Hans-Friedrich Lenz

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Hans-Friedrich Lenz (born August 29, 1902 in Wackernheim ; † March 24, 1996 in Gießen ) was a German pastor and member of the Protestant Confessing Church , which defended itself against state influence in church matters during the time of National Socialism . He was also a member of the NSDAP and later the SS .

Life

Hans-Friedrich Lenz was born in 1902 as the son of pastor Philipp Otto Lenz (1874–1968) and worked as pastor, dean and writer until his death in 1996. Lenz was married for 55 years to Eleonore Waas, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

Before World War II

Lenz grew up in a family with a German national mind. As early as 1921, at the beginning of his studies in Protestant theology in Gießen, he joined the Association of German Students (VDSt). For the winter semester of 1921/22 he moved to Tübingen , where the later Bishop Kurt Scharf (1902–1990) was one of his fellow students. Lenz had also been a member of the Wiking Bund since 1922 and wanted to take part in the Hitler-Ludendorff Putsch in 1923 . The Reichswehr refused the previously promised weapons. Lenz then resigned from the Wiking Bund.

In 1925 he passed the first theological exam, in 1926 the second theological exam. After a stay at Ecclesiastes seminar in Hersfeld 1925-1926 he was in May 1926 ordained . As a parish assistant in Ober-Ramstadt , Lenz was transferred to the Johanniskirche in Mainz in 1927 as a pastor's assistant . In 1929 he became pastor of Munzenberg in Wetterau in Hessen .

On July 1, 1930, he joined the NSDAP. According to his own statements, the intention “as a member of the party and SA reserve to get a better opportunity to preach the gospel”, but this failed after initial successes. In 1935 he was expelled from the SA reserve and in 1939 from the NSDAP for “contravening the efforts of the NSDAP”.

In 1933 Lenz joined the Confessing Church , which defended itself against state influence in church matters during the time of the “ Third Reich ”. From 1935 to 1940 Lenz was a member of the State Brotherhood of the Confessing Church.

In World War II

On May 20, 1938, Lenz was arrested for protesting with a leaflet against Martin Niemöller's assignment to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . The subsequent special court proceedings for the "dissemination of inflammatory pamphlets" were discontinued by pardon in 1941.

On April 17, 1940, Lenz was drafted into the Wehrmacht air intelligence service with the rank of sergeant . Since he was deployed as an air watch at the Munzenberg Castle after a short time , he remained in his parish until he was posted to the Hagenow airfield in July 1944 . After a stay at the Jüterbog military training area and a disaster deployment in the Junkers aircraft factory near Dessau , after being transferred to the Waffen-SS on August 17, 1944, he was assigned to the SS-Oberscharführer of the SS-Totenkopfbanns Flossenbürg and as a clerk to the Hersbruck subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp . According to his own account, he managed to improve conditions there for the prisoners and to save some prisoners from death.

After the Second World War

Lenz returned home from prisoner-of-war camp on June 30, 1945 and was back in the community service. After the verdict of the Friedberg Chamber of Justice, on October 1, 1946, he was classified as a “ fellow traveler ”. Because of his membership in the NSDAP and belonging to the Waffen-SS , classification as “exonerated” was not possible.

From 1950 until his retirement in 1968 he was dean of the Hungen dean's office . As a member of the Church Synod , he was chairman of the Commission for Research into the Church Struggle of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau from 1969 to 1981. In addition, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arnsburg Children's Home for over 20 years.

About his time in the Confessing Church and his work in Hersbruck, he published the book "Sagen Sie Herr Pfarrer, How Do You Get To The SS?" In 1982, an extensive correspondence between Lenz and former prisoners is in the Hersbruck City Archives. In the post-war trials in Dachau and Nuremberg , he appeared as a witness for the public prosecutor and helped the investigative authorities as a witness until the end of the 1960s.

Works

  • "Tell me, pastor, how did you get into the SS?" Report by a pastor of the Confessing Church about his experiences in the church fight and as SS-Oberscharführer in the Hersbruck concentration camp. 3rd revised edition, Brunnen-Verlag, Giessen and Basel 1989 (ABC-team; 3391) ISBN 3-7655-3391-2

Individual evidence

  1. Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 132.

literature

Web links