JOHANN KONRAD

LOHE  ,WILHELM (1808-1872), German divine and philanthropist, was born on the 21st of February18o8 in Furth near Nuremberg, and was educated at the universities of Erlangen and Berlin . In 1831 he was appointed vicar at Kirchenlamitz, where his fervent evangelical preaching attracted large congregations and puzzled the ecclesiastical authorities . A similar experience ensued at Nuremberg, where he was assistant pastor of St Egidia . In 1837 he became pastor in Neuendettelsau, a small and unattractive place, where his life's work was done, and which he transformed into a busy and influential community . He was interested in the spiritual condition of Germans who had emigrated to the United States, and built two training homes for missionaries to them . In 1849 he founded the Lutheran Society of Home Missions and in 1853 an institution of deaconesses . Other institutions were added to these, including a lunatic asylum, a Magdalen refuge, and hospitals for men and women . In theology Lithe was a strict Lutheran, but his piety was of a most attractive kind . Originality of conception, vividness of presentation, fertility of imagination, wide knowledge of Scripture and a happy faculty of applying it, intense spiritual fervour, a striking physique and a powerful voice made him a great pulpit force . He wrote a good deal, amongst his books being Drei Bucher 'von der Kirche (1845), Samenkorner des Gebeles (over 30 editions) and several volumes of sermons . He died on the and of January 1872 . See his Life, by J .

Dcinzer (3 vols., Giitersloh, 1873, 3rd ed., 1901) .