Ernst Käsemann

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Ernst Käsemann (born July 12, 1906 in Dahlhausen near Bochum , † February 17, 1998 in Tübingen ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian and New Testament scholar.

Life

Ernst Käsemann was born in Dahlhausen on July 12, 1906. His father was a teacher at the elementary school there, and from 1909 the family lived in Essen . His father was killed in Russia in 1915. The mother stayed with the son and a younger daughter in Essen, where Ernst then attended the Burggymnasium. When he met a youth pastor, his life took a decisive turn, namely to study theology.

In 1925 he began his studies at the University of Bonn . The Romans -Vorlesung Erik Peterson made such a lasting impression that he in 1931 Rudolf Bultmann at the University of Marburg doctorate on the church as the body of Christ ( "Body and the Body of Christ"). The approach to his special understanding of the church was already clear in his dissertation, which was clearly different from Bultmann and dialectical theology : the church is something different from a religious association. At the University of Marburg, however, he clearly distanced himself from his Catholic beginnings and oriented himself more clearly to dialectical theology and the writings of Luther.

From 1933 to 1946 Käsemann was the "miner pastor" of the Protestant parish in Gelsenkirchen-Rotthausen .

He was the only one among Bultmann's students who initially joined the German Christians in 1933 . He hoped for socio-political impulses, especially in view of the difficult situation of the miners, for whom he cared for in his parish. When he protested at the beginning of 1934 against the fact that the evangelical youth organizations were switched into line, he was expelled and recognized his error. The relationship with the Confessing Church remained tense, however , and he resigned from the Westphalian Confessing Synod in 1940.

His attitude to National Socialism became increasingly clear. On August 15, 1937 he preached about Isaiah 26:13: "Lord, our God, other masters than you rule over us, but we only remember your and your name." Three days later, Käsemann became a member of the for a few weeks Gestapo arrested. In the prison cell he continued to work on his habilitation thesis “The Wandering People of God”, a study on the letter to the Hebrews. In 1939, Käsemann completed his habilitation with this thesis. In June 1940, Käsemann was drafted into the Wehrmacht and released again in February 1941. From February 1943 he was deployed again in Greece and after a period of imprisonment he returned to his community.

In the summer semester of 1946, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , which was re-established by the French military administration after more than 100 years , appointed him to its Evangelical Theological Faculty, where he became full professor of the New Testament from October of that year . An appointment to the University of Munster already endorsed by the Westphalian church leadership at the end of 1945 was not confirmed by the British military administration from July to December 1933 because of his six-month membership of the German Christians. He remained a professor at the University of Mainz until 1952, after which he moved to the University of Göttingen until 1959 and then worked at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen until 1971 .

In 1954 he wrote the epochal essay "The Problem of the Historical Jesus ". Contrary to the opinion of his teacher Bultmann, he considered secure knowledge about Jesus' life and message to be possible, although he again followed Ferdinand Christian Baur ( Life-Jesus-Research ). He applied a double criterion of difference to the synoptic tradition : “Real” is a Jesus logion if it cannot be explained either from the Jewish environment or from the life and teaching of early Christianity . In addition, there were the criteria of multiple testimony and agreement (“coherence”) with other proven Jesus words. These criteria have prevailed in Jesus research and have been their dominant working method for thirty years.

In addition, Käsemann regarded the Jewish apocalyptic , in which he classified Jesus' message, as a formative element of the Pauline doctrine of justification and "mother of the theology of the New Testament". In this respect, he was one of the last New Testament scholars who were able to present an overall historical and theological draft.

In 1971 Käsemann retired . In 1973 the first edition of his commentary on Romans appeared .

His estate is in the Tübingen University Library .

The murder of Elisabeth Käsemann and the German authorities

Käsemann's daughter Elisabeth Käsemann did social work in several South American countries in the 1970s. During the military dictatorship in Argentina at the beginning of March 1977 she was kidnapped by the military junta, permanently and severely tortured for two and a half months in a secret prison similar to a concentration camp, raped countless times and finally murdered on May 24, 1977 with 15 other victims by the military junta with shots at close range.

German authorities did nothing to end or prevent his daughter's detention, torture and death. Käsemann was severely shaken by this official ignorance in his attitude to the Federal Republic. The Foreign Office , headed by Hans-Dietrich Genscher at the time, contributed in particular to this , which Ernst Käsemann himself and other members of the Protestant Church asked for help several times directly and with specific concerns, and whose head of authority Genscher allegedly dealt with the whole case with just one Witnesses dismissed the sentence "Oh, the girl cheese man". Due to the testimony of a British friend of Käsemann's daughter, who was also briefly in custody and had to listen to the incipient torture of Elisabeth Käsemann in an adjoining room, but was able to flee to New York after the intervention of the British government, the fate and whereabouts of Elisabeth for all involved Käsemann known early on.

