Wilhelm Mildenstein

Wilhelm Mildenstein

Ernst Wilhelm Louis Mildenstein (born March 19, 1870 in Burg auf Fehmarn , † October 4, 1933 in Lübeck ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman and chief pastor of the Lutheran Church in Lübeck .

Life

origin

Mildenstein came from a centuries-old Fehmaran peasant family . He was the youngest son of Nicolaus Mildenstein (born August 12, 1823 in Burg; † March 5, 1900 ibid ) and his wife Anna Emerentia, b. Mackerprang (born June 8, 1829 in Staberdorf , † February 28, 1916 in Lübeck). His father was a farmer , merchant and distillery owner in Burg.

Margarethe, a born Wisser and widow of his brother who had already died in Burg in 1894, who had been a farmer and farmer , then moved to Lübeck as a privateer . His widowed mother also moved to the Hanseatic city in 1906. On February 25, 1919, she was also accepted as an extraordinary member of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities . Such admission was previously only available to widows of members. Due to the global economic crisis , Margarethe left the city in 1930 and died in Burg that same year.

career

Mildenstein first attended the Katharineum in Lübeck and then the Detlevsengymnasium in Glückstadt . After passing his Abitur exam, he completed his two years of military service in the infantry of the Prussian Army in the Fusilier Battalion of the Infantry Regiment "Herzog von Holstein" (Holsteinisches) No. 85 in Kiel . He studied Protestant theology at the Universities of Kiel , Berlin , Tübingen and Göttingen . During his studies in Kiel, he became a member of the Krusenrotter fraternity in 1892 . At Easter 1898 he passed the official theological examination in Kiel.

After a brief activity as private tutor , the Blekendorf community near Lütjenburg elected him to be their pastor . Four and a half years later, the community of Sülfeld near Oldesloe appointed him their first clergyman. With this office the local school inspection was connected with 12 teachers via the villages Sülfeld, Seth , Oering , Nahe , Itzstedt and Tönningstedt . The district school inspection of part of the Segeberg district was added later.

8 ½ years later Mildenstein was on 30 June 1912 the third priest of Lübeck's St. Lawrence - parish chosen. As this he was initially assigned the newly founded third pastoral care district of the community and the task of creating his own community there. In addition to the large parish of St. Lorenz , the St. Matthäi parish was formed as early as 1896 . The district's church services were to be held in the Roter Löwe restaurant, which has been closed since 1950 , at Moislinger Allee 142. On October 8, 1912, Thanksgiving Day , he was introduced to his office at St. Lorenz Church.

New parish hall St. Lorenz Süd

On April 22, 1913, by resolution of the Council of Churches and the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lübeck, the board of the St. Lorenz parish was invited to tender for the construction of a parish hall and pastorate building for the 3rd clergyman of the church on the state granted property at Moislinger Allee 96 . The jury consisted of the secret building councilor Horsfeldt ( Berlin ), the building director Johannes Baltzer , building councilor Carl Mühlenpfordt , Philip Paulig (chairman of the community board) and Mildenstein. On August 2, 1913, it selected the design by the Glogner & Vermehren company . Church council and synod then decided on October 30, 1913 and May 22, 1914 to provide a total of 50,000 marks for this purpose.

At the meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities on December 9, 1913, Mildenstein was elected head of the 3rd school for small children in place of the outgoing main pastor of the St. Lorenz community, Johannes Bernhard .

Shortly after the outbreak of the World War , the Lübeck senior Johannes Becker inaugurated the parish hall on October 18, 1914 and thus handed it over to regular church services , confirmation classes and other events. The square in front of the hall was not built on until 1935 with the church that was envisaged in 1914 and was to be designed by the same company. The architects who took part in the tender should also submit plans for the planned church with their plans for the community hall. The war, inflation and the Great Depression hampered their execution.

At that time, the planned separation from the mother community and the independence of the southern part with the name "Luther Church" had been initiated. The first children's church service took place on November 1st, on the 22nd the church council with Bernhard Dräger ( Drägerwerk ) as chairman was elected and on November 29th 1914 the Luther Community was officially founded. The first parish gazette appeared on January 1, 1915.

