Johannes Deindorfer

Background

Johannes Deindörfer was born on July 28, 1828 in Bavaria at Ross-stall near Nürnberg, Germany. He was the son of Georg Heinrich and Anna Eva (Leupold) Deindörfer. His father was a farmer and basket maker.

Education

In pursuance of his desire to become a minister Deindörfer studied theology 1847-51 in Nürnberg and Neuendettelsau under Friedrich Bauer and Wilhelm Löhe. In those years Löhe was giving much of his time to preparing missionaries for work among the German Lutherans in the western United States and recently had founded three Lutheran colonies—Frankenmuth, Frankentrost, Frankenlust—in Saginaw County, Michigan, United States.

Career

At Löhe’s suggestion Deindörfer accepted the pastorship of a fourth colony, Frankenhilf, which was to be comprised chiefly of young couples who were unable to obtain legal permission to marry in Bavaria because of their poverty.

He was ordained at Hamburg September 14, 1851, by the Rev. J. Meine and preached his first sermon at Frankenhilf on the second Sunday in Advent.

The other German Lutheran pastors in the country round about were members of the Missouri Synod, with the exception of his friend Georg Martin Grossmann; and when the rupture over the doctrine of the ministry came between Löhe and the Synod, Grossmann and Deindörfer, for failing to agree with the Missourians, found themselves in a serious position. It was soon clear that they must either move further west to territory unoccupied by the Missouri Synod or else prepare to endure ceaseless petty persecution.

In July and August 1853, therefore, Deindörfer and the one man of property among his parishioners, Gottlob Amman, visited northeastern Iowa on a tour of inspection, and that autumn they and Grossmann with their families settled there. Grossmann took up his work in Dubuque, while Deindörfer made his headquarters in Clayton County at a spot that he piously named St. Sebald, in honor of the saint who first brought the evangel to the vicinity of Nürnberg. The hardships of pioneer life told heavily on Deindörfer: during the first winter he and his family suffered severely from cold and were compelled to take refuge at last in Amman’s log cabin; a little later Deindörfer almost succumbed to typhoid fever.

On August 24, 1854, in Deindörfer’s cabin at St. Sebald, he, Grossmann, Conrad Sigmund Fritschel, and Michael Schüller organized the German Lutheran Synod of Iowa. Deindörfer was vice-president of the Synod 1854-93, meanwhile serving as pastor at St. Sebald 1853-56; Madison, Wisconsin, 1856-60; West Union and Waucoma, Iowa, 1860-65, Toledo, Ohio, 1865-70; Defiance, Ohio, 1870-89; and Ripon, Wisconsin, 1889-93.

For sixteen years he was president of the Eastern District. He was president of the Synod from 1893 to 1904 and editor of its Kirchenblatt, with a few interruptions, from 1878 to 1904.

He published Denkschriften commemorating the tenth, twenty-fifth, and fiftieth anniversaries of the founding of the Synod and in 1897 an excellent Geschichte der Evangel. -Luth. Synode von Iowa.

Achievements

• Deindörfer was one of the organizers of the German Lutheran Synod of Iowa.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Geschichte der Evangel.-luth. synode von Iowa und anderen staaten ; Abgefasst im auftrag des Synodal-ausschusses - Primary Source Edition (German Edition)

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

Deindörfer's simplicity, kindliness, and strength of character made him generally beloved. It was characteristic of him that when he accepted the presidency he stipulated that his salary should be but $800 a year, since he had found that he could live sufficiently on that sum. He was a good student and had a distinct literary gift.

Connections

On October 18, 1852, Deindörfer married Katharina Elisabeth Weege, by whom he had nine children.

Father:

Georg Heinrich Deindörfer

Mother:

Anna Eva (Leupold) Deindörfer

Wife:

Katharina Elisabeth Weege