LOEHR, lo'e, JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM: Lutheran theologian and philanthropist; b. in Furth (5 m. n.w. of Nuremberg) Feb. 21, 1808; d. at Neuendettelsau (12 m. s. of Nuremberg) Jan. 2, 1872. Descended from a pious middle-class family, he went from the gymnasium of Nuremberg to the University of Erlangen in 1826 to study theology. First the Reformed, then powerfully and inflexibly the Lutheran, view influenced him. 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. In 1831 he became vicar at Kirchenlamitz where he drew large congregations by his original and fervent preaching. But the civil and ecclesiastical authorities on the charge of mysticism removed him after two years and he became assistant pastor of St. Giles in Nuremberg. Here his gift of preaching was fully developed. Like a prophet of old, Loehr denounced sin without fear, and thus set the magistracy of the city against him. He had, however, the support of the Church authorities. In 1837 he finally settled as preacher at Neuendettelsau, an inconsiderable and unattractive place, which after many a struggle he transformed into a busy Christian colony. From 1848 to 1852 the idea of leaving the Bavarian State Church frequently took hold of him, and his relations with its authorities became very strained. The reason for his dissatisfaction did not lie so much in actual conditions, but in the fact that Loehr measured these conditions by his ideal standards. It was the conflict between the ideal and the real that agitated him; he tried to identify the communion of saints with its visible organism. He planned originally not a reformation, but an entirely new formation of the Church. He addressed a petition signed by 330 people to the General Synod in which he demanded the withdrawal of secular supremacy over the Protestant Church, complete purification of confession, and the strictest adherence to the symbols of the Church. Although the synod tried to meet his demands as far as possible, Lohe was not satisfied and was several times actually on the point of secession; but his historical feeling and love for the traditions of the Church deterred him from the execution of his plan. As a strictly orthodox Lutheran, he was chiefly offended by the free intercourse between the Lutherans and the Reformed, and especially by their common celebration of the Lord's Supper, which threatened to eliminate the differences in doctrine, although no actual union existed. A proposition was made to suspend Lohe, but many voted against this measure, which, on account of his numerous following, would have led to an actual split within the Church of Bavaria. But these disagreeable conditions were changed when in 1852 the leadership of the consistory was entrusted to Harless, whose attitude toward Loehr was less hostile, and who effected a definite but peaceable separation between the Lutherans and Reformed. In his great work on the Church (Drei Bucher von der Kirche, 1845) Lohe propounds the strictest Lutheran orthodoxy. Impurity of doctrine is for him as bad as immoral conduct, and Lutheran doctrines are complete and perfect, in no need of development. But his zeal for orthodoxy was at times so excessive that it brought him dangerously near to Roman Catholicism, as for instance in his doctrine of a visible Church and his ideas of church government, the efficacy of works, self-denial, and celibacy. But he was so firmly rooted in the doctrine of justification that it is impossible to speak of a conscious inclination toward the Roman Catholic Church.

The personality of Loehr must, however, be judged in its entirety. He was not only a man of pure, although sometimes one-aided, orthodoxy, but a creative power in the field of charitable work. From 1840 he was active in educating spiritual workers for the German emigrants to America. He founded the Missouri Synod in union with the emigrant Lutherans of Saxony, the Franconian colonies in Michigan, and at a later time the Iowa Synod. Neuendettelsau possesses two stately buildings devoted to the education of missionaries for North America and Australia. In 1849 Lohe founded the Lutheran Society of Home Missions, and in 1853 an institution of deaconesses which was dedicated in the following year, the eighteenth in order of foundation, but the third or

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fourth in numbers of all Germany. Around this center there grew up with wonderful rapidity a number of institutions, such as asylums for idiots, a Magdalen asylum, hospitals for men and women, a chapel, industrial schools, etc. In 1865 a branch of the institution of deaconesses was founded at Polsingen near Oettingen, consisting of a department for male idiots, a district hospital, a reformatory, and an asylum for infants.

The characteristic trait in Lohe's personality was a healthy combination of orthodoxy with originality of thinking. Sin and grace, justification and sanctification, were the central points of his theology. As a preacher, he was among the greatest of the century. Originality of conception, vivid imagination, and prophetic fervor, were his chief characteristics in the pulpit. Lohe also made a profound study of liturgics and laid down his views in Agende für christliche Gemeinden (1848). He awakened everywhere the sense for liturgical order. But he was perhaps even greater as a pastor than as a preacher. Lohe was a man of striking appearance. His head was large, his forehead high; his mouth made the impression of great decision of character; his voice was powerful, and his eye bright and searching. He wrote not less than sixty works growing out of the experiences of his spiritual office and serving practical purposes. His earlier writings originated from his opposition to the State Church, Unsere kirchliche Lage (Nördlingen, 1850); Aphorismen über die neutestamentlichen Aemter und ihr Verhaltniss zur Gemeinde (Nuremberg, 1849); Kirche und Amt, nette Aphorismen (Erlangen, 1851); Die bayerische Generalsynode vom Fruhjahr 1849 und das lutherische Bekenntnis (Nuremberg, 1849). Of a permanent value are Drei Bucher von der Kirche (Stuttgart, 1845); Rosenmonate heiliger Frauen (1860); Der evangelische Geistliche (2 vols., 1852-58); Sieben Predigten (Nuremberg, 1836); Predigten über das Vaterunser (1837); Sieben Vortrage über die Worte am Kreuze (Stuttgart, 1859); Erinnerungen aus der Reformationsgeschichte von Franken (Nuremberg, 1847); Haus-, Schul- und Kirchenbuch für Christen lutherischen Bekenntnisses (Stuttgart, 1845); Samenkorner (Nördlingen, 1844).

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: J. Deinzer, W. Lohes Leben; 3 vols., 3d ed., Gütersloh, 1901; H. Back, Die innere Mission in Bayern, pp. 18 sqq., Hamburg, 1880; K. Eichner, Wilhelm Lohe, ein Lebensbild, Nuremberg, 1907.