Claus von Aderkas

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Claus von Aderkas (born May 26, 1919 in Libau , Latvian SPR ; † March 6, 2007 in Bremen ) was a German pastor , director of the Inner Mission and managing director of the Diakonisches Werk Bremen.

Life

Von Aderkas came from the German-Baltic noble family Aderkas . He grew up as the eldest of four children of the married couple Albrecht Gehre and Gertrud, née von Mühlendahl, on the family's own Kürbis (Kirbizi) estate. In 1938, after graduating from high school in Mitau in Kurland , he began an agricultural training on an estate, also in Kurland, with Count Koskull . In 1939 he and his entire family had to relocate to the Warthegau area (now Poland) , as the Hitler-Stalin pact provided for almost all Baltic Germans. From there the family had to flee to Germany in 1945.

In 1941 von Aderkas was drafted into the Wehrmacht and served in a special unit of the Brandenburg Division , including in Yugoslavia and the Caucasus . In 1943 he met his wife and married in January 1944. In 1944 he was seriously injured in a mine in Yugoslavia and lost his right arm. He returned to Germany in 1945 as a lieutenant .

After the Second World War went from Aderkas inter alia on Berlin , then to Marburg and Erlangen to there theology study. In Marburg he was a co-founder of the "Corona Dorpatensis". The Baltic Corporation Fraternitas Dorpatensis to Munich in 1950 took him to their connection to. He found his first pastor in Bavaria. As a theology student he co-founded the Baltic German Youth and Student Association . From 1955 to 1963 , Claus von Aderkas was able to fulfill his concern of helping the refugees and displaced persons of the Second World War in pastoral and diaconal ways as the head of the "Ludwig-Steil-Hof" in Espelkamp, Westphalia . He also gave religious instruction at the facility there. From 1963 until his retirement in 1984 he was director of the Inner Mission and manager of the Diakonisches Werk in Bremen. For his work he received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.

In 1963, Claus von Aderkas was also elected to succeed Herbert Girgensohn as chairman of the German-Baltic Church Service, which he remained until 1989. His lectures and sermons are vividly remembered by many compatriots. Close contacts were established with representatives of the Latvian and Estonian churches abroad. At the end of the 1960s, the Baltic homelands were able to come into focus again through initial visits. The "Girgensohn Fund", later named "Girgensohn-Aderkas Fund", named after its founder, received aid for the people of Latvia as a new focus. From 1971 Claus von Aderkas led group trips to the Baltic States and despite various difficulties at the border controls, he was able to bring over aids for living needs and Bibles. The opening of the borders offered new opportunities to help the sick, the endangered and the poor. Until 2006, Claus von Aderkas managed the "Girgensohn-Aderkas Fund". Many remember him with gratitude. Special thanks were given to him in June 1996 by representatives of the Latvian public, the Church and the Latvian President in the Old St. Gertrud Church in Riga with the award of the Latvian three-star order . In his last sermon, which was read out on the 60th anniversary of the “Church Service” on April 8, 2006, he says, looking back on our relationship with the native peoples: “Human bridges could be built, from which a new togetherness ...”. Six children grew up in the family.

Awards

Fonts

  • as publisher: 300 years of Latvian translation of the Bible by Ernst Glück and its influence on Latvian cultural history . Verlag Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk / Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft, Lüneburg 2001.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Schönfeldt : Corona Dorpatensis Marburg. Album fratrum 1947-1967. [Marburg 1967]
  2. ↑ ALBUM FRATRUM DORPATENSIUM 1973, reception number 33
personal data
SURNAME Aderkas, Claus von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Libau , Latvian SPR
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 2007
Place of death Bremen