Heinrich Schmitz (pastor)

Heinrich Schmitz (born July 23, 1890 in Duisburg , † September 30, 1968 in Wesel ) was a German Protestant pastor , member of the Confessing Church and prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp .

Life

Youth, Teaching, and Missionary Service

Heinrich Schmitz was born in Duisburg as the child of wire weaver Heinrich Schmitz and his wife Gertrud. Schacke born. He grew up mostly in children's homes. After leaving school, he completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith.

Since 1910 Schmitz completed missionary training at the Rhenish Mission . From 1915 to 1916 he committed himself as a volunteer nurse and served from September 18, 1916 to January 24, 1918 as a soldier. On April 23, 1917 Schmitz suffered gas poisoning and burns to his back and was subsequently classified as incapacitated.

After Schmitz was determined to be unsuitable for the tropics and sending him out as a missionary was no longer an option, he passed the exam in 1920 and was ordained for community service. Initially, Schmitz was head of the Erfurt city mission. In 1921 he became assistant preacher in Horrem near Cologne.

Studies and first pastor's position in the Alps

Schmitz began studying theology in the winter semester of 1921/22 and passed the “prüfung pro ministerio ”(2nd exam) in 1923. In 1924 he was ordained for church service. From January 1, 1924 to August 1, 1924 he was a pastor in the auxiliary service in Vohwinkel (today in Wuppertal) and from September 1, 1923 to March 4, 1925 in Barmen . On March 5, 1925 he became a pastor in Alpen in the parish of Wesel.

On November 25, 1925, he married the teacher Klara Kürten (* 1884) from Sonnborn (now in Wuppertal). The daughter Gertrud was born on January 15, 1930.

Service in Bergneustadt and the struggle for the parish office there

On September 24, 1934 Schmitz was introduced as pastor of Bergneustadt . Here he came into conflict with the Gestapo since 1937 because of his sermons , but also because of collecting collections for the Confessing Church . On 23 October 1937, he was from the Rhine Province reported yet with rich far gag occupied. Although he left the city, he stayed in a hotel in Wegeringhausen , which was already in the administrative district of Arnsberg in the province of Westphalia, but was only eight kilometers from the Protestant church in Bergneustadt . He returned the next day to preach again in his church. He was then taken into “ protective custody ” for some time in Gummersbach and then in Cologne . When he was released again, he found quarters with pastor Rudolf Schmidt in Meinerzhagen and lived again in the Arnsberg district. Again and again he went to the ministry in Bergneustadt, 15 km away.

When the Gestapo extended Schmitz's ban on residence to the Arnsberg administrative district , he went to Bethel . There he lived with the parents-in-law of a Heidelberg pastor of the Confessing Church, held Bible studies and sermons. His path took him to Hermannsburg , where he served as a pastor in East Prussian parishes and was finally requested from Silesia. He finally broke off his service in East Prussia in order to maintain influence on Bergneustadt, where his wife and daughter continued to live. For the same reason, he also refused the request from Silesia.

Finally, he was occupied with the Lippe regional church in Augustdorf . There, the church council had asked the church management to entrust Schmitz with the management of the pastor's office after the previous post-holder had left, who was at the Hermannsheide farm at the time. In this congregation, too, he stuck to his confessional sermons, as a result of which he clashed with National Socialists on various occasions.

On April 1, 1943, he was put on hold and his appeal was rejected on April 3. The transfer was the prerequisite for the lifting of the ban on residence in the Rhine Province by the Secret State Police. Now he was allowed to stay in the whole of the Reich again - with the exception of Bergneustadt. He was then assigned to the parish of Wesel in order to temporarily manage the pastoral position in Obrighoven . - Until then, Schmitz's wife and daughter continued to live in Bergneustadt.

Werner Koppen, Schmitz's successor in the Bergneustadt pastorate, promised him to vacate the pastorate as soon as he was allowed to return to Bergneustadt. However, the presbytery was no longer interested and obliged Schmitz to vacate all rooms in the rectory in which he was still storing furniture with the approval of his successor in office by April 1, 1944.

Schmitz didn't make life easy for people in Wesel either. "What his misfortune was in Bergneustadt, from which the Bergneustadt community sighed and suffered, also became a sigh and suffering for Wesel". On June 16, 1944, after a funeral address, he was arrested and taken to Emmerich prison; Wesel, Ratingen and Düsseldorf followed later.

