Christoph Hoffmann

Who was Christoph Hoffmann?

Gottlob Christoph Jonathan Hoffmann was born in Leonberg in the Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany. His parents were Beate Baumann and Gottieb Wilhelm Hoffmann, chairman of the Unitas Fratrum congregation in Korntal.

Christoph Hoffmann had a Pietist-Christian background and enjoyed a Christian education with the Brethren congregation in Korntal. As a young man he studied theology in Tübingen. An opponent of the much better known liberal theologian David Friedrich Strauss, Hoffmann was elected to the First National German Parliament, which met in Frankfurt am Main in 1848.

The failure of his efforts to create a better Christian State through politics caused him to return to the roots of Christianity as expressed by Jesus. He became convinced that Jesus had called for a radical change of attitude in people. The better state of being after such a change of attitude he saw as the Kingdom of God which was to be established. To this end he applied for the position of a missionary inspector with the Protestant St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission of Basel in 1853, however, disappointedly quitting service after two years.