Friedrich Happich

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Friedrich Happich, full name Karl Friedrich Theodor Julius Happich ; occasionally Fritz Happich (born August 14, 1883 in Speckswinkel , † April 4, 1951 in Treysa ) was a German Protestant pastor , director in Hephata and, as chairman of the regional church committee, temporarily head of the Evangelical regional church Kurhessen-Waldeck .

Life

On August 14, 1883, Friedrich Happich was born in Speckswinkel near Neustadt (Hessen) as the fourth son of the pastor (and later superintendent of the diocese of Upper Hesse) Theodor Happich and his wife. The only sister was born eleven years later, the doctor Carl Happich was his brother. He spent the first few years in his birthplace before the family moved to Cappel near Marburg . After attending primary school in town, he was accepted into the Philippsgymnasium in Marburg in 1895 .

After graduating from high school, he studied theology in Marburg, Leipzig and Tübingen from 1905 to 1909 . He was particularly influenced by the church historian Albert Hauck , the Old Testament scholar Rudolf Kittel , the systematists Ludwig Ihmels and Wilhelm Herrmann and the New Testament scholar Adolf Schlatter . After the faculty examination in 1909 and the reception colloquium of the regional church in 1910, he worked as a private tutor on Rügen for a year . The following year, during his training in the preacher's seminary in Hofgeismar, the work with the old and frail people in the Hessian infirmary , which is on the same site, left a lasting impression. He spent a short time as a social welfare worker in Bethel . After the second theological exam and ordination , he took up his first position as an assistant pastor in Frankenau near Frankenberg . After meeting the founder and then head of the Hephata asylums , Hermann Schuchard, he took over the second pastoral position there, which had been set up to relieve Schuchard. He began his service on April 1, 1913 and married his wife Annemarie, a daughter of Paul Natorp , on April 21 . They had two children.

Services

In 1923, after the death of Hermann Schuchard, he took over the position of head and later director, which he held until his retirement in 1951.

In 1933 he joined the German Christians , but left them again the following year.

In 1935 he was elected chairman of the regional church committee, a governing body that had been set up by the Nazi state after the electoral church leadership was dismissed in 1934 and a provisional leadership was appointed to pacify the situation. So he was (part-time) effectively the head of the regional church. Attempts to make him a regional pastor and thus also a legal spiritual leader failed due to resistance from representatives of the Confessing Church . In 1937 Happich was one of those who signed the declaration of the 96 Protestant church leaders against Alfred Rosenberg because of his writing Protestant Rome Pilgrims . Happich led the regional church until 1945.

By unanimous decision of the Brothers Council of the Hessian Brethren House in Hephata, of which Happich was a member, the deacon who had converted from Judaism to Christianity and a member of the Brotherhood Richard Altschul was advised to resign from the Brotherhood and the German Deaconry immediately. Altschul was arrested in 1942, first interned in Breitenau and finally murdered in Auschwitz in 1943 .

From 1937 and in the following years, about 385 residents from Hephata were taken to other facilities and finally murdered, many of them in Hadamar in Hesse . The complete dissolution of Hephatas was prevented.

At the emergency synod of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck, called in September 1945, a new church constitution was passed, according to which a bishop leads the church. Happich was elected the first president of the regional synod . He held this post until his death in 1951.

Current discussion

Happich's role in National Socialism has been the subject of controversial discussion for a long time. In the monograph by Katharina Stengel published in 2016, he is held to be very close to National Socialism.

In June 2018, Treysaer Happichstraße was renamed Richard-Altschul-Straße.

Works

Selection of the works published under the name Fritz Happich :

  • The male diakonia . Hessian Brothers House, Treysa 1931.
  • The Hessian Brethren House and its Institutions Hephata . Treysa 1946.

literature

  • Jochen Cornelius-Bundschuh , Lydia Laucht: Giving faith a memory. Life pictures from the church history of Kurhessen-Waldeck (= Monographia Hassiae . Volume 25). Edited by Michael Dorhs. Evangelical Media Association, Kassel 2007, ISBN 978-3-89477-871-2 .
  • Gerhard Schmerbach: "What position do you now take between the fronts?" D. Friedrich Happich (1883–1951): Life and experience between Wilhelm II and Adenauer . Hephata Hessisches Diakoniezentrum, Schwalmstadt-Treysa 2001, ISBN 3-9807494-9-5 .
  • Katharina Stengel: National Socialism in the Schwalm 1930-1939 . Schüren, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-89472-298-2 .
  • Margarete Trost: Friedrich Happich 1883–1951 . Self-published, 1983.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Schmerbach: “What position do you now take between the fronts?” D. Friedrich Happich (1883–1951): Life and experience between Wilhelm II and Adenauer . Hephata Hessisches Diakoniezentrum, Schwalmstadt-Treysa 2001, ISBN 3-9807494-9-5 , p. 34 .
  2. ↑ Martin Hein : Setting the course for the Protestant Church in the 19th and 20th centuries. Contributions to church history and church order. de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, pp. 71–74.
  3. ↑ Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze (Ed.): Ecumenical Yearbook 1936–1937 . Max Niehans, Zurich 1939, pp. 240–247.
  4. ↑ Katharina Stengel: National Socialism in the Schwalm 1930-1939 . Schüren, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-89472-298-2 .
  5. ↑ Bernd Lindenthal: Former Hephata leader Friedrich Happich was an avowed National Socialist. Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine, October 27, 2016, accessed on November 19, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Sylke Grede: In memory of the deacon murdered in Auschwitz: Renaming of Happichstrasse to Treysa. Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine, January 12, 2018, accessed on July 5, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Happich, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Happich, Karl Friedrich Theodor Julius (full name); Happich, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Speck Angle
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 1951
Place of death Treysa