# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 02 01_S78
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

78

News from Germany.

From a private letter that has reached us from the old fatherland we take the following.

A substantial reorganization is impending for the institution, hitherto conducted in Nuremberg under the direction of Mr. Catechist Bauer, for the preparation of young men for admission into our Lutheran preachers' seminaries here. The letter says of it: "From all sides applications are coming in from pupils; Bauer has his pick — and at present has very capable and gifted people. Either he would have had to break off his work in view of the throng and accept a parish; or the institution had to find enlargement and perfecting, more teaching staff and a larger horizon than that of a preparatory institution. We intend, God willing, to transfer the institution to Dettelsau in the spring, where it may perhaps find worthy quarters in the rooms of the castle — to make of it an independent institution for the training of servants of God among Christians and heathen in the making — and to connect with it a practical-theological preachers' seminary. The parish of Dettelsau, with its three churches and its compendious circumstances, is entirely suited to become the foil of a practical seminary. Candidate Schubert will be replaced by a philological teacher; Pastor Müller in Immeldorf will take over symbolics. Perhaps some younger theologians will stand by our side. Above all, God's blessing is needed. If the matter pleases Him, it will go; if not, may His holy name be praised as in the other case."

"In the place of Höfling (in Erlangen), who has become Dr. juris and Upper Consistorial Councillor, there comes, as is at least affirmed, Theodosius Harnack from Dorpat, an exceedingly lovable personality. In the place of Harleß (in Dresden) Thomasius is to come; at least negotiations have been held with him; the noble Nagel in Breslau is also named. It is not yet clear. After the close of the Synod in Breslau, the good Pastor Rüger of Cologne died at Breslau.— (The Lutheran pastor) Eichhorn in Baden is sorely persecuted; he was brought only recently, by the convict transport, from Durlach to Kembach near Wertheim (on the Main) and confined there. In Nassau also the two younger pastors are sorely persecuted; Frohnmüller, now called to Cologne, has only recently tried the Nassau prisons and inquisitions."

The "lutherische Herold" communicates the following further from the Sonntagsblatt:

On the 22nd of September of this year the Lutheran Church in Prussia held its General Synod at Breslau. At its opening it consisted of 76 members; of these 9 belonged to the Supreme Church Board, 34 were pastors, 33 lay deputies. Among the pastors were also Pastor Brunn from Nassau and Pastor Eichhorn from Baden. Six pastors had not appeared, among them Pastor Haver of Rade vor'm Wald and Pastor Hasert, of whom more later. As guests there took part the Mecklenburgers Baron von Maltzan, Baron von Wartenberg and Benzlin; the Bavarians City Court Assessor Hommel from Erlangen and Pastor Fischer of Artelshofen; Pastor Meinel from Hamburg; Candidate Volkmann from Saxony, and later also Professor Dr. Kahnis from Leipzig . . . . In the year 1848 the last General Synod had been held. At that time the Lutheran Church in Prussia embraced 32 parochial districts or parishes; since then it has grown to 48 parishes. Of these 44 belong to the existing 7 dioceses, namely, to the Diocese of Breslau 7, to the Diocese of Liegnitz 7, to the Diocese of Milisch 5, to Thorn likewise 5, to Trieglaff 6, likewise to Wollin 6, and to Berlin 7 parishes. The remaining five parishes belonging to no diocese are: Erfurt, Rade vor'm Wald, Cologne, and the parishes of Pastors Brunn and Eichhorn in Nassau and Baden. Yet of the newly arisen parishes only 4 have grown up as really new, namely Reinswalde, Rade, and the Nassau and Baden ones; the other twelve have arisen by being detached from other, earlier parishes and made independent parishes. From Lutheran territorial churches there were appointed since 1848 in the Lutheran Church in Prussia the pastors Crome, Weiker, Rüger, Lohmann, von Kienbusch and Düll, and the assistant preachers Räthjen, Kornmann, Ebere, Frohnmüller, Semm and Hacker. From the United territorial church of Prussia, however, there have joined it the pastors Bürger, Pistorius, Karbe, and Haver, and from other United churches of Germany the pastors Brunn and Eichhorn, the preacher Meischel and the candidates Hosäus, Schick and Frommel. That makes in all an increase of 22 shepherds. On the other hand, in this time it has also suffered a loss of 7 pastors, of whom 4 were taken from it by death, 3 by withdrawal. . . . As regards the matter of the Agende, it was resolved that the new Agende, the appearance of which the commission charged with its preparation held out as soon to be expected, if it has stood the examination, should be recommended, not commanded, to the congregations for adoption, and that the same course should be followed with the second edition of Löhe's Agende now in press. A new hymnal also is in the making, and is likewise, when it lies finished, to be examined by the Supreme Church Board, and if it be found proof-worthy, to be recommended to the congregations. That is certainly also the only right course; for if the work praises the master, it recommends itself also, and . . . . prevails. But where not, then, according to Art. VII of the Augsburg Confession, "it is enough for the true unity of the Christian Church that the Gospel be preached harmoniously according to a pure understanding, and the Sacraments be administered in conformity with the divine Word; and it is not necessary for the true unity of the Christian Church that uniform ceremonies, instituted by men, be observed everywhere." Under the shelter of such truly evangelical liberality, truly Christian life also thrives ever better and more beautifully alongside true unity, and the latter too will ever more come to appear in the outward relations . . . . . Finally, the frequent complaints about the condition of lukewarmness, which resounded from almost all congregations, called forth a special commission for the promotion of the inner life in the congregations; and at its motion a "Letter to the Congregations" was then resolved upon by the Synod, to awaken them, by God's grace, to renewal in the life that is of God. This spiritual plague, which in our days creeps everywhere in the dark and eats away the heart and marrow of the congregations, thus shows itself there also as with us, and looks almost like a judgment of God upon our time, for the gracious averting of which everyone who still has a breath in his soul ought to sigh and implore.

Soon after the close of the Synod it suffered a bitter loss. Pastor Rüger of Cologne fell ill at Breslau with nervous fever and succumbed to it after a few days. In him a gifted servant of the Church, a faithful servant of God, a valiant soldier of Christ, has been taken away, in the midst of his days, according to God's wonderful counsel, and not only the congregation in Cologne has cause to mourn his departure. Yet however painful this loss is, a still harder and more grievous blow struck the Synod, and with it the whole Church, in the apostasy of Pastor Hasert of Bunzlau to the Roman Church. Already some days before the close of the Synod he presented himself to it and declared that he wished to renounce participation in the Synod; indeed, he presented himself properly for a conversation, in that he was minded to go over to the Roman Catholic Church. That he had for a considerable time been inwardly assailed by the Roman Church was already known to several persons standing nearer to him, and his superiors, too, had on that account some considerable time before spoken with him earnestly and at length about it. After these conversations he seemed more at ease, and when he was later again asked about his inner state, he declared that his office left him no time to pursue the matter; so one hoped that the power of the temptation was broken and that he would gradually overcome it entirely. Also from his congregations one heard no complaint whatever about him. As much as one was therefore on the one hand prepared for such a step on the part of Pastor Hasert, so much was one nevertheless on the other hand surprised when he before the assembled Synod made that declaration