John Louis Nuelsen

John Louis Nuelsen (January 19, 1867 – June 26, 1946)

Birth and family Nuelsen was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the son of the Rev. Heinrich and Rosalie (Mueller) Nuelsen. His German father Heinrich, born in Nörten, Hanover, became an American citizen and was ordained into the Methodist Episcopal ministry. He spent time in Germany as a missionary, and later was sent to Switzerland to help establish Methodism there. He served churches in Europe for thirty-eight years. The family was originally from Holland. Nuelsen was baptized by Bishop Calvin Kingsley.

Nuelsen married Luella Elizabeth Stroeter (daughter of Ernst Ferdinand & Caroline Ströter) on 8 September 1896. They had four children, Albert E., Henry E., John Louis, Jr., and Marie L.

Education Being a Methodist Pastor's family, the Nuelsens moved a great deal. Nuelsen attended Gymnasium in Karlsruhe, Germany and Bremen, Germany. He then went to Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New Jersey (1887–89), earning the B.D. degree in 1890. He earned the A.M. degree at Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton, Missouri in 1893.

He studied further at the University of Berlin and the University of Halle in Germany. Some Recent Phases of German Theology, 1908. John Wesley and the German Hymn: A Detailed Study of John Wesley's Translations of Thirty-Three German Hymns, Die Ordination im Methodismus. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte der kirchlichen Selbständigkeit der Methodistenkirche, 1935. The final steps toward the independence of the Episcopal Methodist Church in Germany, 1936.

Nuelsen, the man Nuelsen is remembered by fellow-Methodist Bishop Roy H. Short as:

an impressive man. He looked the scholar that he was. His library, which can still be seen in the Methodist Publishing House in Zurich, bears silent testimony to the wide range of his interests and the eagerness of his mind for acquiring knowledge. He wrote constantly and was the author of a number of books and of a multitude of articles. He was an indefatigable traveler, and much of his study and writing was done on the road.