William Martensen

William Christian Heinrich Martensen (born August 22, 1858 in Hennstedt ; † August 9, 1950 in Schleswig ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran pastor and local history researcher.

Live and act

William Martensen was a son of Peter Detlef Friedrich Martensen (* March 22, 1829 in Nübel ; † August 5, 1829 in Kahleby ) and his wife Luise Eleonore Johanna, born von Zerßen (* May 16, 1826 in the ferry house in Missunde ; † 26 August 1907 in Schleswig). The father worked from 1851 to 1854 as a teacher and organist in Dakendorf , from 1854 to 1864 in Hennstedt, and from 1864 to 1889 in Treia . His ancestors have been living in Idstedt since the beginning of 1800 and were active as farmers there. The mother's parents were Ludwig von Zerßen (1773-1858) and his wife Eleonore Magdalena, née Siemsen.

Martensen spent childhood and youth in Hennstedt and Treia. His father and the local clergyman gave him first lessons. From 1870 until his Abitur in 1878 he attended the Christianeum . He received a scholarship to study theology and philosophy in Leipzig, Tübingen and Kiel. During his studies he listened to Karl Friedrich August Kahnis , Christoph Ernst Luthardt , Franz Julius Delitzsch , Carl Heinrich Weizsäcker , August Klostermann , Friedrich Nitzsch and in the last semester Erich Haupt . As with his parents, they were educators who followed a clear Lutheranism. Martensen worked later as a pastor patriarchal and oriented himself to confessionalism .

St. Mary's Kahleby

St. James Moldenite

After his Tentamen in Kiel in 1881 , Martensen worked as an intern in Süderstapel . At Easter 1884 he was examined. Since as a pastor he foreseeably had to go through a school inspection, he attended a seminar for theologians in Eckernförde for six weeks in preparation for the summer of 1884 . He was ordained in Garding on October 25th . He then worked for a short time as an adjunct in Ülsby . In 1886 he got a job as pastor of Eggebek . In 1889 he applied for a combined parish of Kahleby-Moldenit (today districts of Schaalby ). After an election by members of both communities, he was introduced into office on May 19, 1889. He stayed here for over 36 years.

Martensen married Bertha Juliane Maria Kladt in Wandsbek in 1886 (* July 27, 1861 in Pernambuco ; † May 5, 1919 in Kahleby). The couple had four sons and three daughters. The son Arthur (born September 15, 1899) took over his father's pastoral position in Kahleby-Moldenit, which he held from 1925 to 1953.

Works

Martensen researched the local history of the parishes of Kahleby and Moldenit. In 1897 a consistorial decree came into force, according to which chronicles had to be created and updated for all Evangelical Lutheran parishes in the province of Schleswig-Holstein. Martensen took this as an opportunity to study the history of the villages of his district intensively and far beyond the prescribed scope. From 1900 to 1902 he recorded his findings in writing. The extensive work did not go to press.

Martensen worked out a statistically well-founded topography of the region. He presented this as a complex interaction of social and economic aspects. With regard to church and ecclesiasticality, approaches of a sociology of religion can be found. Together with his friend Johannes Henningsen, he revised the book “fishing” by Hans Nicolai Andreas Jensen . The work published in 1922 is still considered one of the most extensive and important regional chronicles of Schleswig-Holstein. Martensen also worked continuously in the “Angler Heimatverein” and the “Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History”.

Martensen belonged to the "Ostangel Preacher Convent" and was its senior from 1909. He recorded the history of the spiritual brotherhood and lobbying from its founding in 1680 to its dissolution in 1939.

literature

• Volker Jakob: Martensen, William . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 229-230.