Fritz year

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Paul Max Fritz Jahr (born January 18, 1895 in Halle (Saale) ; † October 1, 1953 there ) was a German theologian , pastor and teacher in Halle and is considered the founder of bioethics .

Life

His father Gustav Maximilian Jahr (1865–1930) was an insurance agent. In 1892 he married Auguste Marie Langrock (1862–1921), who later became Fritz Jahr's mother. From 1901 to 1905 Fritz Jahr attended middle school and from 1905 upper secondary school, both of which belonged to the Francke Foundations . He graduated from high school at Easter 1914, and then took additional exams in Latin and Greek in 1915. From 1914, Jahr studied eight semesters in Halle , initially mainly philosophy, but also music, history and economics. From 1915 to 1919 he then concentrated on theology, in which he took the first exam in 1919 and the second in 1921. During the summer of 1915, Jahr volunteered for the war and was deployed as a gunner in the Mansfeld Field Artillery Regiment No. 75 from May to August 1915.

Jahr began teaching as early as 1917. From 1917 to 1925 he worked at various schools. From 1925, Jahr was active in church work. The first four years he was vicar of the St. Johanniskirche in Dieskau. This was followed by a job in Braunsdorf from 1929 to 1930. Until 1933 he was a pastor in Kanena.

On April 26, 1932, Fritz Jahr married Berta Elise Neuholz (1899–1947), a worker from Bludau. She was the daughter of the teacher Franz Hermann Neuholz (1867–1903). Elise and Fritz Jahr had no children. They lived in Jahr's parents' house at Albert-Schmidt-Strasse 8, which Jahr's parents had moved into in 1913 and which he lived in until his death in 1953.

On March 1, 1933, Jahr retired at his own request due to his health condition as a result of a long illness and from then on worked sporadically both as a teacher and irregularly in church service in various Halle communities. Jahr became a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association in 1934 and published numerous articles between 1933 and 1945, including in the clearly anti-Semitic monthly of the Bible Association According to the Law and Testimony . The Jahr family suffered financial hardship during the Second World War. This worsened the condition of Jahr's wife Berta, who suffered from spinal sclerosis, which made her dependent on a wheelchair.

After the war ended, Jahr was appointed a teacher at a new middle school. He had already joined the labor movement two weeks earlier. His application to the rector of the University of Halle went unanswered. In October 1946, together with other pastors, Jahr signed an appeal for the election of the SED. In his last years he worked as a music teacher.

Fritz Jahr died of a stroke on October 1, 1953 at 10 a.m., presumably caused by high blood pressure.

plant

In 1926 Fritz Jahr wrote the essay “Science of Life and Morals” and in it established the concept and idea of ​​bioethics. By bioethics, Jahr understood the extension of moral consideration to animals and plants and the bioethical imperative: “Basically respect every living being as an end in itself and treat it as such, if possible!” May and Sass comment on this in the afterword to the Fritz Jahr edition ( 2012, Lit-Verlag, Berlin) as follows: "[A] n the place of the rational moral categorical commandment in Kant, Jahr sets the morally weighing command on the basis of reverence for the bios, the world of all life."

However, Jahr did not only deal with bioethics. He also thought about sexual enlightenment ("Paths to sexual ethos", ethics. Sexual and social ethics. 1928, 4 (10/11): 161–163), about technical progress and how to deal with and understand Children (“child and technology”, ethics, sexual and social ethics).

Fonts (selection)

  • Science of Life and Morals (1926)
  • Bio ethics. A survey of the ethical relationships between humans and animals and plants (1927)
  • Death and the animals. A reflection on the 5th commandment (1928)
  • Paths to the Sexual Ethos (1928)
  • A dictatorship of opinion or freedom of thought? Thoughts on a liberal organization of the teaching of mindsets (1930)
  • Life After Death (1930)
  • Sunday - a secular holiday. A consideration of Article 10 of the draft constitution (1947)

literature

  • Florian Steger : Fritz Jahr - founder of bioethics (1926). 22 original works by the Protestant theologian from Halle (Saale). Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale) 2014, ISBN 978-3-86977-103-8 .
  • Florian Steger , Jan C. Joerden, Maximilian Schochow (eds.): 1926 - The birth of bioethics in Halle (Saale) by the Protestant theologian Fritz Jahr (1895–1953). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-631-64110-1 .
  • Amir Muzur, Hans-Martin Sass (Ed.): Fritz Jahr and the Foundations of Global Bioethics. Lit, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-90112-5 .
  • Arnd T. May, Hans-Martin Sass (Ed.): Fritz Jahr. Essays on bioethics 1927–1947. Work edition. Lit, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-11812-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Florian Steger : Fritz Jahr (1895–1953). A biographical sketch. In: Florian Steger, Jan C. Joerden , Maximilian Schochow (eds.): 1926 - The birth of bioethics in Halle (Saale) by the Protestant theologian Fritz Jahr (1895–1953). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-631-64110-1 , pp. 15-36.
  2. ↑ a b c d Arnd T. May, Hans-Martin Sass (Ed.): Fritz Jahr. Essays on bioethics 1927–1947. Work edition. Lit, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-11812-7 .
  3. ↑ Iva Rinčić, Amir Muzur: Fritz year i rađanje Europske bioetike. Pergamena, Zagreb 2012, p. 141 (Croatian).
personal data
SURNAME Year, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Year, Paul Max Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, pastor and teacher, founder of bioethics
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1953
Place of death Halle (Saale)