Gottfried Traub

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Gottfried Traub
Grave of Gottfried Traub in the forest cemetery in Munich-Solln

Gottfried Traub (born January 11, 1869 in Rielingshausen , † September 22, 1956 in Munich ) was a German theologian and politician ( NSV , FVg , FVP , DNVP ).

Life

Education

Traub, the son of a Protestant pastor, attended the theological seminars in Maulbronn and Blaubeuren after the Latin school in Göppingen. From 1887 to 1891 he studied theology and philosophy at the Protestant “Stift” in Tübingen. After his first theological examination in 1892 he had his vicariate in Wendlingen and Ebingen and after 1895 was a repetiteur at the Tübingen “Stift”. In addition, from 1897 he studied economics at the University of Tübingen, which at that time was considered to be “something unheard of” and “forbidden” for a pastor. During this time he also gave a lecture on "The materialist conception of history" at the theological faculty. He later broke off his studies in economics and obtained his doctorate in 1899 with a thesis on "Jesus and the property relations of his time" as a licentiate in theology.

1892–1912: Social liberal theologian and pastor

Traub was part of the social liberal movement at the time.

Inspired by the book three months factory workers of Paul Göhre , undertook Traub 1895 several months of study tour to the real social conditions meet. This study trip gave his life a lasting inner direction, as he wrote in his memoirs.

On this study trip he got to know Friedrich Naumann , with whom he had a 20-year collaboration and friendship until 1917. Traub was a leading member of Naumann's left-wing liberal National Socialist Association and worked in its magazine Die Hilfe . In 1904 Naumann asked Traub to write the regular religious reflections for Die Hilfe . From 1904 to 1917 Traub wrote these weekly reflections, the devotions in Help .

His time in the university town of Tübingen and at the “Stift” there ended in 1900 when he was appointed third parish priest in Schwäbisch Hall .

In 1901, a year later, he moved to the Ruhr area in Dortmund , where he was elected pastor at the Reinoldikirche .

In the same year, 1901, Traub became a member of the board of the left-liberal National Social Association . He worked in the liberal Protestant association and in the Evangelical Social Congress (ESK). From 1902 to 1918 Traub was part of the leadership of the Evangelical Social Congress. He was also a shop steward for the Association of Friends of the Christian World . In 1905, Traub took over the editing of the community newspaper for Rhineland and Westphalia, renamed it Christian Freedom and made the magazine an important mouthpiece for liberal Protestantism before the First World War .

In 1904 Traub wrote his book Ethics and Capitalism. Basics of a social ethic (2nd edition 1909). "This work, which was widely received before 1914, but largely forgotten in the wider historical impact is to be considered as the first Protestant business ethics under the conditions of industrial societies." "... it is by Günter Brakelmann , the most progressive (book) of a social-liberal theologians the prewar period '“before the First World War. One of the demands of Traub from his lectures and writings, which has sometimes been quoted, is:

"You have to be able to make a living from work and at work"

- Gottfried Traub

On the basis of the description of Traub's basic social liberal position, Günter Brakelmann shows that the historical cliché of only socially reactionary Protestantism is in no way true.

In 1905, Traub supported the workers in the great miners 'strike , the largest workers' strike in German economic history.

Because of his liberal theological standpoint, Traub repeatedly got into disputes with his superior authority.

In his book The Miracles in the New Testament (1905) he dealt with the widespread belief in miracles in Christianity. He called these miracles “children's faith” and gave them the name “miracles”, in contrast to the true miracle, the reality of life. “Jesus is not a miracle worker, but the Savior. ... He is the guide for everyone who wants to let their soul lead to God. Here they experience the miracle. "

In 1911 he defended the Cologne pastor Carl Jatho together with the Kiel theology professor Otto Baumgarten in a trial of heresy. After the verdict of impeachment against Jatho was passed, Traub criticized him and the leading Old Prussian Evangelical High Church Council, among other things in his writing Staatschristentum or Volkskirche . Now, in 1912, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against Traub. Theodor Heuss supported Traub with journalism. Heuss: "Back then, it was an honor and friendship duty to stand up for him vigorously." The disciplinary proceedings against Traub ended with the verdict of his impeachment and the revocation of his pension and his pastor's title. This gave Traub a more severe punishment than Jatho himself. Even the protests of liberal, educated Protestantism and its community could not change this. Adolf von Harnack criticized the judgment of the Oberkirchenrat and supported Traub with his writing The Dismissal of Pastor Lic. Gottfried Traub. It was not until 1918, after the First World War, that Traub was finally rehabilitated and reassigned to the clergy.

After his removal from office as a pastor, Traub became director of the liberal Association of German Protestants in 1912 .

1914 awarded him the Theological Faculty of the University of Zurich , the honorary doctorate .

