Eivind Berggrav

Eivind Berggrav (1940)

Eivind Josef Berggrav (born October 25, 1884 in Stavanger as Eivind Josef Jensen , † January 14, 1959 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian Lutheran bishop, best known for his adamant attitude towards the German occupiers in World War II .

Life

Berggrav studied theology in Kristiania from 1903 to 1908 . Until 1919 he worked as a teacher in Eidsvoll , Holmestrand and Fetsund and from 1909 as editor of the magazine Kirke og Kultur , which he edited until his death. From 1919 to 1925 he was parish priest in Hurdal , then prison chaplain in Oslo. In 1925 he was at the University of Oslo to Dr. theol. PhD. From 1928 to 1937 he was bishop in the Diocese of Hålogaland (based in Tromsø ). From 1937 until his retirement in 1951 he was Bishop of the Diocese of Oslo . With this office that of the President of the Norwegian Church (norw. Preses i Bispemøtet ) was connected.

Act

Berggrav was best known for his commitment to leading the Norwegian Church in the resistance against the German occupation in World War II. In the winter of 1939/40 he had taken part in attempts to mediate between Great Britain and the German Reich on behalf of the World Association for Friendship Work of the Churches . After the shock of the invasion in April 1940, he did not immediately call for open combat against the occupiers. He took part in Administrasjonsrådet and negotiated with the Germans. When, after the removal of the king and the government-in-exile in September 1940, it became clear that the occupiers were not keeping their promise to respect religious freedom and to maintain the existing administrative structures, Berggrav formed the church's resistance and was the driving force behind the founding of Kristent Samråd (" Christian General Council ”) in October 1940, in which the representatives of the state church and the major lay movements, who had hitherto been largely hostile, worked together. Berggrav cooperated with his ecclesiastical opponent Ole Hallesby . The pastoral letter of February 1941, in which the bishops condemned the violations of the law by the Nazi authorities, was also designed by Berggrav, who derived an obligation to civil disobedience from the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms . When the Nazis wanted to intervene in the liturgical practice of the Norwegian Church, Berggrav, together with the six other Lutheran bishops, declared his resignation on February 24, 1942 (in relation to the authorities; in relation to clergy and congregations they continued to claim the function of senior shepherds) . The step was justified in the confession document Kirkens Grunn ("The reason of the church"), which was read out in all churches at Easter 1942. Soon afterwards, over 90% of the pastors also announced their resignation as civil servants. On April 9, 1942, Berggrav was arrested by the Gestapo . Together with four other members of Kristent Samråd , he was initially imprisoned in the Bredtvet concentration camp. He was then placed under house arrest in his own hut in Asker, 25 km north of Oslo. Through letters and couriers, but also adventurous ways to Oslo, he influenced the Norwegian church struggle and played a central role in it. On the night of April 16-17, 1945, he escaped from arrest.

In the post-war period Berggrav used his reputation primarily to promote ecumenism. As early as 1914 he was involved in the founding meeting of the World Association for Friendship Work of Churches. As one of the vice-presidents of the World Federation, he has been responsible for the establishment of the World Council of Churches since 1938 . At the founding meeting in 1948 he was elected to the central committee; from 1950 to 1954 he officiated (succeeding Archbishop Erling Eidem ) as one of the presidents. He was also involved in founding the Lutheran World Federation in 1947.

Berggrav was also a popular author. His book Land der Tensions (Norwegian Spenningens land ) became a bestseller and sold 50,000 copies in two months in 1937. In it he describes his experiences as Bishop of Tromsø, and not only church life, but also the tough struggle for survival of the farmers and fishermen in northern Norway and Svalbard.

Berggrav was one of the most important Norwegian church leaders in the 20th century. Its outstanding importance is due to its intellectual wit, the broad spectrum of its religious and cultural orientation, but not least to its uncompromising attitude during the war.

family

Berggrav's parents were the pastor and later minister and bishop Otto Jensen (1856–1918) and his wife Marena Christine nee. Pedersen. In 1907 he took the name Berggrav-Jensen after the maternal family and from 1917 was only called Berggrav. In 1909 he married the pastor's daughter Kathrine Seip (1883–1949), a sister of the linguist Didrik Arup Seip and the politician Hans Seip . One of her children is Dag Berggrav (1925–2003), who was the head of the Norwegian State Chancellery for many years and a sports official.

Honors

Beggrav received the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olav in 1947 , as well as numerous foreign orders and awards such as the Hanseatic Goethe Prize (1953), the Medal of Freedom , the Grand Cross of the North Star Order and the Order of the Lion of Finland . Several universities have awarded him honorary doctorates . He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and the Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab . The mountain ridge Berggravrista in the Antarctic has been named after him since 1967 .

Fonts (selection)

• Religious terskel. Et bidrag til granskningen av religionens sjelelige Fremdbrudd (1924; dissertation)
  • The breakthrough of religion in the human soul (1929)
• Fangens sjel - and vår egen. Erfaringer og iakttagelser fra Botsfengslet i Oslo (1928)
  • The prisoner's soul. Experiences and observations from the prison (1929)
• Spenningen's land. Visitas-glimt fra Nord-Norge (1937)
  • Land of tension. Berlin 1959; 2nd edition 1960
• Men Jesus. Sjælelegen (1941)
  • Jesus the man. The Doctor of the Soul (1943)
• Kirkens ordning i Norge. Attersyn and framblikk (1945)
• Staten and mennesket. Oppgjør og framblikk (1945)
  • The State and Man (1946)
• The Norwegian Church in its International Setting (1946)
• Tider Og Tekster (1947)
• Kirkene Lenges. Hendinger and spenninger i eningsverket (1952)
  • The Churches Long (1953)
• Marie Treschow: En Livsskisse (1955)
• Forgjeves for Fred. Vinteren 1939-40. Forsok Og Samtaler I Norden, Berlin Og London (posthumous 1960)

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Berggrav, Eivind. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 513-517.
• Johan B. Hygen: Eivind Berggrav. In: Martin Greschat (Ed.): Gestalten der Kirchengeschichte. Vol. 10.2. The newest time IV. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart u. a. 1986, pp. 42-51.
• Arnd Heling: Eivind Berggrav's theology in the Norwegian church struggle. A contribution to political theology in Lutheranism . Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1992.
• Gunnar Heiene: Eivind Berggrav. En biografi. Oslo 1992.
  • Gunnar Heiene: Eivind Berggrav. A biography . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997.
• Edwin Hanton Robertson: Bishop of the Resistance. The life of Eivind Berggrav, Bishop of Oslo, Norway . Concordia, Saint Louis 2000.

Web links

Commons : Eivind Berggrav  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Eivind Berggrav in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Eivind Berggrav  in the German Digital Library
• Gunnar Heiene: Eivind Berggrav . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon (as of 2009)
• Item in the store norske leksikon