Heinrich Josef Oberheid

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Heinrich Josef Oberheid (born February 7, 1895 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , † November 7, 1977 in Düsseldorf ) was a National Socialist Protestant theologian. In 1933 he was appointed by the " German Christians " as Protestant bishop of the Cologne-Aachen diocese for six months .

Studies and Careers

The important industrialist Hugo Stinnes from Mülheim became the decisive sponsor of Oberheid, who was born in simple circumstances as the youngest child of a Catholic switchman and his Protestant wife. With the support of Stinnes, he was able to take his matriculation examination at the state high school in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1914 . He then began studying theology at the University of Marburg , during which he joined the Marburg Wingolf Christian student union , of which he was a member until 1936. From January 1916 he volunteered for military service and was wounded in 1918 after he had already earned a reputation as a persistent hand-to-hand fighter. At the end of the war he had made it to lieutenant.

After the horrors of the war, studying theology no longer seemed appropriate. He turned to economics and began studying in Heidelberg in February 1919, which he completed in November 1919 with his doctorate due to a special provision for "war emergency semesters". phil. could complete. In his dissertation, which has not survived, he dealt with the loss of iron ore deposits in Lorraine at the suggestion of his sponsor Stinnes. For a while he worked as a miner and was trained in the Stinnes secretariat. From 1920 he was responsible for tariff issues in the mining association . He then came to the Stinnes Group and was appointed director of Stinnes-Eisen.

After Stinnes' death, he left the group and retired to the Schlechtenbeck estate near Radevormwald , which he had acquired in 1923 . There he reoriented himself and resumed studying theology in Bonn in 1926. There he made friends with Carl Schmitt . He passed his first exam in 1931. He performed his vicariate in Remscheid . Only after further written exams did he pass the second theological exam in December 1932. His first congregation in 1933 was the diaspora congregation Asbach - Kircheib in the Westerwald .

Oberheid as a National Socialist

From 1920 to 1922 Oberheid was a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund . In 1928 he became a member of the NSDAP , which he left again in 1932, and in 1929 a member of the SA . As an SA storm leader he held SA field services during his vicariate and turned to the German Christians (DC). His rapid rise began in 1933 when he was appointed chairman of the DC in the Koblenz-Trier district of the Rheinische Konsistorium. Now he appeared in SA uniform at numerous DC events.

Bishop of Cologne-Aachen

By resolution of the Church Senate of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , Oberheid was appointed Bishop of the Rhenish Provincial Church , which was now called "Diocese of Cologne-Aachen", in October 1933 . He was convinced that the Protestant Reformation faith had to be merged with the National Socialist movement. But soon there was resistance to the rapid rise of Oberheid. That is why he called himself only “Landespfarrer” and gave up this office when he became an employee of Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller and his chief of staff in November 1933 . He was given authority and was at the height of his ecclesiastical political power. He was also a consultant for canon law in the National Socialist Academy for German Law founded by Hans Frank .

But shortly afterwards he was given leave of absence from his office in Berlin because of internal power struggles. He was no longer used in his regional church and in 1937 he was taken over as pastor for church-wide tasks in the service of the Thuringian regional church. In the spring of 1939 he declared his collaboration with the Institute for Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life .

On August 1, 1939, Oberheid again volunteered for military service and served as captain until he was taken prisoner by the Americans, from which he was released at the end of 1945. Even during his imprisonment, Oberheid avoided contact with other clergymen.

Post war career

The Thuringian regional church dismissed its now unloved pastor, and the Rhenish church also declined reinstatement. Oberheid had to reorient himself professionally. In 1950 he joined a company in Düsseldorf that was active in the steel trade and remained its general manager until his retirement.

Trivia

The Oberheidstrasse , which runs past the Protestant church in Mülheim- Dümpten , is not named after him, but rather from the local field name Obere Heide .

Works

  • Non-political German Christianity. A word about "Political Christianity" by Professor Paul Althaus. Bonn 1936.

literature

Other sources

  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1550 (Mülheim personalities)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 440.
  2. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer: We went astray. Cologne 1987.
  3. ↑ see streets at MH (accessed February 2012)


personal data
SURNAME Oberheid, Heinrich Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION National Socialist Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH November 7th 1977
Place of death Dusseldorf