Georg Bertram (theologian)

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Georg Bertram (born March 14, 1896 in Charlottenburg , † January 4, 1979 in Wetzlar ) was a German Protestant theologian and professor for the New Testament .

Life

Bertram studied after reaching the university Protestant theology and became a priest ordained . At first he was a military chaplain. After the presentation of a dissertation on a topic from the field of New Testament he became Doctor of Protestant Theology doctorate . In 1925 he received a professorship in Giessen . He took over the völkisch - nationalist positions and joined the NS teacher association and the NS lecturer association . In an essay on the "Enlightenment about the Jewish question " he wrote in 1943 a. a .: "As long as Judaism existed, the peoples ... resisted Jewish parasitism." In 1939 he declared his collaboration with the Institute for Research and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life , of which he took over the scientific management in 1943.

The institute was closely related to other scientific institutions that had committed to researching the opponents of the racially-oriented Nazi policy, such as the Reich Institute for the History of New Germany with a department for Jewish research, in which the Tübingen New Testament scholar Gerhard Kittel and the later Heidelberger New Testament scholar and Qumran researcher Karl Georg Kuhn were actively anti-Semitic, and the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question in Frankfurt. The institute saw itself as part of this scientific commitment (“fight”) on an explicitly racial-biological basis (influence from Hans FK Günther ). Bertram succeeded Walter Grundmann . The aims of the above-mentioned cooperating institution were: the “elimination of Judaism” and the “ final solution to the Jewish question ”. To what extent Bertram was informed about the murder of the Jews of Europe cannot be determined with certainty. In any case, Bertram was informed in detail about the escalating disenfranchisement, ghettoization and "resettlement" of European Jewry through the reports in the magazine Weltkampf (from 1941 the quarterly scientific journal of the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question).

Bertram wrote in the institute's report in March 1944: "" This war is the fight of Judaism against Europe. "This sentence contains a truth that is constantly being confirmed in the institute's research. This work is not only geared towards a frontal attack, but also to the consolidation of the inner front for attack and defense against all the secret Judaism and Jewish beings that have seeped into Western culture over the centuries (...) so it has Institute in addition to researching and eliminating Jewish influence, the positive task and knowledge of one's own Germanic Christian character and the shaping of pious German life on the basis of this knowledge. "

From today's perspective it is astonishing that after 1945 Bertram initially wanted the Thuringian regional church to continue the institute , but this did not succeed. Since 1947 he was pastor again and since 1955 lecturer for theological subjects at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

In the Soviet occupation zone , Bertram's Christ for Us (1937), and in the German Democratic Republic his nationality and humanity in the light of Holy Scripture (1937) were placed on the list of literature to be segregated.

Works

Own works

  • Theological theses ... for the acquisition of the degree of licentiate in theology ; Berlin, (1921)
  • The passion of Jesus and the cult of Christ. A formal historical investigation ; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1922
  • New Testament and Historical Method. Significance and limits of historical tasks in New Testament research ; Tübingen: JCB Mohr, 1928
  • People and State in the New Testament. In: People. Country. Church. A course of the theological faculty in Giessen. Publishing house by Alfred Töpelmann, Giessen 1933.
  • Imperial Church and Confession ; Darmstadt: Evangelical Church in Nassau-Hessen, 1935
  • Nationality and humanity in the light of Scripture ; Bonn: Bonn University's printing press, 1937
  • Christ for us. The Christ testimony of the New Testament in the work and suffering of Jesus ; Bonn: Bonn University's printing press, 1937

As editor and co-author

  • Georg Bertram (ed.): The Academic-Theological Association of Giessen in the Schmalkalden cartel on the occasion of its 50th foundation day ; Leipzig: JC Hinrichs, 1930
  • Georg Rosen: Jews and Phoenicians. Ancient Judaism as a missionary religion and the emergence of the Jewish diaspora ; revised and expanded by Friedrich Rosen and Georg Bertram; Tübingen: JCB Mohr, 1929
  • Hans Schmidt, Georg Bertram, Heinrich Frick, Leopold Cordier : From the Giessen university church service: 4 sermons ; Giessen: A. Töpelmann, 1927

literature

  • Oliver Arnhold: "Entjudung" - Kirche im Abgrund, vol. 2. The "Institute for Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life" 1939–1945 (Studies on Church and Israel 25/2), Berlin 2010, p. 745-749, 788f., 852f.
  • Jochen Birkenmeier, Michael Weise: Research and Elimination. The church “Entjudungsinstitut” 1939–1945. Volume accompanying the exhibition (publications by the Lutherhaus Eisenach Foundation 4), 2nd, reviewed and expanded Ed., Eisenach 2020, pp. 47, 58, 62, 64f.
  • Elimination of Jewish influence ... ": anti-Semitic research, elites and careers under National Socialism; [Yearbook 1998/99 on the history and effects of the Holocaust] / Fritz Bauer Institute (publisher), Darmstadt 1999 (yearbook ... on history and effects of the Holocaust; 1998/99), p. 158.
  • Almut Rütten: "Hellenization of the Semitic Old Testament" and "Christianization of the Jewish holy book". On the determination of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism in Georg Bertram , in: Wolfram Kurz, Rainer Smiling, Gerhard Schmalenberg (eds.): Crises and upheavals in the history of Christianity (Gießener Schriften zur Theologie und Religionspädagogik 9), Gießen 1994, p. 107– 122.
  • Rolf Seeliger: Brown University ; German university professors yesterday and today 3; Munich 1965.
  • Michael Weise: Commitment to an "Aryan Church". How two scientists from Giessen wanted to "free" Christianity from all Jewish influences , in: Giessener Anzeiger , June 19, 2020, p. 19.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich ; Frankfurt / Main 2003; P. 44.
  2. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer: We went astray ; Cologne 1987; P. 150.
  3. ↑ Oliver Arnhold: "Entjudung" - Kirche im Abgrund, vol. 2. The "Institute for Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life" 1939–1945 (Studies on Church and Israel 25/2), Berlin 2010, p 788f.
  4. ↑ "Elimination of Jewish Influence ..." Anti-Semitic Research, Elites and Careers under National Socialism; P. 158.
  5. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-b.html
  6. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1953-nslit-b.html
personal data
SURNAME Bertram, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and university professor for the New Testament
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Charlottenburg
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 1979
Place of death Wetzlar