Wilhelm Bacon

Grave of Wilhelm Speck in the Wehlheiden cemetery in Kassel

Wilhelm Speck (born July 7, 1861 in Großalmerode , † March 31, 1925 in Kassel ) was a German theologian, prison chaplain, writer and educator.

Family, education and professional life

Wilhelm Speck was the son of the teacher and later prison teacher at the prison Wehlheiden in Kassel Friedrich Speck and his wife. Wilhelm Speck attended the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel, for the anniversary of which he wrote a prologue in 1879. From 1881 to 1885 he studied Protestant theology in Leipzig and Marburg . After that he was parish administrator in Kirchditmold near Kassel for two years and, from 1887, an institutional pastor in Gollnow in Pomerania . Several posts followed as pastor and prison chaplain. Wilhelm Speck was employed in Sonnenburg in 1888, in the central prison in Cottbus in 1892 , in Halle in 1899 and in Moabit in Berlin in 1904 . In 1911 he was awarded an honorary theological doctorate from the Philipps University of Marburg . In 1912 Wilhelm Speck became pastor in Zimmerrode . In 1913 he took part in the German meeting of German students in Marburg. On the occasion of his 60th birthday in 1921, he received honorary citizenship of Großalmerode , his native town. Wilhelm Speck was married to Ida Gerhardt. The marriage remained childless. He spent his retirement in Kassel, where he died at the age of 63. A grave of honor for the Speck couple is in the Wehlheider cemetery in Kassel.

Pedagogue

Wilhelm Speck studied theology exclusively and was mainly active as a prison chaplain, but he introduced the idea of ​​upbringing and education in the prison institutions. In order to put an end to the religious overload of prisoners, literature with religious content should be offered but not imposed by the prison management.

Wilhelm Speck formulates his thinking as follows:

"The promotion of the mental, moral, and religious possessions of the prisoner, yes, the maintenance of his vitality in general, is now served with other institutions in an excellent way."

Poet and writer

The poet Wilhelm Speck is considered a realistic master of storytelling in Hesse and describes the conflict between attachment to his homeland and the longing for the foreign, but also between old age and youth. Often regional references flow into the stories. In addition to the immediate vicinity of Großalmerode and the Hohe Meißner , the locations of action are also distant countries. Wilhelm Speck was a widely read author in his day. His novels and stories reached a total circulation of more than 200,000 copies.

Works

• Ursula (novella) 1893
• The refugees; a story of the Landstrasse (novella) 1894
• Two souls (story) 1904
• The Joggeli (story) 1907
• About prison libraries, 1906
• A quartet finale: (Novella) 1911
• Letters to friends in 1925

Honors

• Honorary citizen of the city of Großalmerode in 1921
• Honorary grave of the city of Kassel

Appreciation

A street in Kassel and a square in Großalmerode are named after Wilhelm Speck. The jogging fountain in Orferode is reminiscent of Wilhelm Speck's story “The Joggeli”.

Web links

"The Joggeli" as a free e-book from the history association Großalmerode eV

literature

• Wilhelm Speck: The Joggeli . Verlag Fr. Wilhelm Grunow 1907, Leipzig, pp. 3–6, accompanied by Wilhelm Kotzde
• Walter Drangosch: Outstanding men from the city of Cottbus' past. Cottbus home calendar, 1956, pp. 45–54
• Wilhelm Kosch (Herg.): German Literature Lexicon . Stuttgart, 1947-1958
• Heinrich Schleichert: The poet Wilhelm Speck . M. Warneck, Berlin 1925
• Klaus Heuser: Wilhelm Speck - the forgotten namesake of a street in Kassel in Heimatbrief No. 55, Heimatverein Dorothea Viehmann, Kassel 2011
• Wilhelm Speck: About prison libraries: prison libraries then and now, 1906 and 2003, special edition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Münster prison