Lebrecht Friedrich Ehregott Krause (1803-1885) Papers

Lebrecht Friedrich Ehregott Krause was born on 19 October 1803 at Steinau, Silesia. He attended the St. Elisabeth Gymnasium in Breslau from 1817 to 1824 and the University of Breslau from 1824 to 1827, then engaged in further university studies at Greifswald and Berlin from 1827 to 1829. He passed his theological examinations in 1830 and 1831 and was ordained on 24 May 1835 and installed as pastor in Militsch, Silesia on 28 May, beginning a tumultuous career which took him across three continents and through a dozen different Lutheran and Evangelical (Union) synods.

In Silesia, Krause evidently ran afoul of the Prussian religious authorities and in 1837 contacted Martin Stephan in hopes of arranging for his congregation to emigrate along with the Saxons. When this project failed, Krause traveled to America alone to investigate conditions there: he and his congregation were apparently undecided whether America or Australia were more suitable. Meanwhile, Krause's congregation waited in Hamburg, where they made arrangements to emigrate along with J.A.A. Grabau's Prussian congregation in 1839, rejoining Krause in New York and finally settling in Buffalo. Krause soon returned to Germany, however, and tried to attract more Silesian Lutherans for emigration; he was arrested by the Prussian authorities, purged himself by denouncing the "Old Lutherans," and escaped to Hamburg, where he now attacked Hamburg's Lutheran ministerium.

In the United States, Krause's congregation in Buffalo was excommunicated en masse by Grabau because of alleged irregularities surrounding their arrangements for passage to America. The Silesians, in turn, protested against Grabau's arbitrary use of authority over a congregation which had never called him to be its pastor. Meanwhile, Heinrich von Rohr, the chief lay leader of the Grabau emigration, had led some of the Prussians on to Wisconsin, settling in Milwaukee and Freistadt. Von Rohr's group was now without a pastor, and having sought Grabau's advice but receiving no answer, they elected their schoolteacher to conduct services and administer the sacraments among them. When Grabau learned of this development, he quickly reprimanded them, articulating his hierarchical doctrine of the ministry in the 1840 Hirtenbrief, and recommending that they issue a call to Krause in Hamburg. The Wisconsin congregation did so, and Krause accepted the call, arriving in the United States in the summer of 1841.

While passing through Buffalo en route to Milwaukee, Krause sided with Grabau against his old congregation, provoking the Silesians to turn to the Missouri Saxon pastor E. M. Bürger, who was passing through Buffalo at the time intending to return to Germany. Bürger, after some investigation of the situation, accepted the call, and Krause's old congregation, known as First Trinity, thus came into Missouri circles.

Krause took up his office in Wisconsin in September 1841, first requiring the congregation there to declare its complete agreement with Grabau and his Hirtenbrief. Several members in Milwaukee resisted and stayed apart from Krause's ministry, an omen of things to come. For the moment, however, Krause was generally successful in imposing his views both on his congregation and on the surrounding pastors: he examined and ordained R.C.L. Clausen as pastor of the Norwegian church at Muskego; and when the Rev. G. A. Kindermann and his congregation arrived in Milwaukee from Pomerania, Krause required him to take a new oath of confessional subscription in his presence. In 1845, Krause, Grabau, and Kindermann, along with the newly-ordained von Rohr, formed the so-called Buffalo Synod (formally called the Synod of the Lutheran Church Emigrated from Prussia), committed to the Hirtenbrief's articulation of the doctrine of the ministry.

Meanwhile, however, the arrival of Saxon pastors in Wisconsin provoked conflict between Krause and the Saxon group. In 1843, Gottlob Klügel arrived in Wisconsin, a theological candidate who had emigrated with the Saxons but dissociated himself from the group after it deposed Stephan. When Krause complained of Klügel's activity near his own parishes in Wisconsin, the Saxons disavowed him, but Krause seems to have regarded their denial as disingenuous. Further provocation, from Krause's point of view, was given when Walther and the Saxons sent theological candidate Carl Geyer to Lebanon, Wisconsin at the request of the congregation there, which had been served for a time by Kindermann. Both pastors attracted members who had been excommunicated or merely alienated by Krause, and in 1845, the Buffalo Synod made an official protest to the Saxons concerning the activities of Klügel and Geyer.

