Friedrich Hofmann (Dean General)

Friedrich Hofmann

Friedrich Hofmann (born May 14, 1904 in Untersiemau , † June 16, 1965 in Bonn ) was a German military chaplain .

Life

As the son of a senior teacher, Hofmann attended the Casimirianum Coburg . After graduating from high school, he studied Protestant theology at the Friedrich Alexander University . He received his training at the Preachers' Seminar in Nuremberg . Like his brother Oskar in 1920, he became active in the Corps Bavaria Erlangen in 1923 . He was accepted on May 30, 1924. After nine scales inactivated , he moved to the University of Rostock , the University of Leipzig and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen . He returned to Erlangen for the winter semester of 1926/27. In 1927 he passed the exam for acceptance into the service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria . After a year at the Nuremberg Preacher Seminary, he was first vicar in Würzburg from 1928 to 1932 .

Inner mission

The Inner Mission Munich appointed him on October 1, 1931 to succeed Hans Meiser as the first clergyman. He held the office until 1945 and was entrusted with the care of non-Aryan Christians. On May 1, 1933, he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party . After the Reichspogromnacht Hofmann Meiser asked for the establishment of an aid center for " Jewish Christians ", so that two aid centers were set up in succession, in Nuremberg with Hans-Werner Jordan and in Munich with Johannes Zwanzger in the rooms of the Inner Mission. In September 1938 he was appointed by Hans Meiser as a shop steward for the Grüber office. Together with Johannes Zwanzger, he formed the Zwanzger-Hofmann office from January 1939 , which offered pastoral support on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church . After Johannes Zwanzger was drafted into the Wehrmacht in October 1941, he took over Zwanzger's work together with Leonhard Henninger.

post war period

In the denazification , the tribunal procedure classified him as "exonerated". In 1946 he became rector of the mother house for ecclesiastical diaconia , which he had founded, and at the same time pastor of the Paul Gerhardt Church in Laim . Since 1952 a church councilor , he was elected senior of the chapter in 1956 by the Munich pastors.

See also : Hans Meiser (Bishop)

armed forces

After founding the Bundeswehr , Hofmann joined the military chaplaincy service (Bundeswehr) on July 1, 1957 . He was introduced to the Federal Ministry of Defense on December 5, 1957 by military bishop Hermann Kunst as Dean General. As such, he headed the Evangelical Church Office for the Bundeswehr in Bad Godesberg. The entire evangelical military pastoral care was subordinate to him. At the 4th general conference in Ratzeburg he said:

"In the case of military chaplaincy, we see ourselves in the peculiar situation that the church launched this work in a synod with - as the saying goes - an overwhelming majority - and that from the same moment on the right to exist of this young work was questioned, yes we are faced with an organized resistance. "

- Friedrich Hofmann (1959)

When he died at the age of 61, the first funeral service took place in the Heilandkirche in Mehlem . Bishop Kunst, Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel and the Catholic Vicar General Martin Gritz spoke . A parade of honor and a band of music from the Bundeswehr accompanied the coffin from the church. The burial was on June 21, 1965 in the forest cemetery (Munich) . Bishop Kunst, Oberkirchenrat Heinrich Riedel for the regional church council, Major General Karl Herzog , church councilor Leonhard Henniger as successor to Hofmann at the Inner Mission and the Catholic Dean General Georg Werthmann held eulogies . Hofmann's successor in Bonn was Albrecht von Mutius .

Honors

At the Diakoniewerk in Hohenbrunn , Friedrich-Hofmann-Strasse commemorates him. In April 2011, a plaque was unveiled on the building of the parish office in Munich for the appreciation of the work of the Zwanzger-Hofmann office .

literature

• Helmut Baier: Charity under the swastika . Association for Bavarian Church History, 2008, p. 39 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 12/567
2. ↑ Helmut Baier: Charity under the swastika: the Inner Mission Munich in the time of National Socialism . Association for Bavarian Church History, 2008, ISBN 978-3-940803-03-0 , p. 21 ( google.de [accessed on June 18, 2020]).
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Corps newspaper of Bavaria Erlangen No. 201 from November 1965.
4. ^ ^{A b} Peter Zahn: Help for Jews in Munich: Annemarie and Rudolf Cohen and the Quakers 1938–1941 . Walter de Gruyter, 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-73591-8 , p. 7 ( google.de [accessed June 18, 2020]).
5. ↑ Berndt Hamm, Harry Oelke, Gury Schneider-Ludorff: Scope of action and memory: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and National Socialism . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010, ISBN 978-3-647-55768-7 , p. 103 ( google.de [accessed June 18, 2020]).
6. ↑ Inner Mission Munich
7. ↑ ^{a b} Armin Rudi Kitzmann: "To be my brother's guardian" . Journal for Bavarian Church History, 80, 2011, p. 396.
8. ↑ Berndt Hamm, Harry Oelke, Gury Schneider-Ludorff: Scope of action and memory: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and National Socialism . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010, ISBN 978-3-647-55768-7 , p. 125 ( google.de [accessed June 18, 2020]).
9. ↑ Armin Rudi Kitzmann: "To be my brother's guardian" . Journal for Bavarian Church History, 80, 2011, p. 395.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Armin Rudi Kitzmann: "To be my brother's guardian" . Journal for Bavarian Church History, 80, 2011, p. 397.
11. ↑ Klaus Steuber: Military pastoral care in the Federal Republic of Germany: an investigation into the relationship between state and church . Matthias Grünewald Verlag, 1972, ISBN 978-3-7867-0382-2 , p. 172 ( google.de [accessed June 18, 2020]).
12. ^ Frank Nägler : The Bundeswehr 1955 to 2005: Flashbacks - Insights - Perspectives (2007) p. 166.