Baum, Johann Wilhelm

BAUM, JOHANN WILHELM: Protestant German theologian; b. at Flonheim (17 m. s.s.w. of Mainz) Dec. 7, 1809; d. at Strasburg Nov. 28, 1878. When he was thirteen years of age, he was sent to Strasburg to the house of his uncle, where he prepared himself for the ministry. Having completed his studies, he was made teacher at, the theological seminary at Strasburg in 1835. This position he resigned in 1844 and accepted the position of vicar of St. Thomas's in that city, whose first preacher he became in 1847. At the close of the Franco-Prussian war, the German government appointed him professor in the University of Strasburg. He belonged to the liberal Protestant party of his country, and made himself known by his writings on the history of the Reformation, as well as that of his own time, including Franz Lambert von Avignon (Strasburg and Paris, 1840); Theodor Beza nach handschriftlichen Quellen dargestellt (2 vols., Leipsic, 1843–45); Johann Georg Stuber, der Vorg࣫nger Oberlins im Steinthale and Vorkämpfer einer neuen Zeit in Strassburg (Strasburg, 1846); Die Memoiren d’Aubigné's des Hugenotten von altem Schrott und Korn (Leipsic, 1854); Capito und Butzer, Strassburgs Reformatoren (Elberfeld, 1860), being the third part of Leben und ausgewählte Schriften der Väter und Begründer der reformirten Kirche. Besides these works written in German, he published in French Les Églises réformée s de France sous la croix (Strasburg, 1869); Les Mémoires de P. Carriére dit Corteis (Strasburg, 1871); Le Procés de Baudichon de la Maisori-Neuve (Geneva, 1873). For a number of years Baum assisted his colleagues Reuss and Cunitz in the edition of Calvin's works published in the Corpus reformatorum.

Bibliography: Zur Erinnerung an J. W. Baum, Reden, Strasburg, 1878; M. Baum, J. W. Baum, ein protestantisches Charakterbild aus dem Elsass, Bremen, 1880.