Henry Muhlenberg

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg ( born September 6 in 1711 in Einbeck, † October 7, 1787 in Providence, Pennsylvania, today: Trappe, Montgomery County); actually: Heinrich ( Melchior ) Muhlenberg was a German Lutheran pastor, who was sent as a missionary to British North America. He is considered the founder of the German Lutheran community structures in the colonies and is therefore called the "Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in North America ".

  • 4.1 diaries
  • 4.2 correspondence

Life and work

Muhlenberg was determined by a study of theology in Göttingen and Halle and his ordination in Leipzig 1741 by God Help August Francke, son of August Hermann Francke and his successor as director of the Francke Foundations in Halle, the Lutheran preacher of three German-speaking communities in Pennsylvania, the hitherto unorganized and were hardly supplied with pastors. After his arrival in Philadelphia in 1742, he began working in close coordination with Francke in Halle rapidly with the establishment of an institutionalized Lutheran Church in the American East Coast.

Shortly after his arrival came Muhlenberg in a conflict with Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who was in turn traveled in 1741 to Pennsylvania to take care of the German Protestants, he wanted some while maintaining their religious practices to a Council of Churches in which they working together, rather than compete with each. Muhlenberg rather envisioned by the Lutheran confessionalism.

In addition to the construction of churches and schools have been under his decisive leadership of the German Association of Local Authorities of the Evangelical Lutheran Ministry of Pennsylvania and neighboring states, first in the province of Pennsylvania ( 1748), and later also separately for the Province of New York ( 1786) justified. At his recover was also adopted in 1762 for the Municipality of Philadelphia own church order, the other Lutheran congregations served as a model. He also wrote a draft of its own hymnal, called Mühlenbergsche hymnal first appeared in 1786. Muhlenberg died on October 7, 1787 in Providence / Pennsylvannien.

Descendants

From the descendants of the Muhlenberg / Muhlenberg family later many American politicians emerged. Members of the so-called " Muhlenberg Dynasty " in the United States:

  • Peter Muhlenberg (1746-1807), General of the revolutionary Continental Army, later Congressman and Senator
  • Frederick Muhlenberg (1750-1801), member of the Continental Congress, first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
  • Henry Ernest Muhlenberg (1753-1815), an important naturalist in a lively exchange with German and North American scholars. Systematically explored the North American Fauna
  • John Andrew Shulze (1774-1852), son of Eva Elisabeth Muhlenberg (1748-1808), sixth governor of the State of Pennsylvania
  • Henry AP Muhlenberg (1782-1844), Congressman and the first ambassador of the United States in Austria
  • William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877), pastor of the Episcopal Church
  • Muhlenberg

William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877)

After the " Father of American Lutheranism " is also founded in 1848 and continues today with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America affiliated Muhlenberg College, a college with an emphasis on the humanities, named.

Remembrance

Muhlenberg's Memorial on October 7 applies to the following churches:

  • Evangelical Church in Germany
  • Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
  • Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

Traveling exhibition

  • 2011: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg 300 years ( 1711-1787 ). Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in North America. Funded by the German Embassy in Washington, in cooperation with the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and with other bodies the exhibition in German and English, was shown at various locations in the U.S. and Germany.

Works

Diaries

  • Theodore G. Tappert, John W. Dober Stein ( ed.): The Journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. 3 vols, Philadelphia 1942-1958. Reprint Philadelphia / Evansville 1982

Correspondence

  • The correspondence Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg from the early days of German Lutheranism in North America. Edited in collaboration with the main archive of the Francke Foundations of Halle, Kurt Aland and Hermann Wellenreuther. 5 volumes, Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 1986 to 2002 (texts on the history of Pietism; Dept. 3: Handwritten estate August Hermann Francke )
Trappe (Pennsylvania) Montgomery County (Pennsylvania) Pennsylvania Ministerium Henry A. P. Muhlenberg Francis Swaine Muhlenberg Henry Augustus Muhlenberg Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Neue Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File
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