Johann Konrad Wilhelm Lhe

keeper, his father died in 1816 and he seemed to have

had a very lonely childhood. He received his basic education from C. L. Roths gymnasium in Nuremberg and was
admitted to theological study at the University of Erlangen in 1826. He was heavily inuenced by the Reformed
professor of theology Christian Krat and Thomas von
Kempen. Ultimately, he was introduced to the Lutheran
Confessions and became a Lutheran under the teaching of David Hollaz. In 1828 he spent a term at the
University of Berlin, attracted not so much by the lectures of the professors as by the sermons of the famous
preachers. Lhe graduated from the Erlangen in 1830,
but waited until 1831 before receiving a pastoral assignment to Kirchenlamitz in Upper Franconia (Northeastern
Bavaria).

2 Pastoral work

Photograph of Wilhelm Loehe

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Lhe (21 February 1808 2

January 1872) (often rendered 'Loehe') was a pastor of
the Lutheran Church, Neo-Lutheran writer, and is often
regarded as being a founder of the deaconess movement
in Lutheranism and a founding sponsor of the Lutheran
Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS). He was a pastor in
nineteenth-century Germany. From the small town of
Neuendettelsau, he sent pastors to North America, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil, and the Ukraine. His work
for a clear confessional basis within the Bavarian church
sometimes led to conict with the ecclesiastical bureaucracy. His chief concern was that a parish nd its life in
the eucharist, and from that source evangelism and social
ministries would ow. Many Lutheran congregations in
Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa were either founded or inuenced by missionaries sent by Lhe. He is commemorated by the ELCA and the LCMS on 2 January.
Johann Konrad Wilhelm Lhe

Birth and early life

Lhes work in Frth was a troubled one. His fervent

evangelical preaching attracted large congregations and
Lhe was born on 21 February 1808 in the town of Frth puzzled the ecclesiastical authorities. A similar experiin present-day Middle Franconia. The son of a shop- ence ensued at Nrnberg, where he was assistant pastor
1

of St. Egidien (i.e. St. Giles) as he was often criticized for his sermons and his anti-pietistic leanings. He
transferred through a series of parishes before settling
in the village of Neuendettelsau, Bavaria (about 30 km
from Frth) in 1837 after failing to gain an assignment
in an urban setting. He was married that same year. By
most accounts, Lhe was an ideal pastor who interacted
well with a variety of dierent classes of people. He focused his theological studies on the Lutheran Confessions
and put considerable thought into the celebration of Holy
Communion as the center of congregational life. Lhe
was especially interested in old Lutheran liturgies. Lhe
was also noted for his ontological view of the pastoral
oce, which he believed existed independently of congregational call but as a direct appointment from Jesus
Christ through ordination. He combined all these ideas
with a heavy insistence on social renewal. Lhe endured
strained relations with the regional authorities over articulating a clear confessional status for the church during
a period from 1848 until 1852. At one point, he even
considered leaving the church, though ultimately he was
able to resolve dierences between him and the church
leadership.

2.1

Missionary work

Despite being conned to a pastorate in an out-of-theway village, which he never left, Lhe nevertheless exhibited a keen interest in missionary work. He was particularly concerned about the state of German immigrants
to North America. He solicited funds through a variety
of sources to help bolster the spiritual state of the immigrant population beginning in 1841. He also encouraged
the sending of pastors to North America to assist the settlers and help with conversion of the Native American
populations. To this end, he constructed two schools to
train missionaries, one of which became Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Individuals sent by Lhe were instrumental in the founding of the Evangelical Lutheran
Joint Synod of Ohio, though Lhe withdrew his support from that synod in 1845 over doctrinal dierences.
Lhes emissaries we among the founders of the Missouri
Synod in 1846. In 1853, Lhe supporters established the
Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa. While Lhe is most
well remembered for his encouragement of missionary
activity in the United States, he also supported work in
Brazil, Ukraine, Australia, and New Guinea through his
Foreign Missionary Society (Gesellschaft fr Innere und
uere Mission im Sinne der Evangelisch-Lutherischen
Kirche).

