Theodor Hossbach

Benjamin Theodor Johannes Hossbach (born July 1, 1834 in Berlin ; † August 11, 1894 in Groß-Lichterfelde ) was a German Protestant pastor.

Life

Hossbach, son of pastor Peter Wilhelm Hossbach , studied Protestant theology in Berlin and Bonn from 1852 . Here Friedrich Bleek , whose lecture on the Apocalypse ( Revelation of John ) he published posthumously, became his most important teacher. After receiving his doctorate as a licentiate , he became parish vicar in the Diaspora community of Neutral-Moresnet near Aachen in 1858 and assistant preacher in Berlin in 1861.

As a representative of a liberal theology that goes back to Friedrich Schleiermacher , he played a leading role in the founding of the German Protestant Association in 1865. After an intermezzo as a field preacher in the avant-garde of the Elbarmee in 1866, he was elected preacher at St. Andrew's Church by the Berlin magistrate in 1867 .

In addition to his pastoral office, Hossbach was also active as a journalist and supported church and theological liberalism . Schleiermacher's biography was the most popular in the 19th century. In 1873 he and other Berlin pastors stood up for his brother Adolf Sydow , who was attacked for his criticism of the Apostles' Creed .

The grave of Theodor Hossbach in Berlin-Kreuzberg

In 1877, after an election sermon in the St. Jacobi Church , Hossbach himself became the subject of violent attacks by Orthodoxy . He was elected pastor, but an objection was successfully lodged with the Brandenburg Consistory . Kaiser Wilhelm I even demanded an investigation against Hossbach. Emil Herrmann , the president of the responsible Evangelical upper church council of the old Prussian regional church , who opposed the demanded removal from office, resigned because of this conflict. Hossbach received the support of the majority of his Berlin office colleagues and was elected second chairman by the Berlin city synod in autumn 1877. So he was initially able to continue to officiate at St. Andreas and in 1881 take up a pastor's position at the New Church in Berlin (the so-called German Cathedral ).

Theodor Hossbach died in Groß-Lichterfelde in 1894 at the age of 60. He was buried in Cemetery II of the Jerusalem and New Churches in front of the Hallesches Tor in Berlin. The granite tombstone with a base and a bronze portrait medallion and a cross crowning stands on a site surrounded by a wrought-iron grille, on which there is also the grave monument of his father, who died in 1846.

Works

• Theses controversae. Georgi, Bonn 1857.
• Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher . His life and work. Told the German people. A commemorative publication for the centenary of his birthday on November 21, 1868. Loewenstein, Berlin 1868 (several editions).
• Pietism in the Protestant Church. A lecture was given in the Protestant Association in Elberfeld and in the Union Association in Berlin. Geelhaar, Berlin 1869.
• What about faith in modern orthodoxy and in the supposedly unbelieving Protestant association? Lecture (= Protestant lectures. Vol. 2, 1, ZDB -ID 313845-8 ). Henschel, Berlin 1870.
• The prayer. Lecture given at the Union Association in Berlin on February 23, 1872 (= Protestant lectures. Vol. 4, 1). Henschel, Berlin 1872.
• Christianity of the early community. Lecture. Haack, Berlin 1877.
• The tasks of the Protestant Association. sn, Berlin 1879.
• I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Inaugural sermon on letter to the Romans I v. 16 held in the New Church in Berlin on February 20, 1881. Haack, Berlin 1881.
• Are we still Protestants? sn, Berlin 1882.
• The revised Luther Bible. Presentation made at the meeting of the standing committee of the German Protestant Association on April 29, 1884. Haack, Berlin 1884.

literature

• Documents relating to the election of the preacher Lic. Hoßbach as pastor at St. Jacobi in Berlin. Schlesier, Berlin 1877.
• Julius Burggraf (Ed.): Theodor Hoßbach. In memory of his life and work. Winckelmann & Sons, Berlin 1895.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Hossbach, Theodor. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 1076-1078.
• Claudia Lepp: Protestant-liberal departure into the modern age. The German Protestant Association in the time of the establishment of the Empire and the Kulturkampf (= Religious Cultures of Modernity. Vol. 3). Kaiser et al., Gütersloh 1996, ISBN 3-579-02602-X (At the same time: Freiburg (Breisgau), University, dissertation, 1994: The German Protestant Association in the years 1863 to 1888. ).

Web links

Commons : Theodor Hossbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 233.