Gerhard Spangenberg

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Gerhard Spangenberg (born March 10, 1901 in Bergzow ; † November 7, 1975 in Dülmen ) was a German theologian and member of the German Christians and the NSDAP .

Live and act

Spangenberg was the son of a Protestant pastor , studied Protestant theology in Greifswald and Halle (Saale) and was ordained a pastor in 1928 . He then worked as a pastor in Nielebock near Genthin and from 1929 in Altenweddingen , where he also served as superintendent of the Wanzleben church district from 1934.

Spangenberg joined the NSDAP, became a member of the district leadership and the various associations of German Christians (DC), which sought to merge the church and National Socialism . In 1934 he was promoted to the position of deputy head of the People's Missionary Office and cultural advisor to the district leadership of the NSDAP. The internal church opposition on the part of the Confessing Church was so strong in 1936 that he was suspended from the office of superintendent despite protests by the NSDAP.

In 1939 he declared his collaboration with the Institute for Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life . By the beginning of the war he was one of the most influential men in the national church movement , of which he became leader in 1937 for the Landsmannschaft Mitte ( Saxony , Thuringia , Magdeburg-Anhalt and Halle-Merseburg). Spangenberg was a close friend of the Magdeburg-Halberstadt bishop Friedrich Peter .

After serving in the Wehrmacht since 1941 and being a prisoner of war , he was removed from church service in the church province of Saxony in 1946 . Afterwards he was a parish priest in Owschlag in Schleswig-Holstein for a short time .

Until he took up the parish in Dülmen, Westphalia, where he lived until his death, he worked as an administrator of a fruit company and later as a hospital administrator. In order to be able to return to the service, the church leaders first demanded the repetition of the ordination vows, a colloquium and temporary work as assistant preacher, which he refused. Nevertheless, in 1955 the church leadership in Bielefeld approved his election as pastor of the parish in Dülmen, where he also worked as a military pastor after his retirement .

Works

  • Church youth work in the countryside . in: The Reichsbote from October 23, 1928.
  • The end of the church dispute . Church movement German Christians, Gaugemeinde Magdeburg-Anhalt, 1937.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer: We went astray , Cologne 1987, p. 151.
  2. ^ Ernst-Ulrich Wachter: Spangenberg, Gerhard
personal data
SURNAME Spangenberg, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergzow
DATE OF DEATH 7th November 1975
Place of death Dülmen