Johan Kõpp (9 November 1874,

Holdre Holdre a village in Tõrva Parish, Valga County (previously in Viljandi County) in Estonia. (retrieved 28 July 2021) Holdre manor As a landed estate, the manor of Holdre (german: Hollershof) has a history that goes back to at least 1597. Throug ...

Kreis Fellin Kreis Fellin (''Viljandi kreis'', ''Феллинский уезд'') was one of the nine subdivisions of the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northern part of the governorate (in present-day southern Estonia). I ...

– 21 October 1970, Stockholm) was an Estonian bishop and head of the

Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC; Estonian: ''Eesti Evangeelne Luterlik Kirik'', abbreviated EELK) is a Lutheran church in Estonia. EELC is member of the Lutheran World Federation and belongs to the Community of Protestant Church ...

1939–1944.

Biography

Kõpp went to high school at the

Hugo Treffner Gymnasium Hugo Treffner Gymnasium ( et, Hugo Treffneri Gümnaasium; abbreviated as HTG) is a secondary school in Tartu, Estonia with special emphasis on science education. Founded by Hugo Treffner, it was the only large secondary school in 19th-century E ...

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast o ...

and then studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. He graduated from university in 1906. After his studies he initially worked as a high school teacher in

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet o ...

but from 1909 to 1922 was

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

Laiuse Laiuse (german: link=no, Lais) is a small borough (') in Estonia. It is located in Jõgeva County and is a part of Jõgeva Parish. As of 2011 census, the settlement's population was 371.Laiuse Middle Schoolis one of the oldest in Estonia, bei ...

. Already in 1916 he had however taken up a teaching position at the University of Tartu as one of the first ethnic Estonians to do so after the

Estonian Declaration of Independence __NOTOC__ The Estonian Declaration of Independence, also known as the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia ( et, Manifest Eestimaa rahvastele), is the founding act of the Republic of Estonia from 1918. It is celebrated on 24 February, the Natio ...

. From 1920 to 1927 he was deputy rector of the university, and from 1928 to 1937 rector. During the interwar period Kõpp was also leader of the Christian People's Party. Kõpp was instrumental in organising and setting up the

in 1917 and in 1939 he was elevated to the position of

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

and leader of the church. During the first Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940 following the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...

, Kõpp stayed in Estonia. The situation for the church however became strenuous, as most

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

priests (who constituted one fifth of the priests in the country) were "repatriated" to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and as the church was harassed by Soviet authorities. Among other things, land owned by the church was confiscated and the printing of religious books banned. During the following

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 193 ...

, things became somewhat easier for the church as most of the pre-war rights of the church were restored. However, the relationship with the German occupational authorities were also not without conflict; for example, the Germans confiscated and melted down

church bell A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and ...

s to use the materials in the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative ...

. In 1944, when the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

re-occupied Estonia and drove out the Germans, Johan Kõpp fled to Sweden. Half of the active priests in Estonia at the time made the same decision to flee. Before leaving, Kõpp authorised to act as leader of the church in Estonia; however Eilart was soon arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and later had to go underground. Following this, Kõpp led the church from abroad. He managed to establish a network among exiled Estonian priests to uphold the organisation of the church and preserve its use of Estonian. Because of this, the church gained international acceptance as the representative of Estonian Lutherans and was among the founding members of the

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...

in Lund in 1947. Under the leadership of Kõpp in exile, the church also established an institute for the education of new priests and a magazine, ''Estonian Church''. Kõpp retired in 1965 and died in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Kõpp was an honorary alumnus of the

Estonian Students' Society The Estonian Students' Society ( et, Eesti Üliõpilaste Selts; commonly used acronym: EÜS) is the largest and oldest all-male academical student society in Estonia, and is similar to the Baltic German student organizations known as corporat ...

and published a book about the history of the Society in the years 1870–1905.Auvilistlased
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kopp, Johan 1874 births 1970 deaths People from Tõrva Parish People from Kreis Fellin Estonian Lutheran bishops Christian People's Party (Estonia) politicians Members of the Estonian Constituent Assembly Members of the Riiginõukogu Hugo Treffner Gymnasium alumni University of Tartu alumni Rectors of the University of Tartu Estonian World War II refugees Estonian emigrants to Sweden