When Christian Reuter , director of the Katharineum, fell on Soissons at the beginning of the assault, Mildenstein took over the chairmanship of the association of former 85s for Lübeck and the surrounding area, founded by Reuter on January 13, 1906 and since then led .

Mildenstein was also pastor of the " Flora " hospital and the substitute company "Moislinger Baum", chairman of the church poor relief in his community, orphanage council for District 5 with 13,000 people, chairman of the nursery school "St. Lorenz Süd ”, the youth association“ Jung-Siegfried ”, board member in the day care center and the Bible Society , employee of the hospital magazine, member of the church convention and founder of the youth corps“ St. Lorenz ".

Address by Pastor Mildenstein at the flag consecration

Club front

All the associations of the National Warrior Association followed on the afternoon of January 17, 1915 from the market in the Schutzmannkapelle to the courtyard of the old barracks for the flag consecration of the Jungwehr . Under the leadership of Police Major Moritz Grünweller , the youth companies were positioned to the left and right of a lectern . The youth armed forces, which formed in Lübeck as in the whole of the German Empire immediately after the outbreak of war, served as a voluntary organization under the leadership of old soldiers and energetic men to provide military training for young people . Behind the speaker's pulpit the national war clubs gathered with their flags, the honorary chairman of the association Heinrich Kühne , the chairman of the printing house owner and publisher of the Lübeck association Julius Heise, the deputy colonel v. Kuenheim, Mayor Johann Hermann Eschenburg , Senate and City Council members, other guests of honor and a large crowd. The ceremonial handover of the flag donated by the National Warrior Association began with the Dutch prayer of thanks before Wilhelm Mildenstein stepped onto the desk and gave a speech that went from the Wars of Liberation of 1813 about the Franco-German War to the current war. After a chorale Julius Heise conveyed the greetings of the country Warriors Association, members of the youth military was the youngest comrades and brought an enthusiastic recorded " high " to the emperor from. The imperial anthem was sung. The deputy colonel then handed the stepped forward, who had been chosen to bear the flag, the flag in Lübschen colors bearing an eagle. They thanked them with the vow that they should be an incentive for all members to fulfill their duties as faithfully as possible. After the National Warrior Association in the person of the secretary , painter Wilhelm Siems, and the scout corps affiliated to the Boy Scout Association in the person of the main field master , teacher Wilhelm Groth, each decorated the flag with a flag nail, the ceremony ended with the singing of the Germany song . After the mayor, colonel and police major had paced the front of the clubs, the National Warrior Association and all the companies of the youth armed forces went to the market to the sounds of the protection team band. There the band gave concerts while collecting for the prisoners of war from Lübeck .

At the gentlemen's evening on June 15, 1915, Mildenstein gave a lecture about his trip to Flanders . Together with Professor Hugo Gilbert and the printer Max Schmidt , he had brought gifts of love to the Lübeck Children's Regiment fighting there in the 46th Reserve Division . The regiment was during the war as the second Lübeck Regiment, it was more than 75% of war volunteers and reservists , and carried the no. 215 formed Service. In addition to the visit, the lecture dealt with the departure from Hamburg , the stays in Düsseldorf and Bonn , as well as the visits to Brussels and Ostend .

His constant work in the field of the Low German language and art made Mildenstein known far beyond the circle of his community. He was the first clergyman to introduce the Low German service . In 1925, between the holidays, he published old Low German Christmas carols from the oldest Rostock hymn book from 1531 by Joachim Slueter, or new songs from the time that were once translated into Low German in the Luther year , but pushed back again . This fell on fertile ground in large parts of the population. He was often called to other churches to give Low German sermons there. Despite several attempts to win him over to other churches in the city or other communities, he remained loyal to his community.

