Heinrich Rendtorff

Grave in the north cemetery in Kiel

Heinrich Rendtorff (born April 9, 1888 in Westerland , Sylt ; † April 18, 1960 in Kiel ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian , pastor, regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg , honorary professor and university preacher in Rostock from 1931 to 1933 and professor from 1926 to 1930 for practical theology and 1945 to 1956 additionally for the New Testament in Kiel.

Live and act

Heinrich Rendtorff was a son of the pastor and study director Franz Rendtorff and his wife Louise Rendtorff (1861-1933). He attended school in Preetz , high school in Kiel and graduated from high school in 1907. He studied Protestant theology in Tübingen , Halle (Saale) , Kiel, Leipzig and received his doctorate in 1912 as lic. theol. with a work called The Problem of Certainty in the Theological System of Johannes Musaeus . After his military service, where he last served as a lieutenant, he was ordained as a pastor in Kiel on December 8, 1918 . In 1919 he became pastor in Hamwarde - Worth near Lauenburg / Elbe and in 1921 a full-time people's missionary at the State Association for Internal Mission in Schleswig-Holstein in Rickling . In 1924 he became a monastery preacher and director of studies at the preacher's seminary in Preetz and from 1926 to 1930 he took over the professorship for practical theology at the theological faculty of the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . In 1925 he was awarded an honorary theological doctorate in Rostock .

In 1930 he was appointed regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg . From 1931 to 1933 he was also honorary professor and university preacher in Rostock. As a member and temporarily leader of the nationalist Christian-German movement , Rendtorff welcomed the takeover of the National Socialists without reservation and applied for membership in the NSDAP on the following grounds : " As a German man, I want to publicly acknowledge the NSDAP ". In May 1933 he actually became a provisional member of the NSDAP, but as early as August 1933 he was expelled from the party “because of anti-party statements” because he had become a member of the Confessing Church . In January 1934, under pressure from the NSDAP Gauleiter of Mecklenburg, he had to resign from his position as regional bishop. His successor was the newly elected "regional church leader" Walther Schultz (at the age of not even 33 years!).

Heinrich Rendtorff moved from Mecklenburg to Pomerania in 1934 , where he took over a pastoral position in the Wartburg parish in Stettin- Braunfelde in the church of the Old Prussian Union , which he held until 1945. At the same time, Rendtorff got involved in the Confessing Church (BK) and became a member of the Pomeranian Brother Council of the BK.

In 1937, Rendtorff was one of those who signed the declaration of the 96 Protestant church leaders against Alfred Rosenberg because of his writing Protestant Rome Pilgrims .

After fleeing to the West at the end of the war in 1945, Rendtorff was first appointed to Kiel as a member of the provisional church government in Schleswig-Holstein and again in autumn 1945 as professor of practical theology . He was dean of the theological faculty and rector of the CAU. In 1956 he retired . At the same time, from 1946 on, Rendtorff was chairman of the People's Mission Working Group (today: Missionary Services Working Group ).

On April 22nd, 1960 Heinrich Rendtorff was brought to rest in Kiel. The general superintendent D. Walter Braun from Potsdam held the funeral service in the Pauluskirche . Rendtorff was married to Emma Caroline Hedwig Besser and they had nine children. His sons Rolf Rendtorff and Trutz Rendtorff also became professors of theology.

Fonts (selection)

• Plow a new one. About the mission of the Evangelical Church to the German people. A contribution to the questions of church people's mission , Hamburg 1924
• The Church of the Working Word. On the service of the Church in the present crisis , Berlin 1930
• The secret church. Evangelical speeches , Schwerin 1930
• Settlement and church in Mecklenburg-Schwerin , with Karl Goldenbagen, Bahn, Schwerin 1933
• This is what the coming gentleman says , Christlicher Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin 1946
• Order of the church as God's mandate , Nölke, Hamburg 1946
• The legacy of Jesus to his community , with Manfred Wallach, Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1947
• Church happens today , Nölke, Hamburg 1947
• The legacy of Jesus to his community , Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin 1947
• Gott-Welt-Mensch , with Eckhardt Brix, Christian magazine publisher, Berlin-Dahlem 1948
• The new life in Christ , Schriftenmissions-Verlag, Gladbeck 1949
• Order of worship for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein , Reich & Heidrich, Hamburg 1949
• We wanted to see Jesus , Schriftenmissions-Verlag, Gladbeck 1950
• Getrostes Wander , Furche Verlag , Hamburg 1951, 7th revised edition
• It should happen through my mind , Claudius Verlag , Munich 1952
• On the Resurrection of the Dead , Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin 1952
• Listeners and perpetrators, Furche Verlag , Hamburg 1953
• From the good works of faith , Christian magazine publisher, Berlin 1953
• ... as the good stewards ... , Freimund-Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1953
• God's people under the word , Christian magazine publisher, Berlin 1953
• God's word is not bound , Schriftenmissions-Verlag, Gladbeck 1953
• See, there is your God , Jensen, Breklum 1954
• So is God , Christian magazine publisher, 1954
• Isn't there a god with you? Christian magazine publisher, Berlin 1955
• This is how God lets church become , Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin-Dahlem 1957
• The personal life of the evangelical ambassador , Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin 1958
• Serve the Lord with joy , Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin-Dahlem 1958
• Abraham, father of faith , Christian magazine publisher, Berlin-Friedenan 1959

literature

• Joachim Heubach / Heinrich-Hermann Ulrich (Hrsg.): Collection and broadcast. On the mission of the Church in the world. A celebration for Heinrich Rendtorff on his 70th birthday on April 9, 1958 , Berlin: Christlicher Zeitschriftenverlag, 1958.
• Wilhelm Niesel : Church under the Word. The struggle of the Confessing Church of the Old Prussian Union 1933-1945 ; Works on the history of the church struggle. Supplementary Series, Volume 11; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978.
• Paul Toaspern (ed.): Workers in God's harvest. Heinrich Rendtorff. Life and Work , Berlin: Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, 1963.

Web links

• Heinrich Rendtorff in the German biography
• Literature by and about Heinrich Rendtorff in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Heinrich Rendtorff in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium

Individual evidence

1. ^ Christoph Weiling: The "Christian-German Movement". A study on conservative Protestantism in the Weimar Republic . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, p. 163-175 .
2. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum 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. 491
3. ↑ 80 years ago today: Protestant theologian dismissed. In: Berliner Morgenpost , August 13, 2013.
4. ^ ^{A b} Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 491.
5. ^ Andreas Möckel: Contested Volkskirche: Life and Work of the Evangelical-Saxon Pastor Konrad Möckel (1892-1965) , Volume 42 of Studia Transylvanica, Böhlau Verlag, Cologne and Weimar 2011, ISBN 978-3-4122-0662-8 , p. 90-108: Renewal Movement 1931-1932
6. ↑ Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze (Ed.): Ecumenical Yearbook 1936–1937 . Max Niehans, Zurich 1939, pp. 240–247.
7. ↑ The word on the day of repentance submitted on behalf of the provisional church government on November 21, 1945 (online at pkgodzik.de) was essentially written by Professor D. Rendtorff, shortly before the Stuttgart confession of guilt became known , i.e. independently of her. The word was wrongly published in the collection of sermons, speeches, essays and letters by Wilhelm Halfmann , since he is not the author; but President Halfmann unreservedly agreed with the word on the day of repentance in form and content. ( Kurt Juergensen : The declaration of guilt by the Evangelical Church in Germany and its acceptance in Schleswig-Holstein , in: Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1988, pp. 381-406 , here p. 396)
8. ↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)
9. ^ Entry on Heinrich Rendtorff in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium
10. ↑ Personal Lexicon on German Protestantism 1919-1949 , Göttingen 2006, p. 205
11. ↑ Neue Zeit newspaper , May 3, 1960, p. 6