Gottfried Klapper

Gottfried Klapper (born October 3, 1917 in Nimptsch (near Breslau ), † January 1, 2003 in Hanover ) was a German theologian , managing director of the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation and holder of the Silesian Shield .

Life

Klapper was born in Nimptsch near Breslau, the son of a pastor, and obtained his university entrance qualification there . After the Second World War he studied Protestant theology at the University of Göttingen and at the Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina (USA) . After successfully completing his studies, he took over his first pastor in Papenburg in Emsland in 1951 . Shortly afterwards he was released from this to begin his service with the Lutheran World Federation . Klapper played a key role in preparing the only general assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Hanover in 1952. From 1954 to 1961 he worked as a pastor in London in the Lutheran congregation there, and then from 1961 to 1962 as director of the Evangelical Academy Loccum , the Evangelical Academy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover. Afterwards, Klapper worked as a senior church councilor and ecumenical consultant in the Lutheran Church Office of the VELKD in Hanover. At the same time, he was also responsible for the management of the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation (DNK / LWB). This continued until he retired in 1982.

Gottfried Klapper was made honorary philistine of the Göttingen Wingolf in 1982 and a member of the Phil Championship of the suspended Wroclaw Wingolf in 1985.

After his retirement, Klapper was chairman of the EKD's Eastern Church Committee from 1983 to 1994 and chairman of the community of Protestant Silesians. In the debate about the “Ostdenkschrift” of the EKD in 1965, he helped to keep the conversation between the EKD and the people displaced from the German eastern regions going.

Klapper also worked on a voluntary basis as Vice President of the Martin Luther Association , the VELKD's diaspora aid organization, and as an old conventual of the Amelungsborn Monastery .

Awards and honors

• 1987 award of the Silesian shield the Landsmannschaft Silesia for his services to the Eastern Church
• Honorary doctorate from Wartburg Theological Seminary Dubuque, Iowa (USA)
• Honorary doctorate from Wagner College Staten Island, New York (USA)
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Hanover

Publications

• The annoying word diaspora . Martin Luther Bund (publisher), 1997.
• The Lutheran Church, History and Creation . Volume 1. Gerd Mohn publishing house, Gütersloh 1976
• Paths to the unity of the church in Lutheranism . Publishing house Gerd Mohn, Gütersloh 1976

Web links

• Senior church councilor Gottfried Klapper died at the age of 85 (press release VELKD, January 3, 2003)
• EKD pays tribute to the work of the late Oberkirchenrat Gottfried Klapper (press release EKD, January 7, 2003)

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of members of the Göttingen Wingolf. Year 2007. p. 43.