In 1918 Mildenstein founded the “Plattdütsche Volksgilt o Lübeck” (Low German People's Guild), which soon had more than 4,000 members. She invited 60-year-old Karl Wagenfeld , who was reading from his works on October 15, 1929 in the Great Hall of the Schiffergesellschaft . On October 10, 1929, the Volksgilde hosted the world premiere of the Low German drama “De Stüermann” by Johannes Wilda on the Low German stage in the Marble Hall. She also premiered the play De Koortenleggersch by Hedwig Lützow there, which was repeated there on January 15, 1930 at the special request because of its great success.

Mildenstein was loyal to the emperor and markedly nationalistic and never missed an opportunity to worship heroes. For his “impressive Low German sermons” he has long been recognized as the “active Low German pastor”. More recent research indicates, however, that with him “national-ethnic tendencies often superimposed the spiritual content”, for example when he “invokes the Germans' will to live with hot breath”. At his suggestion, regular community evenings were held on which "religious, ethical, soul and body topics" as well as dance and song lectures were presented. These received such a positive echo that they became exemplary for other parishes.

A different demarcation of the St. Lorenz parish, with which the Luther parish expanded spatially, led in 1921 to the employment of a second clergyman, Reinhardt Hoyer, for the new 2nd district and the appointment of Pastor Mildenstein as main pastor.

The community built the wooden bell tower, inaugurated on October 14, 1923, and initially received two bells for it. The smaller of the two was cast by Johannes Reborch in 1399 , was originally in the roof turret of the Katharinenkirche and was no longer rung. Instead, she just got hit. The larger one was cast in 1510 by Hinrich van Campen , was part of the bell of the Maria Magdalenen Church of the castle monastery , which was demolished in 1819, and was on loan from the Jakobigemeinde .

From 1915 Mildenstein headed the youth club Lübeck Jung-Siegfried (LJS 1912), which partly consisted of former confirmands . He owned a club house in the Wulfsdorfer Heide near Blankensee used for church leisure time . In his first annual report for 1915, he stated that his work in the 100-member association steered them along patriotic channels.

For the fallen of the LJS 1912 , local group Lübeck in the Federal Association of German Youth Associations (BDJ) e. V. , a roll of honor was designed by Erhard Jubitz in 1925. Under his guidance and with the help of various members of the association, it was made of wood (the symbol was cast in plaster ). It was consecrated by Mildenstein in the "Luther Church" on Death Sunday of the year.

In the church of Landkirchen Pastor Mildenstein gave a low German sermon for the inauguration of the Lübeck youth hospital Niefohrt in the port settlement of Lemkenhafen . The sermon began with the Low German poet Klaus Groth , who had recovered there for six years , referred to the Lübeck orphanage , included the Johann Hinrich Wichernsche rescue house movement and the Lübeck rescue house , and ended with August Hermann Francke , who came from Lübeck, and his founding of the orphanage in Halle .

In 1925 the church council decided to build a community hall next to the community hall. This, today's Lutherhaus, was completed in 1927.

When Pastor Hoyer left the congregation in 1926, 74 people applied. Three of these were invited to election sermons and Ulrich Burgstaller from Val Gardena , who gave his sermon under the heading “Builder of a destroyed world”, was elected. The member of the Federation for German Churches moved into the second pastorate at Moislinger Allee 66b in autumn .

Weiherede at the flag inauguration of the Lübeck Navy Youth

The flag inauguration of the Lübeck Navy Youth took place in the garden of the former salmon weir on September 11, 1927 . The celebration was framed by several speeches by the club officials, music and singing lectures. The consecration speech, see picture opposite, was given by the main pastor Mildenstein.

The sanctuary of the parish hall was redesigned in 1931. In keeping with the patriotic and military spirit of the time, Erich Klahn was commissioned with the execution , as was the case with the memorial in 1921 . The apse was with to the Iron Cross reminiscent Tatzenkreuz of the Teutonic Order painted. However, it was framed with the comforting words of Jesus “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life ”( Jn 8:12  ESV ).

