Otto Ekelmann

Otto Ekelmann (born October 11, 1890 in Dülken , Rhineland , † June 29, 1973 in Berlin ) was a German Baptist pastor , publisher and author.

Life

Ekelmann came from a Baptist family. He wanted to become a clergyman from an early age. His intention to start studying at the German Baptist seminary in Hamburg-Horn was thwarted by a serious lung disease. After lengthy healing treatments, he learned a civil profession, but was already working as a volunteer missionary worker in Liegnitz . In 1914, the Rummy Baptist congregation appointed the theological self-taught preacher. Ekelmann performed this service until 1923. In the same year he accepted an appointment from the Memel Baptist Church . Here he wrote the history of the First East Prussian Baptist Congregation in Memel and its mission fields in East Prussia and Russia . During this time Ekelmann was also the head of the Baptist East Prussian Association . In 1928 he took over a supra-church service of the German Baptist Union as a travel preacher and was then parish pastor in Marienwerder from 1929 to 1936 . After another community service in the Baptist community in Berlin, Wattstrasse (1936 to 1947) he was appointed by the Baptist Union East as "clerk for press and literary issues in the GDR". In 1945 he received a license from the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) to publish the communications for the Evangelical Free Churches . This community magazine, which appeared monthly from September 1945 to March 1947, was also the first approved denominational newspaper in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ). From 1947 this community magazine was called Wort und Werk ; from 1952 it contained four pages for which the Brethren were responsible under the title The Message . The magazine was published until 1990.

In 1947 Ekelmann was also given permission to set up a Christian bookshop in Berlin , the main task of which was to supply the community book tables belonging to the Association of Evangelical Free Churches (BEFG) . In 1965 the free church federation was able to take over the "Evangelische Versandbuchhandlung Otto Ekelmann". A collaboration with Oncken-Verlag - which traditionally had existed earlier - was always sought, but was difficult for political reasons. In 1992 Oncken-Verlag took over the tasks of the Ekelmann bookstore and the R. Brockhaus mail-order bookstore and moved into a new publishing building for the mail-order bookstore and editorial office in Kassel-Bettenhausen .

In addition to his bookselling and publishing activities, Ekelmann was the author of numerous works and treatises that were written for the religiously interested part of the GDR population. Ekelmann was a member of the Christian Peace Conference , in whose 1st All-Christian Peace Assembly he took part in 1961 in Prague .

Fonts

• Miracle of grace: history of the First East Prussian Baptist Congregation in Memel and its mission fields in East Prussia and Russia . 1841-1928 , Memel 1928.
• Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Old gold from Spurgeon's treasures (collected by Albert Hoefs; revised and edited by Otto Ekelmann), 1962.
• Voice of faith for community and home , Berlin 1956.
• Jesus in Plötzensee , Berlin 1956.
• I am the way and the truth and the life! , Berlin 1956.

literature

• Frank Fornaçon: Ekelmann, Otto , in Günter Balders (Ed.): One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. 150 years of Baptist churches in Germany , Wuppertal and Kassel 1985 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-7893-7883-6 , p. 342 f.
• Günter Lorenz: Farewell to Otto Ekelmann , in the magazine: Wort und Werk 8/1973.
• H. Moret: Otto Ekelmann , in the magazine Die Gemeinde , 43/1973

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Frank Fornaçon: Ekelmann, Otto , in Günter Balders (Ed.): One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. 150 years of Baptist congregations in Germany , Wuppertal and Kassel 1985 (2nd edition), p. 342 f.
2. ^ EFG Berlin, Hohenstaufenstrasse: History of the Baptists in Germany ; Accessed October 20, 2011
3. ^ Oncken-Verlag: Geschichtlicher Streifzug ; viewed on October 9, 2018