Edmund Bursche

Edmund Bursche

Edmund Bursche (born July 17, 1881 in Zgierz , Russian Empire ; † July 26, 1940 in Gusen concentration camp ) was a Polish Protestant theologian , church historian and pastor .

Life

Edmund Bursche was born in Zgierz in Congress Poland in 1881 . He was the youngest son of the evangelical pastor in Zgierz and later superintendent in Płock , Ernst Wilhelm Bursche , from his second marriage to Maria Mathilda, nee. Harmer and half-brother of Bishop Juliusz Bursche . After training at the 4th State Gymnasium in Warsaw and the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Dorpat , he was ordained pastor of the Evangelical Church in Congress Poland around 1905 and was a deacon and pastor in various parishes in his homeland , the Łódź region, most recently in Łowicz . In 1915, like many other Lutherans in Congress Poland, he was deported to Russia and did not return to his homeland until early 1918. Here he opposed the establishment of special German-speaking schools for Protestant children, was arrested by the German occupation authorities and was imprisoned until November 11, 1918. In 1919 and 1920 he studied theology at the University of Basel . After the re-establishment of Poland he devoted himself to academic work, was dean of the theological faculty from 1922 to 1939 and was nominated professor of Protestant theology at the University of Warsaw in 1929 . In 1930 he was made an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Basel .

Immediately after the German attack on Poland in September 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later to the Gusen concentration camp . There he had to work in the quarry. Completely exhausted, he was sent to the sick barracks. After a few days, the concentration camp headquarters ordered delousing and the naked prisoners were driven into a cold shower. Bursche then fell ill with pneumonia , of which he died in July 1940.

He was married to Janina, geb. Scheller (1884–1974), the couple had two daughters, Sophie (* 1915), who was married to the Polish mathematician Edward Marczewski (1907–1976), and Danuta (1922–1996).

His three brothers Juliusz, Alfred and Teodor were arrested at the same time. His younger brother Alfred (born November 16, 1883 in Zgierz; † January 15, 1942 in Mauthausen concentration camp) was an excellent lawyer. The only one of the four Bursche brothers arrested in 1939 who survived the Sachsenhausen and Gusen concentration camps was the architect Theodor Bursche (1893–1965).

Works (selection)

• History of the Polish Reformation , 1–2, (Polish translation and critical edition of the German-language work by S. Lubieniecki), Warsaw 1938–1939.
• Polish Christian Universalism Program , Warsaw 1927.
• The course of the Reformation in Poland , Warsaw 1932.

literature

• Bogdan Graf von Hutten-Czapski : Sixty Years of Politics and Society . 2 volumes. Mittler, Berlin 1936.
• Eugeniusz Szulc: Cmentarz Ewangelicko-Augsburski w Warszawie. Zmarli i i Rodziny . Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warsaw 1989, ISBN 83-06-01606-8 (Biblioteka Syrenki) .

Web links

Wikisource: Edmund Bursche  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Edmund Bursche in the catalog of the German National Library