In 1845, Krause, who had been living in Freistadt while conducting services both there and in Milwaukee, asked his congregation to purchase a horse and buggy to transport him. The congregation, already soured against Krause, voted against the request, and Krause responded by suspending from communion those who had so voted. The congregation split in half over Krause's action, the offended party forming a separate congregation in 1846 and in 1847 requesting approval of its right to call a pastor from the first convention of the Missouri Synod.

The embattled Krause's tenure in Wisconsin ended in 1848 when he was called as pastor to the Buffalo Synod congregation in Martinsville, New York. From this point on, however, Krause's affiliations became astonishingly unstable and unpredictable. He soon fell out with Grabau and his synod, however, and in 1850 applied to join the Missouri Synod, denouncing the Buffalo doctrine in print. Krause secured a call to St. Peter's in Detroit where he served from 1850 to 1853, finding his new congregation no more tractable than the old.

In 1853 Krause returned to Germany and rejoined the Union church; in 1856 he was back in the United States and rejoined the Buffalo Synod, retracting his 1850 denunciation. As a Buffalo Synod pastor, he organized St. Martin's church in Winona, Minnesota, but left in 1857 to join the Illinois Synod. From 1861 to 1864 he returned to Winona, but joined in organizing the Concordia Synod of the West in 1862. From 1864 to 1866, Krause served Christ congregation in Ellenville, New York. By 1869, Krause had joined the Ohio Synod and was pastor of a congregation in Dundee, Michigan.

In 1869, having run through the spectrum of German and American Lutheranism, Krause offered his services as pastor to the Evangelical Lutheran Church "zum Weinberge Christi" in Lobethal, South Australia, after reading an appeal in a periodical. The Lobethal congregation was part of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Australia, and when the congregation expressed interest in calling Krause, the Church Council of that Synod sought to obtain information on Krause from Walther, who was known to them through his publications. Walther wrote back on 5 July 1870 recommending against Krause, and the Church Council reported a negative judgment to the Lobethal congregation. The congregation protested, and the synodical president agreed to send Krause's call to President Loy of the Ohio Synod to return or pass on to Krause according to his best judgment.

Krause learned of the correspondence between the Church Council and Walther and took offense at either part; efforts by the Australians to smooth over matters were not helped by Krause's criticism of several articles in the Australian church order dealing with lay involvement and excommunication.

While constitutional and financial arrangements were still being settled, Krause, having received the call from Loy, unexpectedly arrived in Lobethal on 1 December 1871. After a meeting with the Church Council, Krause declared himself reconciled and prepared to accept the synodical constitution. He was installed as pastor in Lobethal on 10 December.

Krause soon renewed his criticisms of the church order, however, criticizing in particular the use of general confession and the omission of the baptismal exorcisms. Within his own congregation he also sought to restrict congregational singing. In April 1873, some of the Lobethal elders sought to discuss these matters with Krause but were met with his public denunciation. The Church Council sought in vain to make peace, but Krause refused to deal with his critics otherwise than as with penitents. Finally in March 1875 the general synod meeting at Carlsruhe appointed a special commission to consider Pr. Krause's accusations against the Council and the situation within the Lobethal congregation, resolving that if Krause should refuse to acknowledge the commission he should be regarded as having thereby removed himself from Synod. In June 1875, the Church Council upon report of the commission declared Krause to have so excluded himself. In December, the Lobethal congregation voted to remove Krause from office. After further struggle and division in the Lobethal congregation, Krause was finally pensioned off with use of the parsonage in 1876.

Amid his conflicts with the South Australian synod, Krause had made friendly contact with the Immanuel Synod, from which the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Australia had separated in 1874 over the propriety of calling "evangelical" pastors from Reformed Basel. In August 1876, Krause and his followers formed a new congregation in Lobethal under the auspices of the Immanuel Synod, calling it "zum Kripplein Christi." Remaining disputes between Krause and his old congregation over salary in arrears and use of the parsonage were not settled until 1881.

Meanwhile, Krause and his new congregation and synod fell into conflict. After the death of a neighboring pastor in 1879, Krause took over the care of his congregation as well, leading to protest from Krause's own congregation. Krause was finally expelled from the Immanuel Synod. Krause nonetheless reestablished a new synodical affiliation shortly before his death: the Immanuel Synod itself split in 1884 over the old question of calling Basel pastors. Krause was received into membership of the unionist part of the synod, the Immanuel Synod "auf alter Grundlage."

Krause died on 17 May 1885 in Lobethal, where he was buried.