Wilhelm Gilbert

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Wilhelm Gilbert (* December 24, 1868 in Hofzumberg , Kurland Governorate , Russian Empire ; † November 16 or 17, 1919 near Siuxt , Latvian SPR ), Latvian Vilhelms Gilberts , was a Latvian 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 education

Wilhelm Gilbert's father was the Latvian farmer Johann Gilbert. He and his wife were very religious. Wilhelm Gilbert was gifted and learned to read from his father at the age of five. The Bible and the hymn book were the only literature on the farm. The boy was now constantly reading in both. Arnold von Rutkowski's father , Provost von Rutkowski, a German-Baltic , took him on for further training in his pastorate. Wilhelm Gilbert benefited greatly from it.

From 1882 to 1887 he attended secondary school in Mitau . He received his school-leaving certificate on December 17, 1887. In 1893 he graduated from high school in Saint Petersburg .

From 1893 to 1898 he was able to fulfill his wish and studied theology at the University of Dorpat . As early as 1894 he began solving a scientific award task that had been set by the faculty and earned him a gold medal. During his studies he struggled to keep his faith in the light of scientific research, which he achieved through the stable foundation that his mother had given him. In November 1898 he passed his exams before the Courland Consistory in Mitau.

Wilhelm Gilbert was a scientist through and through; Nevertheless, he did not choose a scientific career because it was not justifiable for him to go into debt for a more extensive scientific education. So he decided to practice and was ordained pastor adjunct to Pastor Weide in Grobin on November 7th, 1899 , he also worked as a private tutor.

On May 17th, Jul. / May 30,  1901 greg. he married Lilly Ernestine Felix. According to a corresponding resolution by the Council of Churches in April 1901, he was an orphan father of the St. Petersburg Petri congregation and religion teacher at their school from May 19. This meant a significant increase in income. There were two opposing candidates. In October 1904 he resigned from his position as an orphan father because he intended to move to Mitau .

After a long period of wandering, he became vicar in SET in 1904 , where he represented Pastor Feldmann from January to November 1905 and experienced the first revolution . During this time he represented the Christian faith and legal certainty, with which he turned the socialists into opponents. On Pentecost Sunday, during one of his services, as in other places, revolutionary tumult broke out:

During the opening hymn, when Gilbert was still in the sacristy, several unknown socialists entered the church. They demanded that they be given a manifesto . The community panicked. One of the intruders climbed into the pulpit, but was driven from there by the son of the sexton Schurewsky before he could give a speech. When Gilbert entered the church, one of the intruders immediately fired several times at him. The clergyman was miraculously not hurt. The church area leader Anzelan and other worshipers were able to drive the revolutionaries out and seize an activist. The other troublemakers fled through a rye field. None of them belonged to the local church. One of the parishioners who persecuted the revolutionaries was badly gunshot in the foot. There were no further injuries among the worshipers. The captured activist was first handed over to the SET local police , then to the Friedrichstadt district police. The service continued after Wilhelm Gilbert had ensured that there was calm. Although he was strongly warned not to do so, he held a funeral that afternoon.

A little later Gilbert was pastor-vicar in Würzau . On November 27, 1905, there was a nightly attack by revolutionaries on the pastorate. Gunfire pierced the building, but neither the pastor's vicar nor his family were injured. From 1906 Gilbert was pastor-vicar in Siuxt and Irmlau .

Pastor in Siuxt and Irmlau

From 1907 Wilhelm Gilbert was a full pastor for Siuxt and Irmlau. His congregation was initially suspicious of him, since he was not elected by the congregation but by the consistory. However, his earnestness and sincerity won him the trust of a large part of the community. The fact that he stood up for his understanding of law and truth also earned him numerous opponents. In addition, although he was of Latvian descent, he felt strongly connected to the German culture into which his training had led him. He rejected the Latvian nationalism that was widespread at the time, which earned him numerous opponents of Latvian ethnic groups. He let neither sympathy nor antipathy towards him influence his administration, which he carried out carefully, especially the preparation of his sermons and the training of his confirmands. He wanted practical Christianity from his church. He devoted his free time to scientific activities; he edited every recent theological treatise. His great language skills were helpful for him. The conflict between faith and science still preoccupied him; although he was a skeptic, he based his faith on the Bible, which he studied with his family every day.

In addition to his spiritual activities, Wilhelm Gilbert, like Pastor Karl Schilling , murdered in 1905, was provost Ludwig Zimmermann , murdered in 1906, clergymen Hans Bielenstein , Alexander Bernewitz , Xaver Marnitz , Arnold von Rutkowski, Paul Fromhold-Treu , Christoph Strautmann , who were executed by Bolsheviks in 1919 , Karl Schlau , Eberhard Savary and Eugen Scheuermann and, like the pastors Gustav Cleemann and Erwin Gross , who died as a result of their imprisonment with the Bolsheviks, full members of the Latvian Literary Society , which was dedicated to the study of the Latvian language, folklore and culture . This society was mainly supported by German-Baltic pastors and intellectuals. For the Latvians themselves, a higher education was hardly accessible at the time of the imperial Russian rule; their culture led a shadowy existence; Gilbert was an exception to this. On December 8, 1911, he was elected director of this company in Mitau, succeeding Christoph Strautmann. He was re-elected on December 11, 1913 after reporting the publication of only 29 Latvian books published in Courland.

