Aunt Hanna

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Aunt Hanna (bourgeois Johanna Wilhelmine Faust , née Kess (e) ler ; born September 28, 1825 in Elberfeld - Arrenberg ; † December 16, 1903 there ) was a German ( people ) missionary . She is considered a historically significant personality of the Evangelical Society for Germany and is one of the Wuppertal city originals .

Childhood and youth

Johanna Kessler was born on September 28, 1825 as the daughter of the cotton weaver Johannes Kessler and his wife Gertrud, b. Fischbach, born as one of four children in the family. She grew up in poor conditions because her father had to support the entire family with his weaving wages. Johanna, who was called Hanna from childhood, attended elementary school in Arrenberg. Her father died when Hanna was nine years old. At the age of 12 she left school at her own request and started working in a silk weaving mill. In addition to her work, she attended confirmation classes from the Elberfeld pastor Immanuel Friedrich Sander , who played a formative role in Hanna's later popular missionary life and work.

In 1853 Hanna married the factory worker Friedrich Wilhelm Faust († 1888) and moved into a house with him in Elberfeld.

Missionary work

After their marriage, Hanna started a peddler's shop , mainly selling coffee . During this activity she was able to collect first donations for charitable purposes from the wealthier Elberfeld residents. Ludwig Feldner , pastor in Elberfeld and later founder of the Evangelical Society for Germany , held Bible studies in Hanna's house from around 1855 . At this time Hanna began her extensive popular missionary work. She founded several non-profit associations, supported poor and sick residents of Elberfeld, fought against prostitution and supported the Wuppertal women's refuge. In addition, Hanna began to collect textiles and used clothes and to distribute them among the needy in Elberfeld, what she called the "Brockensammlung" and what is seen as one of the predecessor institutions of today's used clothes collection .

Elendstaler Chapel, 1872

From 1868 Hanna Faust turned to a locality in Elberfeld , which was called Elendstal . In this settlement, where people were particularly poor, she began holding Bible studies for the residents' children in the late 1860s. This was initially done in the open air, no funds were available for a planned wooden hut. At this time the name Aunt Hanna began to become popular. According to her own statement, Hanna got a vision one night in which she was instructed to build the necessary accommodation. She then began collecting money and donations in kind, to which she was able to persuade numerous entrepreneurs and private individuals. In 1872 Hanna was finally able to open a larger half-timbered house with a meeting room, which was called the Elendstaler Chapel on the advice of the architect Heinrich Bramesfeld . From then on, the chapel served as a meeting place for clubs, as a Sunday school and as a place for various other activities and events. In 1899 the chapel became the property of the Evangelical Society.

In addition to her work around the Elendstaler Chapel and the public events, Hanna campaigned for the poor population of her home country all her life, collected donations from wealthy citizens, took care of children and young people in pastoral care and supported women's shelters and associations that fought against prostitution. Her husband's addiction to alcohol motivated Hanna to distribute the magazines of the Blue Cross , which has been active in Germany since 1885 , mainly in areas where alcoholism, mostly due to hard work and poverty, was particularly pronounced.

Death and aftermath

Grave slab

On December 16, 1903, Hanna died after a brief serious illness. For her funeral on December 20, over 1000 people came to the Trinity Church in Arrenberg , and several hundred people attended the funeral procession that followed. Hanna Faust was buried in the Lutheran cemetery . Pastor Heinrich Niemöller held the funeral speech . Her grave slab is now on the wall of the entrance gate to the cemetery.

The revival preacher Elias Schrenk (1831–1913), who is considered the father of classical evangelism in German-speaking countries, described Aunt Hanna in an unspecified Bible study as a “great power in Elberfeld”.

Already in 1904 the theologian and pastor Wilhelm Busch published the biography Tante Hanna - A Wuppertal original from the most recent times , in which he described Hanna's life and work in detail and cemented her position as the Wuppertal original . The work was published in twelve editions until at least 1929.

In the 1960s, the dilapidated Elendstal Chapel was renovated by the Wuppertal Bible Seminar and the Evangelical Society and has since served as a memorial for Johanna Faust .

literature

  • Wilhelm Busch : Aunt Hanna - A Wuppertal original from the most recent times. Bookshop of the Evangelical Society for Germany, Elberfeld 1904.
  • Walter Schäble: She had a strong God. Publishing house and writing mission of the Evangelical Society for Germany, Wuppertal 1958.
  • Gerhard Deimling , Harald Seeger: Aunt Hanna - The worker Hanna Faust as a people's missionary. R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1989, ISBN 978-3-417-12432-3 .

Web links

Commons : Johanna Faust  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Andreas Klotz: What can we learn from Aunt Hanna? In: Light + Life Info . No. 35 , March 2009, p. 3 f .
  2. ↑ Deimling, Seeger: Tante Hanna - The worker Hanna Faust as a people's missionary. P. 16 ff.
  3. ↑ a b Deimling, Seeger: Tante Hanna - The worker Hanna Faust as a people's missionary. P. 28 ff.
  4. ↑ a b Anna-Maria Reinhold: The long way to ordination of women in the Protestant church using the example of Wuppertal . S. 65 f .
  5. ↑ Deimling, Seeger: Tante Hanna - The worker Hanna Faust as a people's missionary. P. 36 ff.
  6. ↑ Schäble: She had a strong god. P. 26 ff.
  7. ↑ Deimling, Seeger: Tante Hanna - The worker Hanna Faust as a people's missionary. P. 46 ff.
  8. ↑ Schäble: She had a strong god. P. 41 ff.
  9. ^ Wilhelm Busch: Aunt Hanna - A Wuppertal original from a new era . 9th edition. Bookstore of the Evangelical Society for Germany, Elberfeld 1922, p. 7 .
  10. ↑ Deimling, Seeger: Tante Hanna - The worker Hanna Faust as a people's missionary. P. 126 f.
  11. ↑ Markus Arndt: The zoo district in Wuppertal . Sprockhövel 1999, p. 82 f .
personal data
SURNAME Aunt Hanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Faust, Johanna Wilhelmine; Faust, Hanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German people's missionary
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld - Arrenberg
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1903
Place of death Elberfeld - Arrenberg