Hans Gollwitzer

Hans Gollwitzer (born January 13, 1896 in Erding , † March 24, 1979 in Mühldorf am Inn ) was a German Protestant pastor and local politician. In the Bavarian church struggle he was one of the main actors of the German Christians . From 1937 to 1945 and again from 1952 to 1966 he was mayor of Mühldorf am Inn.

Life

Hans Gollwitzer was the son of a Bavarian city secretary. He attended elementary school in Erding and from 1906 the old grammar school in Regensburg . He then studied theology at the University of Erlangen . When the First World War broke out , he volunteered as a war volunteer. As a lieutenant, he was wounded twice on the Western Front . In 1919 Gollwitzer left the army and finished his theology studies. He subsequently became a member of the German-Völkischer Bund , the Freikorps Epp and was a volunteer in the Reichswehr . He also joined the Bund Oberland and the Völkisch Block . He began his first pastoral activity in 1922 in Zirndorf , later he worked in Brunnenreuth and Ostheim. On September 1, 1929, Gollwitzer, then parish vicar in Mühldorf, joined the NSDAP and was also involved in founding the Mühldorf local branch of the NSDAP. In 1931 he became pastor of Mühldorf.

Role in the church struggle

In 1933 Gollwitzer became a member of the German Christian Movement, he was also a member of the National Socialist Evangelical Pastors' Association (NSEP), of which he also headed the Upper Bavaria district. After the Bavarian State Bishop Hans Meiser was arrested on October 11, 1934 at the instigation of the Reich Church Government and declared to be deposed, Gollwitzer was appointed clerical commissioner for Old Bavaria . The Reich Church Government had divided the Bavarian regional church into the two church areas Franconia and Old Bavaria (including Swabia ), each headed by a clergyman commissioner with episcopal powers. This violent attempt at integration by the Reich Church was supported by the radical German Christians of Bavaria. However, since the pastors and believers in Bavaria were mostly loyal to Bishop Meiser, the clergy commissioners could not keep up. Gollwitzer was only able to maintain his office as clergyman commissioner for three weeks before regional bishop Meiser and his staff took over the leadership of the church again. Since Gollwitzer was not ready to submit to the state church leadership under Meiser, this initiated an official criminal procedure for refusal to obey. In the summer of 1935 he was finally dismissed from his position as pastor. In 1935 Gollwitzer was one of the co-founders of the Gaus Hochland of the German Christian Movement and initially continued the fight against the regional church tirelessly. In the course of 1936 there were serious disputes within the Gau Hochland, with Gollwitzer trying to maintain his leadership role there. At the end of 1936, disappointed, he withdrew from active work for the German Christian Movement. The church dispute finally became completely indifferent to him. He finally broke with the church and declared his departure from the church in 1939. From then on he devoted himself to local politics in Mühldorf.

Mayor of Mühldorf

After retiring from his ecclesiastical activities, Gollwitzer took over the local group management of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) and the organization of the Winter Aid of the German People (WHW) . On March 9, 1937 he was appointed honorary mayor of Mühldorf. He was appointed professional mayor of the city of Mühldorf with effect from April 1, 1938. During the Second World War he was a major and battalion commander in Russia and France until 1943 . In 1945, when the US Army advanced, he had the city surrendered to the American troops without a fight. With the invasion of the Americans, Gollwitzer was removed from his position as mayor on May 2, 1945. Because of his work as a Nazi functionary, he was interned for a period of three years. In 1946 his honorary citizenship of Mühldorf, which he had received on October 13, 1934 - at the beginning of his short term as clergyman commissioner for Old Bavaria - was revoked. After his internment in the Moosburg camp , he first lived in Egglkofen . In 1952 Gollwitzer was elected as a non-party candidate for mayor of Mühldorf. He held this office until 1966. In 1971 he was made an honorary citizen of Mühldorf again. A street in Mühldorf is still named after him today, but this is not without controversy due to his past as a staunch National Socialist.

literature

• Helmut Baier: The German Christians of Bavaria in the context of the Bavarian church struggle. Nuremberg 1968 (biographical information on Gollwitzer on p. 130)
• Günther Egger, Elke Egger: The district of Mühldorf a. Inn under National Socialism. Rhombos, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-930894-39-4 . (Sections about Gollwitzer pp. 130-133)
• Daniel Hilgert: The "three-day bishop". The "German Christian" Hans Gollwitzer and the Protestant community Mühldorf am Inn in the Bavarian "Kirchenkampf". In: Das Mühlrad , Vol. 54 (2012), pp. 125–166
• Joachim Lang: Hans Gollwitzer - Mayor of the city of Mühldorf in the Nazi era and in the post-war period . In: Das Mühlrad , Vol. 48 (2006), pp. 151–170.
• Fritz Schwaegerl: Former Mayor Hans Gollwitzer - an appreciation . In: The mill wheel. Leaves on the history of the Inn and Isengau , Vol. 21 (1979), pp. 7–8.

Web links

• “ The Gollwitzer case ” on the Evang homepage. Mühldorf parish