Rittelmeyer grew up in Frankish
Schweinfurt as the son of a Lutheran priest. From 1890 Rittelmeyer studied philosophy and Protestant theology at the
University of Erlangen and the
University of Berlin. Among his teachers were
Adolf von Harnack and
Julius Kaftan, and later
Oswald Külpe, who encouraged him to write his dissertation on
Friedrich Nietzsche. In 1903 he defended his doctoral dissertation in Lutheran theology at the
University of Leipzig. He also went on a study trip to meet theologians and socially engaged ministers of the time, as well as members of the
Moravian Church. From 1895 to 1902 he was a priest at the St.-Johannis-Kirche in
Würzburg, from which in 1903 he took up the preachership of Heilig-Geist-Kirche in
Nuremberg. There he married Julie Kerler on 5 April 1904. Rittelmeyer worked and closely collaborated with Christian Geyer (1862–1929), the head preacher of the
Sebalduskirche, and the pair produced two joint volumes of sermons. Around 1910 they both led discussions with the Bavarian church council on a liberal interpretation of the Bible and the denomination. In 1916 Rittelmeyer was sent to the
Neue Kirche in Berlin, working as preacher there. At first gripped by nationalist enthusiasm, he soon came to oppose the
First World War and with 4 other Berlin theologians signed a proclamation of peace and understanding on the occasion of
Reformation Day (October 1917). The Nuremberg school teacher
Michael Bauer in 1910 enabled Rittelmeyer to have his first encounter with
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of
anthroposophy. Rittelmeyer described the encounter and discussed Steiner's personality and work in his
Meine Lebensbegegnung mit Rudolf Steiner (
Rudolf Steiner Enters my Life). In the
Christengemeinschaft he established in September 1922, Rittelmeyer acted as its first Kultushandlungen (Priesterweihe der Begründenden und Altarsakrament). He was the first "Erzoberlenker" of the "Movement for Religious Revival" (another term for the Christengemeinschaft) and from its base in Stuttgart was its leading envoy right up to his death. Under
National Socialism, he carried out a permanent balancing act: between critical intellectual discussion with Nazism in numerous publications on the one hand and his task of enabling a survival strategy for the Christengemeinschaft (for which he felt responsible) on the other. ==References==