Theodor von Taube

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Theodor Taube with full name Theodor Eduard Taube, was a German-Baltic pastor. He is considered Evangelical Lutheran martyr and is on the Riga martyrdom recorded.

Taubes father Dr. Alexander Taube came from Riga and was a doctor in St. Petersburg, where his son was born, who also considered Riga to be his home.

In St. Petersburg Theodor Taube attended the reformed church school from 1872 to 1881, which he graduated from high school. From 1881 to 1887 he studied theology at the Dorpat University. From 23. February 1883 to 1885 he was a member of the theological association Dorpat. He also belonged to the Fraternitas Rigensis. He graduated with the candidate's degree. In 1887 he passed his exams in front of the consistory in Riga. He spent his probationary year from 1887 to 1888 at Propst Kaehlbrandt in New pebalg in Livonia.

On the 1st. April 1888 he became Vicar of Sprengels in Riga by General Superintendent Girgensohn Turn and Walk ordained. In September of the same year he was called to Riga. There he was vicar at the Martinskirche.

He then became an afternoon preacher on Riga Cathedral chosen. He gave his presentation sermon on Sunday 14. Augustjul. / 26. August 1888 greg.. He held this office until February 1891.

From 1891 he was pastoradjunct in the local Martins community.

In 1892 he married Lucie Rahlenbeck.

Donations collected by pigeons have often been mentioned in the press.

On Friday the 22nd. Junejul. / 5. July 1901greg., he held a festive service in the Martinskirche at 11:30 a.m. on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the city of Riga.

On Sunday the 27th. Octoberjul. / 9. November 1902greg., he reported to the German-speaking 5 p.m. service for the 50th anniversary of the old Martinskirche. On this occasion he also published a memorial sheet entitled „ The Martins Church in Riga “.

Pastor of the newly founded German Martins community

When the congregation was divided into a German and a Latvian in 1904, Theodor Taube was the first independent preacher and full pastor to take over the German community, which he built up internally and externally. He has worked in numerous clubs, institutions and magazines; his work as a pastor was the focus for him. He didn't appreciate doing half things. In Riga, the Inner Mission began to have a positive impact on the structure of the communities. Against this background, Taube also tried to revitalize the community by founding lively working groups. He managed to win over the church guardians as employees for community care. He founded clubs to unite the youth and introduced children's services. He organized poor care and community diakonia.

On his initiative, the construction of his own pastorate with a deaconess station and a large community hall can be traced back. Community life could be maintained through the introduction of a voluntary church tax. He provided a collection for the establishment of his own Martinskirche for the German community and founded together with H. Creutzburg the Martins Church Choir. Prayer, preaching the gospel of God's grace and fighting his own sins were important for the deaf.

In October 1905, he helped found a singing circle for children Thorensberg, Hagensberg and Sassenhof, by making the new German pastorate available for rehearsals.

On the 19th. August 1907 at 3:30 p.m., as a member of the school council in the Martinskirche, he gave the opening speech about the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple (Lk 2.41-52 LUT) at the church opening ceremony of the German-speaking Hollander Elementary School of the German Association in Livonia. He emphasized the sentences „ Shouldn't I be in what my father is “ and „ he was subject to them “. He referred the first sentence to the right of every people to live in their traditional territory, but also, especially to teachers, to endeavor to, To want to be a member of the kingdom of God. With the second sentence, he exhorted the students to behave well at school. He emphasized the importance of school in a national and religious-moral relationship.

The school initially had to limit itself to rented rooms, so that there was not enough space available for the applicants. In July 1908, Taube participated as the school council's secretary in the money collection for the new school building.

On the 21st. December 1909 at 1 p.m. he gave the inauguration speech for the new school building. The foundation of the school must be the gospel; students could only be successful if they saw Christ as their invisible leader in this school. Then he asked for the blessing of God for this „ place of Christian discipline and custom “ and spoke the Lord's Prayer.

