Gottfried Holtz

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Gottfried Holtz (born January 16, 1899 in Penzlin ; † July 10, 1989 in Halle (Saale) ) was a German Protestant theologian, pastor and professor of practical theology at the University of Rostock and active in the resistance with the Confessing Church .

Life

His father Wilhelm Holtz was a pastor and provost . So he was given a good education and he passed his Abitur in Güstrow in 1917 . He enrolled at the University of Rostock in April 1918 , but then took part in the First World War as a Landsturmmann from 1918 to 1919 . He then studied Protestant theology at the universities of Rostock , Leipzig and Tübingen until 1923 . In 1923 he became the head of the Mecklenburg Volkshochschule Wiligrad near Schwerin and from 1923 to 1924 assistant preacher in Neustadt-Glewe . After a dissertation on the subject of the ethical consequences of the idea of ​​God in Karl Barth's theology , he received his doctorate (Dr. theol.) In 1925 from the theological faculty of the University of Rostock . From 1925 to 1927 he was a youth pastor and senior church councilor in Schwerin, then until 1931 as a pastor in Gammelin and finally as a pastor in Unter Brüz near Goldberg .

In February 1931, the Berlin-Dahlem-based Central Committee for Internal Mission of the German Protestant Church bought the remainder of the Diestelow estate with park, lake and farmland to set up a school for settlers. On Ascension Day 1931 the school was opened with a festive service. Pastor Gottfried Holtz was appointed as director. From 1934 a qualified farmer ran the school.

He was involved in the Confessing Church and was served with six other pastors ( Henning Fahrenheim from Schwerin, Johannes Schwartzkopff from Güstrow, Hans Werner Ohse and Christian Berg from Boizenburg , Viktor Wittrock from Schwerin and Walter Pagels from Rostock) in June 1934 before a special court in Schwerin convicted of violating the treachery ordinance and of "degrading" the National Socialist state . The sentence was lifted, however, and Holtz was forcibly transferred to Wutzig (today Osiek Drawski, Gmina Wierzchowo (Powiat Drawski) ) in Pomerania in 1935. In 1939 Holtz was drafted into the Wehrmacht, where he last served as a non-commissioned officer . From 1940 to 1948 he held a pastor's position in Greifswald-Wieck . He repeatedly had to tolerate assaults and was reported for a sermon and arrested for interrogation, but was released again with the help of the consistory of the Pomeranian Province . In April 1945 he worked with a group to prepare the handover of Greifswald to the Red Army without resistance , the timing of which had to be well chosen. The handover prevented Greifswald from being destroyed. On February 24, 1946, the Faculty of Theology, he was awarded the University of Greifswald , the honorary doctorate , along with Karl von Scheven . In 1948 he became a consultant for the Evangelical Consistory in Greifswald. In the same year he was appointed professor at the University of Rostock, where he taught until 1963. In 1959 he became director of the institute. Holtz retired early in 1963 "due to illness", but continued to teach until 1965. He died in Halle in 1989.

The New Testament scholar Traugott Holtz († 2007) was his son.

Fonts

In "Low German as Church Language", Holtz reflects on the use of Low German in church services. It offers a historical overview of Low German in sermons and songs since the Middle Ages. This article appeared in 1954, but later it was not allowed to be reprinted in the GDR due to general German tendencies . In 1954 an illustrated book “Dorfkirchen in Mecklenburg” was published, which achieved a wide impact. In "The Mecklenburg Farm Worker and the Church", the social grievances of the farm workers are shown .

literature

  • Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 4381 .
  • Gert Haendler : In memory of Gottfried Holtz. Yearbook for Mecklenburg Church History 2 (1999), pp. 101–109; also in Gert Haendler: The Rostock Theological Faculty under two dictatorships. Münster: LIT 2004 ISBN, pp. 283–288.
  • Dieter Andresen: Low German as a church language: Festgabe for Gottfried Holtz. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht 1980 ISBN 3-525-58116-5 .
  • Elmar Koch: The rural settlement in Mecklenburg during the Weimar Republic. In: MJB 133 (2018) pp. 167–232.

swell

Unprinted sources

  • State Main Archive Schwerin
    • LHAS 5.12-4 / 3 Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forests, Dept. of Settlements. No. 7740 The Diestelow Evangelical Settler School.
  • University Archives Greifswald 2.3 Theological Faculty, honorary doctorate
  • State Church Archive Schwerin
    • OKR Schwerin, 03.06.02 Regional Bishop Walther Schulz (1900–1957), No. 130, correspondence 1933–1937, Pastor Lic. Gottfried Holtz, Brüz; 03.06.03 Regional Bishop Dr. Niklot Beste (1901–1987), no. 114 b, correspondence with Prof. Dr. Gottfried Holtz, Rostock 1945–1971; 09/01 Collection Holtz, Gottfried, Prof. Dr. 1899-1989

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ^ New matriculation on April 25, 1921, see the entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  3. ↑ LHAS 5.12-4 / 3 MfLDF, Dept. of Settlements, No. 7740 the Protestant Settler School Dietelow.
  4. ↑ LHAS 5.12-4 / 3 MfLDF. Dept. of Settlements, No. 7740 Festival program from May 14, 1931.
  5. ^ Niklot Beste : The Schwerin Trial in June 1934. In: Heinrich Holze (Ed.): The Theological Faculty Rostock under two dictatorships. Festschrift for Gert Haendler. Lit-Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6887-7 , p. 17f ( Google books ).
  6. ↑ Honoring the rescuers of Greifswald. Digitized version ( PDF ; 2.1 MB).
  7. ↑ a b Gert Haendler: Experienced Church History. Memories of churches and universities between Saxony and the Baltic countries. In: Hermann Michael Niemann, Heinrich Holze: Rostock studies on church history. Vol. 17, University of Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-86009-114-2 , p. 86f. ( Digitized , PDF ).
  8. ↑ See Haendler (Lit.), p. 288
personal data
SURNAME Holtz, Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holtz, Gottfried Karl Viktor Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian, university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Penzlin
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1989
Place of death Halle (Saale)