Der Lutheraner, "Post-Walther Years", in English (Part 1 of ?)

[2025-06-15: updated links to DOCX files, deleted links to 1-col. format; 2022-07-18: The download for vol. 54 (1898) PDF has been corrected to English.]

      This blog post is a sequel to last year's post that published "The Walther Years" of Der Lutheraner. I wanted to see how the Missouri Synod transitioned from Walther's spiritual leadership in its primary publication to the congregations and members.  Although the early years of this second period continued in Walther's footsteps, at the turn of the century I detected a gradual change to less polemics.  And although Prof. Ludwig Fuerbringer provided much useful reporting in the later years up to 1934, he is distinctly milder in this respect. In all of my reading of Missouri Synod history, I don't recall a single instance of his involvement in negotiations with other erring Lutheran synods, American or abroad. Unfortunately this paved the way for the unionism that history shows in the years up to the 1974 Walkout. — In this period, one meets with, along with Fuerbringer, editors Martin Guenther, A. L. Graebner, Edward Pardieck, Theodore Graebner, J. T. Mueller and others.

      Without delaying further, I present the following downloads for the 47 years after Walther's passing:

- - - - - - -  Der Lutheraner, "The Post Walther Years", 1888–1934, in English  - - - - - - - -

Vol.

Year

DOCX 2-col.

DOCX 1-col.

PDF (EN)

Vol.

Year

DOCX 2-col.

DOCX 1-col.

PDF (EN)

Vol.

Year

DOCX2-col.

DOCX 1-col.

PDF (EN)

44

1888

*

*

*

60

1904

*

*

*

76

1920

*

*

*

45

1889

*

*

*

61

1905

*

*

*

77

1921

*

*

*

46

1890

*

*

*

62

1906

*

*

*

78

1922

*

*

*

47

1891

*

*

*

63

1907

*

*

*

79

1923

*

*

*

48

1892

*

*

*

64

1908

*

*

*

80

1924

*

*

*

49

1893

*

*

*

65

1909

*

*

*

81

1925

*

*

*

50

1894

*

*

*

66

1910

*

*

*

82

1926

*

*

*

51

1895

*

*

*

67

1911

*

*

*

83

1927

*

*

*

52

1896

*

*

*

68

1912

*

*

*

84

1928

*

*

*

53

1897

*

*

*

69

1913

*

*

*

85

1929

*

*

*

54

1898

*

*

*

70

1914

*

*

*

86

1930

*

*

*

55

1899

*

*

*

71

1915

*

*

*

87

1931

*

*

*

56

1900

*

*

*

72

1916

*

*

*

88

1932

*

*

*

57

1901

*

*

*

73

1917

*

*

*

89

1933

*

*

*

58

1902

*

*

*

74

1918

*

*

*

90

1934

*

*

*

59

1903

*

*

*

75

1919

*

*

*

The DOCX links are direct links to my Google Drive while the PDF links point to uploads on Archive.org and may be downloaded from there.  Also one will find on Archive that I have updated all the uploads of the original German publication which are now text searchable in the original German (available here). — The German text files (DOCX) can be downloaded in 1 Zip file: (1) exact format, (text boxes, 190MB) and (2) plain format (no text boxes, 140MB). These are suitable, after splitting into files no larger than 1 million characters, to send to DeepL for translations into languages other than English.

     

 Notable things to look for during the "Post-Walther" period:

