Alfred Werner (pastor)

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Alfred Léon Werner (born March 6, 1914 in Geneva ; † April 4, 2005 ibid) was a Swiss pastor , journalist , writer and musicologist , known as an advocate of the anti- apartheid movement and for his writings on Ludwig van Beethoven .

Life

As the son of Charles Werner, professor of philosophy at the University of Geneva and Edith Werner-Gourd, daughter of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Gourd and sister of the feminist activist Emilie Gourd , Werner grew up in Geneva, where he studied literature and later theology at the University of Geneva studied. Through his marriage to Elisabeth Lachenal , daughter of the Geneva State Councilor Paul Lachenal , he was the brother-in-law of the publisher François Lachenal , with whom he published the Pages Suisses (1939–1944).

He was the publisher of the Protestant magazine Vie protestante (1940-1941). He was ordained in 1942 and worked in the Church of Le Petit-Saconnex (1944–1951) and later in the Cathedral of Saint Peter (1952–1962) and in the Saint-Gervais Church of Geneva (1964–1979). Alfred Werner was actively involved in anti-apartheid campaigns in South Africa . With an open letter dated June 19, 1964 to the South African President on the occasion of the Mandela trial, he sparked the anti-apartheid movement founded in Geneva in 1965. In 1999 he protested together with Jean Ziegler and forty other personalities against Switzerland's loan to South Africa.

As a member of the Protestant Action for Confessional Peace, he joined Pastor Genton in 1973 against the repeal of the extraordinary articles on Jesuits that unilaterally restricted freedom of conscience and belief.

Regarding Catholicism and the Pope , he was against the presence of a Catholic bishop in Geneva. He viewed a bishop as a representative of the Pope and therefore not only as a spiritual but also as a political leader, which is why he considered his entry into the city of Geneva, the "Protestant Rome", as unacceptable.

As a musicologist he was particularly interested in Ludwig van Beethoven, about whom he wrote the work Ecouter Beethoven: Essai d'approche spirituelle .

Books

  • L'Eglise et la bomb atomique . Labor et Fides Geneva 1948.
  • Le Fleuve et la cité / pour l'affrontement d'aujourd'hui , Librairie protestante, Paris 1971
  • Au cœur du mystère chrétien, Recueil de textes de sermons prononcés de 1955 à 1975 , Delachaux et Niestlé publishing house, Paris 1976, ISBN 2-603-00070-5
  • Ecouter Beethoven: Essai d'approche spirituelle. L'Aire, 1989.
  • Vers une Cite Mondiale Éthique Prophetie , L'Aire, 1993, ISBN 978-2-88108-334-1
  • Pages Suisses, Alfred Werner, Jacques Rossel , Francois Lachenal, Kundig Verlag, Geneva 1939

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner, Alfred, Rossel, Jacques, Lachenal, François (1918–1997): BnF Catalog général. Retrieved October 14, 2018 (French).
  2. ^ Jean-Phillipe Cheneaux: Le pasteur Werner, une vie au service du Christ et de la paix | La Méduse. In: La meduse. September 6, 2017, accessed October 14, 2018 (French).
  3. ^ Francis Richard: Portrait du père - Un pasteur genevois dans son siècle, d'Eric Werner - Le blog de Francis Richard . In: Le blog de Francis Richard . August 18, 2017 ( francisrichard.net [accessed October 14, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Ecouter Beethoven. Essai d'approche spirituelle par WERNER (Alfred): L'Aire musicale Couverture souple - Vivre Livres. Retrieved October 14, 2018 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Werner, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werner, Alfred Léon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss pastor, journalist, writer and musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 2005
Place of death Geneva