Wilhelm Taurit

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Wilhelm Taurit (1896)

Wilhelm Taurit (born September 20, jul. / 2. October  1870 greg. In the parsonage on the island Dahlen in Riga , Governorate of Livonia , Russian Empire , † November 23 jul. / 6. December  1906 greg. In the pastorate at Dahlen) with full name Wilhelm Gotthard Adolf Taurit , in Latvian Vilhelms Taurītis , was a German-Baltic pastor . He is considered an Evangelical Lutheran martyr and is mentioned in Oskar Schabert's Baltic Martyrs Book.

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 Taurit spent his early years as the son of the pastor Karl Taurit and descendant of several generations of pastors on the big Daugava -Insel Dahlen. Then, from 1882 to 1885, he attended the Zink School in Riga. Then he went from the tertia from 1886 to 1888 in the Riga Gouvernementsgymnasium, which was directed by Krannhals. He was admitted to high school after attending Prima for only one year, which was a rarity. In 1889, after graduating from high school, he worked as a private tutor in Riga.

Dorpat University around 1860

He then enrolled in the second semester of 1889 at the University of Dorpat to study theology . It was only during his studies that he found the Christian faith. In his first semester he joined the theological society on October 30, 1889, in 1891 he became its librarian, in 1892 secretary, and in 1893 its president. He was considered a hard-working student, with which he achieved a comprehensive theological education. In 1893, after 4 ½ years, he finished his studies as a candidate in theology. With the exception of the history of dogma, where his performance was rated “quite good”, he achieved a very good final grade in all subjects. In 1894 he passed his examination before the consistory in Riga.

He spent his practical year from 1894 to 1895, initially in Neu-Pebalg in Livonia, with Emil Kaehlbrandt, the provost of Wenden , who was at an advanced age but at the height of his work. This time should have a significant influence on Taurit's later administration. Kaehlbrandt was considered to be full of character, deeply religious, loving, but also strict.

Pastor in Dahlen

Wilhelm Taurit then returned to his parents' house in Dahlen, where he spent the rest of his probationary year with his father, and was ordained on June 11, 1895, after the death of his father, by General Superintendent Hollmann in Riga as his father's successor.

Taurit was to be classified as conservative. The island of Dahlen had retained an almost patriarchal social structure, probably due to its remoteness at the time, with the pastor at the head. This social order, which Taurit endeavored to uphold, also included that children first had to be taught by their mothers according to a set curriculum and were then examined by the pastor before starting school. This was done with 95% of the children on the island. The exams took place annually in the pastorate.

Taurit's sermons, which he delivered in Latvian by heart and without an accent, were scientifically sound but easily understandable. His German-language sermons were also very popular. His sermon preparation was very careful, the lecture was linguistically impeccable. He valued an educated audience. He himself was considered cheerful and educated. His favorite Bible verse was "Nothing can separate us from the love of God".

Just like his father, Taurit held church services on the beach during the holiday season, once in German and once in Latvian on the same Sunday.

On December 8, 1896, Taurit reported at the relief fund festival in St. Martin's Church in Riga.

On August 10, 1897, he delivered the German sermon on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the church in Lennewarden .

On Monday, February 16, Jul. / February 28, 1898 greg. , he gave the first lecture in favor of open poor relief in the auditorium of the Riga city secondary school on the subject of "Modern Theology".

On Sunday August 8th July / August 20, 1899 greg. from 10 a.m., Wilhelm Taurit helped Erwin Gross , who died in 1920 in the prison of the Bolsheviks , in organizing a Bible festival in Katlekaln .

On September 16, 1898, he married Magdalena Flora Luise Kählbrandt.

