Adolf Kurtz
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Adolf Kurtz (born August 16, 1891 in Berlin , † September 25, 1975 in London ) was a pastor in Berlin-Schöneberg and a member of the Confessing Church .
Life
In 1922 Kurtz became pastor in the Schöneberg Twelve Apostles Church . In 1923 he founded emergency kitchens in a time of total devaluation as a result of galloping inflation .
Kurtz was married to Eva Kurtz , daughter of the Jewish neurosurgeon Moritz Borchardt .
After the National Socialists “seized power ” in 1933, he organized an aid office for Christians of Jewish origin and helped set up a school for displaced children of Jewish origin. Many were able to save themselves by leaving with Kurtz's help.
In 1934 Kurtz negotiated for the Confessing Church with the Prussian Prime Minister Göring and obtained a large public service with Martin Niemöller as preacher.
Kurtz temporarily cooperated with Provost Heinrich Grüber until he had to close his aid center for the persecuted, the Grüber office , in December 1940 .
On October 16, 1941 Kurtz and the Catholic Bishop Heinrich Wienken called on Adolf Eichmann ; Kurtz was able to continue the family school Oranienburger Strasse set up in 1939 for Christian children of Jewish origin who had been expelled from the public school system as "Jews" and had already been ordered to close.
The later murdered attorney Carl Langbehn was able to prevent Kurtz's deportation to Dachau in 1942 .
After 1945 Kurtz made efforts in England to achieve reconciliation between the British and the Germans. In 1948 he left Gram on the restorative church policy in Germany and took over the refugee congregation in Oxford until 1962. From 1950 Kurtz was instrumental in the work of reconciliation in Coventry .
The laying of the foundation stone for the destroyed cathedral was carried out by Queen Elizabeth II . Federal President Theodor Heuss brought the donation for a window . This had been discussed with him years earlier - Kurtz and Heuss knew each other from the church struggle during the Nazi era. The donation was non-denominational and no government agency was involved, which was extremely important given the reservations about Germany at the time.
Honors
- 1960: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class
- In 2010 a plaque in memory of Adolf Kurtz was unveiled at the rectory of his former parish church of the Twelve Apostles.
literature
- Hartmut Ludwig, Eberhard Röhm : Baptized Evangelically - persecuted as "Jews". Theologians of Jewish origin during the National Socialist era. A memorial book. Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-7668-4299-2 , pp. 190-191.
Web links
- In memory of Adolf Kurtz on the website of the Evangelical Twelve Apostles Church Congregation.
Individual evidence
- ^ East & West. Illustrated monthly for all of Judaism , Volume X, Issue 11, November 1910, pp. 741–752.
- ^ Report by Adolf Kurz about the visit to Adolf Eichmann, submitted on June 24, 1960, cited above. n. Eberhard Röhm, Jörg Thierfelder: Jews-Christians-Germans. Volume 4 / I: 1941-1945. Destroyed. Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-7668-3887-3 : “We decided, as we had done several times before, to go to the lion's den and negotiate with the person most responsible in the Gestapo. [...] We were urgently warned to go to Eichmann. [...] The wildest rumors were circulating about him, even worse than about Himmler. He was generally referred to as the 'murderer of the Jews'. "
- ↑ Ecumenical Initiative Rogate eV : Commemorative events for Adolf Kurtz (1891 - 1975).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kurtz, Adolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German pastor, opponent of the Nazi regime |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 16, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 25, 1975 |
| Place of death | London |