Theodor Rhiem

Theodor Rhiem (born April 29, 1823 in Minden ; † August 26, 1880 in Kleinmühlingen ) was a German theologian and educator .

Live and act

Theodor Rhiem was the son of an accountant who died early. He spent his childhood and youth under precarious financial circumstances. Benefactors made it possible for him to attend a grammar school in Minden, which he left with the Abitur in 1841, and then studied theology at the University of Berlin . Here he was particularly influenced by the “pectoral theology” taught by August Neander . He finished his studies in 1845 with the first theological exam and then worked as a tutor for Count Bredow in Kleßen .

As of July 6, 1846 Rhiem worked as a senior teacher in the Rough House of Johann Hinrich Wichern where neglected children and young people were supervised. He also took a course at the seminar for school teachers in Berlin, which he completed in 1847 with the second theological exam. On behalf of Wichern, Rhiem and other employees of the Rauhen Haus traveled to Czarków in the same year . There they organized an aid campaign for orphans, which had become necessary due to an outbreak of typhus .

On January 1, 1850, he received a position as an inspector at the Rauhe Haus. He thus de facto represented Wichern, who was in Berlin. With the “Section of the Children's Institution” he took over the most important part of the Rauhe Haus, which he expanded and advanced conceptually. He thus played a decisive role in a concept that brought the Rauhen Haus a high reputation far outside of Hamburg. The activity as director ended with Riehm's resignation on April 18, 1872. This was preceded by accusations by Wichern in technical and disciplinary matters, which were largely unfounded. Wichern probably only wanted to achieve that his son Johannes Wichern took over from Rhiem as head of the facility. After the employment relationship ended, Wichern stated that Rhiem had "helped him with a rare degree of loyalty and dedication".

Rhiem moved to Köthen , where he worked as a pastor from 1872. From 1878 until shortly before his death he took over the rural pastor's post in Kleinmühlingen . During this time he kept in touch with the Rauhen Haus and shortly before his death traveled to a conference of the hostel fathers. In the last years of his life, he ran a voluntary "association chairman" for Rhineland and Westphalia, a new organization that looked after members of the brotherhood of the Rauhen Haus outside Hamburg.

Rhiem had a total of three wives, the first two of whom each died a few years after the marriage. The marriages produced seven children, three of whom died before his own death.

In 1914, the Hamburg Senate named the Riehmsweg in Hamburg-Horn after Theodor Rhiem.

Works

Theodor Rhiem prepared the works of Johann Hinrich Wichern. In 1868 he himself wrote the first version of the book of brothers , which described the conception and organization of the brotherhood of the Rauhe Haus and included the names of the employees. Rhiem wrote biographical articles on personalities of diaconia such as Dorothea Sibylle von Brandenburg and dealt critically in writings with the educational concepts of other diaconal institutions.

literature

• Bodo Schümann: Rhiem, Theodor . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 2 . Christians, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1366-4 , pp. 342-343 .