Johann Philipp Koehler (1859-1951) Papers
Scope and Contents
Johann Philipp Koehler’s (JPK) papers and documents are subdivided into the following series: Correspondence, Essays and Lectures, Writings, Sermons, Art and Miscellaneous; in addition, there are documents of the Wauwatosa Seminary Faculty Controversy, various Controversy Case Documents, and the Protes’tant Conference Papers.
The Correspondence is filed in chronological order and is separated into Letters to JPK and Letters from JPK. The Letters to JPK are in chronological order Some letters found in the collection were not written by J. P. Koehler or addressed directly to him. It was assumed that these letters were forwarded to him and are filed in this section of the correspondence.
The folders containing the Letters from JPK are filed in alphabetical order by type of correspondence or by name of the correspondent. Due to the volume of correspondence between Missouri Synod (India) Missionary Kurt Zorn and J. P. Koehler, this exchange is filed separately (f.90-91). Correspondence that could be identified as being written by family members is also located in this section of the correspondence.
The Essays and Lectures of J. P. Koehler are arranged into four basic categories: exegetical, theological, topical and miscellaneous. Most of the essays are in German; the folder list provides a translation of the topic in italics. Each of the four categories is in alphabetical order. Manuscripts of four lectures and a variety of incomplete writings complete the series.
A major series in this collection is the Writings of J. P. Koehler. They are arranged into the research material for the History of the Wisconsin Synod (f.190-211), the manuscript and research papers of the publication “Retrospective” (f.212-218) and into a variety of short stories called novellas. A complete bibliography of all published works of J. P. Koehler was published in Faith-Life 63: No. 3 (May/June 1990) (available in libraries and in f.231).
There were fragments which could not be identified by title or date. These appear at the beginning of the Writings section.
The Sermons of J. P. Koehler are arranged according to biblical text. About 75 percent of the sermons include a biblical text; some sermons are clearly topical and are filed at the end of the sermon series.
The Miscellaneous series of the J. P. K. collection includes handwritten notebooks, books personally owned by him with marginalia, and a variety of material brought back from his trip to Europe in 1924. There is also a manuscript copy of the Black and Red, a publication produced at Watertown in 1870.
There are various pieces of music which he edited. Concordia Seminary’s musicologist Walter E. Buszin found that J. P. Koehler was the first American musicologist to edit professionally published Reformation and Baroque music like Perlen alter Kirchenmusik (1905) and Das Gemeindelied (1911).
There is another section of the Miscellaneous series located in folders 324 to 338. These folders are arranged in alphabetical order by type of material. There are news clippings, student exams, and reports.
A very important part of the JPK collection is the Art series. It contains a large variety of unfinished sketches, drawing books, a multitude of art ideas that he collected and studied, and a number of unfinished paintings on canvas. The latter had numbers stamped on the back ascending from No.1394 on. These numbers were used in our inventory sheets.
Two photo albums containing 8½-by-11 photographs of original paintings done by J. P. Koehler were collected from the owners by Rev. Philemon Hensel and added to the collection. Rev. Hensel also supplied slides of Koehler’s paintings with an accompanying a catalog (f.512-513). Another small photo album (f.321) shows pictures of J. P. Koehler’s life. Another grouping of Karl Koehler’s unidentified photographs, depicting St. Peter’s church in Mishicot, Wisconsin, during construction has been removed from an acidic photo album (f.323).
The last part of this collection contains the papers of the Wauwatosa Seminary Faculty Controversy, the Controversy Case Documents and the Protes’tant Conference Papers
Dates
- Creation: 1828 - 1985
Biographical / Historical
Johann Philipp Koehler was born on 17 January 1859 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He studied at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, and at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, where he graduated in 1880. After assisting his father as a vicar in Hustisford, Wisconsin, he served from 1882 to 1888 as a pastor of St. Johannes in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. There he designed the new brick church, modeled after a miniature Gothic cathedral, which was completed in 1890.
Northwestern College (Watertown, WI) called J.P. Koehler as a professor of history, penmanship, Latin and as dean. In 1900 he accepted the chair of the New Testament exegesis, church history, hermeneutics, liturgies and church music at the theological seminary of the Wisconsin Synod in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He served as president of the seminary from 1920 to 1930.
J.P. Koehler has been considered a highly original theologian and historian, distinguishing himself in many fields. It is especially noteworthy to mention his broad sense of church history as comprehending everything as it unfolds in Christ alone (Eph. 1:10). He taught the American Lutheran Synod’s history of the church in the total context of world history and gave special attention to music, literature, art and architecture. This resulted in works like Das Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte (1917); History of the Wisconsin Synod, 1925; Der Brief Pauli an die Galater, 1910; and Interpretation of the Gospel of John, The First Epistle of John, Epheserbrief, etc.
J.P. Koehler was also an accomplished artist. His father taught him the elements of watercolor at the age of five. During his vicarage he studied under three German master oil painters in Milwaukee. Sixty of his paintings have been reproduced in color, including “The Twelve Year Old Jesus,” “Christ in Gethsemane” and “The Crucifixion,” all with the classic palette of lamp black, flake white, yellow ochre, vermilion. In later life he regretted not using bright rainbow colors.
In 1930 he was ousted from his professorship as a result of his colleague August Pieper’s agitation, resulting in the Protes’tant Controversy (1929-the present). He retired in Neillsville, Wisconsin, where he lived until his death on 30 September 1951.
Extent
390 Folders
Language of Materials
From the Collection: German
Repository Details
Part of the Concordia Historical Institute Repository
804 Seminary Place
Saint Louis MO 63105 USA
314-505-7935
reference@concordiahistoricalinstitute.org