KRUMMACHER, krum'mah"er : The name of four distinguished Reformed preachers of Germany.

1. Friedrich Adolf Krummacher was born at Tecklenburg (22 m. n.n.e. of Münster) July 13, 1767; d. at Bremen Apr. 4, 1845. He attended the Latin school of his native town and in 1786 became a student of theology at the small Reformed College of Lingen. Dissatisfied with the conditions there, he removed to Halle, where he attended, among others, the lectures of Knapp and Bahrdt. After the completion of his studies, he spent one year as schoolmaster in Bremen. In 1790 he was appointed associate rector of the gymnasium at Hamm. In 1793 he assumed the rectorship of the gymnasium in Mörs, on the left bank of the Rhine, in spite of the menace of war. In 1800 he was called to the professorship of theology and rhetoric at Duisburg. His theology, though tinged by the influences of the period, was marked by a piety and a reverence for Scriptural Christianity which made him a valuable counterpoise to the rationalism of his colleague Grimm. The pressure of Napoleonic autocracy had a paralyzing effect upon the University of Duisburg, and it declined still more after the town carne under the rule of the newly established grand duchy of Berg; the French government did not even pay the salaries of the professors, and after Krummacher's brother-in-law Möller had left the institution in 1805, he was glad to exchange his position in 1807 for that of a country pastor at Kettwig in the romantic valley of the Ruhr, where he soon won the confidence of the Westphalian peasants. In 1812 Duke Alexis Frederick Christian of Anhalt-Bernburg appointed him general superintendent, councilor of the consistory, and chief preacher at Bernburg. In 1820 he declined a call to the University of Bonn as professor of theology. In 1821 the Evangelical Union was introduced in Bernburg under his guidance. From 1824 to 1843, when, owing to old age, he resigned his position, he was pastor of the Church of St. Ansgar in Bremen, where he acquired great popularity, though he could not compete with his colleague Dräske as a preacher.

Krummacher possessed a contemplative esthetic, and poetic nature, a genial disposition with a tender heart, a dignified earnestness, and a child-like simplicity. He was well trained in philology and theology, and his education was very comprehensive. He exerted much influence upon his contemporaries, not only as professor and preacher, but also as poet and prose writer. During the Duisburg period he published Hymnus an die Liebe (Wesel, 1801), followed by Parabeln (Duisburg, 1809; Eng. trans]., Parables, London, 1824 and often), which acquired a permanent place in German literature, and a treatise, then very popular, Ueber den Geist und die Form der evangelischen Geschichte in historischer und ästhetischer Hinsicht (Leipsic, 1805). In his rural solitude at Kettwig he wrote, beside essays and criticisms in magazines, Die Kinderwelt (Duisburg, 1809), a favorite book of Queen Louise; Das Festbüchlein, eine Schrift fürs Volk (1809-18); Apologen und Paramythien (1809); and Bibelkatechismus (1810). While at Bernburg he published the patriotic poem Der Eroberer (1814); the Biblical drama Johannes (Leipsic, 1815); and the anonymous polemical treatise Apostolisches Sendschreiben an die Christengemeinden von dem was Noth thut zur Kirchenverbesserung (1815), called forth by the institution of the so-called liturgical commission in Berlin. Then followed: Leiden, Sterben und Auferstehung unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, twelve pictures after Goltzius with preface and text (Berlin, 1817); Paragraphen zur heiligen Geschichte (1818); Fürst Wolfgang zu Anhalt, eine Reformationspredigt (Dessau, 1820), Briefwechsel zwischen Asmus und seinem Vetter (Duisburg, 1820), a polemical treatise, directed against Voss; Die freie evangelische Kirche, ein Friedensgruss (1821); Bilder und Bildchen (Essen, 1823); Katechismus der christlichen Lehre (1823); and Die christliche Volksschule im Bunde mit der Kirche (1825). To the Bremen period belong: Katechismus der christliehen Lehre nach dem Bekenntnis der evangelischen Kirche (1825); St. Ansgar (Bremen, 1828); Das Täubchen (Essen, 1828); Der Hauptmann Cornelius, sermons on Acts x (Bremen, 1829; Eng. transl., Cornelius the Centurion, Edinburgh, 1839); Die Geschichte des Reichs Gottes nach der heiligen Schrift (Essen, 1831-45); Leben des heiligen Johannes (1833). Krummacher was a most faithful contributor to the Bremer Kirchenbote edited by Mallet. The first parts of the Festbüchlein, the juvenile writings, and the catechism were received with special favor and went into numerous editions.

(H. MALLET†.)

2. Gottfried Daniel Krummacher, brother of Friedrich Adolf, was born at Tecklenburg (22 m. n.n.e. of Münster) Apr. 1, 1774; d. at Elberfeld (24 m. n.e. of Cologne) Jan. 30, 1837. Even as a boy he gave evidence of a peculiar and dreamy nature. At the University of Duisburg he came under the influence of its rector Franz Arnold Hasenkamp (q.v.), and of Professor Möller, which preserved him from being carried away by the rationalism of Grimm. After the completion of his studies he went to his brother Friedrich Adolf at Hamm where he taught and preached; then he became private tutor in Soest and in 1796 in Mörs, where his brother now was. Thence he was called as preacher to the neighboring town of Baerl, in 1801 to Wülfrath near Elberfeld, and in 1816 to Elberfeld itself. He exerted a wide influence by the whole-hearted sincerity of his character, evidenced in his preaching; but owing to his peculiar education he possessed some rugged and harsh traits. In his theology he followed the Dutch school of

386

Cocceius and Lampe, but at the same time, especially in the beginning of his activity in Elberfeld, taught absolute predestination with all possible harshness according to the articles of the Synod of Dort. Unlike Lampe, Krummacher attracted only the elect while he repelled the unconverted. In spite of the apparent dryness and stiffness of his sermons, he attracted his hearers by the irresistible power of his conviction, and by the depth and fervor of his Christian experience which he owed chiefly to writings like those of Madame Guyon, Bunyan, Bogatzky, and Tersteegen. From an exegetical standpoint his sermons are open to criticism for their arbitrary Biblical interpretation. Krummacher's appearance at Elberfeld, just at the time of the religious awakening, produced a revival which caused a sensation in the whole country. Carried away by his success, he did not shrink from the very extremes of the doctrine of predestination, and the offensive conduct of his adherents necessitated the interference of the ecclesiastical authorities. Krummacher tried to modify his doctrine and manners, but some of his followers adhered strictly to the principles of predestination, and after his death and that of his nephew joined the Dutch Reformed congregation of Dr. Kohlbrügge in Elberfeld.