Carl Ritschl

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Carl Ritschl

Georg Carl Benjamin Ritschl (born November 1, 1783 in Erfurt , † June 18, 1858 in Berlin ) was a German Protestant clergyman. He worked from 1827 to 1854 as general superintendent of Pomerania with the title of bishop .

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Carl Ritschl was born to Georg Ritschl von Hartenbach , pastor and professor at the Erfurt Ratsgymnasium , and his second wife Regina Christina Emminghaus. The Ritschl von Hartenbach family was raised to the knightly imperial nobility in Prague in 1581. In addition to his school lessons, Carl Ritschl received training in singing, piano and organ in Erfurt from the organist Johann Christian Kittel , Johann Sebastian Bach's last pupil . At the age of fifteen and a half he graduated from the Erfurt high school.

Ritschl began studying theology at the University of Erfurt , which he continued at the University of Jena and graduated as early as the autumn of 1802 at the age of 19.

In 1804, too young to be employed as a clergyman, Ritschl took over the work of a private tutor for the children of Johann Joachim Bellermann , who went to Berlin to head the grammar school at the Gray Monastery in Erfurt. In Berlin Ritschl attended the seminar for learned schools and gave singing and religion lessons at the Cöllnisches Gymnasium, which was connected to the Gray Monastery. Previously, in 1805, the University of Erfurt had awarded him a doctorate in philosophy.

In Berlin Ritschl was very involved in music. In 1804 he became a member of Carl Friedrich Zelters Liedertafel , for which he also wrote song compositions.

After he received a confirmation of the first theological examination he had taken in Erfurt from the Lutheran Consistory in Berlin in 1806 , he was appointed collaborator in 1807 and sub-rector of the Cöllnisches Gymnasium in 1809 . In 1808 he passed his second theological exam in Potsdam "in between" .

In 1810 Ritschl finally became third preacher at St. Marienkirche in Berlin, but was allowed to keep a number of teaching and singing lessons at the Gray Monastery and the Cöllnisches Gymnasium.

In the meantime Ritschl had advanced to the second preaching position of St. Marienkirche and in 1816 took on additional tasks in the consistory of the province of Brandenburg , which was newly established and in which he initially worked as an assessor and from 1817 as a consistorial councilor.

In 1821 he became a member of the board of the Sing-Akademie. A year later, the Theological Faculty of the University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate.

In 1827, Carl Ritschl - succeeding Friedrich Ludwig Engelken - was appointed General Superintendent of Pomerania in Stettin . The office was connected to the activity as director of the consistory of the province of Pomerania and as the first preacher at the castle church in Stettin . Like Engelke, Ritschl also received the personal title of bishop . He held this office for 27 years at a time that was shaped in the Evangelical Church in Prussia by the struggle for the Lutheran confession after the Prussian royal decree of the ecclesiastical union. In the agendas , Ritschl was on the side of the king, tried to mediate, but in Pomerania could not prevent a break with the regional church among many Lutheran confessionals (e.g. von Belowsche movement ), initially as "separatists", later then took their way in their own Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia .

An important event in Ritschl's work was a leave of absence from his service in Pomerania from September 1829 to May 1830: at the request of the Russian government, he went on a business trip to Saint Petersburg to help draft a general law for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia .

In Szczecin's musical life, where Ritschl worked closely with the composer Carl Loewe in the field of music care, the weekly singing evenings in the Ritschl parsonage (Königsplatz 818) were an “institution”.

Ritschl was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle 1st Class , the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir 3rd Class .

On October 1, 1854, Carl Ritschl retired at his own request. His successor in the office of general superintendent was Albert Sigismund Jaspis . Ritschl spent his last years in Berlin until he died there at the age of 75.

Marriages and offspring

On September 25, 1810, Ritschl married Juliane Meudtner, the daughter of a police commissioner. They were parents of five children when their wife and mother suddenly died in 1820.

On June 18, 1821, Ritschl married Auguste Sebald, an important singer and sister of the singer Amalie Sebald , whose father was a judiciary and co-founder of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin . The marriage resulted in three sons, including Albrecht Ritschl (* 1822, † 1889), who became a Protestant theologian and professor in Bonn and Göttingen. His son Otto Ritschl (* 1860; † 1944) also became a Protestant theologian.

literature

predecessor Office successor
Friedrich Ludwig Engelken General Superintendent of Pomerania
1827 - 1854 		Albert Sigismund Jasper
personal data
SURNAME Ritschl, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ritschl, Georg Karl Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant clergyman, bishop and general superintendent of Pomerania
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1858
Place of death Berlin