Erich Hertzsch

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Erich Hertzsch (born March 31, 1902 in Unterbodnitz ; † October 28, 1995 in Hamburg ) was a German theologian and university professor.

Life

Hertzsch passed his Abitur in Rudolstadt , studied theology and law in Tübingen and Jena . After the first theological exam he became a student trainee in the Ruhr area, where he made his first contact with the socialist labor movement . He then took care of various Thuringian parish offices as vicar and pastor . In 1932 he joined the SPD and the Association of Religious Socialists and received his doctorate in the same year on the reformer Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt . Hertzsch followed Emil Fuchs , who was close to him, to a pastorate in Eisenach . He led the faction of the Religious Socialists in the Thuringian State Church Congress until he was forced to resign with his entire faction in 1933 by the German Christians now ruling the Thuringian Church . During the time of National Socialism, he stood up for persecuted Jews , such as the later Anglican priest Paul Oestreicher .

In 1945, together with Moritz Mitzenheim from the Lutheran Confessional Community and pastor Gerhard Kühn from the Wittenberger Bund , he brought about the resignation of the DC Church President Hugo Rönck . In 1945 he joined the re-admitted SPD and had been a member of the SED since 1946 due to the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD , which he left in 1950 after differences of content. For the SED he was elected in 1946 as a member of the Thuringian state parliament. As a senior church councilor , he campaigned for a moderate denazification of the Thuringian church from 1945 to 1947 . Since 1947 he was professor for practical theology at the University of Jena (since 1948 with a chair). Hertzsch temporarily worked in the GDR Peace Council . In 1958 he was one of the founders of the Christian Peace Conference in Prague .

His son Klaus-Peter Hertzsch also became professor for practical theology at the University of Jena in 1968.

Services

He presented his thoughts in numerous essays on liturgical science , homiletics , pastoral care and the cultural dimension of the church, as well as on its political responsibility. As a senior church councilor in 1946/47 he played a key role in the development of a specific religious pedagogy, which was established under the sole responsibility of the church under the name “ Christian doctrine ”. The new job description of the " cantor catechist " was created, which goes back to his suggestion. As the first theological university professor in the GDR, he introduced the then unknown pastoral psychological pastoral training of a “soul concern”, which is of American-Swedish origin and which is essentially partner-centered individual counseling. Based on this, he taught a deep psychological theory and practice of biblical meditation in special courses and seminars in the GDR as well as in the Federal Republic of Germany well into old age .

Honors

The theological faculty of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig awarded him an honorary doctorate in theology. In 1957 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze and in 1962 in silver.

Works

literature

  • Ehrhart Neubert :  Hertzsch, Erich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Thuringian ridge walks. Contributions to the seventy-five year history of the Protestant regional church of Thuringia ; ed. by Thomas A. Seidel on behalf of the Evangelical Academy of Thuringia and the Society for Thuringian Church History e. V. Hostels of Christianity, Special Volume 3; Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 1998; ISBN 3-374-01699-5 . In it Reinhard Creutzburg: Religious Socialists in the Thuringian Evangelical Church 1918–1933 .
  • Erich Stegmann: The church struggle in the Thuringian Evangelical Church 1933-1945. A chapter of Thuringian church history ; EVA Berlin 1984
  • Walter Bredendiek : In good time and at the right time - for Erich Hertzsch's 75th birthday . In: Standpunkt - Evangelical Monthly 7 (1977), Issue No. 3, pp. 72-74; ISSN  0323-4304
  • Walter Bredendiek: In the month of remembrance of the Reformation ... The prehistory of the "Declaration of German Protestants on the Peace Question" from autumn 1917 - Prof. D. Erich Hertzsch on his 65th birthday on March 31, 1967 in gratitude and warm friendship . In: Evangelisches Pfarrerblatt 9 (1967), Issue 3, pp. 58–62; ISSN  0423-8494

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New Germany , October 7, 1957, p. 5
  2. ↑ High Order awarded , In: Neue Zeit , May 12, 1962, p. 2
personal data
SURNAME Hertzsch, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Underbodnitz
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1995
Place of death Hamburg