Ritter, Germano Guilherme (1898–1968)

Germano Guilherme Ritter was an administrator, mission director, conference president, canvasser, and pastor from Brasil.

Early Life and Education

Germano Guilherme Ritter was born on March 16, 1898, in the city of Taquara do Novo Mundo, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He was the son of Henrique Ritter and Ana Carolina Ritter,¹ and Maria Amália, Alzira, Olinda, and Helena were his sisters.² His mother was a Catholic, and his father was a Lutheran. His father owned a woodwork joinery and a furniture business.

In 1908, when John Lipke held a series of evangelistic conferences in Taquara, the family decided to get baptized in the Adventist faith. After their baptism, Germano’s family donated a plot of land in the city for the construction of a church. Germano spent his childhood in Taquara helping his father in the joinery.

In order to study Adventist literature materials, which only existed in English or German, Germano became a self-taught English speaker since he had to communicate with American missionaries, who arrived in increasing numbers. He organized and taught the first sabbath school class in Portuguese in the Church of Taquara, where he also played the flute.

Germano studied all the courses available at that time at the Pátria School in the city of Taquara and completed an academic bookkeeping program, which is now equivalent to an administration or economics degree. He then worked as the administrator at his father’s company.

Marriage and Early Career

In 1922, at an outdoor meeting held in tents, Germano met Irma Nagel de Santa Cruz, who later became his wife. The marriage was made official by the former conference president, Pastor Abraham Harder.³ Germano and Irma had five children: Orlando Rubem, Mário, Noemi, Yolanda Alice, and Germano Raul.⁴

Germano Ritter’s trajectory in the Adventist organization began in 1923, when he stopped working at his father’s company and started working as a canvasser. He then served until 1925 as an advisor to the treasurer of Rio Grande do Sul Conference in the city of Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sul.⁵

In 1926, Ritter went to the city of Curitiba, State of Paraná,⁶ to be the secretary/treasurer and licensed missionary in the Paraná-Santa Catarina Mission,⁷ where he organized the very first Harvest Ingathering Campaign.⁸ He also served as a Sabbath school’s departmental secretary in 1928.⁹ From 1927 to 1928, he was the departmental secretary of the Tract Society (now Brazil Publishing House).¹⁰

In 1929, Ritter went to the São Paulo Conference to serve as a secretary/treasurer and licensed missionary. He was also assigned the position of departmental secretary of the Book and Bible House.¹¹ That year, he acquired and studied Ellen G. White’s book, “Fundamentals of Christian Education.” This book, along with Tratado sobre Educação, led him to establish the Adventist Primary School of the Church of Santo Amaro in 1932.¹² In 1934, he became the youth and personal ministries departmental secretary.¹³

Later Career

The following year, Pastor Ritter returned to the Paraná-Santa Catarina Mission, where he served as secretary/treasurer,¹⁴ education departmental secretary (1935-1936),¹⁵ youth ministry departmental secretary (1935-1936),¹⁶ personal ministry departmental secretary (1937, 1939-1940),¹⁷ minister (1936-1940),¹⁸ licentiate minister (1935),¹⁹ mission director (1938-1939),²⁰ and conference president (1940).²¹ One of his first goals was for the mission to obtain conference status, which was accomplished in 1939.²² Among the schools he established was the Butiá Adventist School (now Paraná Adventist College) in 1940 near the city of Rio Negro and the city of Mafra, which later transferred to Curitiba²³ and is currently located in Ivatuba, State of Paraná. In honor of its founder, the Paraná Adventist College Library takes Germano Guilherme Ritter’s name.²⁴ Then, in 1940, he became part of the managers’ board for the Brazilian Publishing House and Brazil Junior College, an Adventist school.²⁵

Pastor Ritter returned to the São Paulo Conference in 1941 as president.²⁶ The following year, he established the São Paulo Clinic (now São Paulo Adventist Hospital), which was inaugurated on March 8, 1942, in the neighborhood of Aclimação in São Paulo.²⁷ The hospital conducted an intense marketing campaign that resulted in many people helping in remarkable ways.²⁸ Now, the hospital has about 300 employees.

