missionary trips took him through Germany , the Netherlands and Denmark , where he founded a number of Baptist churches.

The March movement of 1848 greeted Köbner with joyful anticipation. In the same year he published the manifesto of free primitive Christianity . In it, he praises the newly won general freedom of religion and presents Baptism as an emancipatory and grassroots democratic religious movement that is committed to this civil right. In the scripture it says among other things: “From the above it will be clear to everyone that we (add .: Baptists) pay homage to the principle of religious freedom . It is not just today that we receive this noble freedom from the hands of some state authority; we have regarded it as our inalienable good for 15 years and have enjoyed it continuously, even if at the expense of our earthly possessions and freedom. But we not only assert our religious freedom, we demand it for every person who inhabits the soil of the fatherland, we demand it to the same extent for everyone, be they Christians, Jews, Mohammedans or whatever. "

meaning

Köbner shaped the young Baptist movement in many ways - not least through his literary work. Christian novels, church history stories and great dramatic poems with an instructive character are part of his work. He is particularly interested in the history of the Waldensians in his literary work .

In 1849 Julius Köbner published the first hymn book of the Baptist League, the Voice of Faith of the Church of the Lord . 59 songs in this hymn book are from his own pen. The first songbook by the Danish Baptists was also published by Köbner. While the penultimate hymn book of the German Baptists still contained three Koebner songs, the current church hymn book Fiere & Loben only contains one Koebner song.

Church planting

In 1845, Julius Köbner organized the first Dutch Baptist congregation , which was to become the starting point for the Baptist movement in the Netherlands. In 1852, Köbner founded the Baptist congregation of Barmen , thereby laying the foundation for the emergence of Baptist congregations in the Prussian Rhine province. Danish Baptism , too, owes its emergence to the effectiveness of Julius Köbner. From 1865 to 1879 he was pastor of the Copenhagen Baptist Church which he founded . The Baptist movement in north-west Germany and Berlin also received important impulses from Köbner's effectiveness .

family

After the death of his first wife in 1868, Köbner married the Danish Dorothea Stagstedt in 1875. From this marriage a daughter was born. In 1879 his second wife also died. At the end of his life, Köbner took over a preaching position in Berlin, where he ended his old age.

Appreciations

Koebner Church Copenhagen (Denmark)

The Baptist churches in Wuppertal , Copenhagen and the Julius Köbner Chapel of the Evangelical Free Church in Hamburg-Hamm were named after Julius Köbner. In Wustermarker district Elstal there is a Julius Köbner Street .

Works

Fonts in selection

Title page of the hymn book " Faith Voice" published by Köbner
  • Manifesto of free primitive Christianity to the German people , Hamburg 1848
  • The congregation of Christ and the Church , Hamburg 1853
  • A refutation of the book "Die Anabaptäufer" published by Archdiaconus Lührs , Hamburg (1850), 2nd exp. Ed. 1853 (based on Albert Lührs : »Die Anabaufäufer« , 1848)
  • Why are there no apocrypha in the Bible? , Hamburg 1853.
  • What is the Christian's sanctification? Answer according to the Holy Scriptures , Hamburg 1855.
  • Guide through the Bible for children , Hamburg 1858.
  • The song of god. A didactic poem in 8 parts. With an introduction and explanatory notes , Hamburg 1872.
  • Is the belief in miracles still relevant? Answered in accordance with genuine real philosophy , Elberfeld 1878.
  • Rationalism among believers , Elberfeld n.d. (1878)
  • The peculiar glory of the New Testament church as opposed to the Old Testament. After the Heil. Font , Elberfeld 1881.
  • The violinist. Story , Barmen 1881.
  • Sin against the Holy Spirit , Wiesbaden 1881.
  • Reform of community assemblies. A paper read on August 16, 1882 in the Federal Conference in Altona , Elberfeld 1882.
  • State and church, united or separated , Elberfeld 1882.
  • The state after death , Elberfeld 1882.
  • The new earth. Eschatological study , Elberfeld 1883.
  • Water from the well of salvation. A Collection of Sermons , ed. by Hermann Windolf, Berlin 1906.
  • To the community. Selected writings , ed. and commented on by Hermann Gieselbusch, Berlin 1927.

Song books edited by Köbner

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Schröder, Carl Rudolph Wilhelm Klose and others: Lexicon of Hamburg writers up to the present , article: 1996. Köbner (Julius Johannes Wilhelm) , Vol. IV, 1866, p. 115 - at google books ; Accessed Dec 2, 2014.
  2. ↑ Cf. Markus Wehrstadt, introduction to Köbner's "Manifesto", in: J. Köbner: Manifesto of free early Christianity to the German people, ed., Incorporated. and come by Markus Wehrstedt and Bernd Wittchow, Berlin 2006, p. 8.
  3. ↑ American Baptist Convention is the older name of today's American Baptist Churches USA .
  4. ↑ See note 2, p. 37.
  5. ↑ The spelling is common (without d ); see title of the hymn book in the references and cf. Moravian Brethren
  6. ↑ church songs ; this hymnbook was used from 1978 to 2003 in German-speaking Baptist and Free Evangelical communities .
  7. ↑ Celebration & Praise , No. 32: Praise in his sanctuary, which the great miracle works
  8. ↑ See note 2.
  9. ↑ A contemporary (critical) regional church review of this writing can be found in M. Goebel: Die Baptisten am Niederrhein , in: Monthly for the Protestant Church of the Rhine Province and Westphalia (edited by Lic. JW Krafft and Lic. M. Goebel), 1854 (January - June), p. 222ff (at google books ) ; Retrieved on Dec 2, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Koebner, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Købner, Salomon (Danish Jewish birth name); Köbner, Julius Johannes Wilhelm (full Christian baptismal name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish Baptist pastor, writer, poet, co-founder of the German and continental European Baptist congregations
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Odense
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1884
Place of death Berlin