Wedag, Friedrich Wilhelm

Wedag, Friedrich Wilhelm a Protestant theologian of Germany, was born in 1758 at Neuenrade, in Westphalia. He studied at Halle and Duisburg; and after the completion of his academical curriculum he acted as a private tutor. Having no prospects for obtaining a position in his own country, he thought of going to Amsterdam', and there to obtain from the East India Company a position as preacher in the East or West Indies. Having received a call from the Reformed congregation at Dortmund in 1786, he remained at home. But his position was such that he was often obliged to preach in other congregations ill order to keep himself. On one occasion he had to preach at Leipsic, where he proved himself such an excellent pulpit orator that after Zollikofer's death (1788) he was called as his successor. Here he labored until his death, May 18, 1799. He published some works of an ascetical character, for which see Doring, Deutsche Kanzelredner, page 565; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Lit. 2:93, 198, 244. (B.P.)