Dohms, Hermann Gottlieb b. November 3, 1887; Sapiranga, Rio Grande do Sul d. December 3, 1956; Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul
Lutheran church leader who studied theology at German universities and who published the Deutsche Evangelische Blatter fur Brasilien (German Evangelical News for Brazil).
During his study of theology at the universities of Basel, Leipzig, and Halle with Konrad von Orelli, Paul Heinrich Wilhelm Albert Mezger, Paul Wernle, Albert Hauck, Martin Kahler, Ferdinand Kat- tenbusch, and Friedrich Armin Loofs, Dohms discovered the theology of Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Martin Kahler, Albert Ritschl, and Ernst Troeltsch.
From 1914 onward, he worked as a parish pastor in Cachoeira do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, where he published the Deutsche Evangelische Blatter fur Brasilien, the most important German-language magazine in Brazil. There he founded the Pre- Theological Institute, an institution that was later moved to Sao Leopoldo. In 1935 he also became the president of the Synod of Rio Grande do Sul, the church of the Lutherans in that state. In 1946 he founded the Lutheran Seminary (the present-day Lutheran School of Theology), also located in Sao Leopoldo, where he taught systematic theology. Acting as the leader of the presidents of the other Lutheran synods in Brazil, Dohms founded the Federation of Synods in 1949, whose name was changed to the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil in 1952. Having been deeply influenced by Johann Gottfried Herder, Troeltsch, Ritschl, and Kahler, Dohms also dealt with the issue of the relationship between church and ethnicity. His efforts to build the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil must also be understood from this perspective. His studies were devoted to the influence of German Protestant theology in Brazil, Auguste Comte’s positivism, the Brazilian political parties, and the rights of ethnic minorities in South America and particularly in Brazil. In this context he was interested in issues related to the citizenship of German immigrants and their descendants in Brazil but also in their right to preserve the German cultural legacy. The impact of the nationalization policy of Getulio Vargas on the communities of immigrants, World War II, and the discussions in the German Kirchenkampf (church struggle), including the transference of the confrontation between Deutsche Christen (German Christians) and Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church) to Brazil, effected a profound reorientation in his thinking, leading him to emphasize the need of the Lutheran Church to be a church in Brazil and the opening to the ecumenical world.Martin Norberto Dreher
See also Brazil; Brazil, Religion in;
Germanism in Rio Grande do Sul
References and Further Reading
Dreher, Martin N. Igreja e Germanidade. 2nd ed. Sao Leopoldo: Editora Sinodal, 2003.
Dreher, Martin N., ed. Hermann Gottlieb Dohms: Textos Escolhidos. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, 2001.