Heinrich Kolfhaus

Heinrich Kolfhaus (born April 27, 1879 in Krefeld , † May 30, 1956 in Bad Godesberg , now Bonn) was a Protestant pastor. Because of his resistance in the Third Reich against the taking over of the church by the National Socialists, Bad Godesberg made him an honorary citizen .

Life

Family history

Heinrich Kolfhaus was the son of the businessman Carl August Kolfhaus from Krefeld . His brother Wilhelm Kolfhaus (1870–1954), pastor in Elberfeld and Vlotho, campaigned for the Confessing Church . During his vicariate in Linz on the Rhine , Heinrich Kolfhaus met the daughter of the local pastor Deußen, whom he later married in 1906. The daughter Gertrud Elisabeth emerged from the marriage.

Theological training

From 1885 to Easter 1897, Kolfhaus attended grammar school in Krefeld, after which he studied at the Universities of Erlangen, Halle and Bonn until autumn 1900. He joined Wingolf at all three study locations . In Erlangen he was significantly influenced by Ernst Friedrich Karl Müller and in Halle especially by Martin Kähler . After completing his studies, he was temporarily an educator at the Johanneum zu Moers , then vicar in Ratingen and in Linz am Rhein .

After his ordination as pastor in Düsseldorf, he became parish pastor in Ratingen for seven years. On July 27, 1913, he was introduced as parish priest in Bad Godesberg , where he worked until his retirement on October 1, 1949. This time was only interrupted during the First World War by working as a hospital pastor in Neuss and then as a division pastor in the field. He was awarded the EK1 and EK2 for his service in the First World War .

Activity as parish priest in Bad Godesberg

General

Kolfhaus was physically large and imposing in his demeanor. His sermons were considered pointed and powerful.

In the years after the First World War he devoted himself particularly to social tasks. He organized the takeover of the Viktoria Hospital, which during the inflationary period could no longer be maintained from its own resources, into the sponsorship of his community. The core of Christian doctrine was much more important to him than the external gloss of the church. So it was typical for him that in the time of need after the war he blew out burning candles at the altar with the statement: "It is light enough!"

Church work and resistance

When the Nazis came to power, the “ German Christians ” (DC) began to gain a foothold in the Protestant community in Bad Godesberg. But after the Sports Palace rally of the German Christians on November 13, 1933 and after the Confessional Synod in Wuppertal Barmen from January 3 to 4, 1934, Pastor Kolfhaus joined his Godesberg Evangelical Redeemer parish of the Confessing Church on January 9, 1934 . In the church fight, despite the decree of the Reich Bishop Müller of January 6, 1934, the disciplined pastor of the Confessing Church was commemorated in prayers in the service.

When the Swiss theologian Karl Barth was banned from public appearances at that time and he was dismissed from Bonn University by the NSDAP on November 26, 1934 because he refused to obey Hitler, Barth's students from Bonn came to Kolfhaus' church. The services of the Godesberger Ev. Church were repeatedly in connection with the preparation times of the confessional students, which took place in Godesheim, the diaspora orphanage of the Ev. Association for Diakonie, headed by Kolfhaus. Seminars were held here under Karl Barth and other theologians of the Confessing Church. The Wuppertal Church University later emerged from these seminars . As chairman of the Association for Inner Mission, Kolfhaus succeeded in preventing the Godesheim from being taken over by the state. In this way, several Jewish children could be taken in and hidden.

In March 1935, Pastor Kolfhaus refused to sign the commitment not to read the “Word to the Congregation” published by the Confessional Synod. On March 10, 1935, at the main service, Kolfhaus read out the words of the Confessional Synod, which had been meeting in Berlin-Dahlem on March 4 and 5, and said among other things: “We see our people threatened with mortal danger. The danger is in a new religion ”-“ The new religion is rebellion against the first commandment ”-“ In it, the racial-folk worldview becomes a myth. In it, blood and race, nationality, honor and freedom become idolatrous. ”Despite the threat of imprisonment, Kolfhaus read the message of the Confessing Synod and a letter from the pastors to the Secret State Police protesting against police violence during the service on March 24, 1935 . To avoid arrest, he temporarily fled Godesberg.

Kolfhaus' sermons continued to be monitored in the period that followed. Nevertheless, during the Good Friday service on April 19, 1935, he read the names of dozen of priests imprisoned in the concentration camp with the words: "They languish in the concentration camp because they testified against neo-paganism." In 1938 he became a confidante of the Bonn Confessional Synod. The “shop steward” played the role of the “illegal” superintendent in the Bonn Confessional Synod. Although Pastor Kolfhaus maintained a national sentiment, he kept his distance from National Socialism and in July 1938, like his Godesberg counterpart, refused the oath of leadership .

In 1941, by order of the consistory in Düsseldorf, Kolfhaus had to deliver the key to the Rigal'sche Chapel , the first church of the Evangelical Godesberg community. He did so with the following letter: “By giving way to the consistorial authority and handing over the key of our chapel to the representative of the consistory, I testify that I reject and agree to all responsibility for the consequences of this DC break-in in our community in all seriousness make the consistory liable for it. Only the consideration of the war situation in which we find ourselves with its demand for inner unity could move me to give up further resistance to the injustice that is happening here to the community. "

During the Second World War , Pastor Kolfhaus had to lead the Godesberg 7,000-strong community alone, as his two official colleagues were called up for military service. Pastor Kolfhaus had severe hip problems. Nevertheless, he did not go into (active) retirement until he was 70 (retired on October 1, 1949).

Honors

Kolfhausstrasse in Bonn-Bad Godesberg

In recognition of his attitude towards the attempts at appropriation in the National Socialist state, Heinrich Kolfhaus was made an honorary citizen on July 31, 1952 by the council of the - at that time still independent - city of Bad Godesberg .

In 1978 Wilhelmstrasse in Bonn-Bad Godesberg was renamed "Kolfhausstrasse".

The old people's home on Godeshöhe, which was inaugurated on December 5, 1996, was named "Heinrich Kolfhaus Senior Center" in his honor.

Sources and literature

• Memorial and NS Documentation Center Bonn eV, Franziskanerstraße 9, 53113 Bonn
• Stephan Bitter: Greeting on December 5, 1996 , in: Festschrift. On the opening of the Heinrich Kolfhaus senior center on December 5, 1996, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1996, pp. 2–3.
• Stephan Bitter Heinrich Kolfhaus in the church fight . Notes on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death, in: Godesberger Heimatblätter 34 (1996), pp. 87–96.
• Stephan Bitter: Who was Heinrich Kolfhaus? (2012 online).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kalliope network: Ernst Friedrich Karl Müller
2. ↑ http: // erlöser-Kirchengemeinde
3. ↑ The letter in which the accession of his congregation to the Confessing Church was announced is archived in the Documentation Center in Bonn.
4. ↑ http://archiv-ekir.de/images/PDF/Findmittel/5WV_Einrichtungen/5WV009M_EvKinderheimGodesheim.pdf
5. ↑ https://seniorenzentrum-heinrich-kolfhaus.de/