Theodor Jaeckel

Theodor Jaeckel (born September 16, 1908 in Wussow , Rummelsburg district in Pomerania , † February 14, 1998 in Bad Soden am Taunus ) was a German Protestant theologian and missionary in Japan .

Live and act

Theodor Jaeckel was born as the son of the pastor and later superintendent Friedrich Jaeckel and grew up in Wussow (now Polish: Osowo), Elberfeld and Weitenhagen (Wytowno), Stolp district in Pomerania . From 1922 to 1925 he attended grammar school in Templin in Uckermark , then until 1926 in Demmin in Western Pomerania . Due to a tuberculosis illness, he attended school in Davos from 1926 to 1927 , where he graduated from high school.

From 1927 to 1933 Theodor Jaeckel studied Protestant theology in Erlangen , Bethel , Marburg , Zurich and Greifswald and went to Oxford as an exchange student in 1932 . Here he translated the book Creative Prayer by Emily Herman into German ("Leben aus Gott").

In 1933 Theodor Jaeckel passed the first theological exam in Stettin , became vicar in Stargard in Pomerania and in 1934 became a private assistant to Ludwig Köhler and a private tutor in France for a few months. After a time in the Szczecin seminary and a job as an assistant preacher in the port city, he passed the second theological exam in March 1936. His ordination took place on March 26, 1936 .

Jaeckel took over the pastors' posts in Hökendorf (Polish: Klęskowo) near Stettin and in Dargitz near Pasewalk , before he worked as a missionary and initially also as pastor of the German Protestant community with an additional assignment to teach religion and Latin in Tsingtau (today: Qingdao) in China went. A year later he was a missionary in Japan Tokyo , where from 1941 also priest of the local German Protestant community.

After two years as a free missionary (the Swiss East Asia Mission commissioning him released all German missionaries) Theodor Jaeckel entered the missionary service of the American Methodist Church in 1948 and also became a teacher at Aoyama Gakiun College for German and English. In 1953 he went as a missionary of the United Church of Canada first to Kyushu , then from 1957 to Kobe .

In 1960 Jaeckel returned to Germany and lived in Mainz-Kastel and Frankfurt am Main . In the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau he took over the office of industrial pastor until 1972 , when he retired to Oberursel (Taunus) and then moved to Bad Soden am Taunus until his death .

Theodor Jaeckel was married to the Red Cross sister Margarete Kasch , a teacher's daughter from Pomerania. They had five children.

Publications

In addition to an autobiography, Jaeckel published many times in church-theological journals. The German translation Leben aus Gott (original title: Creative Prayer ) by Emily Herman comes from him . He was also the author of:

• The Christian Conception of Work and Vocation: The Biblical Basis, Historical Development and Present-day Problems with Special Reference to Japan. Occupational Evangelism Committee of the United Church of Christ in Japan, 1955.
• The Japanese labor movement. Their structure and their location in the current social upheaval . Tokyo 1960.
• Living in the present age. Meditations on social problems. (= YMCA English Bible series. Volume 5), World Alliance of Young Men's Christian Associations, YMCA Press, 1960 (English).
• He who lets himself be disturbed lives. Development of the understanding of God in the Bible , Stuttgart, 1988 - ISBN 3-7918-1901-1

literature

• Wilhelm Matzat: The missionaries of the General Evangelical Protestant Missions Association (AEPM) in Tsingtau. Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, ( Online , PDF , accessed June 24, 2012).

Footnotes

1. ↑ Ernst Müller: The Evangelical Clergy of Pomerania from the Reformation to the present . II. Theil, Stettin 1912.