# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_Januar 1950_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Page 4                              January 1950                              Number 1

On the Passing of Kirchenrat Lic. Dr. Ernst Ziemer

It was on the evening of October 6. The Heilige Kreuzkirche in Berlin-Wilmersdorf was filled to the last seat for the memorial service for the departed Kirchenrat Ziemer. Before the worthily adorned altar, at which the deceased had sometimes officiated, stood the coffin. Solemnly, together with the mourning family, the members of the Oberkirchenkollegium and nearly 30 pastors from the Eastern Zone processed into the church, among them also brother ministers from the sister Free Church. As representative of the Berlin bishop D. Dibelius, Generalsuperintendent D. D. Jacobi took part in the memorial service. The old funeral hymns of the Lutheran Church, with their comfort and their joy of eternity, sung alternately by the congregation and the church choir, filled the spacious house of God and lifted hearts on high. Addresses were given by Superintendent Grube, Präses Petersen, Superintendent Wottrich, and Kirchenrat Lic. Schulz. In addition to our Old Prussian Church as a whole, the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church had its say in these addresses, and especially the scattered former Breslau congregation as well as the Berlin West congregation, of which the departed had most recently been a member — praising, as fully as words could convey, the grace of God that had glorified itself in the one now perfected.*)

*) The addresses have appeared in print, published by Verlag Herrmann in Zwickau.

Over the truly fulfilled life of the seventy-seven-year-old stands, like a star, the Lord's word of promise to Abraham: "I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing." Of this, the Lutherans from Breslau know especially well, many of whom had traveled here to give their departed shepherd a final escort. For he had spent the greater part of his life, nearly half a century, in their service. At the age of 36 he was called to Breslau, after having administered the extensive parish of Glogau for over ten years with the first love of a young shepherd. There he had married his bride, Karoline Braungart. Four sons and two daughters were born of the marriage. The large Breslau congregation was at that time still undivided, united in the Katharinenkirche. There followed, as he himself said, "a beautiful time" of harmonious cooperation with Kirchenrat Hinz, whom he assisted as second pastor, especially for the northern part of the city. After the latter's passing, he became in 1921 pastor of the Breslau-Süd congregation in the beautiful, large Christuskirche, which had been built only a few years before. It was only the collapse of 1945 that brought his work there to a painful end.

With grateful joy, the people of Breslau still recall the precious worship services, with their pastor's warm, heart-stirring sermons. As an experienced hymnologist, he was also concerned with the cultivation of Musica Sacra, which now came into proper flower. With great faithfulness he pursued his pastoral care of the congregation members scattered throughout the big city and its outlying districts. With his warm-hearted parish newsletter he knew how to weave a special bond around them all. It became a real "family friend." How closely Kirchenrat Ziemer remained bound to his old congregation was shown also in the hard years after the war. How much comfort and strength his circular letters and many individual letters brought to those who had become homeless, far from home! They turned to him again and again as their spiritual father with their outward and inward troubles — and never in vain.

But alongside his pastoral office, the deceased had two other important areas of work. Soon after his move to the Silesian capital, he became a lecturer at the Theological Seminary of our Church.

[Portrait: Kirchenrat Lic. Dr. Ernst Ziemer]

Alongside theology, he had also studied Oriental languages with great interest, especially under Professor Friedrich Delitzsch. In his doctoral dissertation he had deciphered and evaluated fifty Babylonian contracts written in cuneiform. He earned the degree of Licentiate of Theology in Erlangen with a work in Latin on the patriarch Abraham. That he translated, among other things, the hymn "Müde bin ich, geh zur Ruh'" ["I Am Weary, Let Me Rest"] into Hebrew shows how well he had mastered that language. For over 25 years he carried out the office, which had become so dear to him, of teacher of the Old Testament to the theological students of our Church. — In 1917 he was also called into the church leadership and co-opted as a Geistlicher Rat of the Oberkirchenkollegium.

The threefold office in Breslau placed a heavy burden on Kirchenrat Ziemer. But it was as though his capacity for work only kept growing. In other ways too, his activity extended beyond the bounds of his congregation. For the Reformation Jubilee of 1917 he published his tract "Die Herrlichkeit der Lutherischen Kirche" ["The Glory of the Lutheran Church"]. A detailed history of the beginnings of our Church in Breslau, titled "Vor 100 Jahren" ["A Hundred Years Ago"], appeared in 1930.

For several years he wrote the "Sonntagsgedanken" ["Sunday Thoughts"] for the weekly paper "Gotthold." Numerous valuable articles in the "Kirchenblatt" ["Church Paper"] and in the "Mitteilungen" ["Bulletins"] of the young men's associations came from his pen.

The departed, who throughout his life gratefully praised the spirit of his devout parental home, knew the value of a Christian upbringing. Of this he wrote in his pamphlet "Erziehung und Christentum" ["Education and Christianity"]. This also drove him to zealous participation in the association "Haus und Schule" ["Home and School"], with numerous lectures and essays.

His resolute Lutheran stance and his plain, warm-hearted manner of speaking won him respect and many friends. He possessed a special evangelistic gift for proclamation. Thus for a long time he held an evangelization week year after year in his brother's congregation in Radevormwald. Once such a lecture tour took him as far as Copenhagen. He also gladly served the "Christlicher Verein Junger Männer" ["Christian Association of Young Men"] with lectures.

Above all, his heart also belonged to missions, both among Israel and among the heathen. At many mission festivals he took part with his own words. He described the close relations with the Leipzig Mission, which had once been co-founded by our Church, in his well-known book "Die Missionstätigkeit der Ev.-luth. Kirche in Preußen" ["The Mission Work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia"].

Kirchenrat Ziemer's Christianity was a deeply joyful one, because it was rooted in sincere humility and a childlike, believing trust in God. He was permitted to prove it in heavy trials. How it struck him and his family, the loss of his son Hans — himself a pastor — who fell at the front in Italy! And then came the bitter parting from Breslau. Despite much urging and pleading, he had refused to leave his congregation unless it were absolutely necessary. Only when the order came that all men over 60 years of age were to leave the threatened city did he depart, together with his wife. He left behind all his possessions, his beloved church, and the parsonage, which soon afterward fell victim to destruction. For a short time he stayed in Guben. Then he went to the Prignitz in the Mark Brandenburg, in order to still serve the orphaned congregations of his son in Jabel, Neuruppin, and Krempendorf. Already in 1939 he had requested and been granted his transfer into retirement. The congregation in Breslau had elected a new pastor. For the Emeritus, the dwelling in Trebnitz already stood ready. Then war broke out. So he who had already grown weary stood nevertheless for almost 6 more years in Breslau, and 2 years as successor to his son, in the holy office. And his God and Lord wonderfully fulfilled in him the prophetic word of Isaiah 40:31: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; that they shall mount up with wings as eagles; that they shall run and not grow weary; that they shall walk and not grow wea…" [text cuts off at page edge]