Carl Malsch
Carl Paul Malsch (born May 20, 1916 in Hamburg ; † September 13, 2001 there ) was a Protestant pastor . He was a man of words and deeds, not of theological science. He had the gift of getting his fellow human beings enthusiastic about social projects and church building projects and to raise funds for them . He propagated the “quiet collection ” ( notes instead of coins ) and coined the phrase “God loves blue ten-mark notes ”.
Church character
Carl Malsch grew up in Hamburg-Hamm . His Christian and ecclesiastical socialization took place through the parental home and the “Youth Association for Decisive Christianity” (EC). His parents belonged to the regional church community under Friedrich Heitmüller on Holstenwall, which was very pietistic . They sent him and his siblings to Sunday school (children's church service) in Jungmannstrasse in Eilbek , where his friends founded the community's youth association for resolute Christianity . At the age of 15, he read the entire Bible through within a year. The Christian youth group of craftsmen, students and schoolchildren had adopted strong elements from the youth movement and saw themselves as a brotherhood. Their motto was: "For Christ and the Church".
When Heitmüller marched with the Nazis for a short time, the group left the "Evangelical Community" in 1934 and joined the Hamburg Regional Church . Her new home was with Pastor Kreye in the Trinity Church.
When the Evangelical Youth was to be transferred to the Hitler Youth in 1934 , the group did not participate. Carl Malsch took over the remnants of the Protestant youth in the Hammer community. There he worked in youth management until 1936.
In the Hammer community he belonged to the denominational community. In particular, Pastor Gottfried Forck , a member of the Provisional Management of the Confessing Church, informed the group about the disputes between church and state. When the other parish pastor, Mr. Heldmann, was brought to the concentration camp for a short time in 1934 , he had already gained some first impressions of the destructive nature of National Socialism.
Education
After graduating from high school, he wanted to become a teacher, which the National Socialists refused to do because he was not in the Hitler Youth . So, on the advice of a friend, he decided to study theology. He began studying in April 1936 at the Bethel Theological School , where he first had to catch up on the Hebraicum , Latinum and Graecum .
In December 1936 he got tuberculosis , which accompanied him until 1944 and because of which he was not called up for military service. After the illness had receded far enough and after he had done his “ student compensation service” for six months in 1938, he was able to continue his studies in Rostock , Berlin and Erlangen in the winter semester of 1938/39 . His home was the Confessing Church and the Evangelical Student Congregation , his great role model was Pastor Martin Niemöller .
In 1939 the leader of the Protestant student communities, Martin Fischer , brought him to Berlin and made him Reichsobmann of the student communities. From Berlin, together with Fischer, he collected a representative at every university so that the Protestant student communities could grow under this care. In 1945 the student community was the only remaining organization at the university.
In March 1941, Carl Malsch passed his first theological exam in Hamburg. He then worked for a year from Berlin in the travel service of the Protestant student communities. From April 1942 he was teaching vicar in the Hammer community.
Career history
Assistant preacher to St. Catherine's
After his Second Theological Examination in March 1943, he was assistant pastor at the Hamburg main church St. Catherines , where he of senior pastor on June 13, 1943 Herntrich ordained was. In the same month he married the pastor's daughter Elisabeth Crusius from Neuenkirchen Kreis Melle. Their shared apartment in Katharinenkirchhof 26 was destroyed in the firestorm on July 27, 1943 when the tower of Katharinenkirche fell.
Pastor in Lower Bavaria
After his appointment as pastor on April 1, 1944, his regional church sent him to Lower Bavaria ( Landau an der Isar ) to look after evacuated Hamburg residents.
Parish pastor in Hamburg-Klein Borstel
After the end of the war he became a pastor in the Maria Magdalenen Church in Hamburg-Klein Borstel (until July 31, 1947 as a service of the parish Fuhlsbüttel ; after that the parish Klein-Borstel became independent).
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Student pastor in Hamburg
In May 1954, Carl Malsch became the student pastor of the Protestant student community in Hamburg, at that time in Esplanade 15. During this time he founded the “Association for Ecumenical Student Dormitories”. In accordance with the statutes, half of the places in these dormitories are still allocated to foreign students. One of the homes was named Carl-Malsch-Haus after him in the 1990s .
As a student pastor, he was given the opportunity to hold radio devotions and television services.
Provost in Jerusalem
In 1960 he received the call from the Jerusalem Association to become provost of the Evangelical German Language Congregation in Jerusalem . In addition, the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ), founded the year before and recognized by King Hussein of Jordan on May 17, 1959, elected him as its spiritual leader ( Bishop ). On October 9, 1960, he was introduced to his office by Bishop Otto Dibelius . His official seat was the provost's office in the center of Jerusalem's old town next to the Church of the Redeemer . His duties also included monthly sermons in the German community of Amman , and in the first two years also in Damascus , because the Beirut pastor abroad responsible for Damascus was not allowed to travel to Damascus for political reasons.
