Ernst Stoltenhoff

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Ernst Stoltenhoff (painted by Werner Schramm , 1936)

Emil Ernst Stoltenhoff (born January 17, 1879 in Odenkirchen , † April 27, 1953 in Wittlaer ) was a German Protestant theologian and general superintendent of the old Prussian provincial church of the Rhine Province .

Life

Ernst Stoltenhoff studied theology in Halle and Erlangen , where he became a member of the Halle and Erlangen Wingolf . After his exams he was a pastor in Mülheim an der Ruhr and Essen . From 1922 to 1924 he was President of the YMCA West Confederation . In 1923 he was appointed senior consistorial advisor to the Old Prussian Evangelical Church Council (EOK) as personnel officer for the Church of the Old Prussian Union (APU) in Berlin .

As the successor to Karl Viktor Klingemann (1859-1946) he was appointed general superintendent of the Rhenish church province in Koblenz in 1928 and was assigned to the consistory there .

After Hermann Kapler's resignation as President of the EOK, Stoltenhoff was appointed provisional successor by the APU Church Senate in June 1933, but was dismissed by State Commissioner August Jäger after just a few days . After further disputes with the Old Prussian Regional Bishop and Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller and the Prussian Minister of Education Bernhard Rust , Stoltenhoff was forced into retirement on April 1, 1934, but returned to his post on May 25, 1936 with the approval of the new Reich Minister for Church Affairs Hanns Kerrl Appointed general superintendent. The consistory of the Rhine Province had meanwhile been moved from Koblenz to Düsseldorf on October 1, 1934 .

In the so-called “ church struggle ”, some statements and measures by Stoltenhoff were also controversial on the part of the “ Confessing Church ”. On May 15, 1945 he formed the provisional leadership of the Evangelical Church of the Rhine Province together with Joachim Beckmann (executive chairman), Heinrich Held , Rudolf Harney , Johannes Schlingensiepen , Karl Mensing and Helmut Rößler . When it was reconstituted as a regional church on November 12, 1948 under the name of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , Stoltenhoff handed over his official duties to President Heinrich Held . In 1949 Stoltenhoff officially retired.

Stoltenhoff was married to Gertrud Stoltenhoff (1878–1958), b. Funke, the first female chairman of the Evangelical Women's Aid - Gesamtverein eV in Germany from 1926 to 1929 .

Appreciation

A Protestant care center for the elderly in Bonn bears the name "Ernst Stoltenhoff House".

literature

  • Paul Gerhard Aring:  Stoltenhoff, Emil Ernst. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 1554-1555.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Barbara Kaufhold: Faith under National Socialism in Mülheim an der Ruhr - Confessing Church and German Christians, Christians of Jewish origin, free churches and free works as well as resistance in the Catholic Church ; ed. from the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History; Klartext, Essen 2006, p. 226.
  • Heinrich Müller: D. Ernst Stoltenhoff, the last Rhenish general superintendent . Neukirchen 1956
  • Ernst Stoltenhoff. The good hand of God. Memoirs of the last Rhenish general superintendent (1879–1953) (series of publications by the Verein für Rheinische Kirchengeschichte vol. 85), with a foreword by Hermann Kunst and an appendix documents on the church struggle . Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7927-0884-1

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personal data
SURNAME Stoltenhoff, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stoltenhoff, Emil Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Odenkirchen
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1953
Place of death Wittlaer