Heinrich Forsthoff

Heinrich Forsthoff (born February 1, 1871 in Gruiten ; † June 17, 1942 in Düsseldorf ) was a German theologian and church historian. He was a representative of the German Christians inclined to National Socialism , from 1934 to 1936 he was provost of the Protestant diocese of Cologne-Aachen.

Life

Forsthoff studied theology in Bonn , Tübingen and Strasbourg . He then worked as an assistant preacher in Wanzleben and Mülheim an der Ruhr .

In 1901 the Laar parish elected him their pastor. His son Ernst was born here in 1902 . From 1906 Forsthoff worked as a pastor in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

In addition to community service, he cultivated scientific interests: He initially received his doctorate in 1910 in Tübingen with a thesis on Friedrich Schleiermacher as a Dr. phil., 1918 in Bonn with Otto Ritschl with a work on the mysticism in Tersteegen's songs for Lic. theol. In addition, Forsthoff began with regional historical studies based on the history of the Mülheim congregation, stayed for a long time with Gerhard Tersteegen , who was always a stranger to him, and finally extended to the entire history of the Lower Rhine church. The fruit of these efforts were several dozen fundamental essays and, above all, his Rhenish Church History. First volume: The Reformation on the Lower Rhine , which identifies him as a profound expert on regional church history. The following volumes were no longer published due to Forsthoff's involvement in church politics. In 1930 the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Bonn awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Until 1930, Forsthoff, together with Karl Barth and other later representatives of the Confessing Church, published Biblical Testimonies in the sheet of Reformed Protestantism edited by Peter Schumacher , the successor to the correspondence sheet , which was continued under the old name as a split from Friedrich Horn .

On April 1, 1934, Forsthoff was elected provost of the Evangelical Diocese of Cologne-Aachen, which was only founded on September 6, 1933; he held this office until May 31, 1936. As President of the Provincial Synod, Forsthoff drafted a new church order from the point of view of leadership. The draft is dated May 29, 1934 and is thus positioned against the Barmen Confession Synod. Forsthoff justified the leadership principle, which was oriented towards National Socialism, precisely in the independence of the community, which he believed he had to abolish the freely chosen presbytery to maintain. The presbytery now determined by the dean should then only have the right to propose pastors to the bishop (state pastor), who would then be responsible for filling the pastoral positions. The draft, which Adolf Hitler cites as a model, was negotiated on June 12, 1934 at a superintendent conference in Koblenz. While 13 of the 33 participants already denied the legitimacy of the conference, of the remaining seven others rejected Forsthoff's draft. It was unanimously accepted by the Provincial Synod on the following day and welcomed many times. The Barmer's objection was unsuccessful. The so-called Ordnungsblock , led by Fritz Horn, who tried to find a mediating position , remained inactive.

Forsthoff and Horn, who still referred to him as his friend after 1945, tried together in 1935 to reintegrate the Confessional Church into their ranks, as the joint synod of the Ordnungsblock and German Christians on February 18, 1935 in Düsseldorf shows. Forsthoff's interest in this collaboration was based on suppressing even more radical forces within its own ranks. It was precisely this radicalization that was carried out by men like Johannes Pack , pastor in Oberhausen and “leader of the German Christians”. Forsthoff himself retired from active church politics in 1936 when he retired, spent the last years of his life in Düsseldorf and died there in 1942.

Fonts (selection)

• Rhenish church history. First volume: The Reformation on the Lower Rhine , Essen 1929.

literature

• Church or diocese [KoB]. A handout for assessing the new German Christian church order . Edited by Joachim Beckmann on behalf of the Council of Brothers of the Free Evangelical Synod in the Rhineland. Wuppertal-Barmen undated [1934].
• Albert Rosenkranz : In memory of Provost D. Dr. H. Forsthoff . In: Monthly Issues for Rhenish Church History, year 1942, Issue 7/8 (July / August).
• Günther van Norden : The political church struggle. The Rhenish Provincial Church 1934–1939 (= series of publications by the Association for Rhenish Church History, 159). Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2003; ISBN 3-7749-3156-9 .
• Barbara Kaufhold: Faith under National Socialism in Mülheim an der Ruhr - Confessing Church and German Christians, Christians of Jewish origin, free churches and free works as well as resistance in the Catholic Church . Edited by the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History; Plain text. Essen 2006, ISBN 3-89861-626-6 , pp. 106-107.
• Holger Weitenhagen: Illusions of an educated theologian. The ways of the Rhenish 'provost' D. Dr. Heinrich Forsthoff (1871-1942) . In: Monthly Issues for Rhenish Church History 59 (2010), pp. 139–158.
• Jochen Gruch: The Protestant pastors in the Rhineland from the Reformation to the present. Vol. 2: E-J (= SVRKG 175). Bonn 2013, p. 133.
• Ernst Haiger: "A place of beautiful and noble art": The redesign of the Petrikirche in 1912/13 [and Forsthoff's resistance to it]. - In: Baukunst in Mülheim an der Ruhr = magazine of the historical association Mülheim an der Ruhr 91/2016, pp. 115–189

Individual evidence

1. ↑ G. v. Norden, p. 1
2. ↑ G. v. Norden, p. 2f.
3. ↑ G. v. North, p. 7
4. ↑ KoB, p. 13
5. ↑ G. v. Norden, p. 45, note 112; P. 61
6. ↑ G. v. Norden, p. 64