Wolfram Kistner

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Wolfram Kistner (born February 19, 1923 in Hermannsburg (South Africa) , † December 4, 2006 in Johannesburg ) was a South African Lutheran pastor, theologian and opponent of apartheid .

Life

Kistner studied Protestant theology , education and history in South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands; PhD in history from the University of Groningen in 1948 . After his ordination on December 14, 1952 in Oberkotzau, he worked from 1952 to 1955 as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover and then as a teacher at the German School in Hermannsburg , which he directed from 1965 to 1969. After teaching theology at the University of Natal (since 2004 University of KwaZulu-Natal ) in Pietermaritzburg , in 1976 he became director of the Justice and Reconciliation Department at the South African Council of Churches . Under the emergency legislation in the apartheid state, he was also arrested for a week in 1986 and then placed under house arrest for six months.

After his retirement on March 1, 1988, he became head of the Ecumenical Advice Bureau in Johannesburg together with Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé .

On April 26, 1988 he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon, which was awarded to him on October 25, 1988 in the German embassy in Pretoria. In 2006 he received the Order of the Baobab from the President's Office .

He died on December 4, 2006 after being diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer a few weeks earlier.

Fonts (selection)

  • Outside the camp. A collection of writings by Wolfram Kistner . Edited by Hans Brandt. South African Council of Churches: Johannesburg, 1988
  • Justice and righteousness like a never-ending stream: Essays, reflections and discussion documents . South African Council of Churches: Johannesburg, 2008.
  • Justice and Reconciliation: Theology and Church in the Transformation Process of the New South Africa. Anthology with contributions from 1985 to 2006 . Edited by Rudolf Hinz, Christian Hohmann and Hanns Lessing. Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hanover 2008 ( book presentation ; PDF; 6.2 MB)

literature

  • Wolfram Kistner, hope in the crisis. Documents of a Christian existence in South Africa. For the 65th birthday . Edited by L. Engel, Rudolf Hinz and J. Schroer, Wuppertal 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Presidency: The Order of the Baobab . on www.thepresidency.gov.za (English)
personal data
SURNAME Kistner, Wolfram
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African Lutheran pastor, theologian and opponent of apartheid
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Hermannsburg , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 2006
Place of death Johannesburg , South Africa