Albert Kalthoff

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Albert Kalthoff

Albert Kalthoff (born March 5, 1850 in Barmen (now part of Wuppertal ), † May 11, 1906 in Bremen ) was a German reform theologian, philosopher and co-founder and the first chairman of the German Monist Association .

Life

Albert Kalthoff was born as the son of master dyer Peter Ludwig Kalthoff and his wife Wilhelmine Kalthoff, née Wechselberg, and grew up in a parental home that was part of the conservative- pietist milieu. From 1869 he studied theology in Berlin . At the same time he worked as a deacon at the Church of St. George and supervised the children's services and poor relief. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 he worked as a field preacher. In 1874 he received his doctorate with the dissertation The question of the metaphysical basis of morality, examined with special reference to Schleiermacher at the University of Halle , married the painter Anna Franz (1853–1878) and was appointed assistant preacher at the St. Markus Church in Berlin. He was ordained in St. Mark's Church on January 24, 1875. After disputes with the church leadership of the Evangelical Regional Church of the older provinces of Prussia and the Consistorial President Immanuel Hegel because of criticism of the Pietist orthodoxy, he was transferred to Nickern near Züllichau in 1875 . There he met Eugenie Schulz (1855-1884), his second wife, and married her in 1878. After renewed arguments with the Old Prussian Evangelical Church Council (EOK), Kalthoff was suspended on May 9, 1878.

After the suspension, he moved to Steglitz and worked there as a freelance journalist and speaker for the "Protestant Reform Association". In 1881 he ran unsuccessfully in the Rhineland for the left-liberal German Progressive Party . In 1884 he was elected pastor of a Reformed community in Rheinfelden near Basel.

In 1888 he was appointed second preacher in the Bremen parish of St. Martini , and in 1894 he became the first preacher there. For a time he was also director of the clerical ministry in Bremen. In 1889 he married Emma Linne (1864–1908) for the third time. In 1891 he founded the “Arbeiterbildungsverein Lessing” and had excellent contacts with the Social Democrats through Friedrich Ebert, a member of the Bremen Citizenship . In January 1903 he founded the Bremen branch of the German Peace Society and became its chairman. In 1904 he invited the first female Methodist preacher in the United States and suffragette, Anna Howard Shaw , to preach in St. Martini's Church.

In 1906, seven pastors from Bremen initiated proceedings for his “removal from office for atheism ”. In the same year he took over the chairmanship of the German Monist Association. He died that same year.

Work and appreciation

Kalthoff's work moved within the framework of the search for the unity of theological discourse, ecclesiastical existence and social responsibility, whereby he endeavored to connect theory and practice. He was an exponent of Bremen radicalism between liberal and positive theology. While he initially showed a closeness to the philosophy of history of Marx and initially negated the historicity of Jesus Christ in the context of the life of Jesus research in the acceptance of an idea of ​​Christ as a social movement of the first communities, his worldview developed into a theosophy with an enthusiasm for Friedrich Nietzsche .

The Weser-Kurier wrote in 1950 about Kalthoff about a "man of prophetic topicality". The historian Johannes Abresch characterized him as the “ enfant terrible in a gown” and in church circles he was called the “ Zarathustra Pastor of Bremen”. "Today's protest theologians like Eugen Drewermann, " said Jürgen Kaube, "look rather pale compared to his figure."

Publications

  • The question of the metaphysical basis of morality, examined with particular reference to Schleiermacher. (Dissertation), Halle 1874.
  • Defense speech by Pastor Dr. K…. against the indictment of the Royal Consistory of the Province of Brandenburg. Schwiebus 1878.
  • The life of Jesus. Speeches held in the Protestant Reform Association in Berlin. Berlin 1880.
  • The latest measure to combat Judaism. 1880.
  • The office of the NT.s. Inaugural sermon. Bremen 1888.
  • Charles Kingsley. 1892.
  • Schleiermacher's legacy to our time. Religious speeches. Braunschweig 1896.
  • At the turn of the century pulpit speeches on the social struggles of our time. Berlin 1898.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche and the cultural problems of our time. Lectures, Berlin 1900.
  • The philosophy of the Greeks, presented on the basis of cultural history. Berlin 1901.
  • The religious problems in Goethe's Faust. Berlin 1901.
  • The Christ problem. Basics of a social theology. Leipzig 1902.
  • D. Thikötter and the Christ problem . Bremen 1903.
  • Religious worldview. Talk. Leipzig 1903.
  • The emergence of Christianity. New contributions to the Christ problem. Leipzig 1904.
  • What do we know about Jesus? A settlement with W. Bousset. Berlin 1904.
  • Zarathustra sermons. Speeches about Friedrich Nietzsche's moral view of life. Jena 1904, * The religion of the modern, Jena / Leipzig 1905.
  • School and cultural state. Leipzig 1905.
  • Modern Christianity. Berlin undated (1906).

Posthumously

  • The age of the Reformation. Post sermons. Published by F. Steudel, Jena 1907.
  • Future ideals. Post sermons. Edited with a life sketch with a biographical introduction by F. Steudel, Jena 1907.
  • From inner life. Post sermons. Published by F. Steudel, Jena 1908.
  • From home life. Published by F. Steudel, Jena 1909.
  • People and art. Speeches and essays. Published by the Bremen Goethebund, Bremen 1910.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Abresch: Enfant terrible in the gown: Albert Kalthoff (1850-1906). ( Memento from October 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: RadikalKritikDe Omnibus Debutandum. Contributions to the radical criticism of early Christian history.
  2. ↑ Weser-Kurier of June 26, 2008, district courier p. 6.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kalthoff, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant reform theologian, philosopher and co-founder and the first chairman of the German Monist Association
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Barmen
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1906
Place of death Bremen