Oswald Hoffmann

Oswald Carl Julius Hoffmann (December 6, 1913 – September 8, 2005) was an American clergyman and broadcaster who was best known as a speaker for The Lutheran Hour, a long-running radio program affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). During his time on the Lutheran Hour, the weekly broadcast was heard on 1,200 stations in the U.S. and in thirty other nations.

Background Oswald Carl Julius Hoffmann was born on December 6, 1913, in Snyder, Nebraska, the son of Carl and Bertha ( Seidel) Hoffmann. Both his father and grandfather were Lutheran ministers. He recalled in his autobiography, What Is There to Say But Amen?, that as a five-year old he frequently heard the bell tolling at the church pastored by his father for the victims of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. After the family subsequently moved to Chicago, Hoffmann attended high school at the Luther Institute.

Hoffmann earned a Bachelor's degree in 1932 at Concordia University, Saint Paul. He earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1935 and completed his seminary training at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1936, where he was later awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Philippine Christian University in Manila, The Philippines.

Career Ordained a Lutheran minister in 1939, Hoffmann served as a Lutheran pastor, as a college professor, and as director of public relations for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

On September 25, 1955, Hoffmann initiated the 23rd season as Lutheran Hour speaker. He served in that position for thirty-three years, broadcasting his last Lutheran Hour program from mainland China on Christmas Day, 1988. Hoffmann is the namesake of the Oswald Hoffmann School of Christian Outreach (OHSCO) at Concordia University, St. Paul. OHSCO (now known as the Oswald Hoffmann Institute for Christian Outreach) was founded in 1984 as a center for evangelism and mission studies in which students are trained for professional outreach ministries. In a 1987 interview, Hoffmann cautioned that radio and television ministers must be on guard against being influenced by public adulation, saying it verged on idolatry. A minister should be mindful that they are but "a servant of the Most High", he said. Hoffmann died on September 8, 2005, at age 91, in St. Louis, Missouri. His wife of sixty years, Marcia Hoffmann ( Linnell), whom he had married on June 23, 1940, died in 2000. He was survived by four children, three sons and a daughter. Two of his sons followed in their father's footsteps, becoming Lutheran ministers themselves.