Gerhard Lotz

Presidium meeting of the CDU main board in Berlin on February 8, 1971. Gerhard Lotz 1st row 2nd from left

Gerhard Lotz (born April 22, 1911 in Altenburg ; † December 10, 1981 in Eisenach ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran church lawyer and a functionary of the GDR CDU .

Live and act

Lotz obtained his university entrance qualification after attending grammar school in Eisenach in 1928 . He then studied Protestant theology , philosophy and law at the universities of Frankfurt am Main , Göttingen , Leipzig and Königsberg . In 1934 he passed the first state examination in law. He then became the doctor of law doctorate at the University of Königsberg, where he worked as assistant at the Faculty of Law and Political Science was employed. In 1938 he passed the second state examination in law and then entered the service of the Thuringian Evangelical Church . In 1940 he was appointed to the church council. Since 1942 he was a member of the armed forces and came last in the rank of lieutenant in captivity .

After liberation from National Socialism , Lotz became senior church councilor and head of the legal department of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia in 1946, and since 1948 deputy chairman of the regional church council and member of the Thuringian Synod . In 1969 he retired.

At the time of the arbitration chamber proceedings for church denazification , he spoke out against the re-acceptance of Nazi theologians into the church service. When the theology professor Walter Grundmann, who had emerged through anti-Semitic research, was to be given a pastorate again, he remarked at a meeting of the LKR:

“ As the head of the De-Judaization Institute , he consolidated, expanded and scientifically supported ' racism ' in the church. "

Lotz worked since 1955 as an unofficial employee for the Ministry for State Security under the code name IM "Karl". In the case of church policy deliberations and resolutions, he sought to obtain the approval of the state authorities through information and consultation. Together with regional bishop Moritz Mitzenheim he designed and pursued the so-called “Thuringian Way”, which relied on cooperation with the SED state. He belonged to the “Weimar Working Group”, in which theologians and church members met to discuss the location of the church in the GDR.

After it was founded, he became a member of the CDU and soon afterwards a member of the Erfurt district committee of his party. In 1956 he was elected to the main board. He was also a member of the GDR Peace Council and also worked in the World Peace Council . When it was founded, he became a member of the Christian Peace Conference . In 1965 he became Vice President of the GDR Peace Council. From 1967 to 1976 he was a member of the People's Chamber with the mandate of the GDR CDU . Lotz was one of the CDU MPs who voted against the legalization of abortion in the GDR in 1972 .

Honors

German Peace Medal , 1958

Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze 1959

Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver 1965

Silver Star of Friendship of Nations 1976

Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold 1981

Awarded an honorary doctorate by the Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 1969

Works

Evangelical Churches in the German Democratic Republic - Location and Route / Subtopic 2. Church Service for Security in Europe, 1972
Moritz Mitzenheim: Out of Christian responsibility, Berlin: Union-Verl. VOB, 1971
Moritz Mitzenheim, Berlin: Union-Verl. VOB, 1969, 2., essential. exp. Ed.
Moritz Mitzenheim: Political Diakonie, Berlin: Union-Verl. VOB, 1967, 2., essential. exp. Ed.
Moritz Mitzenheim, Berlin: Union Verl., 1966
Moritz Mitzenheim: Political Diakonie, Berlin: VOB Union Verl., 1964

literature

Ehrhart Neubert: Lotz, Gerhard . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Clemens Vollnhals : Oberkirchenrat Gerhard Lotz and the Ministry for State Security. On the IM file “Karl” , in: Deutschland-Archiv 27 (1994), pp. 332–336

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Thomas A.Seidel (Hg): Poised Thuringia. Contributions to the seventy-five year history of the Evangelical Church of Thuringia, p. 177, note 48, ISBN 3374016995
↑ See Neubert: Lotz, Gerhard .
↑ Klaus Roßberg: The cross with the cross. A life between state security and the church (recorded by Peter Richter). Berlin: Edition Ost, 1996. ISBN 3-929161-60-5 , p. 74.
^ Neue Zeit , May 7, 1965
↑ Berliner Zeitung , May 2, 1981, p. 4

personal data
SURNAME	Lotz, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German church lawyer and politician (CDU of the GDR), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH	April 22, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Altenburg
DATE OF DEATH	December 10, 1981
Place of death	Eisenach

[1] Thomas A.Seidel (Hg): Poised Thuringia. Contributions to the seventy-five year history of the Evangelical Church of Thuringia, p. 177, note 48, ISBN 3374016995

[2] See Neubert: Lotz, Gerhard .

[3] Klaus Roßberg: The cross with the cross. A life between state security and the church (recorded by Peter Richter). Berlin: Edition Ost, 1996. ISBN 3-929161-60-5 , p. 74.

[4] Neue Zeit , May 7, 1965

[5] Berliner Zeitung , May 2, 1981, p. 4