Valentin Umbeck

Philipp Valentin Umbeck (born November 13, 1842 in Vallendar , † February 4, 1911 in Koblenz ) was a Protestant pastor and most recently General Superintendent of the Rhenish Church Province of the Evangelical Church in Prussia .

Life and education

Umbeck was born as the son of the businessman Johann Theodor Umbeck and his wife Henriette, née Bastian. He still had six siblings, three of whom died in childhood. His mother also died early when he was only ten years old. He grew up in the diaspora in Vallendar, which was formerly part of the Electorate of Trier . He was baptized in Bendorf , where the few evangelicals were parish .

After attending the local elementary school , Umbeck went to the Royal Prussian Gymnasium in Koblenz, where he graduated from high school in 1861. He then began studying theology at the University of Halle , which he continued in 1863 with a Bernardinum scholarship at the University of Utrecht until 1865. He was able to apply (in Latin) because he came from the Palatinate as an advanced theology student, which also included the areas in which the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism (Latin: Catechesis Palatina) was in use. Immediately after his eighth semester, in 1865, he passed the first theological exam in the spring and two years later the second theological exam before the consistory in Koblenz, each with the grade “good”.

career

Umbeck first went to teacher training for three years at the Düsseltal rescue facility for orphans , which was affiliated with a teachers' seminar for prospective Protestant primary school teachers. In 1868 he was appointed to the second Protestant pastor in the city of Rees , which was connected with the management of the local high school , and which he led to a new bloom in nine years. Here he also found his wife Regina Jacoba van Randenborgh (1849–1934), the daughter of a Rees merchant, whom he married in 1872. She bore him a total of six children, three sons and three daughters, but two daughters died in childhood. In 1877 he took over the pastor's position in Windesheim in the Kreuznach church district. The church was used as a simultaneous church (until 1898) . On July 2, 1884, he was elected superintendent of the church district and was re-elected several times until 1898. Two years later, Umbeck left Windesheim and followed the call to the pastor's position at the Pauluskirche at the seat of the church district in Kreuznach. In 1890 he was elected as assessor (in the church area: deputy), in 1893 as president of the Rhenish provincial synod with an impressive majority of 87 of 88 votes. When the incumbent, already ailing General Superintendent Wilhelm Baur died unexpectedly in 1897, Umbeck was appointed General Superintendent of the Rhenish Provincial Church on March 6, 1898 by Kaiser Wilhelm II , the highest church lord, with the assistance of the Evangelical High Church Council. He held this office, based in Koblenz, until his death. He was buried in the main cemetery in Koblenz .

Act

Diakonie church and mother house in Bad Kreuznach

As soon as the number of parishioners allowed, he established new independent parishes in the immigrant communities that were developing through industrial development. The construction of new churches - during his term of office, 88 churches were built in the Rhineland and often consecrated in his presence and cooperation - was a matter of concern to him and he ensured church and government grants. The Diakonie was it a particular concern. He was responsible for the establishment of the second Diakonie parent company in his church district after the Kaiserswerther Diakonie , the kreuznacher diakonie , which he was able to inaugurate on May 27, 1903 together with the institutional church, and whose board of trustees he presided over his life. The associations that can be summarized in the Inner Mission and the other diverse church associations found his support, such as the Evangelical Women's Aid in Germany , the mission societies, in particular the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft , the Gustav-Adolf-Werk for the evangelicals in the diaspora, including the Temporary abstinence and morality associations. His duties also included participating in the examinations of the prospective Protestant primary school teachers as commissioner of the consistory in Koblenz. He was also a member of the board of trustees of the German Colonial School in Witzenhausen as the second chairman .

Honors

In 1902 Umbeck received an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , which he used in documentary signatures and official correspondence - as usual - with D in front of his name.

In 1903, on the occasion of the festivities in Kreuznach, he received the Kgl. Prussian Order of the Crown 2nd Class awarded.

literature

• In memory of the General Superintendent of the Rhine Province, who died on February 4, 1911, Real Ober Konsistorialrat D. theol. Valentin Umbeck. Buchdruckerei des Evang. St. Martin Collegiate Koblenz 1911
• Karl Dünhof: Life and work of the superintendents of the Kreuznach District Synod, Seibersbach 1949.

Web links

• Umbeck at rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de
• Umbeck and the establishment of the Bingerbrück parish

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of scholarship holders
2. ↑ WM Schinkelshoek: HET STIPENDIUM BERNARDINUM, what is a name? List of students from the Palatinate and Hungary who studied in Utrecht with the help of the Bernardinum scholarship , Utrecht 2011 p. 6
3. ↑ German Biographical Encyclopedia of Theology and the Churches in the Google book search entry Adalbert von der Recke-Volmerstein
4. ↑ Valentin Umbeck Found 10 Records, 1 Photos and 457 Family Trees Familie Umbeck at Ancestry.com (The linked page is only accessible via the cache; otherwise register, pay)
5. ↑ German Colonial Handbook by Rudolf Fitzner in the Google book search
6. ↑ see above web link Bingerbrück