Sixt Karl Kapff

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Sixt Karl Kapff

Sixt Carl von Kapff (born October 22, 1805 in Güglingen , † September 1, 1879 in Stuttgart ) was a German Protestant theologian and Pietist .

Life

Coming from a family with a strong theological background, he made his way through the seminary in Maulbronn and the monastery in Tübingen . During the vicariate with his father he made the Dr. phil. After a year as a religion teacher in Switzerland, he returned to the Tübingen Abbey as a repetitee in 1830 , where he was able to work with his like-minded friend Wilhelm Hofacker, brother of the evangelical pastor Ludwig Hofacker . There he met David Friedrich Strauss , among others , against whose Hegelian- style criticism he later made a strong polemic.

In 1833 he came as a pastor to the Brethren parish in Korntal , which had special rights and which saw itself outside the regional church . Here he earned his reputation as an integrator, who succeeded in making the special pietistic piety of the Brethren available for the regional church and in preventing pietistic groups from migrating abroad. Despite or precisely because of these experiences in the Brethren, he made a career within the regional church: in 1843 he became dean in Münsingen , in 1847 dean in Herrenberg .

In 1850 he became prelate and general superintendent of Reutlingen , at the same time a member of the consistory , i.e. the church leadership. Through his seat on the church leadership, he influenced personnel decisions in a pietistic sense. Critics therefore spoke of the “rule of Pietism in the Württemberg Church” from the following period.

In 1852 he was entrusted with the pastoral office of the collegiate church in Stuttgart at his own request . There he cast a spell over thousands of people with his sermons. The preaching work and the pastoral work were one of Kapff's strengths. Here he was able to combine personal piety with social commitment. Von Kapff is said to have given the merchant's wife and deaconess Charlotte Reihlen the suggestion to present the words of Jesus, popular in Pietism, about the two paths at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7, 13-14). On the “broad path to damnation” one finds z. B. the game of chance that von Kapff fought. The “narrow path into the kingdom of heaven” leads through Sunday school, the children's rescue center and the deaconess institution . Kapff actively supported such institutions. Together with Charlotte Reihlen, he is considered to be the founder of the Paulinen Hospital in Stuttgart , which is now part of the Diakonie Clinic in Stuttgart. He was also a member of the supervisory board of the daughter institute founded by Reihlen and Friedrich Weidle , a forerunner of today's Evangelical Mörike-Gymnasium Stuttgart .

His prayer and sermon books, but especially his Communion books, achieved high editions and made him known far beyond Württemberg. Because of his services to the Evangelical Church, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of the University of Göttingen in 1855 on the occasion of the commemoration of the Peace of Augsburg, which had been concluded 300 years earlier .

politics

On the revolutionary events of 1848 he took a clear position: "The worst of these democrats are the most hideous blood people, who have a devilish lust for murder and fire, whose hellish plans go to the demolition of the whole building of the social order." He became a representative proposed by the reactionary-conservative forces as a candidate for the Frankfurt Paulskirche assembly, but was defeated by the democratic candidate. In 1849 and 1850 he was twice sent as a member of the constitution-revising Württemberg state assembly, where he advocated a quick connection of Württemberg to a German federal state under Prussian leadership, but found no support for his proposal.

The general superintendents of the Protestant regional church were, by virtue of their office, privileged members of the second chamber of the Württemberg state parliament . Sixt Carl Kapff therefore joined the state parliament in 1850 after his appointment in Reutlingen. He held the office until 1852.

Honors, ennobling, commemoration

In 1860 Sixt Carl Kapff was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , which was associated with the personal title of nobility. In 1873 he received the commentary cross, 2nd class of the Frederick Order .

The Evangelical Church in Germany honors him with a memorial day in the Evangelical Name Calendar on September 1st .

On the occasion of his 200th birthday, a ceremony took place in 2005 at his honorary grave in the Fangelsbach cemetery in Stuttgart .

Works (selection)

  • Saint-Simonism in France. Tübingen Journal for Theology 2 (1832)
  • Prayer book. Stuttgart. 1835. Digitized part 2
  • The future of the Lord. Stuttgart. 1836. Digitized
  • The Württemberg communities of Kornthal and Wilhelmsdorf. Stuttgart. 1839
  • Communion book. Stuttgart. 1839
  • Warning of a childhood friend of the most dangerous youth enemy. Stuttgart. 1841. Digitized 1864
  • Passion, Easter and Day of Repentance sermons. Tuttlingen. 1842
  • A Swiss trip. Stuttgart. 1843
  • Prayer book from Pastor MSC Kapff in Kornthal (now Dean in Münsingen). First and Second Part. With a steel engraving. Sixth edition. Stuttgart. Printing and publishing of the Chr. Belser'schen Buchhandlung. 1843
  • Eighty sermons on the old epistles of all Sundays and public holidays. Stuttgart. 1878
  • Prayer book for twelve weeks. Tuttlingen. 1847
  • The revolution, its causes, consequences and remedies. A winning award typeface. Hamburg. 1851
  • The Game of Hazards and the Necessity of Its Abolition. Stuttgart. 1854
  • Four sermons on education and marriage. Stuttgart. 1855
  • The happy factory worker, his dignity and burden, Sunday and working day, faith, hope and prayer. Stuttgart. 1856
  • The religious condition of Protestant Germany. Stuttgart. 1856
  • Eighty-three sermons on the old gospels of the Sundays, feasts and holidays of the church year. Stuttgart. 1857
  • Letter of the German Protestant Kirchentag to the Protestant communities of Austria. Stuttgart. 1857
  • Desired and despised in fifteen sermons. Stuttgart. 1859
  • Way to heaven in 81 sermons on the Gospels of the second year. Stuttgart. 1864
  • Synodal sermon and lecture. Stuttgart. 1869
  • Four sermons of war and victory. Stuttgart. 1870
  • The first question with its answer. 1871
  • Welcome and memorial sheet for the returning German warriors. Stuttgart. 1871
  • Shorter prayers for twelve weeks. Morning and evening devotions, feasts, supper, cases of birth, illness, death, tribulation and weather, also for travelers, emigrants, servants and other needs, written or chosen from the best prayer and song books by Prelate Dr. Kapff, preacher and senior consistorial councilor in Stuttgart. Sixth edition. Stuttgart. Chr. Belser's publishing house. 1873

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evangelische Diakonissenanstalt Stuttgart Our story ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diak-stuttgart.de
  2. ^ Fr. Braun: Charlotte Reihlen (1805–1868). A picture of women from the Stuttgart community circles , Stuttgart 1922, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Manual 1862, page 48
  4. ^ Sixt Karl Kapff in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kapff, Sixt Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kapff, Sixt Carl von; Kapff, Sixtus Carl von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, Pietist
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Güglingen
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1879
Place of death Stuttgart