Propst Malsch came under public criticism in the autumn of 1962 because of statements that were perceived as anti-Israeli. The West Jerusalem journalist Shalom Ben-Chorin reported in the newspaper Jedioth Chadashoth on September 21, 1962 that Malsch had spoken out clearly against the State of Israel and the Jews. In the newspaper text, Ben-Chorin referred to a pastor who had not been named, who had asked the provost for assistance with crossing the border from Jordan to Israel at the Almond Tree Gate and was angrily hit by Malsch with the words: “What have you lost in Israel ? The whole country is stolen and 90% of the population are atheists ”. This article caused a sensation in circles of the Christian-Jewish dialogue within the Federal Republic of Germany. The EKD's external church office and Bernhard Karnatz , the chairman of the Jerusalem Association, received partly moderate and partly violent letters of complaint. Karnatz called on Malsch to comment and added the following to his letter: “In view of the lively relations between Germany and Israel, it is to be feared that word of the matter will get around in wide circles and not only damage your personal reputation, but also our work in the sacred Lands in disrepute. "Malsch replied:" The phrase 'What do you want in Israel?' Has never been used by me in such isolation, but at most in connection with the request to spend more time in Jordan to deal with the local problems To be able to stand objectively. ”In view of the one-sided pro-Israeli articles in German church newspapers, he sees it as his task to explain the Arab position to German tourists. With the request to Malsch that he would have to express himself more cautiously in his exposed position in the future, the affair was closed in January 1963.
In 1963 Malsch took part as a representative of the ELCJ at the general assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Helsinki , which had the motto "Christ today".
An important ecumenical event also occurred during Malsch's term of office, the meeting of two church leaders in the Holy Land : On January 6, 1964, Pope Paul VI met. and the Patriarch Athinagoras of Constantinople in Jerusalem. Carl Malsch was appointed head of the ELCJ by Paul VI. and Athinagoras received in private audience .
Chief Pastor to St. Petri
In the autumn of 1965, Regional Bishop Hans-Otto Wölber brought him back to Hamburg. Carl Malsch was unanimously elected the 26th main pastor of the Hamburg main church St.Petri and thus became the successor of regional bishop Karl Witte in the main pastor's office. At the same time he took over the management of the Hamburg city mission as chairman of the administrative board, which traditionally lay with the main pastor of St. Petri. On December 5, 1965, he was introduced to his office by Bishop Wölber.
In St. Petri, the problem of empty churches arose quite early for him: the city churches had to readjust their tasks with the depopulation of the inner city. Instead of a "residential community" there was a "staff community". Carl Malsch coined the term “everyday church”. On the working days at 5:15 p.m., short devotions were established on everyday topics alternating with church music . In 1969, after a visit to Holland and the Samaritans in London , he and Pastor Gunnar von Schlippe founded the counseling and pastoral care center (BSZ) at St. Petri based on their model. To this day, trained volunteer pastoral workers are still doing their job in the BSZ . Carl Malsch's wife Elisabeth also trained as a pastoral assistant and volunteered at the BSZ.
The church occupation by around 400 opponents of nuclear power was the greatest challenge of his tenure in 1979 . One of his successors, main pastor Christoph Störmer , was one of the occupiers of the church at that time.
From 1 November 1975, he was a amt oldest senior pastor of the last senior of Hamburgische Landesbank Church and the representatives of the country bishop. In this function he became chairman of the school-church commission and the board of trustees of the Rauhen Haus , as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Rauhen Haus. He held these offices until his retirement .
Retirement
On October 31, 1981 , Carl Malsch retired. In the summer of 1984 Carl Malsch and his wife Elisabeth were volunteer "course counselors" in Wenningstedt on Sylt . He resigned the chairmanship of the Hamburg city mission in June 1990.
Fonts
- Carl Malsch: “Church for the city - St. Petri parish in the city of Hamburg” in the series “zur sache”, issue 23, Lutherisches Verlagshaus Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-7859-0478-9 .
- Carl Malsch (editor): "The main church St. Petri in Hamburg - building history, works of art, preachers", Friedrich Wittig Verlag Hamburg 1979, ISBN 3-8048-4172-4 .
- Article "Provost an der Erlöserkirche 1960-1965, special tasks and experiences" in: "Honor the Redeemer of the World - Festschrift for the centenary of the inauguration of the Evangelical Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem", Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig 1998, pages 229–245, ISBN 3 -374-01706-1 .
literature
- Michael Malsch: Malsch, Carl Paul. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 891-895.
Web links
- Memories by Carl Malsch , published in the memorial workshop in Norderstedt
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article from May 15, 1955 in "The Church in Hamburg" (editor: Volkmar Herntrich )
- ^ Enrollment of Carl Malsch in the Rostock matriculation portal
- ↑ Article about the visit after 31 years in the Landauer Zeitung of May 29, 1976
- ^ History of the Association for Ecumenical Student Dormitories
- ↑ The Carl Malsch House
- ↑ Article in DIE WELT of October 3, 1060
- ^ So Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism. Perceptions in church and journalism from 1948 to 1972 (AKIZ.B57). Göttingen 2013. pp. 173–178
- ↑ This and the two other quotations can be found in Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism. Perceptions in church and journalism from 1948 to 1972 (AKIZ.B57). Göttingen 2013. pp. 174–176.
- ↑ Malsch's report on Pope Paul VI. in Jerusalem
- ^ Article in the "Cuxhavener Presse" in August 1963
- ^ Article of December 4, 1965 in the Hamburger Abendblatt
- ^ Ernst Christian Schütt: Chronicle Hamburg. 2nd updated edition, Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1997, ISBN 3-577-14443-2 , p. 577.
- ^ Article of October 31, 1981 in the Hamburger Abendblatt
- ↑ Article "Looking for paradise during the holidays?" From July 30, 1984 in the Hamburger Abendblatt
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Joachim Weigelt |
Evangelical Lutheran Provost of Jerusalem 1960–1965 |
Hansgeorg Koehler |
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Karl Witte |
Senior Pastor at St. Petri in Hamburg 1965–1981 |
Werner Hoerschelmann |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Malsch, Carl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Malsch, Carl Paul (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Lutheran clergyman, student pastor in Hamburg, provost in Jerusalem, chief pastor in Hamburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1916 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 2001 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |