Heinrich Rathke

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Heinrich Rathke (born December 12, 1928 in Mölln , Mecklenburg-Schwerin ) was regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg from 1971 to 1984 and from 1977 to 1981 the leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in the GDR (VELK) .

Life

Heinrich Rathke comes from a Mecklenburg pastor family . In 1944, when he was 16 years old , he was drafted into the war and was taken prisoner by the British . In 1948 he completed his schooling in Lübeck , studied in Kiel , Erlangen and Tuebingen theology with the intention to enter the service of the Bavarian church. In Erlangen he became a member of the Bubenreuther fraternity . In 1953, after taking the first theological exam in Ansbach , he decided to return to the German Democratic Republic in view of the lack of theologians . Rathke was ordained in 1954. In 1955 he was given a pastor's post in Warnkenhagen in Mecklenburg and married Marianne Rusam, with whom he has seven children. In 1962 Rathke moved to the St. Andreas parish in Rostock, later he became pastor in the Rostock Südstadt. Popular sermons from an old circus wagon caused a stir in the atheistic SED state .

1956 Heinrich Rathke at was University of Rostock with a thesis on St. Ignatius of Antioch at Gustav Stählin and Konrad Weiss Dr. theol. PhD.

In 1970 he was appointed regional pastor for community service ( Volksmission ) in Güstrow and from 1971 onwards he was elected regional bishop of the Mecklenburg regional church for twelve years as the successor to Niklot Beste . In 1972 he was also the representative of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR for liaison with the Russian Orthodox Church . From 1977 to 1981 Rathke also acted as the leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (VELK) in the GDR, from 1978 to 1980 chairman of the GDR National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation .

From the beginning of the eighties, Rathke became more involved in peace work , for human rights and the environment. He criticized the introduction of military education and the intensified prosecution of pacifist youth. The SED classified him as "hostile negative". This commitment also had consequences for his family: none of his children were allowed to study.

Rathke, who always strongly advocated limitation of the term of office, returned to the parish office after the end of his term of office. His successor as regional bishop was Christoph Stier . Rathke took over the pastoral office of Crivitz near Schwerin , which he had to give up in 1991 for health reasons. After the fall of the Wall , he took care of Russian-German congregations in Central Asia and was the Episcopal Visitator of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 1994 .

He was appointed to a trust council to deal with church Stasi entanglements and was a member of the advisory board of the Stasi records authority for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for several years.

Heinrich Rathke was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Rostock in 1999 . He is an honorary citizen of the city of Crivitz and now lives in Schwerin .

Works

  • Heinrich Rathke: Ignatius of Antioch and the Pauline letters . Berlin 1967
  • Björn Mensing, Heinrich Rathke: Humanity, civil courage, trust in God. Evangelical victims of National Socialism and Stalinism . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-374-02057-7
  • Heinrich Rathke: "Where should we go?" The path of the Evangelical Church in Mecklenburg in the 20th century. Lutheran Publishing Company Kiel. 2014. ISBN 978-3-87503-173-7

literature

  • Rahel Frank: "More real, more exact - more precise"? The GDR church policy towards the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg from 1971 to 1989 ; Schwerin 2004; ISBN 393325518X
  • Roger Sitter, Ehrhart Neubert:  Rathke, Heinrich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Gerhard Altenburg, Karl Matthias Siegert (ed.): "Church for others - Church with others". Festschrift for Dr. Heinrich Rathke on his 85th birthday. Wismar: Redarius 2014 ISBN 978-3-941917-07-1 (= Mecklenburgia sacra: Yearbook for Mecklenburg Church History. Special Volume 1)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rathke, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor, theologian and regional bishop in Mecklenburg
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Mölln