Bernhard Hofmann (lawyer)

Bernhard Hofmann (born July 19, 1889 in Magdeburg ; † February 10, 1954 there ) was a German lawyer and president of the consistory.

Life

Hofmann was born the son of a pastor. From 1907 to 1910 he studied law at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and the Friedrich University in Halle . 1908 1908 he the Corps Palaiomarchia recipiert . After completing his legal traineeship and preparatory service in Magdeburg, he registered as a war volunteer in 1914 . In 1915 he was wounded as a sergeant in the battles of Flanders with a shot in the lung. After his recovery he came to the Eastern Front as a reserve lieutenant. Most recently he led a unit as a battery leader until he was dismissed from army service at the end of the war in 1918. In 1919 he settled in Kalbe (Milde) as a lawyer and notary and joined the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten . With other local groups he wanted - as he later wrote - to build a “dam against the red tide of Marxism”. He remained a member of the Stahlhelm-Bund, which was transferred to SA Reserve I of the Sturmabteilung in 1933/1934 .

loyalty

Regardless of this, Hofmann, who was elected chairman of the old gentlemen's committee of the Corps Palaiomarchia in 1931 and was also confirmed in 1933, resolutely opposed the exclusion of the Jewish-born Corps brothers Fritz Lassen and Kurd Dalen , which was now demanded by the National Socialists , by referring to the Mutual loyalty vow called: "Whoever wears the ribbon of my corps is my corps brother, and I defend and protect my brother with body and soul ... I do not sacrifice my brother for my own sake nor for my race's sake." As a result, a few National Socialists Members resigned from the corps after the unsuccessful demand for Hofmann's resignation, Der Stürmer incited against Hofmann's “abysmal lack of conviction and character”: “Whoever declares that he is inextricably linked to the Jew must himself be a Jew or a Jew bastard”. The process was taken as an opportunity to initiate criminal proceedings against Hofmann under the Heimtückegesetz , which was later discontinued due to the statute of limitations.

Lawyer

In addition, because of his Christian convictions, Hofmann became a decided opponent of the German Christians in 1933 , who dominated the church authorities in the church province of Saxony . Hofmann joined the amateur circuit of the Pastors at and fought with other lawyers as Horst Holstein, Karl Mensing , Eberhard Fiedler and Gustav Heinemann , the German Christians within the church in constitutional conflict by legal means. He was also elected as a council member of the Confessing Church of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony. As a lawyer he took over the nationwide representation of arrested pastors. This led to constant disputes with the bar association under the Halle attorney and Nazi functionary Erwin Noack . The Secret State Police prohibited him from speaking in 1935 and charged him in 1937 with violating the Collection Act . Mainly at the instigation of the Magdeburg lawyer and National Socialist Dr. Georg Kuhlmey several court cases of honor were initiated against Hofmann; they were supposed to expel him from the legal profession, ended up with reprimands, and were eventually hired.

New beginning

After Hofmann's office and private rooms had been completely destroyed in a major bombing raid on Magdeburg in January 1945, he was assigned the offices of his now interned adversary Kuhlmey after the end of the war and after his re-admission as a lawyer and notary. In February 1946, Hofmann was appointed a member of the provisional church government of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony , was its consistorial president from 1947 until his death and took on numerous other church honorary offices. In 1950 he tried in negotiations with the bishops Otto Dibelius , Ludolf Hermann Müller and other church representatives with GDR Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl to remove the compulsion to decide between baptism and entry into the FDJ for young Christians . Although Hofmann was committed to preserving it, several of the churches in Magdeburg's old town were blown up.

Bernhard Hofmann died at the age of 64 and was buried in the south cemetery (Magdeburg) . His tombstone is in the St. Gertraud Lapidarium in Salbke . In addition to the inscription THIS WAS ALSO WITH JESUS ​​OF NAZARETH (MATH. 26.71b), it bears the name and the dates of his wife Ilse geb. Buchholz (* February 16, 1900, † August 29, 1984). He had a son and three daughters; who died, most recently the oldest - Ursula - very old on December 23, 2018 in Bonn.

Since the exceptional services for the Hofmann Corps Palaiomarchia because of the circumstances of the time during his lifetime could not be honored, awarded him the Corps on October 28, 2017 exceptionally posthumously the honorary membership . After the certificate of honor could no longer be handed over to the daughter Ursula Hofmann, it was presented on January 9, 2019 to Erdmann Schott, Hofmann's grandson and son of the theologian Christian-Erdmann Schott .

literature

• Georg Prick: Attorney Bernhard Hofmann (1889–1954). A contender for the Confessing Church in the church fight against the German Christians , in: Markus Hein, Alexander Wieckowski (Hrsg.): Herbergen der Christenheit. Yearbook for German Church History , Vol. 40/41 (2018), pp. 183–209.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 55/356
2. ↑ ^{a b} The chairman of the AH committee of the Corps Palaiomarchia in Halle ad Saale: “To all old men, inactive and active people” (confidential letter). Magdeburg, New Year 1935 (EZA).
3. ↑ Lassen and Dalen had become Altmarkers in 1898 and had made great contributions to the Corps.
4. ↑ [Anonymous] :: The shame in the Corps Palaiomarchia . In: The striker . No. 44 , October 1935.
5. ↑ Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin, which had taken over the personal files of Hofmann at the higher regional court in Naumburg when he was appointed church official in 1947 (G. Prick, Magdeburg)
6. ↑ ^{a b} G. Prick (2018)