Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Rauschenbusch, Augustus

RAUSCHENBUSCH, Augustus, clergyman, b. in Altena, Westphalia, Germany, 13 Feb., 1816. He was graduated at the gymnasium at Elberfeld, and went in his nineteenth year to the University of Berlin to study for the Lutheran ministry. Subsequently he spent some time at the University of Bonn in the study of natural science and theology. On the death of his father, who was a Lutheran pastor in Altena, the son was chosen in 1841 as his successor. His ministry here, while fruitful in spiritual results, excited so much opposition, and was so hampered by his ecclesiastical relations, that he resolved to emigrate to the United States. He came to this country in 1846, and preached for some time to the Germans in Missouri. In 1847 he removed to New York, where he edited the German tracts published by the American tract society. While he was residing in New York his views on the question of baptism underwent a change, and in 1850 he entered the Baptist communion, though retaining his connection with the Tract society until 1853. In 1858 he was called to take charge of the German department of Rochester theological seminary, which place he continued to fill until 1888. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of Rochester.