Editor of communications and news

In 1900, Wilhelm Taurit, as the successor to Theodor Taube , who was later shot by the Bolsheviks in 1919, was the editor and publisher of communications and news for the Evangelical Church in Russia , the most important Lutheran church gazette and the only ecclesiastical monthly in Russia, which means his influence now reached far beyond his community. Here he not only worked as an editor, but also as the author of numerous articles of his own in his specialist areas. His interest and talent lay primarily in the area of exegesis of the New Testament and dogmatics . Both as a preacher and as an author, he was considered objective. Searching for problems and being skeptical was not his thing; he based his faith clearly on the person of Christ. He was considered balanced, and with increasing age also more and more clarified. He contributed presentations and lectures to almost all of the conferences that were held in the Rigaschen Sprengel. Provost Ludwig Zimmermann held him in high regard. Even when he attended the Synod, although he was young, he was listened to carefully. When Taurit gave his opinion, there was often nothing more to add. Whoever opposed him was fought hard, but he behaved fairly. Only when others acted underhandedly did he persist in his opinion. Several times it was considered to call him to a city church; in the corresponding elections, however, he always narrowly missed the majority. He accepted that with the words

"God's will be holy and good to me."

In this way he remained in his community, which he presided over in an authoritarian but also loving manner, and in which he was to suffer his martyrdom.

On Wednesday, September 26th, Jul. / October 9, 1901 greg. , he gave a lecture at the Livonian Synod of Preachers in Wolmar about the summer courses, in which 15 preachers had participated in the summer, and about Jesus' statements about the prehistoric and patriarchal history.

On September 2, 1902, at the final session of the Livonian Provincial Synod, he reported on the economic situation of the communications and news and on a theological vacation course.

During the 1905 revolution

During the Russian Revolution of 1905 , Wilhelm Taurit stayed with his community, with all the harsh consequences that arose for him. The revolutionary situation was dangerous for the country pastors. So on September 10th, Jul. / 23 September  1905 greg. the Nitau pastor Karl Schilling shot.

On September 15, Jul. / 28 September  1905 greg. said Provost Ludwig Zimmermann at Schilling's grave in the face of the riots of the revolutionaries against the Evangelical Church about vicarious suffering.

On Wednesday, November 2nd, 1905, Taurit gave the first lecture in a private pub for the benefit of the Bethabara Association with the title “And in gestures as a person”.

In January 1906 the publication of the messages and news for the evangelical church in Russia was stopped because of increased costs and decreasing income among other things because of missing payments from subscribers. He could no longer complete Taurit's efforts to save the leaf.

In the winter, when the punitive expedition against the revolutionaries reached Dahlen, Taurit returned to his community and reprimanded the acts of violence and killings. A parishioner who had the same name as a wanted revolutionary was mistakenly given a heavy sentence. Taurit stood up for the accused and, at the request of the commanding colonel, agreed to vouch for the man's innocence with all his possessions and his life.

The revolutionary Latvian newspaper Cīņa declared Taurit and other Baltic Lutheran clergy to be outlawed. Faced with this danger, Taurit prepared for his death and even planned his funeral. As a reading he chose Rom 8,38-39  LUT : "I am certain that neither death nor life ... may separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord", as songs Jerusalem, you high-rise city and a strong castle is our God . The revolution was suppressed by Russian troops in the spring of 1906.

Following the revolution

Ludwig Zimmermann

Provost Ludwig Zimmermann returned in 1906 to his community, which he had left during the revolution.

A little later Zimmermann was called to Nitau to rededicate the church there, which had been closed after Pastor Schilling's death. Zimmermann described his violent death as murder.

On August 18, Jul. / August 31,  1906 greg. Zimmermann and his wife were killed by masked terrorists. These were probably socialist or anarchist motivated and justified the act with the fact that Zimmermann had slandered those who had fought for freedom in Nitau.

Zimmermann and his wife were buried together. Only a few parishioners dared to attend the funeral, which was carried out by Wilhelm Taurit, who had greatly appreciated the provost. He unequivocally condemned the act. For some revolutionaries it was clear that he had to be eliminated as he had a strong influence on his community.

In the period following the revolution, calls for amnesty for revolutionaries and for the abolition of martial law were loud. In the autumn of 1906 there was a lively exchange of letters between Taurit and a commanding officer, which enabled the pastor to save an arrested person from the death penalty. Taurit is said to have saved a total of eight people in a similar way from imminent death. The last punitive expedition left Dahlen some time before the fatal assassination attempt on Taurit.

In November 1906, suspicious people stayed near Taurit's pastorate for over two weeks.

