Johann Georg Birnstiel
Johann Georg Birnstiel was a Swiss writer and minister of the Swiss Reformed Church.Biography
Birnstiel was born and raised in Wattwil, Toggenburg. He was educated in Latin by a Catholic priest and later attended the Cantonal School in St. Gallen. He studied Protestant theology at the University of Basel. He was baptized in the Swiss Reformed faith by Zwingli Wirth.
In 1881 Birnstiel was appointed as a Swiss Reformed pastor in Schönengrund. In 1888 he moved to Arbon, near Lake Constance, and started a new church there. He suffered from a stroke in 1913 and retired from ministry and spent the rest of his life as a writer. His writing included autobiographies, history books, and religious and theological works. In 1920 he moved to Romanshorn, where he died seven years later.
