Hartmut Lehmann

Hermann Wellenreuther

This volume brings together essays by leading German and American historians on the subject of German emigration in the eighteenth century when Germans were moving to a variety of destinations: Russia, Prussian Lithuania, and various other German territories as well as North America.What drove men and women from different regional and social backgrounds to leave their homes during this time? Some migrations were forced, as for the Mennonites, the Salzburger emigrants, and the French Huguenots; some were voluntary and determined by the wish for one's own land and greater social and economic opportunity. In all groups, religion was a prominent motivator and primary element of social identification and cohesion. Inevitably, migrants carried with them traditional skills and other indispensable cultural "baggage." A key strength of this book is that contributors emphasize the mutual exchanges that occurred among cultures.

New German Settlements in Eighteenth-Century Europe and America

In Search of Peace and Prosperity

The study attempts to find out how and to what extent two Pietisms transfered from the Old World to North America changed due to political, social, and cultural conditions in the years 1742-1800. Two individuals, the German Lutheran pastor Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg (1711-1787) sent from the Glauchasche Anstalten in Halle/Saale and the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger (1721-1808) from Herrnhut, serve as protagonists through which concepts, ways of life, and religious ideas of the two Pietisms are analyzed. The geographic limits of this study are Pennsylvania, the middle Atlantic colonies of British North America/states within the USA, and what after the American Revolution was called the Northwest Territory. The chapters focus on key concepts with regard to Pietisms like environment, missions, realities, faith and conversion. Special regard is given to the impact of the American Revolution on the Halle’s pastors Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg and his colleagues, and on their Moravian counterpart David Zeisberger, his mission congregations in the Ohio Valley or Bethlehem as the leading Moravian congregation in Pennsylvania.

Heinrich Melchior M�hlenberg David Zeisberger and Their Miss

Pietisms in the American Wilderness

Carola Wessel

1772-1781

Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger

Kurt Aland

Diese erstmalige deutsche Ausgabe der Korrespondenz Mühlenbergs ist von grundlegender Bedeutung nicht nur für die Kirchengeschichte der USA, sondern auch für die frühe Geschichte dieses Landes. Die im originalen Wortlaut wiedergegebenen Briefe sind von zahlreichen Anmerkungen begleitet, die die notwendigen Erklärungen und Kommentare zu den Brieftexten liefern. Sie spiegeln nicht nur die Geschichte des deutschen Luthertums in den USA, sondern auch die Geschichte anderer Kirchen und Denominationen.

1777–1787

Unter all den deutschen Migranten, die im 18. Jahrhundert nach Nordamerika gingen, gibt es nur einen Niedersachsen, nur einen lutherischen Pastor und nur einen eifrigen Briefschreiber, dessen Lebenswerk bis in die unmittelbare Gegenwart wirkt: den Einbecker Theologen Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg (1711 - 1787). Er wurde 1742 von Gotthilf August Francke in die pietistische Diaspora Pennsylvaniens entsandt, avancierte dort zur dominanten Vermittlergestalt zwischen lutherischen Gemeinden in Nordamerika und seinen Vorgesetzten in London und Halle. Mühlenberg, jüngster Sohn eines wohlhabenden Schuhmachermeisters aus Einbeck, einer der ersten Theologiestudenten der 1734 gegründeten Georg-August-Universität Göttingen und pflichtbesessener Pastor, begleitete den schwierigen Aufbau einer eigenständigen Lutherischen Kirche in den britischen Kolonien in den Dekaden vor der Amerikanischen Revolution mit intensiver Korrespondenz. Seine Briefwechsel der Jahre 1742 - 1787 mit Obrigkeiten, Kollegen, Freunden und Gemeinden in Nordamerika und Europa zeigen seine tiefe Frömmigkeit und asketische Leidensfähigkeit ebenso wie seinen Humor, seine Strenge und die täglichen Probleme eines Seelsorgers mit widerborstigen Gemeindemitgliedern, Finanzproblemen und Glaubenskonflikten.

Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg und die deutschen Lutheraner in Nordamerika, 1742 – 1787

In honor of the German historian Hermann Wellenreuther, this volume explores the Atlantic world in all its many facets and extraordinary scope. Experts from different fields address economic problems as well as religious convictions, on the social differences and the everyday life experiences of the "ordinary people" as well as the aristocracy and the politics of princes. Taken together, the articles weave together German, English and American history and help us to understand the Atlantic societies on both sides of the ocean from the Middle Ages to the present. Claudia Schnurmann is professor at the Department of History at the University of Hamburg (Germany). Hartmut Lehmann is professor at the Max-Planck-Institute for History, Goettingen (Germany).

Hermann Wellenreuther

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