Arnulf Baumann

Arnulf Baumann (born April 2, 1932 in Klöstitz / Bessarabia , today Wessela Dolyna / Ukraine ) is a Protestant clergyman of Bessarabian German origin.

Arnulf Baumann behind the coat of arms of the Bessarabian Germans

Life

Arnulf Baumann was born as a child by Immanuel Baumann and his wife Else, geb. Schulz, born in Bessarabia . His father was a pastor and later became the supreme evangelical clergyman of the Bessarabian Germans as senior pastor. His mother had attended the Evangelical German Girls' College in Tarutino . That he comes from the milieu of the very thin layer of Bessarabia in the educated middle class .

His place of birth is the settlement of Klöstitz in Bessarabia, which at that time belonged to Romania. It was founded in 1815 by German emigrants and in 1940 had around 3,300 residents. After the Bessarabian Germans were resettled in 1940 , he and his parents were sent to a resettlement camp in Germany and from there in 1941 to the Wartheland in Poland, which was conquered by Germany . The family lived in the rectory in Konin , where the father, as settler pastor and superintendent , looked after German resettlers from Bessarabia in their new settlement area. Arnulf Baumann attended grammar school in Konin. When the Eastern Front collapsed in January 1945 as a result of a major Soviet attack, the family fled to Germany and temporarily separated. He graduated from high school in Alfeld in Lower Saxony after the war . He then studied Protestant theology and history in Erlangen, Tübingen, Heidelberg and Göttingen. He studied theology for a semester in the USA. In Canada, Baumann looked after four Protestant congregations in 1956 and 1957. He met his wife while working for the Evangelical Academy in Loccum . At times he worked as a research assistant at the theological faculty in Münster . Between 1971 and 1976 he was advisor to the regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover . From 1976 to 1997 he headed the Diakonisches Werk in Wolfsburg . At times he was in charge of four retirement and nursing homes, a retirement home and two nursing schools with 530 employees. In this function, he was committed to providing support for ethnic German repatriates through integration work.

Arnulf Baumann is married and has children. He lives in Wolfsburg. He is the editor of the magazine Friede über Israel and worked for the Evangelische Zeitung Niedersachsen for church facilities in the Wolfsburg area.

Bessarabia German engagement

Only in later years did Arnulf Baumann take on intensive voluntary work for the Bessarabian Germans . With this, he continued the work of his father Immanuel Baumann after his death in 1974 in order to preserve the cultural heritage of the Bessarabian German population group in Germany. Arnulf Baumann has been the editor of Kirchliche Nachrichten as a supplement to the newsletter of the Bessarabiendeutschen since 1968 . In 1977 he became the federal chairman of the Aid Committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church from Bessarabia . Since 1999 he has been co-editor of the annual home calendar of the Bessarabian Germans . Baumann has been its deputy chairman since the Bessarabiendeutschen Verein was founded in 2006.

Fonts

• as editor: What everyone should know about Judaism (= Gütersloher Taschenbücher Siebenstern 1063). Mohn, Gütersloh 1983, ISBN 3-579-01063-8 (8th, revised edition. (= Gütersloher Taschenbücher Siebenstern. GTB-Sachbuch 788). Ibid 1997, ISBN 3-579-00788-2 ).
• as editor: Luther's heirs and the Jews. The relationship of the Lutheran churches in Europe to the Jews. Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hanover 1984, ISBN 3-7859-0497-5 .
• Late repatriates in Wolfsburg. Origin - integration - perspectives (= texts on the history of Wolfsburg. Vol. 17, ZDB -ID 236595-9 ). Wolfsburg City Archives, Wolfsburg 1988.
• as editor: marginalized. The fate of “non-Aryan” Christians in the Hitler era (= Schalom books. Vol. 3). Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-7859-0619-6 .
• The Germans from Bessarabia. Auxiliary Committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church from Bessarabia, Hanover 2000, ISBN 3-9807392-1-X .

Awards

• Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon (1993)
• Crown cross in gold of the Diakonisches Werk der EKD (1997)
• Silver badge of honor of the country team of Germans from Russia (1997)
• Honorary membership of the Franz Delitzsch Society (2005)
• Golden Badge of Honor of the Bessarabia German Association (2007)

literature

• Bulletin of the Auxiliary Committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church from Bessarabia and the Landsmannschaft der Bessarabiendeutschen from March 18, 1982 and March 19, 1992