Theodor Taube

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Theodor Taube (born February 1, 1864 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire , † May 22, 1919 in Riga , Latvian SPR ), full name Theodor Eduard Taube , Latvian Teodors Taube , was a German-Baltic pastor . He is considered an Evangelical Lutheran martyr and is recorded on the Riga Martyrs Stone.

The dates in this article are based on the Julian calendar for the period up to 1918 unless otherwise noted.

Life

Youth and career

Theodor Taube's father Dr. med. Alexander Taube came from Riga and was a doctor in St. Petersburg, where his son was born, who also considered Riga to be his home. In St. Petersburg, Theodor Taube attended the Reformed Church School from 1872 to 1881, from which he graduated from high school. From 1881 to 1887 he studied theology at the University of Dorpat . From February 23, 1883 to 1885 he was a member of the Dorpat Theological Society. He also belonged to the Fraternitas Rigensis . He graduated with the candidate's degree. In 1887 he passed his exams before the consistory in Riga. He spent his probationary year from 1887 to 1888 with Provost Kaehlbrandt in Neu-Pebalg in Livonia .

On April 1, 1888, he was ordained in Riga by Superintendent General Girgensohn as vicar of the districts Wenden and Walk . In September of the same year he was called to Riga. There he was initially vicar at the Martinskirche.

After that he was elected afternoon preacher at Riga Cathedral . He gave his presentation sermon on Sunday, August 14th . / August 26, 1888 greg. . He held this office until February 1891.

Martin's Church in Riga

From 1891 he was a pastor's adjunct in the local Martin church . In 1892 he married Lucie Rahlenbeck.

Donations collected by Taube were often mentioned in the press.

On Friday June 22nd, Jul. / July 5, 1901 greg. , he held a festive service in St. Martin's Church at 11:30 a.m. on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the city of Riga.

On Sunday October 27th Jul. / November 9th, 1902 greg. , he reported at the German-language 5 p.m. service for the 50th anniversary of the old Martinskirche. On this occasion he had also published a commemorative sheet entitled “The Martins Church in Riga”. (See chapter "Works".)

Pastor of the newly founded German Martins Church

When the congregation was divided into a German and a Latvian in 1904, Theodor Taube took over the German congregation as the first independent preacher and regular pastor, which he built up internally and externally. He worked in numerous associations, institutions and magazines; but his work as a pastor was central to him. He didn't like doing things by halves. In Riga, the Inner Mission began to have a positive effect on the structure of the congregations. Against this background, Taube also tried to revitalize the community by founding lively working groups. He succeeded in winning the church guardians as employees for the church maintenance. He founded clubs to bring the youth together and introduced children's services. He took care of the organization of poor relief and community diaconia.

On his initiative, he built his own pastorate with a deaconess station and a large parish hall. The community life could be supported by the introduction of a voluntary church tax. He arranged for a collection for the construction of a separate Martinskirche for the German community and founded the Martins Church Choir together with H. Creutzburg. Important to Taube was prayer, the proclamation of the gospel of God's grace and the fight against his own sins.

In October 1905 he helped found a choir for children from Thorensberg , Hagensberg and Sassenhof by making the new German pastorate available for rehearsals.

On August 19, 1907 at 3:30 p.m. he gave the opening speech about the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple ( Lk 2,41-52  LUT ) at the church opening ceremony of the German-speaking Dutch elementary school of the German Association in Livonia as a member of the school council in the Martinskirche . He emphasized the sentences “Should I not be in what my father is” and “He was subject to them”. The first sentence he referred to the right of every people to live in their ancestral territory, but also, directed primarily to teachers, to the endeavor to want to be a member of the kingdom of God. With the second sentence he admonished the students to behave well in school. He emphasized the importance of the school in national and religious-moral relations.

The school initially had to limit itself to rented rooms, so that there was not enough space for the applicants. In July 1908, Taube took part as secretary of the school council in collecting money for the new school.

On December 21, 1909 at 1 p.m. he gave the inauguration speech for the new school building. The foundation of the school must be the gospel; students could only be successful if they saw Christ as their invisible guide in this school. Then he asked for God's blessing for this "place of Christian discipline and custom" and spoke the Lord's Prayer.

Wartime

Construction of its own German church was scheduled to begin in autumn 1914. The newly founded congregation prospered internally and externally and had grown to 6,000 members by the time the First World War broke out. Many Germans who were members of the community were banished, and the Russian state evacuated the factories to the Russian-speaking part of the empire. The officials and workers also had to emigrate. The congregation shrank to 1200 members. The church could no longer be built; the money earmarked for the construction was also brought to the Russian-speaking area and disappeared. One area of ​​community life after the other came to a standstill because the human and financial effort could no longer be met. The pastor saw what he had built up. He accepted this as God's decision and tried all the more for what was left of the church. The shrinking congregation brought the pastor more free time to spend with his family. His marriage was happy; he had ten children to look after as a father and friend and found the time to play with them too.

The war brought great economic problems for the family; Taube retained his joy and gratitude towards God, which he also conveyed to his family. The situation worsened during the Latvian War of Independence ; the children lost weight, but could still laugh because of the above-mentioned upbringing. When the Bolsheviks moved in, it was natural for the pastor to stay with his small congregation. In his sermons he gave her comfort and joy. He was clear about his negative attitude towards the new regime. This was particularly evident at the funerals of people executed by the Bolsheviks. Every evening he asked God for protection for his family, he expressed thanks for every day he could still spend with his family. He counted on everything without being burdened by it.

