Johannes Gossner

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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