Charlotte von Kirschbaum

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Charlotte von Kirschbaum (1899–1975), theologian, anthropology and theology of the sexes, forerunner of feminist theology. Family grave in the Hörnli cemetery, Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Grave, cemetery on Hörnli , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

Charlotte Emilie Henriette Eugenie von Kirschbaum (born June 25, 1899 in Ingolstadt , † July 24, 1975 in Riehen , Switzerland ) was a German theologian , student, closest colleague and partner of Karl Barth .

Life

Career

In 1916, Charlotte von Kirschbaum's father, Major General Maximilian von Kirschbaum, fell in World War I , which prompted her to train as a nurse. In the circle around the Munich student pastor Georg Merz , she got to know Karl Barth's dialectical theology . In 1924 she met the theologian personally and soon belonged to his circle of friends. She also spent her annual vacation with the Barth family and other guests in Ruedi and Gerty Pestalozzi's summer house above Lake Zurich. In 1925 in Munich and later in Berlin she attended a social women's school where she a. a. trained as a secretary. Since then she has regularly taken on the editing of Barth's writings and books. In 1929 Charlotte von Kirschbaum, called Lollo by her friends , moved in with Nelly and Karl Barth and their five children in Münster . Karl Barth had invited her because she had become indispensable for him and he wanted to stand by the love that had developed for a long time. The French theologian George Casalis, friend, colleague and biographer of Barths, sees the relationship as "a fully human congeniality in all areas of the two lives [...] which led to this unique and extraordinary unity." On the other hand, both recognized the marriage to Nelly not just outwardly. An unusual ménage à trois developed , which was lived relatively openly and whose burdens were discussed intensively with each other, with friends and - with different understandings - with the family. Various possibilities of living together were tried up to the point of divorce, which Nelly Barth ultimately decided against. The love triangle lasted for over 35 years. Charlotte von Kirschbaum describes the beginning in a letter in 1935 to Barth's sister Gertrud Lindt - who advised them to give up their common house when moving to Basel - as follows:

“The strangeness between Karl and Nelly has reached a level that can no longer be improved. Certainly all of this has become even more emphasized through my existence. But without my existence? Do you know what life was like for K. up to 1929? A renewed resumption of a life experiment in this direction would have to be carried by a spark of concrete hope, at least for K. That is not there. How far is our fault is that it is no longer there, that have we to ask, but can not you ask us, it would be because, you knew in a completely different way to the specific difficulties of our common existence and stelltet us this question really contributes to these difficulties. "

While Nelly Barth looked after the household and the children, Charlotte von Kirschbaum shared Barth's work. She was his secretary and prepared his lectures and lectures. For his sake, she learned Latin , ancient Greek and Hebrew . She attended Heinrich Scholz's philosophical lectures . Literature excerpted by Kirschbaum, discussed Barth's approaches and manuscripts and thus made an important contribution u. a. to his main work, the Church Dogmatics . Drafts for many of the extensive exegetical and theological-historical excursions contained therein even go back directly to von Kirschbaum.

In 1935 Karl Barth received a call to the University of Basel . Charlotte von Kirschbaum followed him to Switzerland. There she was elected to the state leadership of " Free Germany " and supported the German resistance movement .

Theological work

As the closest collaborator of one of the most influential theologians, she helped shape the theology and church politics of the 20th century, something that has so far been little researched and recognized. In the only major monograph on this subject so far, Suzanne Selinger tries to "hear her voice, [...] the same voice with which Barth was in conversation" beyond the diverse direct contributions.

On the basis of Barth's theology, she highlights independent positions from Kirschbaums, especially on anthropology and theology of the sexes, and regards them as a forerunner of feminist theology . Like Barth, von Kirschbaum assumed a fundamental difference between the sexes. In 1949 her own book The Real Woman was published . In it she dealt with Simone de Beauvoir's Femme Libre and the role of women in the Church. She advocated the thesis that the woman was “subordinate” to the man and “his help”, but “as a counterpart” was equal to and equal to him. She disliked clichés about women such as “the Marian woman”, “the eternal feminine”, “the guardian of the religious sphere” or Mary as “the power of devotion of the cosmos”. She also only partially shared Barth's “patriarchal history concept” of the man as a doer as well as the bearer and trader of individual identity (name, status or character). In connection with his realistic view of the virgin birth , he emphasized that women are "precisely the ingenious, non-creative, not historically powerful man", and consequently they are " the possibility of man for the reality of the word of God". Von Kirschbaum put this militantly, in the sense of the common idea that the virgin birth was a counter-sign to the rule of man established after the fall of man: "May world history ascribe the historical deed to man, the story of Jesus is not a man's history!" that, like Eve, all women are "mothers of the living", that is, physically and spiritually creative. In her interpretation of the Bible she took into account the historical context and contemporary application more than Barth did. "Because of her preoccupation with Simone de Beauvoir, von Kirschbaum is fully aware that gender roles are historically 'constructed' and are quite diverse." to maintain in worship. On this question, she published the work The Service of Women in the Preaching of the Word in 1951 .

