Stephan proposed that his family come with him. Julia decided not to join him. He also wanted his daughters to emigrate at a later date, but they did not. And he often spoke of saving 3,000 Thaler to have his family join him later. Given this indefinite picture of how and if his family would ever follow him to America, it became even more important that his family was provided with sufficient incomes. Because Stephan would receive no income for some period of time, Julia made arrangements to provide for the family from her inheritance and from other properties she held in both their names.
Stephan had appealed to the superintendent of the churches for them to grant him a pension. He had claimed his average earnings to be 441 Thaler over twenty-eight years. The state church calculated it much lower, since they did not include the perquisites. August 3, 1838, the consistory did grant him some pension pending the outcome of his other legal issues. The amount was to be determined later, and the total turned out to be 200 Thaler, not the 500 he requested. No doubt this was the pension that Julia was counting on as noted in the court papers of October 24, 1838. She also received some money her uncle had left her.12
These legal arrangements were mutually established and agreed upon by both parties. There was no evidence of hostility or contentiousness. Julia declared to the court that she negotiated a satisfactory agreement with her husband over their common property and her future support. This declaration was transmitted to the Court of Wards. Stephan mutually joined with Julia, providing for their children’s care before he left for America.
With the preparations for the voyage and the regulations for the Emigration Society solidified, the pastors in the group needed permission from the consistory to resign as pastors of their congregations. As late as August 1838, pastors like G. H. Loeber along with Pastor Stephan wrote the Altenburg-Saxon Consistory for permission to leave their congregations. Their letters stated their desire to end their pastorates and emigrate to America where they would establish new churches. Excerpts from Pastor Loeber’s letters to the consistory and the Duke of Saxony are filled with theological tension. Replies by the consistory are defensive and highly critical of Stephan and the pastors, not only for leaving but also for their harsh judgment of the current climate. Loeber’s letter to the Saxon Consistory is typical of the repeated requests by all six pastors including Pastor Stephan for release from their congregations.
The undersigned humbly and devotedly requests to be permitted to make the following contract: As happily as I have administered, with the help of God, this holy pastorate, which was given to me through sovereign generosity and the well-meaning decree of the congregation in Eichenberg and Bibra, in this fourteenth year; and as unforgettable as my fatherland will remain to me, with all of the beneficence and support; yes, as much as I’ve often thankfully known it as a rare fortune that I was called up by a beloved brother to the local pastorate; so have I at the same time made the decision to give up my position, after attaining merciful permission, and to emigrate with my family, in the company of a number of like-minded friends, who are already considering to leave a neighboring state in the year, to one of the states in the northwest of America.
That I wasn’t driven to this decision by a capricious desire for change, nor by material desire, nor in order to look for work, or out of dissatisfaction with this or that everyday pressure, or by some misleading argument from abroad, all of this I can swear at any time to all people, as if before our all knowing God.
No, I have thoughtfully weighed reasons of a completely different nature which press within on my conscience and which will be justified on that day when I leave.
After giving this necessary as well as sincere guarantee, the continuation of which I nonetheless don’t wish to burden a high consistorium with, I will allow myself to make the devoted request of those in the consistorium to release, from Michaelmas of this year on, from my current obligations and to send the corresponding resolution, when it so behooves, to me through the Ducal diocese in Kahla.
In that, through this application, I have neither to fear falling out of favor with the Honorable Princes, to whom I have already given this application, nor the displeasure of the honorable Collegium, I dare to also request of your Honors the following gracious information: which authorities shall I go to in order to obtain the necessary emigration permits and travel passes for myself and my family, as well as what other necessary steps are required by existing law for my emigration and for my safekeeping.
For all of the requested advice, which I in confidence allow myself, as well as for the honor and mercy that your Honors have shown me during my tenure, I give my humble dutiful thanks, signed in devotion,
Gotthold Heinrich Loeber
Eichenberg, 183813
The Saxon Consistory returned his letter with equally polite and flowery language. Basically, they asked him to reconsider his decision. With the following words they considered him crazy to go to this new, unsettled, savage-filled country. They said in part,
Though we can certainly expect from you, being a conscientious and devout servant of the Word, that you did not decide to give up your position without thorough consideration and without consultation with your pastoral confessor, we nonetheless consider it possible that one or two important counter-considerations may have become less visible and present to you as a result of the tumult of emotion, itself perhaps too strong an external influence. There we find it fitting, for your sake as well as for your family and congregation, to submit you to additional questions about your intentions and to ask that you listen to the voice of a mature consideration, calm in the face of the numerous relationships in life and with a dispassionate overview, which here, if any where, is in the right place....
You are without a doubt influenced by completely different circumstances than those which motivate these others, as has been publicized. Thus, we must refrain from making a conclusive judgment. You have the personal respect and approval from a truly Christian sovereign etc ...
You certainly could expect such a calling in other arising opportunities, if you, as a father of a family, have in mind an improvement in your external circumstance; and this calling, because of your modesty, would not grant you any less than you can hope to find in such vague distance. If you were to consider how life is for a pastor in that distant part of the world, and how it offers innumerable more pains and difficulties that here, with out it offering any more opportunity for spiritual blessing or the means for guaranteeing your valued duties to wife, children and relative, even beyond your own lifetime, or more assurances that the petitions of minister will find a more friendly and supportive exception than what has happened here.