• Dr./Prof./President Franz Pieper: His writings were more prominent in the earlier years of this period but sadly quite sparse in the later years.  
• Carl Manthey Zorn (C. M. Z.) stands out as the most prolific orthodox writer for this second period.  The history of his leaving the Leipzig-East India Mission to flee to the orthodoxy of Walther and the Missouri Synod was just the beginning of an amazing career with the Old Missouri Synod and I plan to publish more of his works.  Franz Pieper recommended a writing of Manthey-Zorn defending the contentious doctrine of the Election of Grace, a major signal that Manthey-Zorn clung to the orthodox doctrine for his entire life.  Look for his many writings among the essays, but not in the news blurbs.  He and Prof. Friedrich Bente stand the closest to Pieper.  Although not a teacher, he was prolific in authoring orthodox and interesting books published by CPH, Northwestern, and Heermann in Zwickau, Germany.
• President Friedrich Pfotenhauer (F. Pf.) also stands out as a contributor during his years of presidency (1911–1935).  I quit scanning Der Lutheraner after the 1934 volume because Pfotenhauer would soon be replaced by the disastrous presidency of Pastor J. W. Behnken, and because English became the dominant language in the Synod.
• World War I: This period contains the war years, July 1914—November, 1918, against Germany.  I have yet to read much of this material to be able to comment on it, but I plan to study it.
• Missions news: Most, if not all of these, were scanned.  Especially the "Negro" and China Missions were of interest to me, so these should be complete in the volumes above. Forget practically all LC-MS historical reports on early mission activities, like F. Dean Lueking's heterodox Mission in the Making (1964) [2024-11-23 updated link] and  Wm. Danker's comments in Moving Frontiers [2024-11-23 updated link] – just read the Der Lutheraner reports. (A wonderful  exception to this is Hermann Koppelmann's 1951 essay)
• Church news: I believe this was covered better in Lehre und Wehre where the pure doctrine was stoutly defended and erring statements of opponents were pointed out.  Still the news items are of great interest, including items on the anti-Christian lodges and the Ku Klux Klan.
• Book reviews: These were helpful in assessing the value of the publications during this period whether from CPH, Northwestern Publishing, or others. These book reviews were always scanned.

Technical notes on the scanning, OCRing, proofing, formatting, and machine translation:

Years 1900-1934 did not have split page scans due to smaller page size, so each original page is intact. However as the years progressed, pages were omitted from scanning due to decreasing interest. And computer storage was more expensive at the time of scanning, and the interest in later years, especially 1900-1930, was not as high as in the 19th century.  ● OCR notes: All Latin and English fonts had to be manually inserted due to a limitation of the OCR software. Also emphasized words of some writing were manually underlined. ● Proofing notes: In each issue, the proofing was largely done on the main content and not on treasury reports and business matters.  In the case of essays by Franz Pieper, the emphasized words in spaced lettering ("Sperrdruck") were manually underlined to follow the original emphasis, since Fraktur printing did not have underlining. This was generally only done on the essays by Franz Pieper; PDF download files may not show all of the text due to text overrun in text boxes, whereas the DOCX files will include all of the text that was OCR'd and translated. ● Pictures were scanned in 1-bit mode, not "gray scale" so they are not very good, but yielded a compact file size.  Exceptions to this of the more notable pictures were taken from the Google Books scans, especially the pictures of the Missouri Synod fathers and those of the "Negro Mission".

DeepL Translator mistranslations that were not always corrected (this listing is not exhaustive):

"Father" (or "priest" sometimes) should be "Pastor" (DeepL follows Roman Catholic practice)  ●  "JEsu" should be "Jesus"  ●  "communities" or "municipality" or "church" should be "congregations / congregation" much of the time, but not always.  ●  "beatifying" or "beatific" should be "saving"; "beatification" should be "salvation"  ●  "Praese" should be "President"; "Praeses" - "presidents"  ●  "D." should be "Dr." if used as a prefix to a name.  ●  "synodal" should be either "synodical" or "synod's"  ●  "Regiment" or "regimental" should be "government" or "governmental"  ●  "Speech" should be "address"  ●  "justice" should be mostly "righteousness"  ● "communion" should sometimes be "fellowship"  ●  "2c." should be "etc."  ●  Page/column/paragraph breaks and even misspellings are handled admirably by the DeepL Translator, but not perfectly.  Sometimes mistranslations or loss of content happens at these points.  Happily these are less than one might expect.  ●  The DeepL translator attempted to leave proper names untranslated, but not always successfully. To search for these, it may be better to search the German text in case the translator attempted to translate the proper name into an English word, e.g. "sugar" should be left "Zucker" in some cases.

- - - - - - - - - - - -  Table of Contents  - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Intro 1: Pfotenhauer's essay on Der Lutheraner's service to the Missouri Synod

Intro 2: What if… all of Der Lutheraner was in English?

Part 1: This introduction with downloads

Part 2a: Fuerbringer's external history of Der Lutheraner

       2b: Walther, then Guenther

       2c: List of Editors: A. L. Graebner, L. Fuerbringer, E. Pardieck, Theo. Graebner

Part 3a: The first 3 editors of Der Lutheraner, by "J. S.": first Walther, 

       3b: …then Martin Guenther ("guarded pure doctrine"),

            Excursus: Guenther's book Dr. C. F. W. Walther, A Life Portrait, now in English

       3c: then A. L. Graebner

            Excursus: Walther reviews Gräbner's 1883 book on Martin Luther.