1913–1933: Politician, first left-wing liberal, then German national

After his dismissal as pastor, Traub looked for a new field of activity in order to be able to continue to work for his socially liberal thoughts. He went into politics and joined the left-liberal Progressive People's Party (FVP) . In 1913 he was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives for the FVP in the constituency of Berlin-Teltow .

For the First Free German Youth on the Hohe Meissner in 1913, the first big meeting of emancipating youth in Germany, was invited Gottfried Traub as a speaker. He made the introductory speech. The following speakers were Knud Ahlborn , Gustav Wyneken and Ferdinand Avenarius .

The First World War began in 1914. As for all liberals, the first thing for Traub was to save the fatherland. Domestic politics and social liberals resigned. In the course of the First World War and until its end, Traub stood for a victory peace. In July 1917, the majority of the Reichstag, with the participation of Traub's faction of the FVP, voted for a mutual agreement. Then founded Wolfgang Kapp and Alfred von Tirpitz in September 1917, the German Fatherland Party (DVAP) , which further sought a victorious peace and Traub joined immediately. Since Traub's position and the position of his faction in the FVP no longer matched, he had to part with the FVP in October 1917. In 1918 he was a board member of the German Fatherland Party until the end of the war.

After the end of the war, in November 1918, Traub took part in the founding of the German National People's Party (DNVP) , to whose board he was elected. For the DNVP he was elected from his old constituency of Berlin-Teltow as a member of the Weimar National Assembly (1919-1920).

Also in November 1918, at the suggestion of the emperor, Traub was rehabilitated by the evangelical upper church council and reinstated in the rights of the clergy. He was appointed to the shop stewards of the Evangelical High Church Council. Traub advocated a primary election for the constituent church assembly, which, however, was not eligible for a majority because of the conservative majority.

In March 1920 Traub took part in the Kapp Putsch . Kapp wanted Traub as Minister of Education, but Traub had concerns. The decision was postponed because the cabinet formation was to take place later. However, newspapers already reported a cabinet list with Traub as minister of education. After the coup failed, Traub fled to Austria. In October 1920 he returned to Germany after the amnesty.

In 1921, Traub took over the management of the Munich-Augsburger Abendzeitung on behalf of Alfred Hugenberg , which he held until the end of the newspaper in 1934.

From 1919 until the ban in 1939, he also published the Christian national magazine Eiserne Blätter .

In his writing Right to Authorities (1924), Traub turned against the view that was widespread in Christianity at the time that, according to the Bible ( Rom. 13), every authority must be obeyed. In the Luther translation it says in Rom. 13: “Everyone is subject to the authorities that have power over him.” Traub wrote that this only applies to a government that has “the right to authority”. On the other hand, a government or power that has no right to be in authority does not need to be obeyed, for example a foreign occupying power such as Napoleon in Prussia. The book was placed on the list of literature to be discarded in the German Democratic Republic .

After 1933: opponent of National Socialism

After 1933, Traub was a staunch opponent of National Socialism and opposed its anti-Christian tendencies in his magazine Eiserne Blätter . This led first to the prohibition of individual issues and finally in 1939 the entire magazine by the Gestapo.

On June 11, 1933, Traub wrote an “Open Letter to Prof DE Hirsch” in Göttingen, which ran through the press. In it he wrote that political party groups had no place within the church and quoted: “The Evangelical Church is the Church of Christ and the Reformation - not the National Socialist Workers' Party in Germany. - Faith in Christ does not speak of politics but of the kingdom of God. "

After 1933 he supported Karl Barth, and despite some theological concerns he belonged to the Confessing Church in Bavaria.

When, in the spring of 1935, the anthropologist Karl Saller's license to teach was revoked by Reich Minister Bernhard Rust and the historian Hermann Oncken was forcibly retired after attacks in the Völkischer Beobachter by the Nazi historian Walter Frank , Traub defended the freedom of science from political attacks , for which he stood up Heinrich von Treitschke resorted to.

In the autumn of 1935, Traub accused Reichstag member Axel von Freytagh-Loringhoven of having " conducted the decisive negotiation without prior knowledge of party leader Hugenberg ", which initiated the self-dissolution of the DNVP on June 27, 1933. Freytagh-Loringhoven was commissioned by the party leadership to find out from Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick (NSDAP) "what intentions of the DNVP existed in the Reich government". Instead, however, he negotiated with Frick about the terms of the self-dissolution. Traub's reproach shows that he was one of those who hoped for timely help from the Reich President or the Reichswehr (against Hitler's sole rule) or who would have just wanted to clarify historically the inequality of German national and National Socialist thought and will.