It is in the best of intentions that we offer you these comments to consider; we ask you to hold the beautiful ideal of a perfect Christian congregation, which without a doubt hovers before you, against the measure of reality, as we find offered, unpetitioned, by the Christian church throughout the different periods of its history. This is so that you might be reminded of the Word of our Lord and Father, namely that the sourdough sours the entire bread, and after consideration, to send us an additional explanation.
The Consistorium of the Duchy of Saxony14
However, this negative letter, in which the church authorities tried to discourage the pastor from leaving his congregation, did not have the expected persuasive power. Loeber replied to the consistory’s request to rethink its position and petitioned again with firmness and conviction. Loeber, like his colleagues, clarified that the condition of the Lutheran Church in Germany has changed so radically at every level of education, congregational, and state administration that he saw little hope for it to change back. He was just plain weary of the suspicions and harassments that were fired at the leadership of the “Old Lutherans.” Loeber’s hope is to develop an authentic “Christian community of our Lord” not a perfect sectarian community. In this Christian community the Holy Bible that has worked for many centuries to one degree or another will guide them
. Then Loeber, with characteristic German flowery politeness, requested release from his current pastorate and thanked them for the willingness to extend his appointment but turns down their offer.
After this round of letters, the consistory forwarded this petition with the correspondence to the Duke of Saxony. They reported their discontent and disagreement with Pastor Loeber’s position and also that of a Pastor Gruber who had petitioned for release from his congregation along with Loeber. The consistory argued that they, the pastors, should stay even though they disagreed with the current theology of the church. The Consistory referred to the seventh article of the Augsburg Confession which stated in fact “it was enough for the church to attain true unity in the church, that there be agreement regarding the preaching of the gospel and in giving the sacrament (Holy Communion).” The letter also informs the Duke of Saxony that the members of the consistory were anxious about their association with the church movement “founded” by Pastor Stephan. The consistory had pointed out to the two pastors that there is no place on earth where there will be perfection in the church, and that the church will have to contend with the “spirit of the age” no matter where it is established. Having said all this, they regretted that they must grant their request and let them go.
As late as September 25, 1838, Duke Joseph of Saxony wrote to Pastors Loeber and Gruber after reading what the consistory told him regarding the pastors’ request to leave the country. It really was a letter to all of the pastors who were going to America. Pastor Loeber’s brother and Pastor Gruber had visited the duke’s offices to get a final decision of approval of their intentions to leave Germany. Duke Joseph was unable to see them in person but wrote to Pastor Loeber’s brother giving his answer to both pastors. He felt it was a great mistake on their part to leave their congregations. The duke’s reaction was rather typical of the people in Dresden and the surrounding cites like Leipzig. The duke’s position sums up the public attitude toward these “Old Lutherans” leaving Germany. He wrote,
I have adequately explained myself to your brother in my two answers that I could never, yes never, give my approval to (Loeber’s) and Gruber’s plans and that I have supported these answers with more than adequate reasons, thus I request of you, dearest Loeber, to explain to your brother that there is nothing that will be able to move me to deviate from my expressed opinions, that every spoken or written explanation can lead to nothing, nor ever will ... I only can approve of the steps these officials have taken regarding this dark affair, and that I am full convinced of the authenticity of the reliability of the motive of these spiritual officials ... the biblical teaching “stay in your land and richly nourish yourself,” and even more, the holy obligation of a duty-conscious minister not to leave his congregation [should be reason enough to stay.] ... He leaves the congregation at the moment in which he himself admits the lack of faith is growing. He leaves it without doing his part to protect it from the poison of the time. He is leaving the teaching position entrusted to him by the state and doesn’t ask about who will replace him.15
The correspondence summary excerpted here demonstrates the great lengths to which the authorities and the duke went to persuade these pastors to stay in Germany, especially by pointing out their errors and the folly of going with Pastor Stephan. The state church dealt with the other four ministers of the emigration group, Buerger, Keyl, and the two Walther pastors in the same brusque, suspicious, and demeaning manner. However, in the end these pastors were all given permission to leave their pastorates and the country, but it was given with great reservation. And so they made their personal preparations and bade farewell to family friends and congregations.
