Martin Rohleder
Creators: name: Sterik, Edita
Publisher: name: Unitas Fratrum
Year: 2025

description: Martin Rohleder, the 24-year-old son of the Parish Clerk of Zauchtenthal, arrived in Herrnhut on 4 July 1724. Disappointed, he returned four months later to Moravia, where he was imprisoned and suffered a great deal. Released from prison, he was required to swear that he would remain loyal to the Catholicism. In order to escape this otherwise unavoidable obligation, he emigrated for a second time in March 1727. As overseer of the orphans and as an elder, he was among Zinzendorf ’s closest colleagues. Rohleder was zealous in his faith and inclined to asceticism. He was impulsive and direct – even towards Zinzendorf. There were often conflicts, but despite this Zinzendorf repeatedly recommended him for the most important congregational offices. After the December 1736 conference Rohleder moved to the Ronneburg, where he engaged successfully in mission work and also founded a children’s home, until 1738, when he was needed as congregation elder for the newly-founded settlement of Pilgerruh in Holstein. Co-operation between the three leading brethren in Pilgerruh (Waiblinger, Betzold and Rohleder) was made difficult by differences in interpreting the agreement that had been signed when the settlement was founded, which was intended to guarantee the congregation’s independence from Zinzendorf. However, all three wanted the agreement to be rescinded. On top of this came the enthusiastic new teaching that was being spread from Herrnhaag, which Rohleder decidedly resisted, something that Betzold assiduously and repeatedly reported to the Count. The Count was not happy with Pilgerruh. When the settlers were asked to take the customary oath of allegiance, Zinzendorf took the opportunity to dissolve the settlement. Rohleder resisted this, wanting to negotiate further with the authorities and save the settlement. Rohleder and Zinzendorf once again came into serious conflict. In February 1741 Rohleder was deposed from his office and in April of the same year he was excluded from the Moravian Church and declared a heretic. However, he hoped for reconciliation and continued to work to save the Moravian settlement. In June 1741 most of the settlers left. When it became clear that the royal authorities were inclined to compromise with the Moravians, Zinzendorf insisted that Rohleder must first move away. Rohleder was successfully isolated, but he remained in Pilgerruh, continuing to hope for reconciliation and for the return of the settlers. He felt connected to the Moravian Church and was very glad to receive a reconciling letter from the former warden of the Pilgerruh Congregation, Gottfried Betzold, in December 1747. They both wanted to ‘live together’ again. Rohleder sent greetings to ‘Brother Zinzendorf ’ and assured him of his ‘constant love’. However, the Count did not change his opinion. For him, Rohleder remained a heretic, whom he had tolerated in the first twelve years of the Moravian Church’s existence ‘with a watchful wisdom’. In 1748 Rohleder gave up his hope for reconciliation with the Count and moved to Altona, where he died on 21 September 1764.
description: Unitas Fratrum, Bd. 81 (2022): Unitas Fratrum, Band 81