H6b: Pasche’s history, part 2: Germany–>America; to "the world-famous, truly Lutheran, Missouri Synod"

      This concludes from Part 6a (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series that began with Walther's 1871 announcement of the republished "little book" by Matthias Hoe von Hoenegg, a book that gave instruction to south German Lutherans oppressed by Roman Catholics. — This concluding segment finishes my selection of snippets from Pastor F. E. Pasche's account of his Salzburger ancestry, and of himself.

Pasche and wife
c. 1940?

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CHAPTER 4: Our new home where I was born.

I, Frederick Emil Pasche, was born in the village of Baiersberg, Germany, April 8, 1872. Our village is forty-five miles from Berlin and five miles from Kustrin on the Oder River which flows northward into the Baltic Sea. …

Our house was built with wood and clay, the roof being tiled. The trellis work, covered with grapevine …

We loved our home. My forefathers were lucky to be among those who were permitted to settle down here in the Oder Valley where the soil was exceptionally rich. …

CHAPTER 5: Our Church

… Our church was yet called a Lutheran church. But many things have happened in Germany which deeply affected the Lutheran church. Rationalism arose. … the attempt of the State to combine the Protestant denominations, chiefly the Lutheran and Reformed into one church. This movement, called "The Union", began in Prussia and then spread to other parts of Germany. …

What was to be done so that a truly Lutheran Church, unhindered by State control and freed from rationalistic unbelief, could flourish? … A call for the organization of emigrants was issued, which met with a very hearty response. More than six hundred people signified their willingness to leave home and friends and try to build up their lives, and above all, their church, on the American frontier. … these people found themselves in a new country, ready to build their homes and…their church. And what a great and wonderful church they were privileged to build; the world-famous, truly Lutheran, Missouri Synod. … This is our church, a church of which we are proud. It teaches the Word of God …

CHAPTER 6: We go to America

… Mother…remained unshaken in her faith and taught us children to pray, and she read with us from Spangenberg's Postil, a good old Lutheran sermon book with Bible pictures in it.

…Our good luck was that Mother's father had been good enough to deposit safely $400 for Mother before her marriage. And this sum was just enough to bring us to America, the land of great plenty. It was the end of November 1881, and the voyage over the Atlantic was extremely stormy.

CHAPTER 7: The land where milk and honey flows.

We came to America. It is good to be here. In the Old World many dangers threatened us. … America is the land of liberty. We feel really at home here. We are happy. We sing "America".

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    While Pastor Pasche does not mention the names of Hoe von Hoenegg or Jacob Reihing, those names were likely known to him and his early ancestors, the Salzburger Emigrants. He mentions his mother's use of "Spangenberg's Postil", a popular devotional book for the people. A recent historian relates (p. 26) that this book "stresses in particular how to … avoid the delusions of the Papacy". As this was the same function as Hoe von Hoenegg's "little book", we have come full circle to Walther's comment, from America, on Hoe's book, that it was "a favorite book of the people in Germany for two hundred years" and so this would also apply to the people of South Germany, now to America.

     The above record is a most interesting read, of an individual, German born, Missouri Synod pastor.  His account is much more edifying than that of Berthold von Schenk. If any descendants of Pastor Pasche would like a copy of his 70-page "Family Record", with illustrations, send me an email. And if permission could be granted, I would publish whatever portion they would agree to be made public.

      I have learned much from this series, much of it related to the Reformation and its after-effects in South Germany.  Having travelled in Austria in my younger years, I knew that it remains largely a Catholic country. Walther's enthusiastic endorsement of Hoe and his Evangelical Handbook gave me the motivation to learn much more. Now I am not so ignorant of German history, of Lutheran history in Germany.