Other ministers of the area bought newspaper space in the Leipziger Al-legemeine on September 30th to express their total disdain, disagreement and anger at Stephan and his “Old Lutheran” followers. In their declaration, the local pastors of the Dresden area acknowledged that for a time Pastor Stephan preached the gospel and he was good at it. They expressed their anger that this “Stephan group” had caused the Church of Christ in Saxony shame by claiming that they had to emigrate from Saxony due to the state of the church. They took umbrage that the Stephanites, as they called them, said that “living faith and all truth in the confessions had been so corrupted with the dogma of mankind that true teaching was out of the question.” These pastors continued in a rather lengthy manner to defend themselves against the Stephanites. The pastors accuse the emigrants with breaking up the body of Christ and destroying the bond of love that existed between them. The clergy cited other charges that were leveled against their “modernist” churches such as now observing the sacraments without the biblical words that went with the celebrations. They took issue with the Stephanite charge that it would be difficult to save one’s soul if one did not join this group going to America. In a parting shot these local ministers “disapproved the numerous difficulties that Pastor Stephan has caused through his nightly wandering in mixed company of men and women.”16
There is an ironic twist to the story. A. G. Rudelbach, the chief author of this newspaper article, superintendent of an Altenburg-Saxony ducal consistory, and a colleague and neighbor of Pastor Keyl, who had warned C. F. W. Walther to stay clear of Pastor Stephan, chose the same path of protest to the German Church six years later. In 1845, he resigned from his position as superintendent, member of the consistory and examiner, and returned to Denmark in protest of the excessive abuses that were being tolerated in Saxony.17
NOTES
1 William Koepchen, “Martin Stephan and the Saxon Emigration of 1838” (unpublished ms., Stephan Family Archives and Concordia Historical Institute, 1935), 92.
2 Koepchen, “Martin Stephan and the Saxon Emigration of 1838,” 48.
3 Koepchen, “Martin Stephan and the Saxon Emigration of 1838,” 69.
4 Koepchen, “Martin Stephan and the Saxon Emigration of 1838,” 68.
5 William Koepchen, “Conference Notes,” trans. Axel Reitzig (unpublished ms., Stephan Family Archives, 1934), 1.
6 Koepchen, “Conference Notes,” 1.
7 Koepchen, “Martin Stephan and the Saxon Emigration of 1838,” 68.
8 Martin Stephan Jr., “Acta Judicalia,” trans. John Conrads (unpublished ms., Stephan Family Archives, photographic slide rendering of original ms.), slide 1. Taken from the family book kept by Martin Stephan’s son, Martin.
9 “Acta Judicalia.”
10 “Acta Judicalia.”
11 “Acta Judicalia,” slide 5.
12 Akten des Amstgericht, Anhang B, vol. 3 (Dresden: Amst Akten Library), 378 [Official Acts of the Dresden Municipal Court, attachment B, 138].
13 Koepchen, abstract to “Conference Notes,” 4–5.
14 Koepchen, “Conference Notes,” 8.
15 Koepchen, “Conference Notes,” 64–65.
16 Koepchen, abstract part 2 to “Conference Notes,” 25.
17 Koepchen, abstract part 2 to “Conference Notes,” 25.
15
Farewell and Delay
On Friday, October 26, 1838, Stephan and the City Police Department were officially notified of the king’s decision of October 23 to dismiss all charges and investigations against Stephan, after he had fully examined the case for three days. He was released from house arrest and was free to leave the country for America. Since there were now no further legal reasons why Pastor Stephan should be detained, the police department prepared the necessary emigration papers for him and his son Martin. At last the way was clear to leave for America in spite of the fact that preparations were very much behind schedule. Most of the passengers for the first three departing ships had already gone to Bremen and two ships had already embarked for America before Stephan arrived at Bremerhaven. This delay for legal hearings was quite disconcerting for Stephan, because he had very much wished to be present when the first two ships, the Copernicus and Republik, sailed November 3 and 4.
When all things had been cleared by the courts, it was time for the Steph
an family to say their goodbyes. During the evening of Saturday October 27, 1838, there was a farewell meeting at Stephan’s home where his family and a number of friends who had not yet left for Bremen said their goodbyes. Dr. Steubel, the family physician; Dr. Adolf Marbach, attorney for the Society; and Stephan’s private attorneys, Drs. Krause and Vehse, joined the farewell crowd, along with theological candidates Pfau, Nitzschke, Kluegel, and Welzel, and the servants Klemm and Graeber. The mood and interactions of the final night of farewells in the Stephan parlor was one of intense emotion.
While Dr. Stuebel, a warm friend of Pastor Stephan was scrutinizing the various documents, to forestall a last minute hitch, Pastor Stephan returned to his children in the living room. He had his daughter Marie, then 20 years of age, bring some refreshments to his friends in the study and then spent the hours until after eleven p.m. with his children. He told them, that Dr. Stuebel was attending to a last formality and then he would be able to leave for Bremen, as had been announced in the family circle during the afternoon of that eventful day. He told them that their brother Martin would leave Dresden on the Elbe steamer for Bremen on Tuesday and that he proposed to have them all come to America after Easter of the coming year. Deeply affected, the children crowded around their father for a last farewell. With a final greeting to their mother and deaf-mute sister, Celestine, who had already said good-by earlier in the evening, Stephan left with his friends for the home of Dr. Stuebel, where the wagon and special post-horses awaited his arrival. Dr. Stuebel presented Pastor Stephan with a valuable fur coat and then, accompanied by the ministerial candidates Gottlieb Kluegel and the his personal attendants Johann Klemm and Louise Guenther, Pastor Stephan left Dresden, where for 28 years he had so tirelessly and faithfully preached the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.1
In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan's Journey Page 16
