Gerhard Krause (Pastor)

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Gravestone in the Zingster cemetery

Gerhard Krause (born June 20, 1887 in Zingst ; † November 30, 1950 in Zingst) was a German Protestant pastor , resistance fighter against National Socialism and a member of the Confessing Church (BK).

Life

Gerhard Krause, son of the pastor Rudolf Krause, visited after the elementary school , a high school and thus acquired his higher education . He studied Protestant theology and successfully passed his first theological exam . After passing the Second Theological Examination , he was ordained a pastor . In 1934 he took up the parish office of the Peter-Pauls parish on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula .

The visit of the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his congregation in the spring of 1935 , who founded a seminary of the Confessing Church (BK) on the Zingsthof, was very important for his career and career . Bonhoeffer preached in the service about Psalm 42 LUT - an experience that had a lasting influence on the local pastor and also won him over for the BK. A photo with the seminarians, their teacher Bonhoeffer and himself is said to have had a place on his desk until the end of his life. After Bonhoeffer's activity as a seminar leader in Zingst was banned by the Gestapo , the participants moved to Finkenwalde in Western Pomerania , where Bonhoeffer set up the seminary again. In 1938 he came back to Zingst to handle the former seminar.

Krause was monitored during his sermons and other statements in public. His statements were understood by the Nazi authorities as defeatism and led to his being arrested by the Gestapo in 1944. A court sentenced him to death for " undermining military strength ". The execution of the death sentence was no longer carried out because the relevant court documents were lost in a bomb attack.

After the Nazi rule was eliminated, Krause participated in the democratic rebuilding of society. So he got involved in the establishment of a local group of the Christian-Democratic Union of Germany in Zingst. There was a conflict with the Soviet occupying power . The health damage he suffered from his Gestapo detention led to his death in 1950.

literature

  • Harald Apel: "Tell me that I can believe it ..." Stories for religious education and children's services. Herder, Freiburg i. Br./Basel/Wien 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-31162-8 (with three stories about Gerhard Krause: The price of truth, p. 112 ff .; back to life, p. 118 ff .; why? P 121 ff.).
  • Harald Apel: “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God”. A pastor doesn't want to be silent. In: Zingster parish letter. July, August and September 2017, pp. 6-9; online in: ev-kirche-zingst.de, accessed on August 8, 2011 ( PDF; 1.4 MB ; reprint of the first story, The Price of Truth, from the aforementioned work).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Some historical data on the Protestant Peter and Paul Church in Zingst. In: fischland-darss-zingst.net, accessed on August 8, 2011.
  2. ↑ Dietrich Bonhoeffer's sermon on Psalm 42, delivered on Exaudi Sunday, June 2, 1935, in the Zingster Peter-Pauls Church. All verses were sung by the congregation after interpretation and prayer. In: ev-kirche-zingst.de, accessed on August 3, 2017; also in: Zingster community letter. Special edition. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Zingst. May 2015, pp. 6–9 ( PDF; 763 kB ).
  3. ↑ Harald Apel: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Zingst. In: Zingster parish letter. July, August and September 2008, p. 8; online in: ev-kirche-zingst.de, accessed on August 8, 2011 ( PDF; 2.0 MB ).
personal data
SURNAME Krause, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Zingst
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1950
Place of death Zingst