“I was worried whether I would be able to attend New Apostolic services”

The story is well known in the Karlsruhe area in Germany: a District Elder had to file a lawsuit against a former friend. ‌This former friend then sent him a nasty letter, to which the District Elder wanted to reply in the same manner. But he had second thoughts and decided to ask his District Apostle for advice: ‌Karl Hartmann took out the heat and cut the letter down to trivial matters and advised him to pray for his opponent. This worked so well that the former enemies became colleagues.

Karl Hartmann was born on 17 December 1873 in Barmen near Wuppertal, Germany. His parents belonged to the Evangelical Reformed Church. The economy was only just developing at the time and meant that his father, a master carpenter, did not have enough work. The family therefore had to farm in order to survive. He and his older brother had to help out at an early age already, but even so the family was impoverished.

God’s plan

Was it coincidence or God’s will that he found an apprenticeship in Iserlohn starting in 1890, the only place where a New Apostolic congregation existed at the time for miles around? Was it coincidence or God’s will that, after hearing about the New Apostolic Church for the first time in Iserlohn, he met a customer from Iserlohn while visiting his parents in Barmen and found out that she was New Apostolic? Karl Hartmann did not have to be asked twice and attended his first New Apostolic service in August 1890. “I clearly remember the deep impression the sermon made on me,” he later wrote. “I had no idea at the time that this day and this first hour in the New Apostolic congregation, as well as the activity of the Holy Spirit that I felt in my heart, would give my life a completely different value and direction.”

Karl Hartmann regularly visited the small congregation. He was sealed by Apostle Friedrich Menkhoff on 10 November 1890, led Bible study gatherings, and thus helped the congregation to grow.

Struggles of faith and coming to know God

His parents and other relatives were opposed to the New Apostolic movement in which Karl Hartmann was involved. In other respects, the then 17-year-old experienced a lot of mockery and ridicule as well. “But none of this hostility could impress us,” Karl Hartmann later recalled. “One hour in the house of the Lord brought peace back into my soul and the assurance of salvation.”

His job took him to Elberfeld in 1892—where God was already waiting for him with a small congregation—and to Duesseldorf in 1893, where he himself built up a congregation with three other brothers. He received his first ministry in 1897. He also helped along in a small congregation in Dortmund, where he met and married Berta Terjung on 22 November 1899.

Although he worked in Hagen starting in 1903, he continued to serve in the Dortmund church district. “So I wasn’t just away on business throughout the week, but also had to travel on Sundays.” This would have been impossible without Berta, who looked after the couple’s four daughters.

Church district in transition

“Only for a few years.” This is what Karl Hartmann was told when his company sent him to Karlsruhe in 1911. “But I stayed there because it was God’s will.” Although he had to go through difficult times— his daughter Maria died of pneumonia at the age of just 15 and he was called up for military service in 1917—he continued to work for the Church.

There were radical changes in the church district. After the death of Apostle Friedrich Bock, Johann Gottfried Bischoff from Frankfurt am Main was given the responsibility of caring for the congregations in the south of Germany on top of his own district. This made him the first president of the public corporation in Baden. The Weimar Constitution made this possible and the municipalities of Baden were the first to enjoy these advantages.

In 1920 Apostle Bischoff became Chief Apostle Helper and a solution had to be found. On 2 July 1922, Karl Hartmann was ordained an Apostle by Chief Apostle Hermann Niehaus. On 28 July 1924, a hundred years ago, he was given full responsibility: he became District Apostle for the newly founded district.

Church buildings for the brothers and sisters

At the time of the takeover, the area had 33 congregations with around four thousand members. Just two years later, there were 72 congregations with around six thousand members. Within eight years, the number of congregations increased to around 185, while the number of members grew to fifteen thousand.

From the mid 1920s, the New Apostolic Church stepped out of the backyards and into the public eye and built more conspicuous church buildings for the first time. District Apostle Karl Hartmann, for example, had two representative church buildings constructed by the architect Hans Zippelius, with contemporary motifs such as a round arch portal.

Untiring to the end

Karl Hartmann remained active as a District Apostle until the end. During a holiday in Switzerland—where he was still called up to assist in a divine service—he died of a coronary thrombosis on 29 August 1950. More than seven thousand mourners paid their last respects to him.