Emil Ohly (1885-1944)

Emil Carl Wilhelm Ohly (born June 8, 1885 in Höchst am Main (today Frankfurt-Höchst ), † November 22, 1944 in Stockholm ) was a German Lutheran theologian.

Born the son of the pastor and later superintendent Karl Ohly (1860-1919), Ohly studied Protestant theology . During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Berlin . In 1912 he became a mission inspector at the North German Mission in Bremen . In the summer of 1917 he came to Stockholm, among other things to support Nathan Söderblom in the preparation of the 1925 World Conference on Practical Christianity. Due to his knowledge of the Swedish language (his wife Ingeborg Westerström was Swedish) he became vice pastor of the German St. Gertrud congregation on December 1stemployed. After the death of the main pastor Georg Sterzel in December 1921, Ohly was elected as his successor on April 23, 1922. Until his sudden death at the age of 59, he served the community in difficult times. Among other things, he organized community evenings, had a community home built in 1924 and founded the community newspaper in 1925, for which he wrote most of the articles himself.

One of Ohly's grandchildren (son of pastor Harald Ohly, 1923–2011) is the former chairman of the Swedish Left Party , Lars Ohly . Because of his statements, there was a public dispute in 2009 about whether Ohly was a supporter or an opponent of National Socialism . This question is also controversial in research. While Ingrid Bohn assessed Ohly as a national conservative who, despite a supposedly apolitical stance, maintained close ties to official church and state agencies in Germany and celebrated the National Socialist seizure of power as the beginning of a national revolution, Birgitta Almgren emphasized that Ohly had spoken out against the pagan worldview and that Refused to raise the swastika flag on the church. As Bohn had already pointed out, this refusal was only temporary; between 1937 and 1941 the swastika flag was hoisted on German public holidays.

Fonts

• Andreas Jakob Spieth the Bible translator of the Ewe people. A picture of life . Publishing house of the North German Mission Society, Bremen 1920.
• Evangelisk och romersk sedlighet . Diakonistyrelsen, Stockholm 1923.
• Let me be still before you! Sermon verses and little poems . N. Andersson, Stockholm 1945.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry in the Bremen passport register ( Memento of the original dated February 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
2. ↑ Emil Schieche: 400 years of German St. Gertrud's congregation in Stockholm 1571–1971. Festschrift . Stockholm 1971, p. 55.
3. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 164.
4. ↑ Nils Karlström: Kristna samförståndssträvanden under världskriget 1914-1918. Svenska Kyrkans Diakonistyrelse Bokförlag, Stockholm 1947, p. 476f. 481f .; Wolfram Weisse: Practical Christianity and the Kingdom of God. The ecumenical movement Life and Work 1919–1937. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, p. 99ff.
5. ↑ Emil Schieche: 400 years of German St. Gertrud's congregation in Stockholm 1571–1971. Festschrift . Stockholm 1971, pp. 48-55.
6. ↑ See e.g. B. Commentary in Svenska Dagbladet , April 16, 2009, accessed July 15, 2013.
7. ↑ Ingrid Bohn: Between Adaptation and Refusal. The German St. Gertruds Congregation in Stockholm at the time of National Socialism . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1996, esp. Pp. 76-91.
8. ↑ Birgitta Almgren: Drömmen om Norden. Nazistisk infiltrering i Sverige 1933–1945 . Carlsson, Stockholm 2005, p. 78.