August Pieper (1857-1946) Papers

Collection

Identifier: Collection ID-1951

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of two handwritten sermon books and correspondence with Ludwig Fuerbringer. The first volume has a time span from 2 December 1900 to 28 November 1901. The second volume starts at 1 December 1901 and ends 16 October 1904.

The correspondence exchanged in January 1920 between Pieper and Ludwig Fuerbringer, a professor at Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, Missouri, reflects tension between the Missouri and Wisconsin synods.

Folder List

f.1: Sermon book, Volume I (1900-1901)
f.2: Sermon book, Volume II (1901-1904)
f.3: Correspondence (1920)

Dates

Creation: 1900 - 1920
Creation: Majority of material found within 1900 - 1904

Biographical / Historical

August Pieper was born on 27 September 1857 in Carwitz, Pomerania, Germany. He was a graduate of Northwestern College, Watertown, Wisconsin, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

His first call brought him to Kewaunee, Wisconsin, where he served from 1879 to 1885. From 1885 to 1890 he served a congregation in Menomonie, Wisconsin, but had to leave there because of ill health. After regaining his strength, he became the pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1891.

His rare gifts as a preacher and organizer made him a central figure in the development of the Wisconsin Synod, supported as these qualities were by a keen mind and sound scholarship. He left St. Mark in 1902 and filled the chair of Isagogics and Old Testament Exegesis at the synod’s Wauwatosa seminary.

A close observer of contemporary Lutheranism and a fearless critic of the sins of the times within and without his church, he impressed his students with the Gospel as an intensely practical force. His opinions commanded respect because they were the result of painstaking, accurate scholarship, as his Commentary on Isaiah (in German) and his contributions to the Wisconsin Synod theological journal Quartalschrift show. A volume of Hausandachten testified to his pastoral interests. He died on 23 December 1946.

Extent

3 Folders (Three folders)

Language of Materials

German

Additional Description

Physical Location

3.20.1.7

Custodial History

Original collection ID: M-0109

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The correspondence was donated to Concordia Historical Institute by Alfred Fuerbringer, son of Ludwig Fuerbringer, in January 1963. The two volumes of sermon books were donated to Concordia Historical Institute by August Pieper’s granddaughter, Mrs. Lyle Halvorsen, in May 1988.