LOEBE, lob'e,
AUGUST JULIUS: German Lutheran; b, at Altenburg (24 m. s. of Leipsic) Jan. 8, 1805; d. at Rasepbas (a suburb of Altenburg)
Mar. 27, 1900. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native city and at the universities of Jena (1825-27; Ph.D., 1831) and Leipsic (1827-
1828), after which he conducted a private school in
Altenburg until 1839. Becoming deeply interested in Gothic, he determined on the first critical
edition of the translation of Ulfilas (q.v.) in collaboration with Hans Conon von der Gabelentz;
and for this purpose he visited Upsala in 1834 to
inspect the famous Codex Argenteus, and in the
following year went to Wolfenbuttel with Von der
Gabelentz to study the Codex Carolinus of Ulfilas.
The edition, which appeared under the title
Ulfilas: Veteris et Novi Testamenti versionis Gothicae fragmenta quae supersunt
(3 vols., Leipsic and AItenburg, 1836-46), was accompanied by Lobe's
Beitrage zur Textberichtigung und Erklarung des Skeireines
(Altenburg, 1839) and supplemented by the collaborators'
Nachschrift zu der Ausgabe des Ulfilas (Leipsic, 1860).
In 1839 Lobe became pastor at Rasephas, where
the remainder of his life was to be spent. Here he
contributed largely to Pierer's Universal-Lexikon,
and practically edited the fourth and fifth editions
of the work (1857-64; 1867-72), as well as the
three additional year-books incorporated in the
same encyclopedia (1865-73). He also did most
of the work on the edition planned by Preuss of
the Loci, theologici of Johann Gerhard (9 vols.,
Berlin and Leipsic, 1863-85). His third field of
activity was the local and ecclesiastical history of
Altenburg, represented by his Geschichtliche Beschreibung der Residenzstadt Altenburg und ihrer Umgebung
(Altenburg, 1841), and the completion,
in collaboration with his eldest son, Ernst Conon
Lobe, of Sachse's Altenburger Kirchengallerie (3 vols.,
ib. 1886-91).
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
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 fur 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 (Nordlingen, 1850);
Aphorismen uber 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 uber das
Vaterunser (1837); Sieben Vortrage uber die Worte
am Kreuze (Stuttgart, 1859); Erinnerungen aus
der Reformationsgeschichte von Franken (Nuremberg, 1847);
Haus-, Schul- und Kirchenbuch fur Christen lutherischen Bekenntnisses (Stuttgart, 1845); Samenkorner
(Nordlingen, 1844).
(A. HAUCK.)
IBLIOGRAPHY: J. Deinzer, W. Lohes Leben; 3 vols., 3d ed.,
Gutersloh, 1901; H. Back, Die innere Mission in Bayern,
pp. 18 sqq., Hamburg, 1880; K. Eichner, Wilhelm Lohe,
ein Lebensbild, Nuremberg, 1907.