Johannes Konrad Wilhelm Loehe

1808-1872. Born in Fuerth, Loehe attended the Gymnasium in Nuremburg and the universities of Erlangen and Berlin. He was ordained a Lutheran pastor on 25 July 1831. He served as vicar in Fuerth and in Kirchenlamitz before going to St. Giles in Nuremburg as second pastor and from there briefly to Altdorf, Gertholdsdorf, and Merkendorf before becoming pastor in Neuendettelsau in 1837 where he served the remainder of his life. He married Helene Andreae the same year; she died six years later. Loehe sponsored foreign missions. He was responsible for sending missionaries (Sendlinge) to North America. Some of them were instrumental in founding The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. After the break with the Missouri Synod (1853), some of Loehe's followers organized the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa. Loehe also supported mission work in New Guinea. He was a strong supporter of the Innere Mission* movement and founded a deaconess home in Neuendettelsau which was still in 1972 (a hundred years after his death) an important center. Loehe emphasized private confession and made significant contributions to liturgics. His Three Books About the Church was valuable for the discussions in Germany about the nature of the church. He published an Agenda, a book of church forms and order of services for Lutheran congregations. The periodical he issued, Kirchliche Mittheilungen aus und ueber Nord-Amerika, tells about the work of his missionaries in North America. Loehe was known as one of the foremost preachers of his time. He published books of sermons, devotional writings, treatise on liturgical practices, and the like.