Rut Bahlsen

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Rut Bahlsen (born Rut Jägerström ; born September 16, 1901 in Hudiksvall , Hälsingland , Sweden ; † March 13, 1988 ) was a Swedish author. She was best known under the pseudonym Rut Björkman .

Life

Rut Bahlsen lived in Germany from 1935 and after 1950 in Uffing am Staffelsee near Garmisch-Partenkirchen . The ancestors on the maternal side were Baptists for several generations who only advocated baptism of adults at their own discretion. She was married to the entrepreneur Klaus Bahlsen from around 1938 .

childhood

The grandmother's sister was regarded as a "reader" who regularly read the Bible to people in a converted barn (forbidden as a contradiction to the state church until 1900) . The father, also a Baptist, was a lay preacher in many congregations in northern Sweden. Rut Björkman's parental home - she had five siblings - was shaped by life for and with the Baptist community in Hudiksvall, guided by spiritual, not dogmatic-religious values. High points in the life of the family and the congregation were visits from foreign awakening preachers, mostly from Stockholm . Ruth was accepted into the Baptist church at the age of eight and was baptized at her own request. As a student, she read the Bible to friends and explained the texts to them. Ruth was very much connected to nature, the growth, blossoming and yield of which became a parable for her for the spiritual task of man.

youth

As a seventeen year old Ruth experienced a religious breakthrough. She represented the father as a preacher. When she was eighteen, she became familiar with the ideas of Nietzsche , Kierkegaard , Tagore , Rilke , Johannes Müller and others. In 1921 she stayed in Vienna for a year to study German and English. After returning to Hudiksvall, at the age of twenty-one, she resigned from the Baptist church, which had become too small for her. A stay in Germany followed in 1922, followed by a trip to Europe in 1923 as a companion of Princess Chakuntala, daughter-in-law of the Maharajah von Boroda.

vocation

The First Ecumenical Congress in Stockholm in 1925, convened by Archbishop Nathan Söderblom , was significant for the further life of Rut Björkman . From her soul Ruth felt charged with proclaiming publicly to the representatives of churches from all over the world that the gospel was to be understood differently from what is customary in the church, namely in the sense of mysticism . The archbishop, who was from Hudiksvall, did not give the requested discussion. But he recommended Ruth to follow her vision in life. Ruth attended the congress, worked as an interpreter and received offers to serve in church committees. Before a follow-up conference in Uppsala, Ruth turned again to Söderblom, was also received, but only referred to the Bible, especially to the consolation of the Psalms . In Johannes Müller , whose rest home at Schloss Elmau she frequently visited, she found a soul guide.

In December 1925, her will to live was shattered for years because she felt guilty for not following the inner voice to preach her vision of the gospel message . Finally, she found her valid language in the written meditation that she practiced until the day of her death.

Fonts

literature

  • Reinhard Mook: Rut Björkman: Memories from the circle of friends. Dingfelder, 1992, ISBN 3-926253-84-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Haury: From Riesa to Schloss Elmau ISBN 3579026127 , p. 192

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bahlsen, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Björkman, Rut (pseudonym); Jägerström, Rut (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish author
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Hudiksvall , Hälsingland , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1988