Hofacker, Wilhelm

Hofacker, Wilhelm a younger brother of Ludwig (q.v.), and, like him. a celebrated preacher of the Würtemberg Church, was born February 16, 1805. In 1828 he became assistant to his brother, who was then in failing health. After his decease he traveled through Northern Germany on a literary tour. From 1830-1833 he delivered lectures at the University of Tübingen on Dogmatics, based on the work of Nitzsch, pursuing himself at the same time a course of study. In 1833 he was appointed at Waiblingen, and in January 1836, at St. Leonard's, in Stuttgardt, a church which his father and elder brother had served before him. Here he died, August 10, 1848. Like his brother, he was an earnest servant of the Church of Christ, and a regular attendant at the Bible and Missionary meetings of the University students while at Tübingen, where he also was educated. He was a zealous defender of the orthodox doctrine of the divinity of Christ, asserting that modem science is more in harmony with the Christian doctrine of the orthodox Church than with the speculative theology of the Hegel-Strauss school. He published, besides a number of polemical articles in different theological periodicals, Tropfiein aus der Lebensquelle (Stuttg. 1863 and 1864), and Predigten für alle Sonn und Festtage (ib. 1853). Of his sermons nine editions have already been published. They contain a short biography written by Kapff, a German preacher, one of Hofacker's associates at Tübingen University. See Knapp, Leben von L. Hofacker; Hartmann, in Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 19, 649 sq. (J.H.W.)