Wartime

Construction of the own German church was scheduled to begin in autumn 1914. The newly founded community prospered internally and externally and had grown to 6000 members when the First World War broke out. Many Germans who were members of the community were banished, and the Russian state also evacuated the factories to the Russian-speaking part of the empire. The officials and workers had to migrate. The community shrank to 1200 members. The church could no longer be built; the money earmarked for construction was also brought to the Russian-speaking area and disappeared. One area of community life after another came to a standstill because the personnel and financial effort could no longer be achieved. The pastor saw what he had built go down. He accepted this as God's decision and tried all the more for what was left of the church.

The shrinking of the church gave the pastor more free time, that he spent with his family. His marriage was happy; he had ten children to look after as a father and friend and also found the time to play with them.

The war brought great economic problems for the family; But Taube retained his joy and gratitude to God, which he also conveyed to his family. The situation worsened in the Latvian War of Independence; the children leaned off, but were still able to laugh due to the above-mentioned upbringing. As the Bolsheviks moved in, it was a matter of course for the pastor to stay with his small community. In his sermons he gave her comfort and joy. He clearly faced the new regime with his negative attitude. This became particularly clear when people who had been executed by the Bolsheviks were buried. Every evening he asked God for protection for his family, he expressed thanks for every day he could still spend with his family. He expected everything without being burdened by it.

Arrest, detention and execution

On Saturday the 5th. He prepared the sermon in April 1919 when he was arrested. He asked the Bolsheviks to have dinner with him, talked to his family in the usual way, prayed briefly, and then let himself be taken away. He was subjected to a body search in the detention center. His New Testament was taken from him because it was unauthorized reading. This made Taube angry, who otherwise remained as calm as ever during his entire detention in Riga's central prison. He was used to working with spades and hatchets, which is why he did not find forced labor to be humiliating. He also did his pastoral work in custody. He had to dig graves in the cemetery, which he took for granted. But when the coffins were lowered, he preached God's word to the guards and other prisoners and prayed with them. His captive letters contained no complaints; he did not comment on the danger to life. He was prepared for his death. If there was an indication that he thought a letter could be his last, it was, that he thanked his wife and children particularly deeply and praised God particularly strongly.

For the 1st. In May 1919, the prisoners expected an amnesty, which failed to materialize. They were torn between hope and fate.

On the 22nd. In May, the prison was on the verge of being stormed by a shock troop Baltic State Armed Forces, what the prisoners knew nothing about. Shortly before the Bolsheviks withdrew from Riga, pigeons and 32 fellow prisoners ( see the list below ) were led out of their cells in the afternoon. They were brought to the prison yard by orderly train through the long corridors under heavy guard. Soldiers from the Red Army, who formed the guards, had taken up positions there and were now shooting all those led out.

Immediately afterwards, the soldiers and commissioners fled. A little later, an armored car from the Landwehr made its way to the prison; the relatives of the prisoners followed him into the yard. They were shaken by the sight that presented itself to them. In the Rock Theodor Taubes you could find a piece of paper with his handwriting:

„ God's ways are wonderful — But he leads it out wonderfully. “

Aftermath

The funeral service for Theodor Taube took place on Tuesday, the 27th. May 1919, at 3 p.m. in the Martinskirche. Pastor Hillner spoke at the altar, Pastor Rosenberg on the pulpit. The coffin was carried out by the church guardians. The funeral then took place on the Martinskirchhof when the weather was nice. The entire community seemed to be present. A fellow prisoner thanked the deceased for the spiritual assistance he had given the prisoners. Th. Augsburg thanked him on behalf of the community for his pastoral work. The floral decoration that was laid down after the grave was closed was plentiful and varied.

In particular, in memory of the eight pastors, exactly one year after the executions of the Riga martyrdom was inaugurated. The Bolsheviks brought even more detainees to the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic spent. Some only returned after a year or two.

Theodor Taube (* 1. Februar 1864 in Sankt Petersburg, Russisches Kaiserreich; † 22. Mai 1919 in Riga, Lettland), mit vollem Namen Theodor Eduard Taube, lettisch Teodors Taube, war ein deutsch-baltischer Pastor.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Taube

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