Ludwig von Gerdtell

Who was Ludwig von Gerdtell?

Friedrich Siegfried Heinrich Ludwig von Gerdtell was a German theologian associated with the Disciples of Christ movement.

Ludwig von Gerdtell was born into an aristocratic Prussian family, his father and grandfather were officers in the Potsdam Guards Regiment. He did not follow this tradition and studied law, then theology with an emphasis on New Testament Studies. From 1902 to 1908 he worked as a traveling secretary for the German Student Christian Association. In 1908/09 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen with his work on Rudolf Eucken's position on early Christianity. He came to the conclusion that the statements of the New Testament church and the state disagreed. Between 1905 and 1928 he published six titles in the series Brennende Fragen der Weltanschauung für denkende moderne Menschen dealing in a critical manner with dogmas and interpretations. He decided that the church needed reform on the basis of the New Testament and was initially close to the Baptists but broke with them and SCM in the summer of 1909. He continued for a period friendship with Eberhard Arnold in Leipzig.