On 6 December 1944 he was sent to Dachau deported and received there the prisoner number 135,009th As the US troops Dachau approached, Schmitz was born on 26 April 1945 along with 54 other ministers of the " priest block " on a death march sent in the direction of the “ Alpenfestung ”. On April 27, 1945 he and the other pastors were liberated by the Jesuit fathers Otto Pies and Franz Kreis . The chronicle of the evangelical-reformed parish of Augustdorf reports:

“When, towards the end of the war, as in other places, Pastor Schmitz was put on the march with the other inmates of the camp, he too would have been shot like any of the concentration camp inmates who could not go any further. Compassionate people who were even stronger supported him as he marched. Including a Catholic pastor with whom, as he told me when he visited me, he was very friends. Suddenly a truck came and stopped at the concentration camp inmates' misery train. An officer gets out and asks the head of the guards of the concentration camp people: 'Where are you going with these people?' When the leader indicates the destination, the officer says, 'I have orders to transport these people away.' The tarpaulin of the truck is lifted up and the concentration camp inmates have to sit down above. The truck is closed again with the tarpaulin and drives off.
The men under the tarpaulin think: This is our end. But after a while the truck stops. The tarpaulin is lifted and the officer says kindly, 'Please dismount now.' The men look around in amazement and see themselves in a courtyard surrounded by buildings. […] The 'officer', who was not an officer, had transported her to a monastery. In order to save the concentration camp prisoners, he bravely disguised himself as an officer. "

Schmitz 'employment contract in Wesel ended on September 1, 1945. Now he fought intensely for Bergneustadt again. At a mission conference in Nümbrecht in July 1945, Koppen heard from a missionary who had preached in Wesel on the previous Sunday that Schmitz would return to Bergneustadt because he was a legal pastor there. On August 10, 1945, the church master announced in the presbytery meeting that Schmitz wanted to stand on the pulpit in Bergneustadt on August 12, 1945. The presbytery expressly refused to do so. In the meeting on the following day, the presbytery found that Schmitz had preached in the service and then talked about the time in the Dachau concentration camp at a community meeting. The next day a delegation from the presbytery went to Düsseldorf. Prof. Schmitz from the Johanneum was appointed to Bergneustadt as a mediator. In a trial vote among the church service community, 17 vote for Schmitz, but the large majority for Koppen.

On September 9, 1945 Schmitz preached again in Bergneustadt. Many parishioners who had learned that Schmitz was going to preach turned back on their way to the church or left again. In a sharp letter, the presbytery asked the church administration to forbid Schmitz from any service in Bergneustadt. Two things particularly angered the congregation. On the one hand, Schmitz's arbitrary, high-handed approach should be mentioned. On the other hand, it is about Schmitz asking political (social democratic) decision-makers for help, and that after the experiences of the church struggle not even half a year ago.

In the interest of the community, Schmitz was forbidden to travel to Bergneustadt. Koppen went to Nümbrecht in December 1945. On January 13, 1946, Klaus Lohmann was introduced as the new pastor of Bergneustadt .

Schmitz's objection to the proceedings was heard by the appellate body on October 3, 1945 in Bethel and rejected. His accusation of a "hunger blockade" was rejected. In the following years there was talk of some poison in Bergneustadt. So he was "a blacksmith", which is why one could not deal with him.

As a pastor in Obrighoven and the time of retirement

It was not until 1949 that Schmitz managed to find a pastor again. He was elected in Wesel and introduced on March 13, 1949 in Wesel IV ( Obrighoven ) as pastor at the church on Lauerhaas. During his time in Wesel, he earned special services in connection with the reconstruction of the Willibrordi Cathedral , which was destroyed in World War II , in which he co-founded the Willibrordi Dombauverein.

In 1955 his wife died. In 1960 he retired, but still did a few jobs.

Schmitz died on September 30, 1968 and was buried in Obrighoven (now a district of Wesel).

Honors

• In his last place of residence, Wesel, the clergyman was honored with a “Pastor-Schmitz-Straße”.

literature

• Johannes Fach: Contributions to the history of the church struggle 1933–1945 in the church district An der Agger , volume 4. Evangelical church district An der Agger, Marienhagen / Gummersbach, 1986 (printed as ms. Manuscript); Pp. 11-196

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Evangelical Reformed Church Community Augustdorf: Chronicle - From the life of the pastor. ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 10, 2011 
2. ↑ J. Fach, p. 77.
3. ↑ Fach, pp. 180-182
4. ↑ Presbytery letter of September 9, 1945 to the church administration, in Fach p. 180
5. ↑ Fach, p. 193 ff.