Friedrich Langensiepen

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Friedrich Langensiepen (born November 29, 1897 in Herzogenrath , North Rhine-Westphalia ; † May 6, 1975 in Rheinbach , North Rhine-Westphalia) was a Protestant pastor and member of the Rhenish Brother Council of the Confessing Church .

Friedrich Langensiepen (1971)

Life

Langensiepen was the first son of three children of the Lutheran pastor Johannes Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Langensiepen and his wife Anna Wilhelmine, née Kessler, - both from Elberfeld - who worked in Herzogenrath, Liège and most recently on the Saar in St. Johann , Ottweiler and Dirmingen .

Langensiepen graduated from secondary school in 1916 at the Wendalinum grammar school in St. Wendel . He then took part in the First World War from 1916 to 1918 . From 1918 to 1922 he studied theology in Göttingen, Bonn, Tübingen and Bethel . He made his first theological exam in 1923 and became vicar in Düsseldorf. His second theological exam and his ordination followed in 1924. He then worked as an assistant preacher in Walsum-Aldenrade in 1924/25 and in Andernach in 1925/26 . In 1925 he married Hildegard Elisabeth Hommel in Ottweiler. The couple had five children.

Langensiepen was pastor from 1926 to 1939 in Gödenroth / Hunsrück in the church district of Simmern-Trarbach . In 1934 he was appointed to the Rhenish Brother Council of the Confessing Church . In December 1937 he was arrested and charged in a special court case for refusing to make church collections. The trial ended in an acquittal.

From August to October 1939 Langensiepen took part in World War II. He was 1940-1945 through the Rhenish Consistory of the Church in -waiting added. Langensiepen was BK student pastor and city mission inspector in Bonn from 1940 to 1944, and from 1941 to 1945 he was a part-time pastor in the prison in Siegburg.

After the war, Langensiepen was pastor in Saarbrücken -St. From 1946 to 1950 . Johann. In 1950 he was given leave of absence and dismissed from church service in order to take over the civil service. From 1951 to 1962 he worked as a pastor in the civil service in the prison in Rheinbach .

aims

In his entire life, Friedrich Langensiepen saw his task as a pastor, pastor and preacher in conveying the credibility of God's word consistently and uncompromisingly in accordance with his ordination vows, i.e. not only to consider it true and right and to preach it, but also in that To implement life. The credibility of his own life and actions could therefore not be separated from this objective. He made the same expectation of all other persons and positions in the church service who had the same task. So he constantly asked the question of the credibility of the Evangelical Church . (see web link) This endeavor repeatedly led to conflicts, which for the most part were associated with considerable risks and dangers for his own life and his family.

Another goal was the development of mature church congregations , which guarantee an orderly coexistence under God's word and sacrament on their own responsibility under their own leadership. He saw his own task as pastor in preaching and counseling.

Conflicts

Personal commitment to individual people

Special mention should be made here:

  • His attempt, together with his official brother Karl Ippach from Baden-Baden during the time of the persecution of the Jews, to bring Jews across the Swiss border, which failed because of the rejection by Switzerland.
  • His repeated commitment to political prisoners from Holland in the Siegburg penitentiary by bringing in drugs and food in violation of the prohibition in a way that sustains life.
  • His personal help in connection with the arrests of Paul Schneider until he was murdered in the Buchenwald concentration camp. At his funeral in Dickenschied, Friedrich Langensiepen held a devotion to his confirmation saying “I was born for this and came into the world that I should testify for the truth. He who is of the truth hears my voice. ” Joh 18,37  NIV

Parish of Gödenroth

With the increasing influence and the growing power of National Socialism, the almost exclusively Protestant village split into two camps. Half of them remained loyal to their parish and pastor. Even when he and his family got into trouble because of a wage freeze, this group ensured that the family was fed, although this was forbidden and had to be done in secret. The other half joined National Socialism less out of ideological convictions. Rather, she promised herself personal advantages and power in the village. This group caused constant threats and harassment as well as denunciations and complaints to the church consistory and agencies of the state's Nazi party. The conflict ended when the pastor was put on hold by the consistory. The waiting period was announced by the Rhenish consistory in a letter dated June 26, 1939; on March 1, 1940, the waiting period took place with effect from April 1, 1940.

Parish Saarbrücken-St. Johann

After the end of the Second World War and the associated end of National Socialism, the church leadership canceled the 1940 waiting period. Langensiepen was given a pastor's position in Saarbrücken-St. Johann assigned. His efforts to build a congregation here in the sense mentioned under goals failed due to the resistance of the presbytery, despite attempts by the church leadership to mediate. In mutual agreement, Langensiepen was removed from the service of the Ev. Church in the Rhineland released into civil service, where he took over pastoral care at the prison in Rheinbach until his retirement.

Confessing Church

In 1934 Langensiepen was appointed to the Rhenish Brother Council, the governing body of the Confessing Church. Here, too, there was persistent dissent about the goals of this body for the Church. This dissent becomes clear in a quote from a memorandum submitted by Langensiepen in 1936:

“It is not to be expected that the Confessing Church will pursue the separation of the church from the state. On the contrary, it worries about your position as a corporation under public law and about its church tax law. Because these points should be spared from the church struggle, the position of the BK denoted by 'Dahlem' has become depressed and untenable. "

Since there was no possibility of an agreement on this point, Langensiepen initially resigned his offices in 1939. He took it up again when the Synod of the Confessing Church gave its congregations the way to continue to exist as a free church.

Nazi state

It would be wrong to see Langensiepen only or mainly as a resistance fighter against National Socialism. However, he constantly made sure that the state did not intervene in areas within the church . He also refused to ring the church bells on Hitler's birthday or to flag the church for non-church reasons. He also refused to take the oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. In addition, he has repeatedly pointed out in his sermons when propagandistic promises of salvation or other statements by the state contradicted the testimony of the Bible. B. his sermons in Israel in 1933 (see web link)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Data 2005 from Christian Langensiepen, Erkrath
  2. ^ Margarete Schneider: Paul Schneider. The preacher from Buchenwald . New edition, edited by Elsa-Ulrike Ross and Paul Dieterich. SCM Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-7751-4996-9 . P. 406.
  3. ^ Günther van Norden: Friedrich Langensiepen ; P. 240, 265.
    Simone Rauthe: “Sharp opponents” ; P. 91

Web link

personal data
SURNAME Langensiepen, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Langensiepen, Fritz; Langensiepen, Friedrich Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor and member of the Brotherhood of the Confessing Church
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Herzogenrath , North Rhine-Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1975
Place of death Rheinbach , North Rhine-Westphalia