Part 4a: DL (1933) Book Review of CPH posthumous book of Pieper's great convention essays

       4b: German man: "we are to be mourned, not he" — on Pieper’s passing

Part 5: How can one become a Lutheran? (Der Lutheraner 1917)

Part 6a: Bente on a hot topic, “No Men in the Church.”, (Der Lutheraner, 1899)

       6b: “No Men” – Methodist vs Lutheran preaching & practice

Part 7a: Lochner defends Luther's “Pope and Turk" hymn (against LC-MS); Der Lutheraner 1894

       7b: “few believe Pope is Antichrist”; Catholics stifle; Lutheran strength, weakness

            Excursus: "Carl Vehse": LC-MS change on Antichrist doctrine, with documentation

            Excursus II: "Carl Vehse" Part II: LC-MS change on Antichrist doctrine

       7c: Spangenberg; Schaff: "no longer appropriate"; Lochner: "Pope and Turk remain"

       7d: Harrison vs. Lochner - a comparison; another question for Carver

Part 8: Der Lutheraner, Walther Years: multi-column format (downloads)

Part 9: 

What if… all* of Der Lutheraner was in English?

It would look like this (vol. 76, 1920, p. 7): 

Original page in German Fraktur font                                                English translated page

That is about to become reality, in the next post…

    *) up to 1934, with omissions

Pfotenhauer: Lutheraner's service to Synod; Word/Confessions caused division

      When Der Lutheraner reached the age of 75 years in 1920, 102 years ago, essays were published about its past history.  The first of these was by the Missouri Synod President Friedrich Pfotenhauer.  I treasured his account as particularly true to Missouri's heritage. Some of this will be familiar to some, but he highlights one of the sacrifices the fathers were willing to make that will likely not be done by today's LC-MS.  From Der Lutheraner, June 13, 1920, vol. 76, no. 1, p. 2-4 [EN], hyperlinks added for reference:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

The “Lutheraner” in the service of our Synod.

[by Pres. F. Pfotenhauer]

The “Lutheraner,” which made its appearance three years before the formation of our Synod, was instrumental in bringing about the formation of our Synod. It was first, by God's grace, the instrument of the few faithful Lutherans who still wished to remain with the faith of Luther in America, getting to know each other and coming together.

“It was a great joy for me in 1844,” writes Dr. Sihler in his autobiography [p. 39], “when the first number of the ‘Lutheraner’ appeared in St. Louis. … It filled me with great joy when I received the first number of the ‘Lutheraner,’ and after I had received the following numbers, I did not fail to recommend the paper to my congregations and to spread it in them; for such a paper was needed by the Lutherans of this country, who for the most part did not know what Lutheran was and why they called themselves Lutheran [p. 3] Christians. Naturally, I also came into close contact with the editor by letter.  

Of Pastor Friedrich Wyneken, Director Lindemann writes: “Just at that time when Wyneken had to defend Luther's teaching against his own synod” — the “Synod of the West” in Indiana and other states — “he received the first number of the ‘Lutheraner’ which had been published since September 1, 1844 in St. Louis by Pastor C. F. W. Walther. He had convinced himself that he had nothing to hope for from his synod; therefore that paper became an angel of comfort to him. As soon as he had glanced through it, he exclaimed with great joy: ‘Thank God, there are still more Lutherans in America!’ New hope animated him for the church of this land; he saw it become day after dark night.” (Dr. C. F. W. Walther, Lebensbild, p. 65.)

The “Lutheraner” then further suggested that the faithful Lutheran congregations and pastors unite in an orthodox synod, and gave the necessary instruction and the proper teaching about the purpose, task and institution of a truly Lutheran synod.

Thus, mainly through the work of the “Lutheraner”, our synod was founded in 1847. It immediately made this paper its organ at its first meeting and placed it at its service. We read about it in the first synod report as follows: “Now the deliberation of the synod turned to the 8th paragraph of the 5th chapter [of the drafted synod constitution], and the publication of an ecclesiastical journal as the organ of the synod was the next object. The gracious offer of the President to give the ‘Lutheran’ to the Synod for this purpose was accepted with thanks. The Synod decided that the present publisher should continue to be the editor of this journal; that the complete ownership of it should pass to the Synod with the beginning of the fourth year, and that the following should be added to the title: ‘Published by the German Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other states, edited by C. F. W. Walther’. In the instruction to be given to the editor, it shall be recommended to the same that more attention be paid than heretofore to the occurrences in the ecclesiastical field of this country.” (First Synod Report, p. 6.)