At the end of the 1920s, the number of visitors to the churches fell dramatically and the number of members of his people's guild had dropped to 220 in 1933. Despite the setbacks, Mildenstein remained active. He repeatedly commented on the political processes of the New Age . In August 1933 he expressed hope that a people's church could be built .

Gustav Struck had transferred the Redentiner Easter game from 1464 from Middle Low German to Modern Low German . It was considered to be one of the most valuable sacred plays and was first performed again in 1932 in Wismar . The play had references to the Hanseatic city, the devil got Lübeck when the plague raged there, and was performed by the guild in the auditorium of the upper secondary school in 1933 . The Spielscharr, which consisted of more than 100 participants, consisted not only of schoolchildren but also of the singing departments of the Lyceum on Falkenplatz (formerly the Freese school, now the adult education center ).

Karl Friedrich Stellbrink was appointed as Mildenstein's successor in 1934 .

Cenotaphs

Lübeck-Büchener railway company

Railway memorial

At the instigation of the employees' committee of the Lübeck-Büchener railway company , Ludwig Bruhn's granite and marble works were Plettner & Bruhn the design of the Lübeck architects Schürer & Siebert the design as a granite stone, which in its obelisk shape with massive interruption by a protruding, architecturally structured cornice , rising in counter-effect, abruptly interrupting the aspiring, made on a massive basis. The foundation should embody defiant tenacity. At the inauguration ceremony on March 6, 1921, Mildenstein unveiled the memorial stone for the civil servants and workers who died in the war in the Lübeck cemetery of honor .

On the front, under the winged wheel , the symbol of the railway , is the dedication to the fallen:

The memory / of those in the fight / for the fatherland / fallen / officials and / workers of the / Lübeck-Büchener / railway

On the other three pages there are 118 names sorted by year.

Luther Church

When after the war, on Mildenstein's initiative , they wanted to erect a memorial for the fallen soldiers of the community, they found in Erich Klahn, who had once been confirmed by Mildenstein, a highly talented artist who was already working in that area with a glowing colored picture window intended for Fehmarn had proven itself. The stained glass window with figurative decorations has been closely associated with church art from ancient times. The original plan to set it up once in the square in front of the pastorate had been dropped because of the ongoing high costs for the horticultural jewelry and its maintenance.

The time consists of three glass windows. The middle window, a pietà , is the dominant one. Mary , in a gray instead of a blue robe , prays with the dead son in her lap. Shining rays emanate from its head. The image enclosing tape proclaims: "Allen dragen for us, dat op Swörste sik names, we för Leeden un died wi sullen nich spoiled. Lord help us ut all uns' Nod. ”The windows on its sides bear the names of the fallen and in their lunettes a representation from the Passion story . In a deliberate relationship to the contemporary conception of the time, the "betrayal of Judas" was chosen as a reference to the stab in the back legend and the "throwing of the soldiers' dice for the robe of the crucified" as a reference to the humiliating provisions of the Treaty of Versailles .

However, the Monument Council rejected the design and objected to its chosen color tones, red and blue, as these would take away the light character of the room and introduce another into it. The church council no longer adhered to the colored design. The windows are in sepia brown and gold and the gold always comes from the figure of the Savior. The work was fired and leaded by Carl Berkentien following the modified design. With the Luther community, after the St. Gertrud community, the second community in the city had inaugurated a memorial for their fallen.

burial

After a long illness Mildenstein died on October 6th, 1933. On Sunday, October 9th, the church memorial service took place in the St. Lorenz Church . To this were the Senators Burgstaller and Walther Schröder , all pastors of the city in regalia , a delegation of the Krusenrotter from Kiel, the association of former 85s, the naval youth and school associations , the state community and the Plattdütschen Volksgill . To the side of the altar stood the flag-bearers of the delegations. Pastor Alfred Stülcken held the prayer and Johannes Sievers , chairman of the German Christians and the church council of the Luther congregation , spoke for the congregation while standing at the coffin .

When the flags were lowered towards the end of the funeral, the clergyman went ahead of the coffin and passed them out of the church. The flags in front of his family followed the senators and the deputations. In front of the church, the congregation that framed the hearse received them with the Hitler salute .

