Wilhelm Best

August Friedrich Wilhelm Beste (born April 6, 1817 in Wolfenbüttel , † June 13, 1889 in Braunschweig ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian and pastor .

Life

Wilhelm Beste's grave at the main cemetery in Braunschweig

August Friedrich Wilhelm Beste's parents were the merchant Karl Adolf Beste , who lived in Wolfenbüttel, and his wife Konradine Luise Antoinette, née. Stay faithful. In 1821 the family moved to nearby Braunschweig, where their father died on October 3, 1822. August Beste studied both theology and philology from 1836 to 1839 at the University of Göttingen , after having attended the Katharineum from 1826 . From the end of 1845 he was preacher at the Brunswick penal institution and from 1847 preacher at the prison in his hometown Wolfenbüttel, where he was infected with smallpox by a prisoner in January 1848 and became seriously ill. From the end of 1850 he also worked as a preacher at the Marienkirche there and on July 6, 1851 married Auguste Henriette Elisabeth Sonnenburg. In 1859 he was appointed superintendent in Wendeburg , and in 1868 Beste was appointed pastor of the Petri Church in Braunschweig. From 1882 he was also superintendent general and city. The title of honorary theological doctor was bestowed in 1883. He died on June 13, 1889 in Braunschweig after his wife had died on November 10, 1888. He was known as the first person in Braunschweig to devote himself to the pagan mission . His two sons later became pastors in Wendeburg and Wolfenbüttel.

Works

• Hans Engelbrecht, Braunschweig's mystic. 1839.
• Catherine of Bora . 1843.
• Luther's Doctrine of Faith. Hall 1845.
• Lay philosophy or wisdom for the educated people. 1850.
• Guide to inner peace. Christian meditations. 1855.
• The most important pulpit speakers of the older Lutheran Church from Luther to Spener in biographies and a selection of their sermons. (three volumes; 1856 to 1886).

literature

• Johannes Beste:  Best, Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 46, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1902, pp. 482-486.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Best, Wilhelm. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 563-564.
• Klaus Jürgens: Best, August Friedrich Wilhelm, D. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 60-61 .