In the first chapter of its Constitution, the Synod stated the task it set for itself. It is briefly as follows: the spread of pure doctrine and the struggle against all false teaching; the encouragement of their congregations in knowledge of and faithful adherence to the Lutheran confession; united spread of the kingdom of God through teaching institutions, missionary work, and Christian literature.

Those who know the “Lutheraner” know how faithfully it helped the Synod in this work. From the beginning it distinguished itself by splendid doctrinal articles. With rare clarity, especially by Blessed Walther, the individual doctrines of the Holy Scriptures were treated and the rich treasure house of our dear Lutheran Church was again opened to thousands and thousands. Without fear of man, the finger was put on all false doctrines and everything was fearlessly rejected that was contrary to God's Word. Especially the “Lutheraner” fought bravely against all unionism and won over so many honest people who sighed in false believing synods, so that our synod grew mightily like a tree planted by the streams of water, which spreads its branches further and further. Through the ministry of the “Lutheraner” it happened that the Lutheran church developed wonderfully here in the distant Occident and exerted its salutary influence also on other church congregations. 

And as the “Lutheraner” served the church in general, so also the individual congregations in our synod. Before the [p. 4] appearance of the “Lutheraner” it looked exceedingly sad in the so-called Lutheran congregations of this country. There were very few who had any idea of Lutheran doctrine and practice. Most of them flirted with the sects and cultivated pulpit and altar fellowship with them. Dr. Walther showed in the “Lutheraner” the proper form of a local Lutheran congregation independent of the state, emphasized its rights and duties, and so in the cities of our country, in the primeval forests and on the prairies, splendid congregations blossomed, which committed their pastors to the Lutheran confessions, in which God's Word led the scepter, and the growing youth was educated in Christian schools. Admittedly, this caused division in many congregations, but it was a blessed separation of light and darkness and a glorious victory of divine truth.

While on the one hand the “Lutheraner” fearlessly taught the pious to separate themselves from the wicked, and many a congregation was at first greatly reduced as a result, on the other hand it encouraged with ravishing eloquence the united spreading of the Kingdom of God near and far. The paper showed that our synod must do this by cultivating higher educational institutions and zealous missionary work. While in Germany the state was responsible for the education of future preachers and teachers, the “Lutheraner” informed its readers that this was the duty of Christian congregations and individual Christians. As a result, our educational institutions developed ever more splendidly. Soon a new college was founded in this place, soon in that. The number of our students grew into the hundreds, even thousands. And while it was customary for missionary work to be done by societies, the “Lutheraner” taught that this was a matter for the Christian congregation and each member of it. Thus one mission after another came into being, and the "Lutheran" could tell its readers of victories near and far, and bring long receipts of willing sacrifices for this work from the wide circles of our synod, and thereby spur the Christians on to new zeal.

In addition to this, the good Lord awakened men in our synod who were powerful enough to take up the pen and bring to light the buried treasures of our church, either in the old garb or in a new form, and to make them accessible to the people in books and tracts. Whenever a new book appeared from our printing press, the “Lutheraner” recommended it and emphasized its merits, and thus these glorious books reached the study rooms of preachers and teachers and the homes of Christians and promoted knowledge and godliness.

Yes, indeed, the “Lutheraner” has proved to be a faithful servant of our Synod in its work during the long years. When the Lord gave us rest from our enemies, He did glorious work of peace, and when we had to go into the fray, His trumpet gave a bright sound. May the Lord further keep this paper by its motto: “God's Word and Luther's Doctrine Pure, Shall to Eternity Endure.” and may He bless our Synod’s work through His ministrations! F. Pf.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The "division in congregations" was over the truth of Scripture and the Confessions. The result? "Many a congregation was at first greatly reduced as a result", something those in today's LC-MS are not willing to experience where doctrine is languishing, discipline seems almost non-existent. How I loved how Pfotenhauer characterized this result, not with sadness, but rather it was "a blessed separation of light and darkness". — "Yes, indeed", it was a glorious time for Christianity and Lutheranism through the pages of Der Lutheraner. Soon its pages in the years after Walther will not be so garbled for English speaking Lutherans…