Birger trout

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Birger Forell (born September 27, 1893 in Söderhamn , Sweden , † July 4, 1958 in Borås , Sweden) was a Swedish Protestant pastor . He campaigned for refugees , persecuted people , displaced persons and prisoners of war during and after World War II .

Life

Memorial plaque , Birger-Forell-Platz, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Forell studied theology from 1919/1920 at the universities of Tübingen and Marburg . From 1929 to 1942 he was pastor at the Swedish Church in Berlin and a staunch supporter of the Confessing Church . He helped those persecuted by the Nazi regime and was monitored by the Gestapo . At the urging of the National Socialists he was called back to Sweden and was pastor in Borås from 1942 to 1951 .

In 1943 he was sent to England by the World Council of Churches to look after German prisoners of war . In 1944 he founded the Committee for Christian Post-War Aid in Borås . In 1945 he founded the Norton Camp study camp in the county of Nottinghamshire with the support of the English churches and after a lengthy discussion with the British War Office in cooperation with the YMCA employee John Barwick . German prisoners of war from all English camps were able to take their Abitur there. Forell wanted to focus on a theological school where clergy and lay helpers were trained for church work. At the same time, as wanted by the War Ministry, an educational school trained elementary school teachers.

From 1947 Forell campaigned to found the refugee town of Espelkamp on the site of a former munitions plant of the Wehrmacht in Mittwald near Espelkamp . In 1948 the Committee for Christian Post-War Aid was established in Mittwald , which distributed food, clothing and money donated as aid to Sweden . In 1951 he gave up his position as pastor in Borås completely and founded the German-Swedish Refugee Aid , which helped displaced farmers with the resettlement.

In 1958 Birger Forell died. The refugee aid stopped its work two years later. The tasks were continued by the Birger-Forell-Stiftung eV until it was dissolved in 2000.

family

Forell was married to Calise Strindberg. He had three children with her, two of whom died early.

Honors

German special postage stamp 1993
  • A plaque commemorating him hangs on the house of the Swedish Church in Berlin. A plaque commemorating his commitment was inaugurated on July 4th, 2008 at an open-air concert at “Birger-Forell-Platz” in Berlin-Wilmersdorf .

literature

Web links

Commons : Birger Forell  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nicolaus Schmidt : Willi Lassen - a biographical sketch. In: Democratic History, Vol. 26. Schleswig-Holsteinischer Geschichtsverlag, 2015, pp. 204ff.
personal data
SURNAME Trout, Birger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish pastor
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Söderhamn , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1958
Place of death Borås , Sweden