Arrest, detention and execution

He was preparing the sermon on Saturday, April 5, 1919, when he was arrested. He asked the Bolsheviks to have dinner with him, talked to his family as usual, prayed briefly, and then allowed himself to be taken away. He was body searched in the detention center. His New Testament was taken away from him because it was illegal reading. This enraged Taube, who otherwise remained as calm as ever during his entire detention in the Riga Central Prison. He was used to working with a spade and hatchet, which is why he did not find the forced labor humiliating. He also did his pastoral work in custody. He had to dig graves in the cemetery, which he did as a matter of course. But when the coffins were lowered, he preached God's word to the guards and the other prisoners and prayed with them. His captivity letters contained no complaints; he did not comment on the mortal danger. He was prepared for his death. If there was any indication that he believed that one letter might be his last, it was that he thanked his wife and children particularly deeply and praised God particularly strongly.

The prisoners expected an amnesty for May 1, 1919, but this did not materialize. They were torn between hope and fatefulness.

On May 22nd, the prison was about to be stormed by a raid troop of the Baltic State Armed Forces , about which the prisoners knew nothing. Shortly before the Bolsheviks withdrew from Riga, Taube and 32 fellow prisoners (see the list below) were led out of their cells in the afternoon. They were brought in an orderly train through the long corridors under heavy guard to the prison yard. Soldiers of the Red Army, who formed the guard, were posted there and now shot all those who were taken out.

Immediately afterwards the soldiers and commissioners fled. A little later, an armored car from the Landeswehr made its way to the prison; the prisoners' relatives followed him into the courtyard. They were shocked by the sight they saw. A piece of paper was found in Theodor Taube's skirt on which it was written in his handwriting:

"God's ways are wonderful - but He leads it out wonderfully."

(According to Isa 28,29  LUT .)

Afterlife

The funeral service for Theodor Taube took place on Tuesday, May 27, 1919, at 3 p.m. in the Martinskirche. Pastor Hillner spoke at the altar, Pastor Rosenberg in the pulpit. The coffin was carried out by the church guardians. The funeral then took place in the Martinskirchhof when the weather was fine. The entire congregation seemed to be present. A fellow prisoner thanked the deceased for the spiritual assistance he had given the prisoners. Th. Augsburg thanked him on behalf of the community for his pastoral work. The floral decorations that were placed after the grave was closed were plentiful and varied.

In particular to commemorate the eight pastors, the Riga Martyrs' Stone was dedicated exactly one year after the executions. The Bolsheviks took even more prisoners to the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic . Some didn't return for a year or two.

Works

  • Martinskirche in Riga , WF Häcker, Riga 1902

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Domestic. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 181, August 11, 1888 ( Taube Pastor Taube | issueType: P )
  2. ↑ receipt. in the Düna newspaper , No. 86, April 17, 1900 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  3. ↑ To the checkout of the livl. Local administration of the Red Cross in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 5, January 8, 1915 ( Pastor Taube | issueType: P )
  4. ↑ church services in Riga's Rundschau ., No. 135, June 18, 1901 online at Pastor Dove | issue type: P
  5. ↑ Notes. in: Rigasche Stadtblätter , No. 32, August 9, 1901, online at Pastor Scheuermann Pastor Pastor | issueType: P
  6. ↑ Locales. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 242, October 25, 1902 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  7. ↑ The Martins Church in Riga. in the Rigaschen city sheets , No. 48, November 28, 1902 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  8. ↑ On the program of the church concert in the Martinskirche in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 48, March 4, 1905 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  9. ↑ On the program of the church concert in the Martinskirche in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 49, March 5, 1905 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  10. ↑ Exercises in singing chorales and folk songs. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 224, October 11, 1905 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  11. ↑ Locales. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 242, October 25, 1905 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  12. ↑ Latest local news. in the Düna newspaper , No. 190, August 17, 1907 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  13. ↑ Church celebration for the opening of the Hollanderschule in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 190, August 17, 1907 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  14. ↑ Church celebration for the opening of the Hollanderschule in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 190, August 17, 1907 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  15. ^ College and School in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 192, August 20, 1907 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  16. ↑ Local. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 192, August 20, 1907 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  17. ↑ Local. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 192, August 20, 1907 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  18. ↑ Local. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 154, July 7, 1908 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  19. ↑ Local. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 155, July 8, 1908 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  20. ↑ Local. in the Düna newspaper , No. 295, December 21, 1909 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  21. ↑ The funeral service for our murdered pastors. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 2, May 26, 1919 ( Pastor Taube | issueType: P )
  22. ^ Pastor Theodor Taube's funeral in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 5, May 30, 1919 ( Taube | issueType: P )
  23. ↑ Twenty years ago in Evangelium und Osten: Russischer Evangelischer Pressedienst , No. 5, May 1, 1939, p. 166 below ( Marion von Klot from | issueType: P Periodika.lv )
  24. ↑ Notes. in the Rigaschen city sheets , No. 46, November 15, 1902 ( Pastor | issueType: P )
personal data
SURNAME Taube, Theodore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taube, Theodor Eduard; Dove, Teodors
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Evangelical Lutheran clergyman, German-Baltic martyr
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1919
Place of death Riga , Latvian SPR