Fritz Zerbst

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Fritz Zerbst (completely Fritz Wilhelm Erich Zerbst, born January 14, 1909 in Schubin ( Province of Posen , now Poland ), † December 2, 1994 in Baden near Vienna ) was an Austrian Lutheran theologian. He was the first superintendent of the diocese AB Carinthia-East Tyrol and later professor for practical theology at the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Vienna .

Childhood, youth, studies

Zerbst came from a Lutheran family that was shaped by the Reformed tradition of the Church of the Old Prussian Union . He first attended high school in Wongrowitz . After the First World War and the incorporation of Schubin into Poland, he moved to Görlitz (Silesia). After graduating from high school and doing a bank apprenticeship, he attended the pedagogy in Züllichau , which he completed in 1930.

After he had initially set up his studies very broadly, studying philosophy , economics , animal psychology and theology at the universities of Berlin , Marburg and Vienna , he concentrated on theology after the sudden death of his father. In March 1934 he passed the pro candidatura exam in Vienna.

Pastoral care

Zerbst initially worked as vicar in the Transfiguration Church in Vienna- Leopoldstadt . Together with Helmut Gollwitzer he led a vicar circle.

Zerbst renounced German citizenship in 1934 and took Austrian citizenship. This is a sign of distancing oneself from National Socialism . In 1936 he married the lawyer Maria Babisch, passed the examen pro ministerio and was elected pastor of the Evangelical Parish Church in Weißbriach . The ordination and installation took place on June 14, 1936 by superintendent Johannes Heinzelmann . He had four children with his wife.

Outside of his community he took over the chairmanship of the Carinthian Gustav Adolf Association and was responsible for the vicars and candidates. In 1939 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht for a time, but was able to work as a Wehrmacht pastor in Lienz from 1943 to 1945 . In contrast to many of his colleagues in office, he was always considered an opponent of National Socialism.

In 1940 he entered into an official theological dissertation entitled Office and Women in the Church from which he could but submit only after the war, so he was only on 11 December 1945 a doctor of theology doctorate was. In his dissertation he advocated the inadmissibility of the ordination of women . In the years to come it was a support for the arguments of conservative Lutheranism and was also translated into English.

After 1945 Zerbst was involved in the care and integration of the ethnic German refugees, many of whom were Protestant.

On April 28, 1946, Zerbst was elected Superintendent of Carinthia . As early as 1942 it had been decided to divide the great superintendent Vienna , to which Carinthia also belonged, into four superintendent, but only after the war the time came. However, the recognition by the Office of Culture was delayed until 1947, so that the inauguration could only take place on Ascension Day, May 15, 1947.

An important concern for Zerbst was to anchor the Protestant Church in the public consciousness, so he repeatedly claimed the presence of the second regional church at public events. Zerbst was also active in diakonia , was also president of the Diakonisches Werk Österreich from 1956 to 1972 and vice-president of the international association for internal mission and diakonia from 1958 to 1972.

Under Zerbst there were a number of church plantings that were necessary because of the increase in Protestant Christians in Carinthia, especially because of the ethnic Germans who settled here.

In 1952 his wife Maria died. He then married the theologian Christiane de Martin, with whom he had a daughter.

Professor in Vienna

In 1955 Zerbst was appointed professor for practical theology at the University of Vienna. Gerhard Glawischnig succeeded him as superintendent in 1956 after a year of double function . As a professor, he had to represent all sub-disciplines of practical theology, homiletics, liturgy, catechetics, pastoral care, religious history, diaconal studies, ecumenics and missiology. Only in the teaching of the clergy (cybernetics) was he supported by the lecturer for canon law, Johann Karl Egli . As a result, he shaped the clergy of the Evangelical Church in the spirit of conservative Lutheranism for 20 years.

He was repeatedly elected Dean of the Faculty and was a member of the Academic Senate for eight years. In 1969/70 he was rector of the university and at the same time chairman of the Austrian rectors' conference. He was only the second Protestant theologian in the role of rector.

In 1976 he retired prematurely for health reasons and retired to Tschöran ( Steindorf am Ossiacher See ). He received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class, the Golden Medal of Honor of the Federal Capital Vienna (both 1979), and in 1990 the Great Medal of Honor for special services to the state of Carinthia. In the 1980s he moved to Baden near Vienna, where he died on December 2, 1994. He was buried at the Villach forest cemetery.

Publications (selection)

  • From the clergy , Vienna 1948.
  • The office of women in the Church. A practical theological investigation , Vienna 1950.
  • Confirmation booklet , Schladming 1951.
  • with Gottfried Fitzer : God's word about marriage and family. Public lectures at the General Synod , 1956.

literature

  • Hans-Christoph Schmidt-Lauber (Ed.): Theologia Scientia eminens practica. Fritz Zerbst on his 70th birthday , Freiburg 1979.
  • Johannes Dantine : Fritz Zerbst - memories of a theologian of the Protestant Church in Austria , in: Yearbook of the Society for the History of Protestantism in Austria 115 (1999), pp. 142–156.

supporting documents

personal data
SURNAME Zerbst, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zerbst, Fritz Wilhelm Erich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Lutheran theologian and university rector
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Schubin , Poznan Province, now Poland
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 1994
Place of death Baden near Vienna