Wartime and violent death

During the German occupation of Courland in the First World War , in September 1917, Wilhelm Gilbert was elected to the Courland State Assembly. Towards the end of the occupation he was concerned that the Bolsheviks were gaining popularity in his community. He took decisive action against it, which resulted in strong opposition.

In the Latvian War of Independence , the Bolsheviks approached, which is why Gilbert brought his family to Pomerania on Christmas 1918 , from where he returned as quickly as possible by train as a volunteer in the Baltic State Armed Forces in April 1919 with other Balts, led by German officers to make his homeland useful. The free but arduous and cumbersome trip to the Baltic States lasted three days and two nights. Gilbert now served as field chaplain.

On April 7th, he returned to his ward, for which he was able to work for a few more months. Conditions in Courland were turbulent. The Landeswehr defeated the Bolsheviks; after a short break, fighting broke out again. The now strong Latvian army fought against the West Russian Liberation Army of the adventurer Pavel Mikhailovich Bermondt-Awaloff . Everyone fought against everyone else and morals were brutalized. The pastor took a firm stand against lies, deceit, robbery and murder. He knew that the hostility he had brought about could cost him his life. He said:

"What is it doing? The kingdom must remain with us - and those who love God must serve all things for the best. "

On November 15, he was warned by a concerned parishioner, "Go on, you have many enemies," which he resolved with a decisive

"I remain."

answered.

On November 16, he held the service in Siuxt, after which he buried a member of the congregation. A second funeral was to follow when a small squad of Latvian horsemen approached to attack a unit of the West Russian Liberation Army. Gilbert and the guests at the funeral took refuge in the church. The second funeral was held during a break in the fighting. After that, the pastor was going to a wedding when he was arrested. He was interrogated by Latvian soldiers and accused of betraying his country. There is said to have been a skull on his soldier's hat, which he had taken off months ago. In fact, it was a small cross that marked him as a field preacher. The pastor clearly denied all accusations as he was a pastor and not a traitor. He wanted to be brought before an ordinary court, which he was allowed to do. For this he should be brought to Riga .

Wilhelm Gilbert was shot about 13 km from Siuxt, and Alexander Bernewitz , who was also a member of the Courland State Assembly during the German occupation, suffered the same fate .

When his remains were found, they were shot on the back. His valuables had been completely stolen.

In 1920 the Gilbert case was investigated. Soldier D., who had already died at this point, was identified as the murderer. In the same year the Kurland Synod declared Wilhelm Gilbert a martyr of the church.

literature

  • Oskar Schabert : Baltic Martyrs Book . Furche-Verlag, Berlin 1926, p. 169 ff. ( Digital version , the report is based on the records of Wilhelm Gilbert's wife, Lilly Ernestine Gilbert, née Felix)
  • Harald Schultze and Andreas Kurschat (editors): "Your end looks at ..." - Evangelical Martyrs of the 20th Century , Evangelical Publishing House, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-374-02370-7 , Part II, Section Russian Empire / Baltic States , P. 531
  • Kārlis Beldavs: Mācītāji, kas nāvē gāja , Luterisma mantojuma fonds, Riga 2010, ISBN 978-9984-753-56-0 (Latvian)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Domestic. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 297 of December 21, 1887, online at Gilbert | issueType: P
  2. ↑ Domestic. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 249 of November 3, 1898, online at Gilbert | issueType: P
  3. ↑ Domestic. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 252 of November 4, 1898, online at Gilbert | issueType: P
  4. ↑ Petersburg. Pastor Wilhelm Gilbert in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 79 of April 7, 1901, online at Gilbert Gilbert | issueType: P
  5. ↑ Petersburg. Pastor Wilhelm Gilbert in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 80 of April 9, 1901, online at Gilbert Gilbert | issueType: P
  6. ↑ Petersburg. Personal details. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 245 of October 28, 1904, online at Gilbert | issueType: P
  7. ↑ letter from Frederick city in Riga's Rundschau ., No. 125 of 13 June 1905 online at Gilbert | issue type: P
  8. ^ The Latvian Literary Society in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 282 of December 7, 1911, online under Pastor Gilbert Pastor Pastor | issueType: P
  9. ^ The Latvian Literary Society in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 287 of December 12, 1913, online under Pastor Gilbert Pastor | issueType: P
  10. ^ Returned Balts. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 81 of April 7, 1919, online under Pastor Gilbert Pastor Pastor | issueType: P
  11. ↑ From the occupied territory. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 229 of October 1, 1917, online at Gilbert Pastor | issueType: P
personal data
SURNAME Gilbert, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gilberts, Vilhelms
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Evangelical Lutheran clergyman, Latvian martyr
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Hofzumberg , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1919 or November 17, 1919
Place of death Siuxt , Latvian SPR