Sunday Special: Rev. John Reinhardt

To continue the Sunday Special feature on our Lutheran Heritage, I will discuss Rev. F. J. W. Reinhardt.  He was the husband of Sophie Brueggemann (Clamor's youngest daughter).  They were married in 1892.  He was a Missouri Synod Pastor,


According to the "Lutheran Visitor", he "took charge at Pensacola, FL 7/23/1891" (page 4).

He was the second pastor at  "The First German-English Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel's Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Pensacola, Florida".  Quite a mouthful, which was commonly known at "the German Lutheran church".  The name was changed to that during World War I in 1918 when the church was incorporated to Immanuel's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Pensacola, Florida." That's when reference to being a German church was dropped because of the war (see my earlier post on German-American discrimination). 

From the Church Website:
This drawing was made prior to 1918 since the "German" was dropped out of the name in 1918. This is probably one of the earliest pictures of the 1912 church. The building on the left was the parsonage at that time. Pastors Reinhardt and Schrader both lived there with their families. In 1942, the Schraders moved to a new parsonage at 1212 E. Lakeview. The old building was used as a Sunday School and church hall till 1955 when it was razed to building a new education building. Those who attended Sunday School and confirmation class in the old building remember long days without air conditioning, drink machines, and water fountains. The students/catechumens went to confirmation classes all summer 5 days a week for 3 hours in the 7th grade and 3 1/2 hours in the 8th grade.

By 1912, a new church had been constructed on West Wright Street which is still in use and where a new education building was completed in 2003. The present church was built in 1912. The photos with spires were made close to that time. Lightning hit some of the spires in 1924, and a hurricane damaged them in 1926. They were removed following the hurricane because of safety concerns. 

Originally, the men sat on the east side of the church and the women and children on the west side. Men went to communion before the women until 1933. Morning services were in German; evening services were in English. They, gradually, went to more English services, but some German services continued until 1941.

I think it interesting that German continued much longer at Immanuel than at other churches in more traditionally German communities.