Viktor Wittrock

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Viktor Wittrock (ca.1901)

Viktor Wittrock , also Victor Wittrock , fully Viktor Karl August Wittrock (born September 6 . Jul / 18th September  1869 greg. In Laugo ; † 14. January 1944 in Bad Schwartau ) was a Baltic German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman and author.

Life

Viktor Wittrock was a son of the estate manager Friedrich W. Wittrock, who had immigrated from Holstein , and his wife Amalie nee. Shasmin who was of Estonian origin. Hugo Wittrock was his younger brother.

From 1879 to 1888 he was a student at the grammar school in Arensburg and experienced the Russification policy in the Baltic States at that time . He then studied Protestant theology at the University of Dorpat until 1892 , especially with Ferdinand Dietrich Nikolai Hoerschelmann and Alexander von Oettingen , and was a member of the Dorpat Theological Association . In 1893 he passed the consistorial exam in Riga . After completing the probationary year in St. Bartholomäi (Estonian: Palamuse ), he was ordained pastor in the cathedral in Dorpat on January 8, 1895 , and appointed vicar and inspector of the Inner Mission in Dorpat on January 20, 1895 . In 1896 he received a pastor in Oberpahlen (Estonian Põltsamaa ). The appointment and introduction of Wittrock, who spoke fluent Estonian , was accompanied by tumultuous unrest in the Estonian community against the prerogatives of the church patron and mostly absent lord of the castle in Oberpahlen, Prince Gagarin .

John's Church in Tartu (2010)

In May 1900 he was appointed to the cathedral in Reval , and from October 25, 1901 he worked as senior pastor at the Johanniskirche in Dorpat. From 1904 he published together with Carl Hunnius (1856–1931) the yearbook Heimatstimmen: a Baltic yearbook which appeared in five volumes up to 1912. He was a member of the Estonian Scholarly Society .

After the events at the end of the First World War and the Estonian War of Freedom , he went to Mecklenburg in early 1919. After a colloquium in Schwerin, he was accepted into the service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mecklenburg and temporarily parish administrator at the Zurow village church .

Paulskirche Schwerin (2015)

In September 1919 he was appointed second pastor of the Paulskirche in Schwerin and at the same time lecturer at the Schwerin seminary . In addition, he was chairman of the board of directors of the YMCA in Mecklenburg and belonged to the Baltic Brotherhood . In 1924 he conducted a public debate with Friedrich Baumgärtel about his modern critical view of the Old Testament .

Wittrock was one of the first and sharpest critics of the takeover of power by the German Christians who were close to the National Socialists in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg . In June 1934 there was therefore the Schwerin trial before a special court in which he, together with six other pastors ( Henning Fahrenheim , Gottfried Holtz , Johannes Schwartzkopff , Hans Werner Ohse and Christian Berg from Boizenburg and Walter Pagels from Rostock ) for "degrading" the National Socialist State and was charged with violating the Ordinance on Treachery. In his case, a sentence was waived due to his age, poor health and his Baltic origin; the other defendants were also released from their sentences as part of a general amnesty . Wittrock was retired.

In retirement he wrote his autobiography , which appeared in Schwerin in 1940.

Since 1895 he was married to Alexandra Baronesse von Engelhardt (* 1867 in Novgorod).

The Wittrock-Haus , Am Jungfernstieg 2 in Schwerin, is named after him and belongs to the Schwerin Augustenstift and is used for day care .

Works

  • Drunkenness and its fight: with special consideration of the temperance movement and the jug issue in the Baltic provinces of the Baltic Sea. (= Studies and sketches from the inner mission and its border areas 2) Riga: Hoerschelmann 1900
  • D. Ferdinand Hoerschelmann, because. Professor and university preacher: a picture of life. Jurjew (Dorpat): JG Krüger; Riga: WF Häcker 1903
  • (with Carl Hunnius, ed.): Heimatstimmen: a Baltic yearbook. 5 volumes, Reval: Kluge; Leipzig: Hartmann 1904–1912
  • (Ed.): Wilhelm Volck : On the heights of the church year: selected celebratory sermons. Jurjev (Dorpat): Krüger 1905
  • Catechism lessons in the fire of criticism. Dorpat 1909
  • What is needed in our time? A sermon of the time for all who are troubled in heart. Hamburg: Verlag des Rauhen Haus 1919
  • Address to the funeral service for Empress Auguste in Schwerin i. M. on April 21, 1921. Schwerin: Bahn 1921
  • In storm and silence: a Baltic pastor's life in turbulent times. Schwerin: Railway 1940

literature

  • Erik Amburger : The pastors of the consistorial district of Estonia: 1885-1919. Cologne: Böhlau 1988 ISBN 9783412011888 , p. 98.
  • Baltic Historical Commission (Ed.): Entry on Viktor Wittrock. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
  • Niklot Beste : The Schwerin Trial in June 1934. In: Heinrich Holze (Hrsg.): The Rostock Theological Faculty under two dictatorships. Festschrift for Gert Haendler. Lit-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6887-7
  • Niklot Beste: The church struggle in Mecklenburg from 1933 to 1945: history, documents, memories. Berlin (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt) / Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, licensed edition; works on the history of the church struggle, supplementary series; 9) 1975 ISBN 3-525-55533-4 , p. 226.
  • Carola L. Gottzmann / Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . 3 volumes; Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-11019338-1 , p. 1424.
  • Wilhelm Neander: Lexicon of Baltic German Theologians since 1920. Harro von Hirschheydt Verlag, Hannover-Döhren 1967. P. 150.
  • Gustav Willgeroth : The Mecklenburg-Schwerin Parishes since the Thirty Years' War: with comments on the previous pastors since the Reformation. Volume 2, Wismar: Self-published 1925, p. 1071.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matriculation No. 13864
  2. ^ Album of the Theological Association to Dorpat-Jurjew. Dorpat 1905, p. 141 No. 334 ( digitized version , UB Tartu); Addendum to the album of the Theological Association in Dorpat. Dorpat 1929, p. 57 No. 334 ( digitized , UB Tartu)
  3. ^ Ado Grenzstein : Herrenkirche or Volkskirche? An Estonian voice in the Baltic choir. Jurjew (Dorpat) 1900, p. 99f
  4. ↑ ZDB -ID 546008-6
  5. ↑ Bastian Filaretow: The Baltic Brotherhood. Against the zeitgeist? In: Michael Garleff (Ed.): Baltic Germans, Weimar Republic and Third Reich . Volume 1. 2., revised and supplemented edition, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2008, pp. 11–50, here p. 45 note 73
  6. ^ Karl Schmaltz : Church history of Mecklenburg. Volume 3, Berlin 1952, p. 488
  7. ↑ Best: Process (Lit.)
personal data
SURNAME Wittrock, Viktor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wittrock, Victor; Wittrock, Viktor Karl August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic Evangelical-Lutheran clergyman and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Laugo
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1944
Place of death Bad Schwartau