Johannes Gossner

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Johannes Evangelista Gossner (14 September 1773 - 20 March 1858), German divine and philanthropist, was born at Hausen near Augsburg.

He was educated at the University of Dillingen. Here like Martin Boos and others he came under the spell of the Evangelical movement promoted by Johann Michael Sailer, the professor of pastoral theology.

After taking priests' orders, Gossner held livings at Dirlewang (1804-1811) and Munich (1811-1817), but his evangelical tendencies brought about his dismissal and in 1826 he formally left the Roman Catholic for the Protestant communion. As minister of the Bethlehem church in Berlin (1829-1846) he was conspicuous not only for practical and effective preaching, but for the founding of schools, asylums and missionary agencies.

Lives by Bethmann Hollweg (Berlin, 1858) and H Dalton (Berlin, 1878).

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.