The Rev. Michael Somelt was born 31 August 1868 in Palamuse parish (today located in Jõgeva County) in Estonia. He entered the University of Tartu in the fall of 1888 to study medicine, but changed to study theology.
He was ordained on 15 December 1896 and accepted a call to serve the Volga German parishes of Frank and Hussenbach from 1901-1914.
In 1914, he went to Siberia to found a new congregation. He contracted tuberculosis there and died on 15/16 July 1915.
- Die Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Russland: 1914. (online)
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen – Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 172.
- Üliõpilaste Leht - Zeitschrift des Vereins Studierender Esten an der Universität Tartu (Oktober 1915): 106.
Pastor Michael Somelt.
Source: Basel Mission via Alexander Baumung.
Obituary for Pastor Somelt, published in the Üliõpilaste Leht in October 1915.
Source: Alexander Baumung.