Career
Born in Münster, Germany in 1894, he resided in Brazil from 1921 to 1929, where he served as a foreign vicar. However, the Nazi kirchenkampf campaign against the Churches altered his conviction, and he was expelled from the Nazi party in 1936. Later he was interrogated several times by the Gestapo "for helping persecuted Jews".
The four priests spoke publicly against the Nazis – initially discreetly – distributing pamphlets to friends and congregants.
They copied and distributed the anti-Nazi sermons of the Catholic Bishop August von Galen of Munster. Then, following the Royal Air Force air raid on the city, after which Stellbrink tended wounded, he delivered a Palm Sunday sermon which attributed the bombing to divine punishment.
Stellbrink was arrested, followed by the three Catholic priests. He was sentenced to death by the People's Court on 23 June 1943, and executed in Hamburg on 10 November 1943, along with the three Catholics.
He was honoured by inclusion in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints on his day of death, 10 November.