Helmut Hild

Helmut Hild (born May 23, 1921 in Weinbach ; † September 11, 1999 in Darmstadt ) was a Protestant theologian and from 1969 to 1985 Church President of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau .

Career

Grave of Helmut Hild in the old cemetery in Darmstadt

Hild was a soldier in World War II , so that he could not begin studying Protestant theology at the Philipps University of Marburg until 1946 . In 1951 he became parish administrator and later pastor in Westerburg and from 1957 in Frankfurt am Main . In 1960 the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau appointed him the first full-time public pastor. In 1964 he took over the chairmanship of the Frankfurt Evangelical Community Association and was at the same time pastor at the Luther Community.

In 1969, Hild was elected Church President by the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau as the successor to Wolfgang Sucker , who had died in December 1968. In 1973 Hild was also elected to the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany , where he was deputy chairman. In November 1976 he was re-elected as Church President. In 1985 he retired. The regional synod therefore elected Helmut Spengler as his successor. However, from 1985 onwards, Hild took on a new honorary position as chairman of the joint venture of Protestant journalism in Frankfurt am Main.

Hild died in September 1999. He was buried in the old cemetery in Darmstadt. Today the “House of Books” (central archive and central library of the EKHN in Darmstadt's Ahastraße) bears his name.

Honors

Hild received an honorary doctorate from the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw in 1974 . He was also the bearer of the Great Federal Cross of Merit with Star , the plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt am Main , the Hessian Order of Merit and the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (Commander's Cross).

literature

Christian Weise: Hild, Helmut. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 28, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-413-7 , Sp. 806-815. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Literature by and about Helmut Hild in the catalog of the German National Library
Interview , Der Spiegel , November 16, 1970
Hild, Helmut. Hessian biography. (As of September 11, 2017). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

personal data
SURNAME	Hild, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	May 23, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH	Weinbach
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 1999
Place of death	Darmstadt