When the hospital was in full operation, Pastor Ritter dedicated himself more to evangelistic work in the countryside of the State of São Paulo. He traveled 700 kilometers from the capital to share the gospel with people who lived far away. He was a dedicated pastor who also went to the houses of the elders to conduct the Lord’s Supper with them. He encouraged the church’s children to study at Adventist schools and gave priority to the Adventist school that would be established in the city of Campinas in 1949.²⁹

In 1947, with his own resources, Pastor Ritter bought a plot of land of 140 hectares in Hortolândia, State of São Paulo. The goal was to build a secondary school for São Paulo’s Adventist youth. Construction began in 1949 when students arrived with institutional scholarships for work-study programs; they worked during the day and studied at night. The school was named Campineiro Adventist Middle School (now UNASP-HT offering courses from primary to higher education). In honor of its founder, the campus library was named after Pastor Germano Ritter.³⁰ Pastor Ritter’s last goal for the São Paulo Conference was accomplished in 1950, when a nursing home (ceased operations in 2007) was built in the city of São Paulo near the Brazil Adventist College (now UNASP-SP).³¹

Retirement and Contribution

In 1949, Pastor Ritter worked as a manager of the Brazil Food Factory, which at that time functioned as a department of the Brazil Adventist College.³² After eight years as president of the São Paulo Conference, he left his position in 1950.³³ Pastor Ritter continued working in the Brazil Food Factory until 1952³⁴ and retired in 1953.³⁵ He continued collaborating with the Brazilian Voice of Prophecy located in Rio de Janeiro from 1954 to 1958.³⁶ Pastor Ritter continued as an ordained minister of the South Brazil Union Conference until 1963.³⁷ On December 18, 1968,³⁸ at age 70, Pastor Germano Guilherme Ritter died at São Paulo Adventist Hospital, a medical institution he had founded.³⁹

According to Orlando Ritter,⁴⁰ his father, Germano Guilherme Ritter, was ahead of his time. Throughout his years of ministry as an administrator and pastor, he made a significant contribution to the denomination, establishing churches, educational institutions, a nursing home, and a hospital.

Sources

Berg, Henrique. “Ritter.” Revista Adventista. March 1969. Accessed September 4, 2018. http://acervo.revistaadventista.com.br/cpbreader.cpb?pesquisa=12020&words=germano+guilherme+ritter&s=2571338736.

Gaya, Julio Cesar Coimbra and Sandro Roberto Affonso. “Vida e obras do Pr. Germano Ritter.” Monography, BAU-EC, May 1989.

Ritter, Orlando. O Professor: Sessenta anos educando gerações. Tatuí, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 2014.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Accessed September 5, 2018. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Notes

1. Julio Cesar Coimbra Gaya and Sandro Roberto Affonso, “Vida e obras do Pr. Germano Ritter,” Monography, BAU-EC, May 1989, 5.↩

2. Orlando Ritter, O Professor: Sessenta anos educando gerações (Tatuí, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 2014), 47.↩

3. Gaya and Affonso, 5-8.↩

4. Ritter, 47.↩

5. Gaya and Affonso, 9.↩

6. Ibid.↩

7. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1927__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

8. Gaya and Affonso, 9.↩

9. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1928__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

10. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Santa Catharina-Paraná Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1928.pdf#view=fit; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Santa Catharina-Paraná Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1929__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

11. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “São Paulo Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1930__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

12. Gaya and Affonso, 9.↩

13. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “São Paulo Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1935__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

14. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1936__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

15. Ibid.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1937__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

16. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1936__B.pdf#view=fit.; Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1937__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

17. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “South Brazil Union Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1938__B.pdf#view=fit.;Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1940__B.pdf#view=fit.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1941__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

18. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1937__B.pdf#view=fit.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1941__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

19. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1936__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

20. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1939__B.pdf#view=fit.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1940__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

21. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Paraná-Santa Catharina Mission,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1941__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

22. Gaya and Affonso, 12.↩

23. Ibid., 14.↩

24. Ibid., 15.↩

25. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Brazil Junior College,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1941__B.pdf#view=fit.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Brazilian Publishing House,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1941__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

26. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “São Paulo Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1942__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

27. Gaya and Affonso, 17.↩

28. Ibid., 20.↩

29. Ibid., 21-22.↩

30. Ibid., 22-24.↩

31. Ibid., 24.↩

32. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Brazil Food Factory Superbom,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1950__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

33. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “São Paulo Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1950__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

34. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “Brazil Food Factory Superbom,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1953__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

35. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “São Paulo Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1954__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

36. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “East Brazil Union Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1955__B.pdf#view=fit.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “East Brazil Union Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1959__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

37. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “South Brazil Union Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1961__B.pdf#view=fit.; and Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “South Brazil Union Conference,” accessed September 5, 2018, http://docs.adventistarchives.org/docs/YB/YB1964__B.pdf#view=fit.↩

38. Henrique Berg, “Ritter,” Revista Adventista, March 1969, accessed September 4, 2018, http://acervo.revistaadventista.com.br/cpbreader.cpb?pesquisa=12020&words=germano+guilherme+ritter&s=2571338736.↩

39. Gaya and Affonso, 28.↩

40. Ritter, 47.↩