Ernst Steiner (theologian)

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Plaque at the rectory in Hausen

Ernst Christoph Steiner (born April 22, 1885 in Zeitlofs , Lower Franconia, † March 16, 1942 in Darmstadt ) was a German Protestant theologian and pastor. He was murdered in 1942 as a member of the Kaufmann-Will circle in the Gestapo prison in Darmstadt after interrogation and torture.

Life

From 1904 Steiner studied Protestant theology at the Hessian Ludwig University , the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen , Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin , the Friedrich University in Halle and the Bethel Church University . He took his first exam in Gießen in 1909. During his studies he became a member of the Giessen Wingolf , later also of the Tübingen and Berlin Wingolf . This was followed by the usual stay at the seminary of the regional church in Friedberg and the state examination. He was first a parish administrator in Rothenberg for a few months , then a parish assistant in Worms-Neuhausen . In 1914 he took on a position as a parish administrator in Alsfeld and in 1915 as a pastor in Ehringshausen . After various reports as a war volunteer , he became a chaplain in Serbia and garrison pastor in Marienburg / West Prussia in 1917 . From 1918 he was again pastor in Ehringshausen and from 1927 in Hausen / Gießen (today part of Pohlheim).

Steiner was of a conservative, bourgeois character and was not initially opposed to National Socialism . By 1938 at the latest, he had been an opponent of the regime, and, despite many warnings, he announced this publicly from his pulpit, and took serious account of the leading National Socialists. He and his wife Helene took part in regular meetings in the house of his Wingolf brother, Alfred Kaufmann , in order to listen to radio broadcasts illegally and to exchange ideas. This so-called Kaufmann-Will-Kreis was betrayed in 1942 by a Gestapo agent Dagmar Imgart who had been smuggled in and arrested on February 6, 1942. Pastor Steiner and his wife were arrested in Hausen the next morning. He was tortured several times in the detention cell in the Gestapo prison in Darmstadt and finally succumbed to this mistreatment before the trial before the People's Court against the other participants in the district. The Gestapo reported a suicide by Steiner, which his cell neighbor Kaufmann contradicted in his memories of 1945. The regime forbade a burial in Hausen, so Steiner was buried in Gießen without prior notice.

literature

  • Kurt Heyne: Resistance in Giessen and the surrounding area 1933-45 ; Messages from the Upper Hessian History Association, Giessen, New Series 71 (1986); Giessen 1986
  • Karl Herbert: Pastor Ernst Steiner: Murdered by the Gestapo ; in: Evangelische Kirchenzeitung 1992, No. 32, p. 22
  • Interrogation protocols of the Gestapo Darmstadt of February 13, 1942 and March 9, 1942, Federal Archives, NJ 8371 Bd. 2, in: Jörg-Peter Jatho: The Gießener Friday wreath, documents on the failure of a historical legend - at the same time an example for the disposal of National Socialism , Ulenspiegel- Verlag Fulda 1995, p. 115ff
  • to Helene Steiner: Pastor's wife for God's wages. Exhibition of the central archive of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau ; Darmstadt 1996

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Dienst : Between Science and Church Politics: on the importance of university theology for the identity of a regional church in the past and present . Peter-Lang-Verlagsgruppe, 2009 ISBN 978-3631583654 , p. 42
personal data
SURNAME Steiner, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steiner, Ernst Christoph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, murdered by the Gestapo
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Zeitlofs , Lower Franconia
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1942
Place of death Darmstadt