Bernhard Welte

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Bernhard Welte (center) at the 500th anniversary of the University of Freiburg, 1956
Bernhard Welte. Signature 1976

Bernhard Welte (born March 31, 1906 in Meßkirch ; † September 6, 1983 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was Professor of Christian Philosophy of Religion in Freiburg.

Life

Bernhard Welte was born on March 31, 1906 in Meßkirch, where he attended elementary school between 1912 and 1918 and first of all the secondary school, before he attended the Heinrich-Suso-Gymnasium in Constance from 1918 and was housed in Konvikt St. Konrad. After graduating from high school in 1924, he began studying Catholic theology in Freiburg and Munich .

He was ordained priest in 1929. In the same year he became a cooperator at the Freiburg Minster . From 1934 to 1948 he was secretary to Archbishop Conrad Gröber , who also came from Messkirch, and took his sister Marie Gröber into his household after his death in 1948.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Welte was a member of the “ Freiburg Circle ” around Karl Färber , therefore also known as the “Färber Circle”, in which intellectuals such as Max Müller , Reinhold Schneider , Robert Scherer and Heinrich Ochsner inter alia new ways of theological thinking about the Tried to open up the narrowness of a neo-scholastic theology for the future. It was through Karl Färber that Welte met Heinrich Ochsner in 1934, who was his closest friend and teacher until his death in 1970.

In 1938 Welte did his doctorate with Engelbert Krebs on the postbaptismal anointing to the Doctor theologiae and habilitated in 1946 with The philosophical faith with Karl Jaspers and the possibility of its interpretation through the Thomistic philosophy . Ochsner attended many lectures around the world between 1946 and 1970 and then often discussed them with him.

In 1952 Welte was appointed professor for border issues at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . In 1954 his professorship was changed to the chair for Christian Philosophy of Religion, which he held until his retirement in 1973. In 1955/56 he was rector of the Albert Ludwig University.

In the 1960s he gave several guest lectures in South America. He became a promoter of the international exchange of researchers and students. Guest lectures followed in Jerusalem and Lebanon in the 1970s. A contact with the Zen Buddhist philosopher Tjuchimura was established.

In 1961, Welte gave the official address at the inauguration of the monument to Conrad Gröber on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the city of Meßkirch. On his 80th birthday, drawings and paintings from his possession were exhibited in the Martinssaal in Messkirch.

In December 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed Welte to the papal house prelate . Welte gave the funeral oration at Martin Heidegger's funeral in Meßkirch in 1976.

Bernhard Welte died on September 6, 1983 in Freiburg im Breisgau at the age of 77 and was buried there.

Appreciations

In 1973 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National University of Córdoba in Argentina . On May 28, 1976 he was granted the honorary citizenship of his hometown Messkirch, the laudation of which was given by Max Müller. Two years later he was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit.

The Bernhard-Welte-Gesellschaft was founded in 1983 “in order to maintain the intellectual legacy of Bernhard Weltes [...], to secure his estate, to promote the discussion about his thinking and to introduce it into socially relevant discourses. In addition, it initiates and supports research on questions raised by Bernhard Weltes' work. She holds the literary rights to Bernhard Weltes estate, which is in the archive of the University of Freiburg, and maintains a bibliography on his life and work. "

Since 1989, the Bernhard Welte Prize for outstanding dissertations or approval theses has been awarded by the Theological Faculty of the University of Freiburg and sponsored by the Archbishop's Office of Freiburg .

After Weltes Freiburg grave was cleared in 2008 after the 25-year rest period had expired because there were no more heirs who were willing to take care of the grave maintenance, the remains were transferred to Meßkirch on the initiative of the city of Meßkirch and the Catholic parish. The impulse to move the grave came from the Bernhard Welte Society, in the person of the chairman Bernhard Casper .

Bernhard Welte's grave, Meßkirch

Welte's reburial took place on November 27, 2008 in the so-called “million quarter” of the municipal cemetery in Meßkirch. The burial place, not far from the Martin Heidegger grave, will remain the world's last resting place. The Weltes grave in Freiburg was an artistic consolation for many people who did not know the Weltes writings because of the gravestone designed by the well-known sculptor Emil Wachter , which is now in Messkirch. Emil Wachter had studied theology and philosophy with Welte at the Freiburg University before he decided on painting and sculpture.

Basic approach

Welte brings the philosophical thinking of Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers (see: Existential philosophy ) into a lively relationship with classical metaphysics ( Thomas Aquinas ). He phenomenologically illustrates the possibility and necessity of renewed religious experience by diagnosing contemporary realities of life. According to him, there is a tension between the secularized world and its conditions and structures on the one hand and the content of religious experiences on the other.

From a phenomenological point of view, human existence presents itself as finite existence against the background of an infinite meaning. Welte applies this phenomenon as the original pre-understanding of Christian salvation . From this starting point, the reality of life is to be conveyed with the Christian faith , as the theology of modern philosophy opens up and fully engages with the historicity of human existence and the changeability of thought and language . Epochal embossed theology and faith proclamation is to be preserved in the exposure of the phenomena whose language are these. Tradition is emphasized as a conversation of different epochs in the sense and with the method of historical hermeneutics as a necessary characteristic of theology.

