Gerhard Brennecke

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Gerhard Brennecke (born January 5, 1916 in Halle an der Saale , † May 14, 1973 in Berlin ) was a German Protestant theologian , editor-in-chief and mission director.

Life

Gerhard Brennecke was born into a merchant family in Halle during the First World War and grew up in the city on the Saale. He was involved in the Student Union for Mission (SfM) . In 1938 he took part in the world conference of the International Mission Council in Tambaram , near Madras . After studying theology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and his vicariate , Brennecke was ordained on September 19, 1943 . He was assistant preacher of the Confessing Church in the ecclesiastical province of Saxony .

Career path in Berlin

After returning from the Second World War with a brief prisoner-of-war war in 1945, Brennecke became student pastor in travel service, mission inspector and in 1947 editor-in-chief of the church magazine Diezeichen der Zeit and then full-time director of the Berlin Mission Society .

Director of the Berlin Mission Society

Walter Braun , general superintendent from the Kurmark and member of the committee of the Berlin Mission , introduced Gerhard Brennecke in June 1949 to the office of mission director in the then church of the Berlin City Mission. In the position of director of the Berlin Mission Society, he succeeded Siegfried Knak (* 1875) and held a provincial church pastoral position at the Outer Mission . In 1954, the mission director organized a festive event on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the Berlin Mission Society in the garden of the Missionshaus in Georgenkirchstrasse with the participation of Berlin parishes and the Potsdam general superintendent Braun, who had worked for the Berlin Missionswerk for over 20 years, as well as the President of the Berlin Mission Society Karl Otto von Kameke .

From 1956 Brennecke was chairman of the Berlin Ecumenical Service and later director of the Ecumenical Missionary Office in Berlin. In addition, in the 1950s he was a lecturer in the theological faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin . His theme was the spread of Christianity and the development of the young churches. Until the construction of the Wall Brennecke had a sideline and at the Theological Seminary in Zehlendorf courses in Missiology performed. From 1961 he held courses at the Sprachenkonvikt in Berlin's Borsigstrasse, where the independent academic theologian training of the Protestant churches in the GDR took place.

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the missiologist at the University of Berlin D. Julius Richter in 1962, the Berliner Missionswerk held a memorial event under the direction of Mission Director Brennecke and honored him as a "decisive co-creator and pioneer of ecumenism". In January 1965, Brennecke and the regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony, Gottfried Noth, took part in the meeting of the central committee of the World Council of Churches in Enugu , Nigeria, and from February 8 to 17, 1966 at the central committee meeting in Geneva .

Synodal

At the same time he was a member of the EKD - Synod At the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany in March 1957 in the Johannesstift in Berlin-Spandau , Brennecke gave a lecture on the topic: Church and Diakonie in the Changed World.

Even before the founding of the GDR, the Protestant mission societies based in Berlin and the Eastern Zone commissioned him to represent their mission concerns to the chairman of the Conference of Eastern Regional and Regional Churches , Bishop Otto Dibelius .

Visiting trips in Africa

At the end of March 1950 he went on a visitation trip through South Africa . Before starting the trip, he gave a lecture in Berlin's Marienkirche with the title: “At the gates of South Africa” and was then bid farewell by Bishop Dibelius and former mission director Knak with a travel blessing. In 1951 he reported in the Marienkirche in Berlin about his more than one year stay in South and East Africa and then at the Anhalt State Mission Festival in Dessau . In 1954 Brennecke published his book Brothers in the Shadow about this trip .

At the Brandenburg Mission Conference of the Berlin-based Mission Societies , which was dedicated to missionary work in a changed world, Brennecke spoke about the message of the first All-African Lutheran Conference (AALC) , which took place in Marangu from November 12 to 22, 1955 .

In early 1958 he returned to Africa as a mission director. He visited Ghana and gave guest lectures at the University of Accra . In his home country he organized mission services as a pastor , for example in 1962 together with the cathedral preacher Julius Schneider (1926–1993) in the “crypt church” of the Berlin Cathedral, which was still partially destroyed at the time .

Editor-in-chief of "The Signs of the Times"

From 1947 to 1969 he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Diezeichen der Zeit , founded on his initiative and licensed by SMAD in December 1946, with the status of editor-in-chief. In this monthly for employees of the Protestant churches in the later GDR, editor-in-chief Brennecke, who not least also wrote the leading article, tried “to find answers to the world's questions from a Protestant perspective”.

More functions

In addition to his leading role as director of the Berlin Mission Society, he was appointed by the board of trustees of Dr. Lepsius-Deutsche-Orient-Mission (LDOM) was unanimously elected chairman and thus successor to Siegfried Knak (1875–1955), who had chaired this mission society since 1936 in personal union as mission director.

He was a member of the central committee of the World Council of Churches . For example, he took part in the deliberations in Geneva in 1966 together with the then Saxon regional bishop Gottfried Noth.

retirement

For health reasons, Brennecke had to apply for early retirement in 1968. He was director of the Berlin Mission for almost 20 years.

family

He was married to the theologian and lecturer Ursula Brennecke, née Teickner, (1914–1999). She taught at the Paulinum Theological Seminary in (East) Berlin. The marriage had three children: Almuth (* 1943), Hanns Christof (* 1947) and Michael (* 1948). Gerhard Brennecke found his final resting place in the state -owned Steglitz cemetery in Berlin-Steglitz , where the widow Ursula Brennecke was later buried in church. The tomb was extended for another ten years until 2030.

