Reinhold Wilhelm von Walter

Reinhold Wilhelm von Walter

Reinhold Wilhelm von Walter (born May 3, 1840 in Rodenpois , Livonia , † June 9, 1909 in Göttingen ) was a Baltic German clergyman and Lutheran pastor at the St. Catherine's Church in Saint Petersburg .

Life

Reinhold von Walter grew up in his father's parsonage in Rodenpois as the twelfth of thirteen siblings who were born between 1825 and 1842, but some of whom died at a young age. His father, Wilhelm Friedrich Walter (1797 - 1871), born and died in Rodenpois, married to Mathilde, born Thonn (1800 - 1860), taught the children himself in addition to private tutors. From 1856 to 1860 Walter was in the boarding school in Birkenruh . Since he got sick (as so often later), he took an external high school diploma in Riga. He traveled to the cure several times. From 1862 to 1866 he studied in Dorpat ; In 1866 he became a theological candidate and in 1867 he was ordained pastor in Riga . In 1869 he went to Neuendettelsau and taught young missionaries there in "Old Lutheran dogmatics", Hebrew grammar and Genesis exegesis. 1870 Doctorate phil. in Erlangen with a dissertation on Spinoza. After the Franco-German War of 1870 - 1871, which he experienced in many respects as "patriotic" but basically as a catastrophe (in various hospitals, including as a field preacher), in 1871 he became vicar in Augsburg . During this time he met his first wife, Marie Freiin von Schleinitz ( Schleinitz (noble family) ) know (1834–1874, daughter of the State Minister in Braunschweig Wilhelm Johann von Schleinitz, 1794–1856), and with considerable help (his financial resources were very high limited) he married her on August 13, 1872 in Braunschweig Cathedral. But Marie died on October 21, 1874 giving birth to a (stillborn) child.

While working as a chaplain in the Diakonissenhaus in Riga, he received an offer for one of the two parish positions at St. Catherine's Church in St. Petersburg , and in August 1875 he began his long-term pastor in the Russian Protestant Church there . In the parish council he met, among others, Baron Robert Mirbach and the Danish consul general in St. Petersburg, Hans Jessen Pallisen (1815–1881) and married his daughter Emilie in 1876, born in 1853. For 27 years they worked together at the St. Katharinen Church and developed projects such as a crèche for young workers, apartments for the socially disadvantaged, a home for older widows, etc. The parish school became a grammar school. - Their seven children were born between 1876 and 1891. Johannes ("Hans") von Walter taught theology in Göttingen and Rostock, among others. Marie von Walter (1880–1953) married the theologian Alfred Seeberg . Reinhold von Walter also studied theology and became a writer and translator of Russian literature. The youngest, Karen von Walter, born in 1891, died in 1950.

The family was often on the move, including in connection with the father's cures. Destinations included 1886 Eisenach, Rügen and Copenhagen, in the latter place with relatives of the (second) wife. In 1893 they explored Italy and the south to Naples, in 1895 the journey went via Moscow to the Caspian Sea. In 1897 Walter gave the celebratory sermon at the Mission Festival in Leipzig ( he knew that he had a special bond with the Leipzig Mission ), and this was followed by a trip via Genoa and Marseille to Geneva. In 1897 they were back in Copenhagen “via Stockholm”. - For 14 years, 1888–1902, Walter sat in the General Consistory ( Evangelical Lutheran General Consistory ) in St. Petersburg under Bishop Konrad Raimund Freifeldt . For his work there as senior consistorial councilor, he received the hereditary Russian title of nobility. For health reasons, he refused to become a successor in the episcopate. - After the farewell in St. Petersburg in 1902, the family moved to Dorpat.

publication

• What is a man that you think of him? Psalm 8, 5. A pastor's life in St. Petersburg . A. Deichert / Georg Böhme, Leipzig 1904.

Web links

• Baltic Historical Commission (Ed.): Entry on Reinhold Wilhelm Walter. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source for the above information, supplemented if necessary, e.g. B. by the Baltic biographical lexicon digital [there are z. Sometimes slightly different year numbers that have been corrected here].