Among the thinkers who, along with Heidegger, are particularly important for understanding his work, include Augustine , Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart , Hegel , Kierkegaard , Nietzsche and Maurice Blondel .

The Bernhard Welte Society in Freiburg im Breisgau is dedicated to his work. A complete edition has been published by Herder-Verlag in Freiburg.

Works

Collected Writings (Herder Verlag)

  • Dept. 1: Basic questions of being human
    • Vol. 1: Person , 2006
    • Vol. 2: Man and History , 2006
    • Vol. 3: corporeality, finitude and infinity , 2006
    • Vol. 4: On questions of education and upbringing and on a new humanism , 2009
  • Dept. 2: Thinking in encounter with the thinkers
    • Vol. 1: Meister Eckhart - Thomas Aquinas - Bonaventure , 2007
    • Vol. 2: Hegel - Nietzsche - Heidegger , 2007
    • Vol. 3: Jaspers , 2008
    • Vol. 4: Freedom of the Spirit and Christian Faith (1956) , 2009
  • Dept. 3: Writings on the philosophy of religion
    • Vol. 1: Philosophy of Religion , 2008
    • Vol. 2: Smaller writings on the philosophy of religion , 2008
    • Vol. 3: On the question of God , 2008
  • Dept. 4: Theological Writings
    • Vol. 1: Hermeneutics of the Christian , 2006
    • Vol. 2: Paths into the Secrets of Faith , 2007
    • Vol. 3: On the Approach of Theology and its Recent History , 2007
  • Dept. 5: Scriptures on Spirituality and Sermons
    • Vol. 1: Spiritual writings , 2009
    • Vol. 2: Sermons , 2008

Major works

  • The philosophical belief in Karl Jaspers and the possibility of its interpretation by the Thomistic philosophy. In: Symposium. Philosophy yearbook. Edited by H. Conrad-Martius u. a., Vol. 2, Alber, Freiburg / Br. 1949, pp. 1-190.
  • From the spirit of Christianity. Knecht, Frankfurt / M. 1955 (2nd edition 1966), 105 pp.
  • Nietzsche's atheism and Christianity. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt; Hermann Genter, Bad Homburg 1958 (2nd edition 1964), 65 pp.
  • On the trail of the eternal. Philosophical treatises on various subjects of religion and theology, Herder, Freiburg / Br. 1965, 470 pp.
  • Determination and Freedom. Knecht, Frankfurt / M. 1969, 147 pp.
  • Dialectic of love. Thoughts on the phenomenology of love and Christian charity in the technological age. Knecht, Frankfurt / M. 1973, 128 p. (2nd edition, supplemented with a foreword by Bernhard Casper and the sermon on the death of Bernhard Weltes by Bishop Klaus Hemmerle, 1984, 136 p.)
  • Philosophy of religion. Herder, Freiburg / Br. 1978, 268 p. (5th, revised and expanded edition, edited by Bernhard Casper and Klaus Kienzler. Knecht, Frankfurt a. M. 1997, 336 p.)
  • Master Eckhart. Thoughts on his thoughts. Herder, Freiburg / Br. 1979, 268 p. (Complete new edition with a foreword by Alois M. Haas. Herder, Freiburg / Br. 1992, 268 p.)
  • Between time and eternity. Treatises and experiments, Herder, Freiburg / Br. 1982, 280 pp.
  • What is belief Thoughts on the philosophy of religion. Herder, Freiburg / Br. 1982, 79 pp.

Editing

Letters

  • Letters and encounters . Correspondence between Martin Heidegger and Bernhard Welte, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2003, 191 pp.

Audio documents

  • Determination and Freedom - Lecture on November 10, 1969 in the Catholic Academy of the Archdiocese of Freiburg online resource

swell

  1. ↑ Werner Fischer (wf): Once . In: Südkurier of November 30, 2011
  2. ↑ Werner Fischer (wf): Once . In: Südkurier of December 29, 2016
  3. ^ The work of the Bernhard-Welte-Gesellschaft e. V. online
  4. ↑ a b c Karlheinz Kirchmaier (khk): honorary citizen. World bones return home to Messkirch . In: Schwäbische Zeitung from November 28, 2008
  5. ^ Gregor Moser (mos): Transfer. Bernhard Welte finds final peace . In: Südkurier of November 7, 2008
  6. ^ Gregor Moser (mos): The new grave of the Messkirchen honorary citizen in the cemetery is solemnly consecrated. Bernhard Welte finds his final resting place . In: Südkurier from November 28, 2008

literature

in order of appearance

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Max pan handle Rector of the University of Freiburg
1955 - 1956 		Ernst von Caemmerer
personal data
SURNAME Welte, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Messkirch
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 1983
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau