Hans-Joachim Frankel

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Hans-Joachim Fränkel (born August 31, 1909 in Liegnitz ; † December 21, 1996 in Marburg ) was a German Protestant pastor and from 1964 to 1979 bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Görlitz church area .

Life

Fränkel, the son of a student councilor, graduated from high school in Liegnitz in 1928 and then studied Protestant theology in Bethel , Breslau and Tübingen . As a student he entered the Confessing Church and was ordained for its church service in 1936 . In the same year he took over the pastor's office in Kreuzburg and moved to Seidenberg in 1938 .

As a member of the Naumburg Synod , he refused to work with the German Christians . It was also out of the question for him to cooperate with the provincial church committee set up by the National Socialists . He was drafted into military service in 1940 and discharged with serious wounds in 1943.

He returned to Wroclaw , where he became parish vicar at the Church of St Trinitatis. Together with Ernst Hornig he set up the new consistory of the Evangelical Church of Silesia , which was moved to Görlitz after the church leadership was expelled from Breslau in 1946 . In 1946/1947 he worked to look after the expelled Silesian pastors in the British occupation zone . He then worked in the Görlitz consistory and in the parish of the Buchholz community in Upper Lusatia. In 1950 he became senior consistorial advisor, and from 1964 to 1979 he succeeded Hornig as bishop of his church, which from 1968 was called the Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Church Area.

At the same time, Fränkel was a member of the EKU Council (1969–1973 as chairman) and the Conference of Church Leaders in the GDR . In 1977 he was sent as a delegate to the General Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Dar es Salaam .

When, with the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, more and more people wanted to leave the GDR with the help of an exit application , Bishop Hans-Joachim Fränkel took the view that it was the duty of the churches to protect human rights - including the right to freely choose one's place of residence. to enter.

In the 1970s, Fränkel's attitude towards socialist authorities changed and he went from being a critical church leader and opponent of the SED state to being an informing officer for the Stasi: from 1951 to 1957 and 1972 to 1976, the Ministry of State Security followed the bishop with operational processes "Posters" and "Martyrdom" and decomposition measures . It later changed strategy and made contact in 1976. By surreptitiously trusting him in his private life, he was recruited on October 13, 1977 as an unofficial employee "brother" (registration number XII 819/77 at the Görlitz district office). As the leading theologian of the Evangelical Church, Fränkel waived a written obligation, instead verbally promising confidentiality and conspiracy. Fränkel also unsuccessfully urged his successor Wollstadt to become IM.

After his retirement he moved to the Federal Republic of Germany and spent his retirement in Marburg . In 1965 he received an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty in Bonn and in 1993 the honorary citizenship of Görlitz.

Fränkel was born in her first marriage to Ruth. Schonke (1912–1976) married, from 1984 in second marriage with Charlotte born. Lehmann (1920-2006).

Obituaries emphasized that Fränkel opposed the Nazi state and the GDR regime's ideological claims to truth and totality and was therefore exposed to repression. In Saxony he was temporarily banned from preaching in the 1970s.

Publications

  • The church struggle in Silesia . In: Peter Maser (Hrsg.): The church struggle in the German East and in the German-speaking churches of Eastern Europe. Göttingen 1992, pp. 49-66.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Joachim Fränkel . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1980 ( online ).
  2. ↑ a b Gerhard Besier : Church politics: In the clutches of the Stasi The path of the former Görlitz Bishop Fränkel from opponent of the GDR regime to informing Stasi Focus 43/1995 from October 23, 1995
predecessor Office successor
Ernst Hornig Bishop of the Ev. Church…
of Silesia (until 1968) of
the Görlitz church area (from 1968)
1963–1979 		Hanns-Joachim Wollstadt
personal data
SURNAME Frankel, Hans-Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant bishop
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Liegnitz
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1996
Place of death Marburg