Erich Dinkler

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Erich Dinkler (born May 6, 1909 in Remscheid ; † June 28, 1981 in Mannheim ) was a German Protestant theologian and Christian archaeologist who worked as a professor at the universities of Mainz (1949–1950), Yale (1950–1956), Bonn ( 1956–1963) and Heidelberg (1963–1977) worked. His older sister was Elfriede Arnold-Dinkler .

Life

Erich Dinkler, the son of grammar school director Rudolf Dinkler, began his studies in 1928 at the University of Marburg , where he mainly attended philosophical and philological lectures. In the winter semester of 1928/29 he moved to the University of Heidelberg . There he turned to theology under the influence of Karl Jaspers . After a short time at the University of Berlin , he became a D. theol in 1932 with Walther Köhler with his dissertation on Augustine's anthropology . PhD . On November 1, 1932, he went as a personal assistant to Hans von Soden at the University of Marburg, where he turned to Christian archeology in particular . In 1934 he got a job as a senior assistant and completed his habilitation with the work The First Representations of Peter for the subjects of church history and Christian archeology. During the time of National Socialism he joined the Confessing Church . In 1935 Dinkler received a lectureship in church history and Christian archeology at the University of Marburg. In 1938/39, the travel grant from the German Archaeological Institute enabled him to undertake a research trip to Asia Minor and Greece, which Dinkler had to break off prematurely for health reasons.

On August 22, 1939, Dinkler was drafted into the Wehrmacht and had to interrupt his teaching and research activities, but kept in contact with Hans von Soden, Rudolf Bultmann and the other members of this group via the circular from the Marburg student community of the Confessing Church, which was edited by his wife . In the Second World War he served as an infantryman in the French campaign and from 1941 as an officer in the German-Soviet War , most recently as a battalion commander with the rank of captain . On June 21, 1943 he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Marburg. In June 1944, Dinkler, who immediately after his capture, escaped the execution by Russian troops that had already been carried out on several of his subordinates, was wounded in Soviet captivity near Vitebsk , from which he did not return home until March 1948, and those from the extreme Health consequences due to working conditions and living conditions made a subsequent hospital stay necessary. Nevertheless, he managed to gain a foothold in science again and continue his academic career.

On June 1, 1949, Dinkler received a full professorship for New Testament and Christian Archeology at the newly founded University of Mainz . After just one year he switched to Yale University as a visiting professor , where he was made full professor in 1951. In 1956 he returned to Germany to a chair at the University of Bonn . In 1963 he moved to Heidelberg University. He represented the New Testament at the theological faculty and Christian archeology at the philosophical faculty. In 1977 he retired . He died a few years later in Mannheim after heart surgery.

Dinkler has received numerous international awards for his scientific work. He received an honorary doctorate in theology from the University of Marburg (1949), a master's honoris causa from Yale University (1951) and the Doctor of Divinity from the University of Glasgow (1973). He was a member of the German Archaeological Institute (since 1952), the Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie (since 1959) and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (since 1967).

Dinkler was concerned with church history, especially with the beginnings of Christianity. Through his experiences under the dictatorship, in the war and in years of deprivation as a prisoner of war, he also turned to ecumenical issues. In addition to numerous individual studies, Dinkler also wrote articles for the Lexika Reallexikon für Antike und Christianentum , Realencyclopädie of classical antiquity and religion in the past and present , for which he also acted as editor from 1957.

Since 1933 he was married to the art historian Erika Dinkler-von Schubert (1904–2002), who during the war was responsible for editing the circular of the Marburg student community of the Confessing Church around Hans von Soden, in which Dinkler played a key role.

Fonts (selection)

  • The anthropology of Augustine . Stuttgart 1934 (extended dissertation)
  • Gottschalk the Saxon. A contribution to the question of Germanism and Christianity . Stuttgart / Berlin 1936
  • The first depictions of Peter. An archaeological contribution to the history of the Petrine Primate . In: Marburg Yearbook for Art History . Volume 11 (1939), pp. 1–80 (excerpt from the habilitation thesis)
  • Biblical Authority and Biblical Criticism . Tubingen 1950
  • The apse mosaic by S. Apollinare in Classe . Cologne 1964
  • Signum crucis. Essays on the New Testament and Christian archeology . Tübingen 1967
  • Entry into Jerusalem. Iconographic investigations following a previously unknown sarcophagus fragment . Cologne 1970
  • Eirene. The early Christian thought of peace . Heidelberg 1973
  • Christ and Asclepius. On the Christ type of the polychrome plates in the Museo Nazionale Romano . Heidelberg 1980
  • In the sign of the cross. Essays by Erich Dinkler . Berlin / New York 1992 (with bibliography)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Erika Dinkler-von Schubert (ed.), Feldpost (see literature below), p. 21, note 24.
  2. ↑ See Erika Dinkler-von Schubert (Ed.), Feldpost (see literature below), pp. 157–161.
  3. ↑ See Erika Dinkler-von Schubert (ed.), Feldpost (see literature below), p. 9, note 4.
  4. ↑ See his contributions in: Erika Dinkler-von Schubert (ed.), Feldpost (see below literature), pp. 21, 23, 27–29 (with portrait 27), 35, 37, 45f., 48, 60 , 70-73 (with further portrait 72), 88f., 98, 101-103, 118f., 146-150, 157-161.
personal data
SURNAME Dinkler, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dinkler, Karl-Hermann Rudolf Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and Christian archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Remscheid
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1981
Place of death Mannheim