It was not until long after Ernst Käsemann's death in 2011 that the case was processed by the Argentine judiciary and led to several convictions. In the Federal Republic of Germany, neither politicians nor the judiciary have dealt with this.

In the documentary film Das Mädchen - What happened to Elisabeth K.? Ernst Käsemann's attempts are described, among others, by his son Ulrich Käsemann - and the reaction and above all non-action of the German authorities are described in detail, which makes it clear why Ernst Käsemann, who was influenced by the arbitrariness of the Nazi era, looked at them and their cynicism Action (desperate). In the film, Klaus von Dohnanyi , who was then minister of state under Genscher, surprisingly confesses his complicity in Elisabeth Käsemann's death through inaction. His colleague at the time as Minister of State, Hildegard Hamm-Brücher , portrays her own responsibility in the same film as if she had been a casual observer of an official event, although her own statements make it clear that she was involved. And she describes Ernst Käsemann as an exaggerated reacting father who was not able to see through official action: “At such a moment the father is of course the father again [insecure smile], and he did not understand why we didn't do more , and I didn't understand it either ”, but also confirmed at the same time:“ The cloak of silence worked well ”and“ One would have had sharper options and then survived that through ... through silence [insecure grin]. "

Germany's ambassador to Argentina at the time, Jörg Kastl , justified his inaction a. a. with the fact that Elisabeth Käsemann was not even known to the embassy in which she had her passport extended shortly before and the whereabouts of the abductees were not known either. On the other hand, he blamed the cheese man, whom he did not know, for her fate, saying that she was “also ready to drop bombs” and he approved of the behavior of the Argentine junta because “she was shot and buried, and not quite like that without reasons. Because, as I said, she came to Argentina with very explosive thoughts. ”Although at least 100 Germans or people of German origin were kidnapped and murdered during the military dictatorship, it is not known whether Kastl was in Buenos Aires during his tenure, in which at least 40 of these cases occurred happened to help even one victim. And this despite the fact that Kastl had demonstrably excellent contacts with the military government, employed a liaison officer from the military junta as a security officer within the embassy (which was rather unusual), he pushed for an agreement between the German secret services and the military secret service and was strongly committed to the interests of the German economy - especially those of the Armaments industry, since u. a. the US had imposed an arms embargo on the military junta, making the Federal Republic of Argentina the main arms supplier. On May 20, 1977, four days before Käsemann's murder, the German embassy received the message through a German clergyman in Argentina, Armin Ihle, that Käsemann could be ransomed by the military junta. Kastl later lied that he had never heard of it, then said contradictingly: "That was not possible in this case". The Foreign Office was nevertheless informed of Ihle's activities, but did not believe him and later claimed that there had never been a real free buy offer. Kastl always claimed to the public until his death that he had tried everything in his power.

Elisabeth Käsemann's murder on May 24, 1977 had been known to the Foreign Office by June 3 at the latest. The name was already mentioned in the Argentinian local press on June 2nd. The information was withheld, however, because at that time the German national team as the reigning soccer world champion was in Argentina with the then DFB President Hermann Neuberger for a friendly PR and preparation game for the 1978 soccer World Cup . The game took place on June 5th and Neuberger, who, with the support of the South American associations in particular , had assumed an influential position at FIFA and had very good contacts on the subcontinent, was fully informed in advance from various sides and was ready to exert influence in the Käsemann case. Neuberger then referred to the primacy of the (inactive) Foreign Office, which he did not want to anticipate, and forbade himself to exert political influence on sport and the game in particular. The "tough Neuberger" (the then national player Paul Breitner ) was just as important to his personal status quo as the economic interests as the federal government and its representatives and he regularly exerted political influence in this regard: Siemens worked on the introduction of color television in Argentina for football World Cup, every Argentine player received a Mercedes car as a gift for the friendly game and Neuberger even publicly praised the Argentine military dictator Jorge Videla for his crackdown. The then DFB official Horst R. Schmidt assumes that "it would only have taken one phone call to tell the DFB, so: let the woman go free". In Argentina, Ambassador Kastl informed Neuberger about the murder of Käsemann. The Käsemann case was deliberately concealed from the German players, as the DFB officials were obviously afraid of protests from them, and they only found out about the whole complex after their return. Thus, the news of the death of the Käsemann family was not transmitted until June 6, 1977 and then made public.