death

In 1962 Charlotte von Kirschbaum fell ill with a cerebral disorder. She was admitted to a nursing home in 1966, becoming less and less connected to the outside world. Six and a half years after Barth's death, she died here in the summer of 1975. She was buried in the Barths' family grave; Helmut Gollwitzer gave the funeral address :

"How our new life still lies in the struggle with the entanglement of death, that has been experienced in the fate that Lollo brought into the circle of Karl Barth - fate now not in the pagan, but in the Christian understanding of this word: a fate, which had to be passed by everyone who was affected by it - a disposition in which happiness and pain and tasks, often all too difficult tasks, were assigned - a disposition from which no one could and was allowed to evade, from which everyone was responsible to obey tried by you in his way and under which it did not go away without mutual harm and guilt - guilt which let us all experience that the life from the death of our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us as forgiveness. To thank you, those next to you, was expected to be forgiven for this sending. You have been allowed to learn that over and over again, and these last ten years, in which Lollo had to resign, were an aid to this learning. "

literature

  • Suzanne Selinger: Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 1998, ISBN 978-0-271-01864-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Renate Köbler: Shadow work: Charlotte von Kirschbaum - the theologian at Karl Barth's side. With a foreword by Marie Rose Barth and a review by Hans Prolingheuer. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1986, p. 129.
  2. ↑ Karl Barth: Complete Edition, Part V. Letters. Karl Barth - Eduard Thurneysen: Correspondence Vol. 3, 1930-1935: including the correspondence between Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Eduard Thurneysen. Edited by Caren Algner. TVZ Theologischer Verlag, Zurich 2000, p. 839.
  3. ^ Renate Köbler: Shadow work: Charlotte von Kirschbaum - the theologian at Karl Barth's side. With a foreword by Marie Rose Barth and a review by Hans Prolingheuer. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1986, p. 60.
  4. ^ Suzanne Selinger: Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth. A biographical and theological history study. Theological Verlag, Zurich 2004 (Original Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), p. 27.
  5. ↑ Charlotte von Kirschbaum: The real woman. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon-Zurich 1949.
  6. ↑ Charlotte von Kirschbaum: The service of women in the proclamation of the word. 1951; in: Renate Köbler: Shadow work: Charlotte von Kirschbaum - the theologian at Karl Barth's side. With a foreword by Marie Rose Barth and a review by Hans Prolingheuer. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1986, p. 112.
  7. ^ Suzanne Selinger: Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth. A biographical and theological history study. Theological Verlag, Zurich 2004 (Original Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), p. 124.
  8. ^ Karl Barth: The Christian Dogmatics in the draft. First volume. The teaching of the word of God. Prolegomena to Christian dogmatics. 1927. Ed. By Gerhard Sauter. Theological Verlag, Zurich 1982, p. 374.
  9. ^ Suzanne Selinger: Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth. A biographical and theological history study. Theological Verlag, Zurich 2004 (Original Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), p. 132.
  10. ↑ Charlotte von Kirschbaum: The real woman. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon-Zurich 1949, p. 66.
  11. ↑ Charlotte von Kirschbaum: The real woman. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon-Zurich 1949, p. 139.
  12. ↑ Charlotte von Kirschbaum: The real woman. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon-Zurich 1949, p. 135.
  13. ↑ Charlotte von Kirschbaum: The real woman. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon-Zurich 1949.
  14. ↑ http://www.w-vk.de/?page_id=47
personal data
SURNAME Kirschbaum, Charlotte von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kirschbaum, Charlotte Emilie Henriette Eugenie von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Ingolstadt
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1975
Place of death Riehen , Switzerland