Traub's writing Christianentum und Germanentum (1936), in which he opposed National Socialist views, was largely confiscated by the Gestapo and a second edition was banned. In this script he wrote:

“The Christian religion has nothing to do with the world and the state, nothing to do with race and people, nothing to do with philosophy or worldview. (P. 7) "

"Luther was a German man. [...] Only that in no way means a restriction to the German people. He spread the gospel everywhere that it was somehow desired. ... It is a distortion of Luther's image if one believes that one can understand Luther as a man who would have placed his Germanness above his Christian faith. (P. 61) "

"Here lies the point where, beyond the dispute between the denominations, Protestants and Catholics have the common task: to defend the Christian heritage against all godless currents ... (p. 63)"

In 1940 Traub was added to the church resistance in Munich.

Gottfried Traub died in Munich in 1956.

family

Gottfried Traub, married Elma Heinersdorff on February 1, 1900.

They had 3 sons, Hans, Hellmut and Eberhardt.

Her eldest son, Hans Traub (1901–1943) was a newspaper and film scholar.

Her son Hellmut Traub (1904–1994) studied theology with Karl Barth , worked in the Confessing Church , refused to take the oath of the Fiihrer, had several speaking bans, was arrested several times by the Secret State Police, including stays in prison and concentration camps, including from August In 1935 three months in the Dachau concentration camp, and was in the resistance. After 1945 he got involved a. a. in the peace movement of that time.

Her youngest son Eberhardt Traub (born 1906) was a physicist.

Works and writings

  • Boniface. A textbook. Leipzig 1894.
  • Materials for understanding and criticizing Catholic socialism. Munich 1902.
  • Ethics and capitalism. Basics of a social ethic. Heilbronn 1904. (2nd edition 1909).
  • Organization of work in its effect on personality. In: Negotiations of the 15th Evangelical Social Congress. Goettingen 1904.
  • The miracles in the New Testament. Mohr, Tübingen 1907. 2nd edition (1st edition 1905).
  • The pastor and the social question. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1907.
  • From a searching soul. Devotions. Book publisher Die Hilfe, Berlin 1906.
  • Our social duty. In: Wilhelm Schneemelcher: Religion and Socialism. Berlin 1910.
  • How do you make children hate religion? Leipzig 1911.
  • Confirmation distress and Apostolic Creed. A warning to thoughtful parents. Berlin 1911.
  • State Christianity or national church. A Protestant creed. Diederichs, Jena 1911.
  • I am looking for you God! Devotions. Diederichs, Jena 1912. (Articles from the help )
  • God and us. Sermons. Salzer, Heilbronn 1912.
  • God and the world. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1913. (Articles from the Help )
  • Struggle and peace. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1914.
  • From the armory. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1915.
  • Sword and bread. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1915.
  • Right to government. Langensalza 1924.
  • The National Socialist Church Program. Discussed. Munich-Solln 1932.
  • Christianity and Germanism. Schaffstein, Cologne 1936.
  • Gottfried Traub memories. How I experienced the second empire. Diary notes from the Hitler era. G. Traub, Stuttgart 1998.

