A Socialist not in Wikipedia? Convert to Christianity is in Der Lutheraner

     So many of the people reported on by Walther's Der Lutheraner are also in Wikipedia, and so I compare the reports between the two sources.  But when I ran into a report of a prominent Socialist in Germany who was surprisingly not in Wikipedia, I had to ask:  Why?  The answer became evident because his notoriety, in the eyes of the world, dropped abruptly when he converted to Christianity. However he became a source of joy for the readers of Der Lutheraner. The story is about a certain "Zielowsky in Stettin." (Stettin is now Szczecin, Poland.) — From Der Lutheraner vol. 42 (1886), p. 102 [EN]:

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(From Pastor Biewend's Luth. Anzeiger.)

A Converted Socialist.

The following is reported from the last circumstances of the one-time Social Democrat Zielowsky in Stettin. For several years Z. had worked as an agitator among the workers of Stettin and other cities and had caused much mischief by a truly demonic eloquence. It happened that once in a meeting he raised his fist against a believing preacher who had opposed him and shouted: “Let your God help you, let our fists help us!” He had hardly said this when he was stricken with a stroke and that hand, that arm, the whole right side remained paralyzed. When he awoke from his anesthesia, he was lying in a hospital room of a deaconess house, which he had just a short time before badly blasphemed in word and writing. The loving care he found there broke his resentment, the illness his defiance, and one evening he was heard praying aloud: “Merciful God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our only mediator, I beg you, give me some sleep tonight, so I will believe that it is you.” The Lord heard his groaning and as a converted Christian Z. got up from the sickbed and now sought to work for the Kingdom of God with untiring zeal. His external situation was greatly changed by this: Formerly idolized by thousands, now scorned and antagonized by his former comrades; formerly bursting with health and strength, now a cripple; formerly sufficiently provided with funds as an agitator, now dependent on the meager earnings of his wife and the support of some benefactors; but still he joyfully confessed again and again: his present misery was dearer to him than his former happiness. At last he also went home in peace. X.

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      I could be stretching the point that Wikipedia, English or German, should have had an article on the Socialist agitator Zielowsky.  But then again, it was stated above that he was "formerly idolized by thousands" and "sufficiently provided with funds as an agitator."  That usually qualifies one to be included in the histories and in Wikipedia.  But we can learn from Der Lutheraner of this notable Socialist who converted to Christ and so instead "sought to work for the Kingdom of God with untiring zeal."  Praise God for His mercy!