2.2

Deaconess community

In addition to being concerned about foreign matters,

Lhe retained a concern for domestic social matters.
Here he saw the bad situation of many unmarried girls
and young women. In the rural society they had a very

WRITINGS

underprivileged status and suered from lack of education. In this spirit, he founded the rst Deaconess Mother
House in 1849. The house became a place of social and
education activity, hosting schools, hospitals, and other
social agencies. The deaconesses lived in celibacy and in
a spiritual-economic community.

3 Legacy
Lhe died in Neuendettelsau on 2 January 1872 at the age
of sixty-three, having inuenced the life of the Lutheran
Church on ve continents. The chapel at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa is dedicated to his
memory. He had signicant inuence on missions, confessionalism, and liturgics as it relates to Lutheranism.

4 Writings
Samenkrner des Gebetes (this is 4th, out of over 30
ed.)
Seed-grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians (Samenkrner des Gebetes
translated into English by H. A. Weller, complete work online)
Sieben Predigten (Nrnberg, 1836)
Predigten ber das Vaterunser (1837)
Erinnerungen aus der Reformationsgeschichte von
Franken (Nrnberg, 1847)
Drei Bcher von der Kirche (1845) - the main
work, concerning ecclesiology
Haus-, Schul- und Kirchenbuch fr Christen
lutherischen Bekenntnisses (Stuttgart, 1845)
Agende fr christliche Gemeinden (1848).
Lutheran Service Book

Die bayerische Generalsynode vom Frhjahr 1849

und das Lutherische Bekenntnis (Nrnberg, 1849)
Unsere kirchliche Lage (Nrdlingen, 1850)
Kirche und Amt, neue Aphorismen (Erlangen, 1851)
Der evangelische Geistliche (2 vols., 185258)
Etwas aus der Geschichte des Diaconissenhauses
Neuendettelsau. 3. Auage. Gtersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1907.

See also
Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)
Neo-Lutheranism
Evangelical catholic
William Augustus Mhlenberg
Johann Flierl
Frankenmuth, MI

External links
LHE, JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM (New
Scha-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. VII)
Lhe, Johann Konrad Wilhelm article in Christian
Cyclopedia
The Ecclesial Vision of Wilhelm Lhe By David C.
Ratke, Lenoir-Rhyne College. April 4, 2002
Lutheran Liturgies from Martin Luther to Wilhelm
Lhe (PDF) by Vernon P. Kleinig, Concordia Theological Quarterly, April 1998
Project Wittenberg:
Lhe, 1808-1872

Johannes Konrad Wilhelm

A little Lhe for Lutherans

Wilhelm Lhe: Man with a Vision
Germany Fed. Rep. 1972 stamp devoted to Johann
Konrad Wilhelm Lhe
Wolf, Edmund Jacob. The Lutherans in America; a
story of struggle, progress, inuence and marvelous
growth. New York: J.A. Hill. 1889.

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Lhe Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Konrad_Wilhelm_L%C3%B6he?oldid=688320029 Contributors: CTSWyneken, DJ Clayworth, Bobblewik, MistToys, DanielCD, Bender235, RazorChicken, Sk4p, Stemonitis, Twthmoses,
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7.2

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File:Johann_Konrad_Wilhelm_Lhe.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Johann_Konrad_Wilhelm_
L%C3%B6he.JPG License: Public domain Contributors:
Dau,
W.T.H.
<a
data-x-rel='nofollow'
class='external
text'
href='http://books.google.com/books?id=
fIgSAAAAYAAJ,<span>,&,</span>,pg=PA79,<span>,&,</span>,dq=#v=onepage,<span>,&,</span>,q=,<span>,&,</span>,f=false'>Ebenezer:
Reviews of the Work of the Missouri Synod During Three Quarters of a Century</a>. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
1922. p. 79.
Original artist: Joseph Albert
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7.3

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