literature

  • Günter Brakelmann : Protestant social theorists before the problem of the trade unions. In Frank von Auer / Franz Segbers (ed.): Social Protestantism and the trade union movement. Empire - Weimar Republic - Federal Republic of Germany. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-7663-2578-7 , pp. 17-38.
  • Günter Brakelmann: Ruhr area Protestantism. Writings on the political and social history of modern Christianity. Volume 1. Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 1987, ISBN 3-7858-0307-9 .
  • Frank Fehlberg: Protestantism and National Socialism. Liberal theology and political thinking around Friedrich Naumann. Publishing house Dietz. Bonn 2012. ISBN 978-3-8012-4210-7 .
  • Adolf von Harnack : The dismissal of the pastor Lic. Gottfried Traub. Leipzig 1912.
  • Willi Henrichs: Gottfried Traub (1869–1956). Liberal theologian and extreme national Protestant. Spenner-Verlag, ISBN 3-933688-58-2 .
  • Heinrich Hermelink : Church in the fight, documents of resistance and the construction in the Protestant Church in Germany from 1933 to 1945. Wunderlich, Tübingen and Stuttgart 1950, pp. 686–687.
  • Gangolf Huebinger : Cultural Protestantism and Politics. Mohr, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-16-146139-8 .
  • Traugott Jähnichen : Personal morality as a basic principle of economic activity - Gottfried Traub's cultural-Protestant draft of an economic ethic. In: Norbert Friedrich / Traugott Jähnichen (ed.), Social Protestantism in the Empire. Lit-Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8559-3 , pp. 197-230.
  • Traugott Jähnichen: The Dortmund District Synod in the epoch years 1918/19 - 1933/34 - 1945/46. In Helmut Geck (ed.): Church district history and great politics. LIT, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9421-5 , pp. 98-107.
  • Theodor Kappstein: Against the coercion! A Protestant indictment. Berlin 1912.
  • Friedrich Künzel / Ruth Pabst (eds.): I want to tell you quickly that I am alive, dearest. Helmut Gollwitzer, Eva Bildt. Letters from the war 1940–1945. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57381-1 , pp. 33, 36, 37, 44, 71, 72, 79, 107, 135, 140, 167, 230, 235, 240, 248, 276, 278, 307, 310, 311 (entries on Hellmut and Gottfried Traub).
  • Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .
  • Klaus-Gunther Wesseling :  Traub, Gottfried. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 12, Bautz, Herzberg 1997, ISBN 3-88309-068-9 , Sp. 417-424.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Wikisource: Saurer Traub, poem by Kurt Tucholsky, from Ulk, October 17, 1919  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Heuss: Friedrich Naumann. The man, the work, the time. Siebenstern Taschenbuch, Munich 1968 (3rd edition) p. 297
  2. ↑ a b c d Norbert Friedrich: Gottfried Traub - a social liberal pastor in Dortmund. PDF file 37 kB, (accessed on March 5, 2012). In: Günter Brakelmann, Traugott Jähnichen, Norbert Friedrich (Hrsg.): Church in the Ruhr area. Klartext Verlag, Essen 1998 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-88474-684-7 , pp. 46-47.
  3. ↑ Christian Nottmeyer: Adolf von Harnack and the German Politics 1890-1930. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-16-148154-2 , p. 337
  4. ^ A b c Gangolf Huebinger: Cultural Protestantism and Politics. Mohr, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-16-146139-8 , pp. 68ff.
  5. ↑ Traugott Jähnichen: Business ethics. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-018291-2 , p. 56.
  6. ↑ Gottfried Traub: Organization of work in its effect on personality. in: Negotiations of the 15th Evangelical Social Congress, Göttingen 1904. p. 69
  7. ↑ Günter Brakelmann: “You have to be able to make a living from work and at work”, traditional lines of social Protestantism. ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) PDF file 170 KB, (accessed on September 15, 2018), pp. 2–4. From: Frank von Auer, Franz Segbers (eds.): Market and humanity. Church and trade union contributions to the renewal of the social market economy. Verlag Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-13690-2 , pp. 67-79.
  8. ^ Günter Brakelmann: Ruhr area Protestantism. Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 1987, ISBN 3-7858-0307-9 . P. 70ff, P. 96ff, P. 84.
  9. ↑ Gottfried Traub: The miracles in the New Testament. In Alfred Suhl (ed.): The concept of miracles in the New Testament. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. ISBN 3534056663 . P. 176.
  10. ↑ See also: Theodor Heuss: Briefe, 1892-1917, Stuttgart edition. Sauer, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-25123-8 , p. 335
  11. ↑ Reiner Burger: Theodor Heuss as a journalist. LIT, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-8258-4332-7 , p. 98
  12. ^ Theodor Heuss: Memoirs 1905–1933. Wunderlich, Tübingen 1963, pp. 174-175.
  13. ^ First Freideutscher Jugendtag (accessed June 25, 2013).
  14. ↑ Traugott Jähnichen: The Dortmund District Synod in the epoch years 1918 / 19–1933 / 34–1945 / 46. In Helmut Geck (ed.): Church district history and great politics. LIT, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9421-5 , pp. 98-107.
  15. ^ Willi Henrichs: Gottfried Traub (1869–1956), liberal theologian and extreme national Protestant. Spenner-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-933688-58-2 . Pp. 307-311
  16. ↑ Joseph Mančal: Munich Augsburger evening paper. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria. (accessed on May 2, 2012)
  17. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1953-nslit-t.html
  18. ↑ a b c d Heinrich Hermelink: Church in the fight, documents of the resistance and the construction in the Protestant Church in Germany from 1933 to 1945. Wunderlich, Tübingen and Stuttgart 1950, pp. 686–687.
  19. ↑ Voices and Judgments: Spirit and History ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Weiße Blätter , April 1935 edition, as a reprint from the Eiserne Blätter (17th year, no. 9) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.monarchieforum.org
  20. ^ Anton Ritthaler : A stage on Hitler's path to undivided power. Hugenberg's resignation as Reich Minister (PDF; 1.4 MB), in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 2nd issue / April 1960, pp. 193-219.
  21. ↑ Gottfried Traub: Christianity and Germanism. Schaffstein, Cologne 1936
  22. ↑ On Hellmut Traub by Norbert Reck
  23. ↑ Hans-Georg Ulrichs: Hellmut Traub. (Last change November 16, 1999) In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL).
personal data
SURNAME Traub, Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and politician (Progressive People's Party, German National People's Party)
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Rielingshausen
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1956
Place of death Munich