Ferdinand Kattenbusch

Ferdinand Friedrich Wilhelm Kattenbusch (born October 3, 1851 in Kettwig / Ruhr; † December 28, 1935 in Halle (Saale) ) was a German Protestant theologian , professor, dean of a theological faculty and university rector.

Life

Kattenbusch studied Protestant theology in Bonn and Berlin in 1869 and from 1870 in Halle . Here he became a senior seminar with August Tholuck . After the theological exam he became a repetitee in Göttingen in 1873 , where he received the degree of Lic. Theol. acquired. In 1876 he qualified as a professor in systematic theology and in 1878 was appointed full professor at the University of Gießen , where he became dean of the theological faculty and rector of Ludwigs University. In Giessen he joined (as before in Bonn and Halle and in 1906 in Göttingen ) theWingolf at; especially with the Giessen Wingolf , where he worked for the longest time of his life, he had a special lifelong bond (beer name / nickname Kabu). In 1904 Kattenbusch succeeded his teacher and Wingolf brother Albrecht Ritschl in Göttingen, in 1906 he accepted a professorship at the theological faculty in Halle, where he was rector of the university in 1913/14 . He retired in the winter semester of 1921/22 and died honored in Halle. Shortly before, he had warned against National Socialism in an article and called for tolerance and charity against the emerging hatred.

Ferdinand Kattenbusch's final resting place is in the Laurentiuskirchhof in Halle .

meaning

Kattenbusch published mainly historical and denominational works. His book on the creed "The Apostolic Symbol" is considered to be an important source study; it saw several editions up until the 1960s. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger said about the research on the creed "The decisive standard work on this is still F. Kattenbusch ..."

His textbook on denominational studies led (according to his suggestion) to renaming the symbolism in denominational studies (as a descriptive discipline), the founder of which is considered to be Kattenbusch.

From 1910 to 1934 he published the journal Theological Studies and Critics .

Fonts (selection)

The Christian belief in immortality . 1881
Comparative Denominational Textbook . 1892
In appreciation of the apostolic church , 1892.
The Apostolic Symbol 1894 a. 1900
The moral law of war . 1906.
The Churches and Sects of Christianity in the Present . 1909
The Protestant Church, in: Germany as a world power. Forty Years of the German Empire , ed. vom Kaiser-Wilhelm-Dank, Berlin 1910, pp. 598–614
About love of enemies in the sense of Christianity 1916
Luther's pecca fortiter 1918
The source of the church idea in 1921
The unconditional and the incomprehensible 1927
German Protestant theology. First part: The century from Schleiermacher to after the World War . 4th completely revised edition of the publication Von Schleiermacher zu Ritschl. Giessen: Töpelmann 1924. Part 2 (National Socialist): Turning of the times also in theology . Both in one volume Berlin Töpelmann 1934

literature

Karl Hammer : German War Theology. 1974, later also Munich: dtv Wissenschaftliche Reihe Volume 4151
Friedrich de Boor : Kattenbusch, Ferdinand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 330 f. ( Digitized version ).
Wolfdietrich von Kloeden : Ferdinand Kattenbusch. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 1239-1241. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
Joachim Weinhardt: Kattenbusch, Ferdinand . In: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart , 4th ed., Vol. 4, 2001, Sp. 905f.

Web links

Literature by and about Ferdinand Kattenbusch in the catalog of the German National Library
Entry on Ferdinand Kattenbusch in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis
Directory of Kattenbusch's estate in the ULB Halle / Salle (with a short biography)

Remarks

↑ Philistine directory of the Göttingen Wingolf, Göttingen 1919, p. 7
↑ In: The Church and the Third Reich, Questions and Demands of German Theologians , pp. 57–64.
↑ See Peter Hauptmann: "Konfessionskunde". In: TRE 19 (1990), pp. 431-442, here v. a. 433f.

personal data
SURNAME	Kattenbusch, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kattenbusch, Ferdinand Friedrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Protestant theologian, professor and rector
DATE OF BIRTH	October 3, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kettwig , Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH	December 28, 1935
Place of death	Halle (Saale)

[1] Philistine directory of the Göttingen Wingolf, Göttingen 1919, p. 7

[2] In: The Church and the Third Reich, Questions and Demands of German Theologians , pp. 57–64.

[3] See Peter Hauptmann: "Konfessionskunde". In: TRE 19 (1990), pp. 431-442, here v. a. 433f.