Ernst Käsemann then endeavored with the help of the Foreign Office and the embassy to transfer his daughter's body to Germany. But it was only after he was said to have paid 25,000 US dollars (equivalent to around 100,000 US dollars in 2014) to the Argentine liaison officer of the military junta employed by Kastl that the exhumed body was released for transport to Germany. Afterwards he was also charged the official costs of the German authorities for exhumation and repatriation.

Ambassador Kastl and the Foreign Office spread the official version of the Argentine military junta that Käsemann was killed in an anti-terrorist mission against rebels, although everyone was aware of the fact that they were in the camp. A later autopsy arranged by Ernst Käsemann in Tübingen showed that she was shot four times from behind at close range and further investigations revealed that she was tied up and killed with a blindfold. At the funeral, the police also made film recordings, which reinforced the impression with Ernst Käsemann and his family that the German authorities also assumed that his daughter was a terrorist and that the family and friendly environment were suspect. The responsible Foreign Minister, Genscher, refused to make any statements to Ernst Käsemann, his family, in official question- and- answer sessions of the German Bundestag and the public until 2014. State Minister Hamm-Brücher later indirectly admitted that by reading out the official position of the Foreign Office she lied to the Bundestag, the public and the Käsemann family at the time, although investigations had already revealed the opposite of Käsemann Tods.

Ulrich Käsemann describes his father as a broken man immediately after the autopsy.

Next life

In the autumn of 1977 the Württemberg regional synod decided to cancel a grant from the Tübingen student community for their working group Christians for Socialism . For this and other reasons he announced his departure from the church. This was prevented by repealing the resolution.

Käsemann's last years were marked by increasing bitterness and disappointment with the Federal Republic of Germany and the Protestant Church. "What harmlessly disguises itself as a free market economy and promises to make everyone happy is in reality the continuation of imperialism and colonialism through a capitalist system." The church is a "true reflection of the affluent, self-righteous, suffering-insensitive society."

Käsemann died on February 17, 1998. On the obituary notice was tellingly the verse from Isaiah 26, 13, with which he had already distanced himself from National Socialism: “Lord, our God, other masters than you rule over us, but we remember but only your and your name. "

student

literature

Honors

  • 1947: Honorary doctorate, University of Marburg
  • 1967: Honorary Doctorate, Durham University
  • 1967: Honorary Doctorate, University of Edinburgh
  • 1969: Honorary doctorate, University of Oslo
  • 1985: Honorary Doctorate, Yale University, New Haven (Connecticut, USA)

swell

  1. ↑ Käsemann (PDF; 420 kB) on Offene-Kirche.de.
  2. ^ Konrad Hammann: Rudolf Bultmann - Eine Biographie, 3rd edition, Tübingen 2012, p. 269.
  3. ^ Konrad Hammann: Rudolf Bultmann - Eine Biographie, 3rd edition, Tübingen 2012, p. 269 f.
  4. ^ Reprint of the sermon in: Jens Adam, Hans-Joachim Eckstein, Hermann Lichtenberger : Dienst in Freiheit. Ernst Käsemann on his 100th birthday. Neukirchen 2008, pp. 87-90.
  5. ↑ Signature: Mn 45, Federal Archives, Central Database of Legacies . Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  6. ↑ Ernst Käsemann: Do not let executioners and murderers have the last word. The official version of Elisabeth Käsemann's death and its interpretation , in: Junge Kirche 38 (1977), pp. 439–442.
  7. ↑ The girl - what happened to Elisabeth K.? , Documentary, Germany 2014 by Eric Friedler
    FOLTERMORD: Why didn't Genscher save a German student? , Die Welt from June 5, 2014.
    Death through political inactivity , Sueddeutsche Zeitung from June 5, 2014.
    Ulrich Käsemann: Greeting on December 12, 2007 in Berlin ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) at the opening of the Exhibition “Elisabeth Käsemann - A Life in Solidarity with Latin America”, Association of Friends of the Otto Suhr Institute, accessed on July 13, 2014.
    Ricardo Ragendorfer: Historia del repressor que se encariñó con el espía que había infiltrado en el ERP , , Tiempo Argentino dated May 12, 2013, accessed on July 13, 2014.
  8. ↑ a b Dietrich Strothniann: The case of Ernst Käsemann: Partisan among Protestants . In: The time . November 25, 1977, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed May 19, 2017]).
  9. ↑ Church Conflicts, Volume 1, p. 243.
  10. ↑ Gutenberg Biographics: Directory of Professors at the University of Mainz, 1946–1973 , accessed on July 15, 2017.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Käsemann, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian, New Testament scholar
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Dahlhausen
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1998
Place of death Tübingen