Violent death

On Thursday, November 23rd, Jul. / 6 December  1906 greg. In the entrance to the "Golden Horse" in Mitau some people held a consultation. They decided to kill and rob the pastor. The lot fell on four men between the ages of 20 and 33:

  • Martin Wehbrandt, 33 years old, a farmer from Baldohn , already noticed in the Dahlen area
  • Martin Swirkall
  • Adolf Sokolowski, 20 years old, a farmer from Neu-Bergfried and an indirect employee of the "Rishskija Wjedomosti", known as "Pole"
  • Alfred Kerewitz, a farmer and revolutionary from Groß- Sessau , called "Resnais" ("the fat one") or "Ahboling"

The following also took part in the consultation:

  • Johann Grauding, a farmer from Schricken, called "Maksim" or "the little one"

Kerewitz led the action. The four who were drawn took the train to Kurtenhof. On the Daugava, they forced a landlord to take a boat across the river to Wilhelm Taurit's pastorate. At 7 p.m., dressed in urban clothes and armed, one masked, they entered the property through the courtyard gate. One of the conspirators spoke Latvian, the rest of them Russian. Among the intruders was Kerewitz, a relative of a criminal for whom Taurit, unlike people he considered innocent, had not wanted to stand up for. One motive could therefore have been revenge. The assassins are also said to have been hired by some revolutionaries, including Kerewitz; a personal connection with the revolutionary newspaper Cīņa is also suspected. A connection with Taurit's willingness to carry out Zimmermann's funeral cannot be ruled out either.

In the courtyard, the conspirators met the maid Julie Wihkis. They led her into the kitchen. One of the intruders prevented her from leaving this room. The others stormed on into the office of the pastor, who was writing in an armchair at the table, but now got up in surprise to react. When Wilhelm Taurit saw the weapons in the hands of the men, he is said to have called:

"I have been expecting you for a long time and I am glad that you do not belong to my church."

He was first hit on the head with an object. Then Kerewitz fired four shots from a Mauser pistol at Taurit, three of which hit him from the back in the head, kidneys and, probably a defensive injury, the left hand. The pastor went down.

The assassins continued to penetrate the living quarters and demanded money and weapons from the pastor's wife, who had rushed over with her sister because of the gunfire. The woman gave them an old Bulldog revolver and 1½ rubles, all the cash they had. The assassins asked for more money and threatened to shoot the women. The pastor's wife offered the intruders some silver items, but they refused. They left the revolver and money behind, carefully searched the pastorate and then left in the direction of the Daugava near Kurtenhof. Any pursuers should be misled by this, as the assassins were later seen by the local doctor on the way to Riga. Wilhelm Taurit could no longer speak and did not die from the fatal injuries until 9:40 p.m. after being in great pain.

Successful murder investigations, afterlife

Four cartridge cases were seized from outside the study door. There was a ball in the wall of the study. Both made it possible to determine the make of the pistol. The search for the suspects has started.

Wilhelm Taurit was the fourth in a long line of clergy and other church-related persons killed in the wake of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the third Lutheran cleric to be killed in Livonia, and the seventh to be assassinated. He left a wife and a two-year-old daughter.

At his funeral, a Latvian parishioner said that Wilhelm Taurit was not only “a shepherd and teacher, but also a father and brother” for his parish.

In November 1906, the “Balss” wrote: “As is known, the punitive expedition in Dahlen is now proceeding very strictly.” The “ Düna-Zeitung ” protested against this representation and also reprimanded other non-German-language newspapers for their scarce coverage of the assassination. Only the obituary in the “Prib. Krai ”was praised.

Weibrand was arrested in Moscow's fourth quarter. On November 27, 1906, Grauding was shot while trying to escape from custody in Ogre . His body was buried on the spot. On November 29, 1906, another person involved in the crime was arrested in the Mitau suburb, who confessed and named the other participants. On the 30th, Sokolowski was arrested.

On December 8, 1906, Wehbrandt, Sokolowski and Kerewitz had to answer for the attack on Taurit before the field court in Lennewarden. They were sentenced to death and shot dead at 2:30 p.m. that same day. Swirkall has not yet been brought to justice.

In December 1906, a portrait photo of Taurit was the cover picture of the illustrated supplement to the Rigaschen Rundschau .

At the Livonian Provincial Synod of 1907, Pastor Hillner from Pinkenhof read a necrology on Taurit. A song verse was sung in his honor.