Honors

Brennecke received an honorary theological doctorate in 1960 from the Church University of Berlin-Zehlendorf . The general secretary of the World Council of Churches Philip Potter took during his visit to East Berlin in death Brenneckes at an afternoon service in the Berlin Bartholomäuskirche u. a. with Bishop Schönherr on June 3, 1973, in which the former director of the Berlin Mission Society was remembered. Philip Potter paid tribute to the work of the deceased, emphasizing that "an unexpected serious illness in 1966 prevented D. Brennecke from accepting an appointment as director of the studies department of the World Council".

Works (selection)

Authorship

  • The mission at the beginning. In: The miracle church among the peoples of the earth. Report on the World Mission Conference in Tambaram (South India) 1938. Ed .: Martin Schlunk. Stuttgart / Basel 1939, pp. 58-71; DNB 578443724
  • Church responsibility and journalistic freedom. In: Signs of the Times , born 1947.
  • Brothers in the shade. Berlin 1954; DNB 450613364
  • Sui generis: the extraordinary synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Berlin June 27-29 , 1956 in: Zeichen der Zeit (ZdZ), issue 8–9 / 1956, pp. 295–303
  • Peace must begin in hearts. Ecumenical action in the present. In: Neue Zeit , December 28, 1959, p. 4.
  • A word about the events in South Africa. In: Neue Zeit , April 15, 1960, pp. 1f.
  • The gate is open , Berlin 1961, DNB 450613402
  • Notes on a book by Martin Luther King. With illustrations by Martin Luther King and Brennecke. In: Neue Zeit , November 25, 1965, p. 3.
  • But for us, Lord, you will make peace; because everything we do, you did for us. Berlin 1966, DNB 573898057
  • The word of the Lord is true, and what he promises he will certainly keep. Berlin 1968; DNB 573898081
  • Hold fast to mercy and justice and always hope in your God. Berlin 1969; DNB 573898073
  • We do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as the Lord. Berlin 1971; DNB 573898103

Editing (selection)

Literature (selection)

  • Peter Paul Schwarz: Joint public. Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-525-55791-4 .
  • Michel Grunewald, Uwe Puschner (ed.): The Protestant intellectual milieu in Germany, its press and its networks (1871–1963). 2008, ISBN 978-3-03-911519-8 .
  • Jens Bulisch: Evangelical press in the GDR. “The signs of the times” (1947–1990). Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-525-55744-2 .
  • Günter Wirth : The signs of the times 1947 to 1979. Berlin 1981. DNB 820183547

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schwarz, Peter Paul: Mit public. On the German-German work of the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg. Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-525-55791-4 , p. 318.
  2. ↑ Michel Grunewald, Uwe Puschner (ed.): The Protestant intellectual milieu in Germany, its press and its networks (1871–1963). 2008, ISBN 978-3-03-911519-8 , p. 562.
  3. ^ Heinz Blauert : Church journalism in the GDR: "The signs of the times". In: hochschule ost, 4/1995, pp. (20–25) 20.
  4. ↑ Berliner Missionsberichte , Issue 2/4 1949, p. 48 DNB 012725358
  5. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg. Ed. Evangelisches Konsistorium Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1956, p. 341; DNB 010127313
  6. ↑ Neue Zeit, June 12, 1949, p. 5
  7. ^ Neue Zeit , July 1, 1954, p. 6
  8. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg. Ed .: Evangelisches Konsistorium Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1956, p. 342; DNB 014046814
  9. ↑ Neue Zeit , January 6, 1966, p. 3 [50. Birthday of D. Gerhard Brennecke]
  10. ↑ Christian Halbrock: Evangelical Pastor of the Berlin-Brandenburg Church 1945–1961. ISBN 3-936872-18-X , p. 125.
  11. ↑ Neue Zeit , December 22, 1951, p. 5.
  12. ^ Neue Zeit , February 23, 1962, p. 6
  13. ^ Neue Zeit, January 27, 1966, p. 6.
  14. ^ Neue Zeit , March 18, 1966, p. 3
  15. ↑ John Michael Wischnath: Church in action. The Evangelical Relief Organization 1945–1957 and its relationship to the Church and Inner Mission. Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-525-55714-0 , p. 435.
  16. ^ Neue Zeit , January 1, 1949, p. 2
  17. ^ Neue Zeit , March 19, 1950, p. 5
  18. ^ Neue Zeit , July 8, 1951, p. 3
  19. ^ Neue Zeit , October 11, 1951, p. 5
  20. ↑ DNB 450613364
  21. ↑ Vilmos Vajta (ed.): The Evangelical Lutheran Church. Past and present. Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 978-3-7715-0179-2 , p. 364
  22. ^ Neue Zeit , April 20, 1956, p. 6.
  23. ^ Neue Zeit , April 2, 1958, p. 3.
  24. ^ Neue Zeit , June 23, 1962, p. 10
  25. ↑ Jens Bulisch: Evangelical Press in the GDR. Göttingen 2006, p. 52.
  26. ^ Neue Zeit , February 1, 1958, p. 3
  27. ↑ 20 years of "Signs of the Times" by NZ editor Eberhard Klages (1930–1990), in: Neue Zeit , December 13, 1966, p. 2.
  28. ↑ history and development of LDOM, regional church archives Berlin: Dr. Johannes Lepsius German Mission to the Orient
  29. ^ Neue Zeit , January 14, 1956, p. 6.
  30. ^ Neue Zeit, January 6, 1966, p. 3.
  31. ^ Neue Zeit , February 10, 1966, p. 1
  32. ^ Neue Zeit , December 21, 1968, p. 5.
  33. ↑ Obituary notice. In: Berliner Zeitung , January 4, 2000, p. 15.
  34. ↑ According to the doctoral certificate in the possession of his son Hanns Christof Brennecke - Info from May 2, 2020 to Schudi 45
  35. ^ Neue Zeit , June 16, 1973, p. 5
personal data
SURNAME Brennecke, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle on the Saale
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1973
Place of death Berlin