Adolf Stahl (theologian)

Adolf Karl Ludwig Stahl (born October 21, 1884 in Bicken ; † May 20, 1960 in Hamburg ) was a German Protestant theologian .

Life

Adolf Stahl was the son of Albert Stahl and his wife Sofia Beyerhaus. He spent his childhood in his birthplace near Wiesbaden , where his father worked as a pastor. The family later moved to Bad Soden, where the father got a new job. In 1904 Adolf Stahl passed the final examination in Höchst. He then studied theology at universities in Marburg, Halle, Erlangen and Berlin. After the first theological exam in 1907, he worked as a vicar in diaspora parishes in Austria . In 1909 he passed the second theological exam and remained as a pastor in Austria until 1915. Then he got a pastor's position in Graeblin . In 1922 he moved to Frankfurt am Main , where he worked for the German Association for Public and Private Welfare . Stahl mostly worked in youth welfare and participated as a club representative in the Reich Youth Welfare Act . At the same time he worked on his doctorate on Hans Driesch at the University of Vienna , which he graduated in 1923.

In 1924, Stahl switched to the state association of the Inner Mission in Wiesbaden as a pastor . In 1926 he went to Berlin as the second director of the Central Committee of the Inner Mission . He worked here scientifically and published. He also redesigned the association's organization democratically. He also taught at the Evangelical Johannesstift and at the Institute for Social Ethics and Science of Inner Mission at Berlin University . During this time he published extensively on the situation of the Inner Mission, on youth welfare and youth criminal law. He also wrote edification writings.

On March 1, 1932, Stahl joined the NSDAP , of which he was a member with brief interruptions until the ban. From December 1933 he worked as an institutional pastor and rector at the Diakonissenanstalt in Altona . In 1935 he presented in a speech why the goals and structure of the Inner Mission were similar to Adolf Hitler's Führer principle , which he embodied "with unrivaled authenticity, purity and strength". Both Hitler and the Inner Mission have a charismatic divine talent and take responsibility, according to the theologian. The local institutions of the mission acted legally independently. However, it is necessary to give a higher-level central management more decision-making powers in order to strengthen the cohesion of the mission, as is the case in the German Reich , said Stahl.

The Altona Diakonissenanstalt had a so-called “cripple house” since the turn of the century, to which a boarding school for children with severe physical disabilities was attached. These children received school and professional training and medical care here. Since the facility had economic problems and at the same time aligned itself to the ideology of the National Socialists, the "Krüppelhaus" cooperated with the Eppendorf Clinic and institutions of the state "National Cripple Welfare". With Stahl's approval, the “Krüppelhaus” placed children there as “research material” and thus supported the National Socialist orthopedic program for “decriminalization”, which became a focus of the facility. In the following years a program for the therapy of polio was added. Together with the employers' liability insurance association, a new "accident sanatorium" for 40 patients was also built in 1936.

In his National Socialist conviction, Stahl followed new concepts of care for the disabled. While his predecessor promoted the care of disabled people who were lifelong unable to work and in need of care, Stahl refused. Instead, he pursued the goal of integrating disabled people into society through membership in the Hitler Youth . The disabled children and young people were given their own group for this. After the outbreak of World War II , the number of people registered in the Diakonissenanstalt fell, so workshops had to be gradually abandoned. Other buildings in the facility now served as military hospitals. In 1941 the handicapped department closed completely.

In July 1943 the Allies destroyed almost all of the Diakonie facilities in Altona and Stellingen in air raids, and in April 1945 also training facilities in Bad Oldesloe , where the sisters had moved in the meantime. Almost 30 employees and Stahl's wife died in the attacks. His son died as a soldier on the Eastern Front. Stahl saw his life's work as destroyed and also got psychological problems because of the deaths. Until his retirement on October 2, 1955, he devoted himself to rebuilding the facility. He moved the headquarters of the foundation from Altona to Stellingen. A new operation wing and a surgical department previously located in Altona were built there. There was also the mother house, a resurrection chapel and a new after-work house. Since he saw too great a financial risk in rebuilding the “Krüppelheim” and considered the need for such a facility to be low, Stahl did not have this facility rebuilt, contrary to what was often requested.

literature

• Bodo Schümann: Stahl, Adolf . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 353-355 .