In February 1907 Theodor Kerewitz, the brother of the assassin Alfred Kerewitz, was arrested. He confessed that he was a member of the Latvian Social Democratic Union and had participated in several robberies. He also confirmed that Taurit had been killed by his brother, Sokolowsky, Swirkall, Ahboling, and someone he did not know. He maintained this statement when he later rejected the allegations made against himself.

On the night of March 23rd to 24th, 1907, Grauding's relatives exhumed the body of the alleged co-conspirator, placed it in a coffin and tried to take it to the cemetery, where they were arrested by the police. The body was returned to its original location and the Graudings family charged.

The 1908 Livonian Latvian calendar contained an obituary for Taurit. In 1908 the messages and news for the Evangelical Church in Russia appeared again .

In May 1909, the Livonian deputies Baron held Hans von Rosen , a speech to the Duma, in which he murders of the Orthodox priest Jānis LĪCIS and the Protestant clergyman William Taurit, Karl Schilling, Ludwig Zimmermann, Alphons Fuchs, Julius Busch and Albert Grühn mentioned . (According to other sources, Fuchs survived the attack despite the initial report of death.) Rosen referred to the named as martyrs. He also emphasized the importance of the Protestant clergy as pillars of the state and campaigned for an end to the legal disadvantage of the Protestant church compared to the Orthodox.

Works

  • Thoughts on the humanity of Jesus Christ according to the Gospels in the commemorative publication for the 100th anniversary of the theological faculty of the University of Jurjew (Dorpat / Tartu), Tartu 1903

literature

Portrait photo

Individual evidence

  1. Locales. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 143, June 28, 1896, online under Taurit | issueType: P
  2. Locales. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 138, June 21, 1897, online under Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  3. beach services. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 171, August 1, 1903, online at Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  4. ^ Church services on the beach. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 114, May 22, 1904, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  5. Local. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 147, July 2, 1904, online under Pastor Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  6. Local. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 146, July 8, 1905, online at Taurit Pastor | issueType: P
  7. beach services. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 146, July 8, 1905, online at Pastor Taurit Pastor | issueType: P
  8. In the Martinskirche. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 276, December 7, 1896, online under Taurit | issueType: P
  9. Lennewarden Castle. Church anniversary in the Düna newspaper , No. 194, August 28, 1897, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  10. A lecture cycle in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 34, February 11, 1898, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  11. Notes. in the Rigaschen Stadtbl Blätter , No. 17, April 30, 1898, online under Pastor Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  12. Locales. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 174, August 7, 1899, online at Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  13. Domestic. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 290, December 27, 1899, online under Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  14. Wolmar. From the Livonian Synod of Preachers. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 225, October 1, 1901, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  15. Domestic. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 201, September 5, 1902, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  16. Domestic. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 201, September 5, 1902, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  17. Stephan Bitter: Oskar Schabert, a preacher of conversion in East and West , p. 13 (PDF; 1.0 MB)
  18. Bethabara Lectures. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 223, October 10, 1905, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  19. Notes. in the Rigaschen Stadtblätter , No. 49, December 8, 1905, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  20. ^ Livonia. Dahlen. On the murder of Pastor Taurit in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 279, December 4, 1906, online under Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  21. Domestic. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 280, December 5, 1906, online at Taurit Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  22. Latest news. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 272, November 25, 1906, online at Taurit Pastor | issueType: P
  23. characteristic Preßgebahren in the murder of Pastor Taurit. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 275, November 29, 1906, online at Taurit Pastor | issueType: P
  24. Domestic. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 278, December 2, 1906, online under Pastor | issueType: P
  25. On the murder of Pastor Taurit in Dahlen. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 279, December 4, 1906, online at Pastor Taurit | issueType: P
  26. Execution of three murderers of Pastor Taurit. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 284, December 9, 1906, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  27. The Latvian Social Democratic Association and its fighting organization. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 135, June 13, 1908, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  28. J. Oger. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 70, March 26, 1907, online at Taurit | issueType: P
  29. The speech of the Livonian MP H. Baron Rosen in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 117, May 26, 1909, online at [1]
  30. Inland in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 267, November 23, 1902, online under Pastor Pastor Taurit | issueType: P