The coffin was brought to the crematorium in the Vorwerker cemetery and, after the cremation , was quietly buried in the family grave of the Stech family .

family

Mildenstein had married Anna Maria Caroline (born April 12, 1885 in Lübeck; † July 8, 1985 ibid), née Stech, in September 1914 in the new, not yet consecrated community hall. Her father, Carl Stech, was a manufacturer and owner of the Hintze & Stech company .

The later trade school teacher Marianne (born July 23, 1918 in Lübeck; † April 16, 1989 ibid) emerged from the marriage. The daughter remained unmarried and after the death of her father moved with her mother to Klosterstrasse 19 .

literature

• Karen Meyer-Rebentisch: What is Luther doing in St. Lorenz? History and stories from the district and community. Luther-Melanchthon parish, 2014.
• His 25th anniversary in office. In: Lübeckische advertisements , Volume 174, No. 14, edition of January 17, 1924.
• Honor roll of the Lübeck young Siegfried. In: Von Lübeck's Towers , Volume 39, No. 3, Edition of January 30, 1926, p. 12.
• Chief Pastor Mildenstein †. In: Lübecker General-Anzeiger , Volume 52, No. 235, edition of October 6, 1933.
• Chief Pastor Mildenstein †. In: Lübecker Volksbote , Volume 52, No. 226, edition of October 6, 1933.
• Chief Pastor Mildenstein †. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 75, No. 43, edition of October 22, 1933, p. 640.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Mildenstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 61, No. 9, edition of March 2, 1919, p. 122.
2. ↑ Willy Nolte (Ed.): Burschenschafter Stammrolle. List of the members of the German Burschenschaft according to the status of the summer semester 1934. Berlin 1934, p. 329.
3. ↑ Local Notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 54, No. 28, edition of June 7, 1912, p. 418.
4. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 55, No. 50, edition of December 14, 1913, p. 814.
5. ↑ Inauguration of the St. Lorenz Süd parish hall. In: From Lübeck's Towers ; Volume 24, No. 41, edition of October 10, 1914, p. 327.
6. ↑ On January 16, 1928, Mildenstein held the funeral service for Bernhard Dräger in the Marienkirche ( Dräger issue 394, p. 2) .
7. ↑ Heinrich Dräger's sister Anna painted in 1931 the portrait of Mildenstein, which was a gift from Heinrich Dräger in the collection of the Museum Behnhaus . (Wulf Schadendorf (Red.): Anna Dräger-Mühlenpfordt - paintings, drawings, prints 1908-1980. Museum for Art and Cultural History Lübeck, Städtisches Museum Braunschweig (Ed.), Lübeck, Braunschweig 1984 ISBN 3-9800517-5-7 , P. 31 No. 2)
8. ^ Holger Ritter: History of the Schleswig-Holstein Infantry Regiment No. 163 ; Leuchtfeuer Verlag, Hamburg 1926, pp. 57-60, volume 184 of the preuss. Share of the reminder sheets.
9. ↑ The Flora was a concert hall on the corner of Linden and Nebenhofstraße and was destroyed in the air raid in 1942.
10. ↑ Since after the war the means to fight hunger in the community were insufficient, Mildenstein organized food donations for them from Sweden and the island of Fehmarn .
11. ↑ Julius Heise (ed.): Between home and front. War journeys with gifts of love from the Lübeck State Warrior Association. Lübeck Vlg Landeskrieger-Verband, Lübeck 1916.
12. ↑ Consecration of the flags of the youth armed forces , year 1914/15, No. 17, edition of January 24, 1915, p. 71.
13. ↑ The writer Werner Beumelburg was to later coined the term children's regiments. In his books, he referred to the new regiments deployed in Flanders, consisting of inexperienced volunteers , and whose crews he had also belonged to at the time, as children's regiments because of the age of their soldiers .
14. ↑ See in this context also the memorial stone of the war volunteer "Paul Burmeister".
15. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 57, No. 25, edition of June 22, 1915, p. 365.
