Conrad Sigmund Fritschel

Background

Conrad Sigmund “Sigmund” Fritschel was born on December 2, 1833, in Nürnberg, Germany. He was the eldest of the three sons of Martin Heinrich and Katharina Esther (Kassler) Fritschel.

Education

In 1850, in accordance with his first ambition, Fritschel entered the Missionary Institute conducted by Friedrich Bauer; and when Bauer moved the school at Easter 1853 to Neuendettelsau, Johann Tobias Müller, the editor of the standard German-Latin edition of the Concordia, and Wilhelm Löhe, the famous pastor of Neuendettelsau, also became his teachers.

All three, but especially Löhe, left a deep impress on Fritschel’s mind. At this period, the institute was engaged in training missionaries to work among the German Lutherans who were emigrating in large numbers to the United States and settling principally in the Middle West.

Career

Fritschel was ordained in Hamburg April 23, 1854, as pastor of a congregation aboard ship and reached Dubuque, Iowa, July 28. There he joined Johannes Deindörfer and Georg Martin Grossmann and on August 24, 1854, at St. Sebald, Clayton County, Iowa, they, together with Michael Schüller, who had accompanied Fritschel from Germany, constituted themselves the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa.

For the next two years, Fritschel labored as a missionary in Platteville, Wisconsin, and the surrounding territory, and then went to Detroit as pastor of a congregation belonging to the Buffalo Synod. On August 22, 1858, he entered on what was to be his life-work as a professor in the Wartburg Seminary of the Iowa Synod. He filled this position until his death forty-two years later; for thirty-one years his shorter-lived brother, Gottfried Leonhard Wilhelm, was his colleague.

The two Fritschels were, in fact, the seminary. Together they trained the future ministers of the synod, formulated its theological position, and defended that position in a series of controversies with the theologians of the Missouri Synod.

In 1860, when a debt of $7, 000 threatened to close the seminary, he went in the steerage to Germany to collect funds. He met with extraordinary success not only in Germany but in Russia; the debt was paid, and new-made friends of the synod in Germany and Russia continued to give it support for almost a generation. He visited Germany again in 1866, 1871, and 1891.

In 1899, his rugged health gave way; Bright’s disease made its appearance; and Fritschel faced the one contingency that he dreaded - inactivity before his death. As the disease progressed he begged his family not to pray for the prolongation of his life.

He died at Dubuque and was buried beside his brother at Mendota, 111.

Achievements

• Fritschel was a standing delegate to the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America and exercised a considerable influence over its doctrinal and liturgical development. His contributions to theological journals were numerous, but he wrote no books. Together with his brother he trained the future ministers of the synod, formulated its theological position, and defended that position in a series of controversies with the theologians of the Missouri Synod.

Personality

Fritschel's most abiding characteristic, a simple, whole-hearted piety, was manifest even in boyhood.

His eloquence and social gifts made Sigmund a favorite preacher or speaker for special occasions ; whenever a corner-stone was laid throughout the length and breadth of the growing synod, a church dedicated, a school opened, an organ installed, a mortgage lifted, “Professor Senior” was invited to deliver the address.

Connections

On January 20, 1856, at Dubuque, Fritschel married Margarethe, daughter of Conrad Prottengeier. She with seven of their eleven children outlived him.

Of the surviving children, John became director of Wartburg College and Max president of Wartburg Seminary; five of the six daughters married clergymen.

Father:

Martin Heinrich Fritschel

18 May 1792 - 23 November 1872

Mother:

Katharina Esther Kässler Fritschel

10 February 1795 - 12 January 1875

Brother:

Gottfried Leonhard Wilhelm Fritschel

19 December 1836 - 13 July 1889

Wife:

Margaretha “Margaret” Prottengeier Fritschel

10 October 1833 - 6 December 1907

Daughter:

Charlotte Fritschel Moehl

1865 - 1943

Daughter:

Christine Wilhelmine Gertrud Barbara Fritschel

1872 - 1966

Daughter:

Julie Fritschel Ottersberg

26 March 1870 - 23 June 1947

Daughter:

Auguste Maria Magdalena Fritschel Haefner

18 October 1874 - 8 March 1952

Daughter:

Emma Catharina Anna Fritschel

4 October 1876 - 17 November 1879

Son:

Maximilian Christopher Immanuel Fritschel

21 February 1868 - 1 January 1940

Son:

Sigmund Fritschel

24 February 1861 - 24 October 1885

Son:

John Charles Adam Fritschel

24 June 1863 - 23 August 1943

Son:

Friedrich Theodor Heinrich Fritschel

30 January 1879 - 12 July 1885

Son:

Gottfried Martin Sebald Fritschel

28 October 1856 - 25 March 1880

colleague:

Michael Schüller

colleague:

Gottfried Leonhard Wilhelm

References

• Biography Of Conrad Sigmund Fritschel And Gottfried Leonhard Wilhelm Fritschel