Biography View

Biography For Herman Achtenberg

If you would like more information about this person, please contact our research library.

Back to Search

Author:
Bill Hart

Background:

A resolution dated June 4, 1918 authorized the establishment of an English Lutheran Church in Wausau, WI. This church was to be the first of its kind, created as a response to an existing situation. In the early 1900s church services were conducted almost exclusively in the mother tongue of the majority of its members, in this case German. For the children born in America, this proved to be a handicap. Many had learned English as their primary language and knew little of their parent's native tongue. Therefore, it was difficult for them to understand the Word of God as delivered in their churches. Because of this situation, a group of parents from the St. Stephen Lutheran Church approached the Mission Board with a request for an English pulpit and a Lutheran church to go with it. The board agreed, and just 12 days later the congregation appropriately named their church First English Lutheran Church of Wausau, a name which it bears to this day.

Accomplishments:

After Reverend Beckman announced that he would be leaving the congregation to accept a call to Middleton, WI, the pulpit remained barren for five months. Its vacancy would be filled temporarily by neighboring pastors, some of them coming from as far as Marshfield to conduct Sunday evening services. It was not until November of 1922 that a new pastor stepped into the pulpit to occupy it for the next 22 years, the longest term to date. This pastor was the Reverend H.G. Achtenberg from Tescott, Ottawa County, Kansas. It was under his leadership that the congregation voted to build on the site purchased at First and Franklin Streets.

In February of 1944 Reverend Achtenberg left his church family of 22 years for a parish in Homestead, Pennsylvania.

---

Other Information

---

Date of Birth: 9-9-1888

Place of Birth: Michigan

Date of Death: 6-22-1955

Race: W

---