Finkenwalde seminary
The preacher's seminar in Finkenwalde was an institution of the Confessing Church of the Old Prussian Union from 1935 to 1937 for the training of prospective pastors. It was located in Finkenwalde (today Zdroje ), a suburb of Stettin. Dietrich Bonhoeffer led the seminar. Finkenwalde is the place where Bonhoeffer wrote down the succession and gained experience with ascetics and the communitarian way of life.
Since 2012 there has been a garden of silence and meditation on the grounds of the seminary (Ogród Ciszy i Medytacji im. Ks. Dietricha Bonhoeffera) .
The house and its use
The seminary used rented rooms in the former von Katte'schen manor house (Waldstrasse 5). A private boarding school had previously been housed here, which had to be closed as part of the Nazi school policy. From this time there was still a gym; A modern wing was added to the old building of the manor house. This mansion was a two-storey plastered building on a rectangular base. The central projection on the courtyard side marked the main entrance, which was shaded on both sides by large trees. The premises were unsuitable for use as a seminar and also structurally in poor condition. On the first floor there was a central room with a fireplace that served as a lounge. This fireplace room was furnished by Bonhoeffer with changing Rembrandt drawings. The dining room and classroom were on either side. The dormitory was upstairs. Furniture and books came together through donations. Bonhoeffer himself took care of the basic stock of the seminar library. There was a music room with two Bechstein grand pianos.
In the gym, the candidates set up their chapel under the guidance of Wilhelm Groß . Above the altar, they wrote the Greek word HAPAX, "once and for all", in gold letters on the wall. With this motto one referred to the Christology of the Barmen Theological Declaration and distinguished oneself from the German Christians . Groß also contributed the binding of the altar Bible and the wooden sculpture of a prophet for the chapel.
Everyday life was spartan even according to the terms of the time. All candidates shared a large dormitory on the first floor. There were 25 beds in two rows. You had to bring your own laundry; There was a locker in the hallway for everyone to provide private storage space. The small bedrooms from the time it was used as a boarding school, on the other hand, were set up as workrooms for three people each with desks and shelves. Those who joined the community founded by Bonhoeffer, the “Brother House”, moved into one of the single rooms on the ground floor of the new building, which were even equipped with washing facilities. Bonhoeffer lived in his own room above the garage.
Seminary
The Old Prussian Brother Council held a total of five seminars for preachers: in Wuppertal-Elberfeld , Bielefeld-Sieker , Bloestau , Naumburg / Queis and Finkenwalde.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was employed by the Brother Council as director of the Finkenwalder seminar, Wilhelm Rott as study inspector. (After the fourth course, Rott left and Fritz Onnasch took over this task.) Most of the seminarians came from Berlin-Brandenburg, some also from Pomerania, East Prussia and the province of Saxony .
The curriculum included the usual subjects: homiletics , catechetics , pastoral care, liturgy, “ministry and church”. Rott taught catechetics, as well as the Heidelberg catechism . Bonhoeffer reserved homiletics and also offered a seminar on succession . The book of the same name originated from his lecture manuscripts and was completed on August 26, 1937, and was then available in print for Advent 1937.
Brother house
The brother house was a community founded by Bonhoeffer, which was to live continuously in the seminary and to cultivate a spiritual life (vita communis) . Bonhoeffer applied for the exemption of interested young theologians on September 6, 1935. The founding members were Joachim Kanitz , Winfried Maechler , Albrecht Schönherr , Horst Lekszas (fallen), Fritz Onnasch, and Eberhard Bethge . Later other brothers belonged to this convent: Willi Brandenburg (fallen), Richard Grunow, Karl Ferdinand Müller , Horst Thurmann , Otto Karl Lerche (fallen) and Paul Wilder (fallen).
Finkenwalder seminarians
In addition to the members of the Brother House mentioned, the following theologians, among others, were trained in Finkenwalde: Otto Dudzus , Gerhard Ebeling , Erich Klapproth, Werner Koch .
closure
The end of all training institutions of the Confessing Church came with a decree of the Reichsführer SS , dated August 29, 1937, which was initially not known. The semester in Finkenwalde ended according to plan on September 8th and the house was almost empty after that. Study inspector Onnasch accepted the closure order from the Secret State Police on September 28, 1938. She sealed the house. As it was not possible to initiate an overhaul, the lease had to be terminated on December 1, 1937. The Finkenwalder confessional community held its meetings in the building for two more years.
Web links
- Szczecin right bank of the Oder / Prawobrzeze.eu: Historical photos of manor house, seminary, chapel
literature
- Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A biography. 3. Edition. Chr. Kaiser, Munich 1970.
- Charles Marsh: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The transfigured stranger. A biography. Gütersloh publishing house, Gütersloh 2015.
- Wolfgang Seehaber: Bonhoeffer and Bethge: the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Fontis, Basel 2016.
- Karl Martin (Ed.): Bonhoeffer in Finkenwalde. Letters, sermons, texts from the church struggle against the Nazi regime 1935–1942 (study edition) fenestra, Wiesbaden / Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-9813498-8-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 639-640 .
- ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 535 .
- ↑ Eberhard Bethge: Dietrich Bonhoeffer . S. 660-661 .
Coordinates: 53 ° 22 ′ 35.9 ″ N , 14 ° 37 ′ 19.7 ″ E