16. ↑ Old Low German Christmas carols. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 67, No. 64, Edition of December 27, 1925, p. 836.
17. ↑ Low German songs. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 73, No. 23, edition of June 7, 1931, p. 397.
18. ↑ Karl Wagenfeld. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 71, No. 41, edition of October 13, 1929, p. 699.
19. ↑ De Stüermann. In: Lübeckische Blätter , 71st volume, no. 42, edition of October 20, 1929, pp. 722–724.
20. ↑ De Koortenleggersch. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 72, No. 2, edition of January 12, 1930, p. 29.
21. ^ Claus Schuppenhauer: Low German in literature and society: a conference on the 130th anniversary of the death of John Brinckman. Leer 2001 ISBN 9783796303524 , p. 170.
22. ^ Dieter Andresen: Low German . In: Bernd Jörg Diebner , Heinrich Kröger, Manfred Mergel (eds.): Dialect in the church. Limits and possibilities. Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12322-0 , p. 7.
23. ↑ Kay Dohnke, Norbert Hopster, Jan Wirrer (eds.): Low German in National Socialism. Studies on the role of regional culture in fascism. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim et al. 1994, ISBN 3-487-09809-1 , p. 430
24. ↑ Adolf Clasen: Misunderstood treasures: Lübeck's Latin inscriptions in the original and in German. Lübeck 2003, ISBN 3-7950-0475-6 , p. 182.
25. ↑ They were later transferred to the Luther Church and supplemented by several. In 1941 all bells, except for the last one, were removed and melted down. The 1399 bell returned to the bell collection of the Katharinenkirche.
26. ↑ Honor roll of the Lübeck young Siegfried. In: Von Lübeck's Towers , Volume 39, No. 3, Edition of January 30, 1926, p. 12.
27. ↑ Ceremonial sermon to the inauguration party from the "Lübeck youth hospital Niefohrt" in Lenkenhaven. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 67, No. 37, edition of June 21, 1925, pp. 447–448.
28. ^ Flag consecration of the naval youth. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1926/27, No. 26, edition of September 18, 1927, p. 106.
29. ↑ Redentyner Osterspill. In: Lübeckische Blätter , Volume 75, No. 20, edition of May 14, 1933, p. 305.
30. ↑ The Redentiner Easter Game. In: Lübeckische Blätter , 75th volume, no. 21, edition of May 21, 1933, pp. 318–319.
31. ↑ The foundation of the memorial stone was supposed to symbolize the defiant tenacity with which the railway workers would have done their duty to the end during the World War.
32. ↑ The memorial stone for civil servants and workers of the Lübeck-Büchener railway company who died in the war. In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Vol. 1920/21, No. 13, edition of March 13, 1921, p. 51.
33. ↑ A dubious culture of remembrance
34. ↑ By naming the more than 260 names, the wish of the parishioners was taken into account.
35. ↑ See Hansjörg Buss: Laurel, oak leaves and a wreath of thorns. "War honors" of the Lübeck regional church in the Weimar Republic. In: Dietmar von Reeken , Malte Thießen (ed.): Ehrregime: Actors, practices and media of local honors in the modern age. Göttingen: V & R unipress [2016] ISBN 978-3-8471-0578-7 , pp. 201–220, here p. 210.
36. ↑ The memorial for the fallen of the Luther community. In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Born 1922/23, No. 1, edition of October 8, 1922, pp. 1–2.
37. ↑ The memorial for the fallen of the Luther community. In: Von Lübeck's Towers , Volume 32, No. 19, Issue of September 23, 1922, pp. 74–75.
38. ↑ Mildenstein was an honorary member of the association.
39. ^ Alfred Stülcken baptized Herbert Frahm on February 26, 1914 in the church of St. Lorenz. The non-Lübeckers will be better known by his pseudonym , Willy Brandt .
40. ↑ Funeral service for Pastor Mildenstein. In: Lübecker General-Anzeiger , Volume 52, No. 238, edition of October 9, 1933.