Hermann Sasse

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Herman Sasse.jpg

Hermann Otto Sasse (born July 17, 1895 in Sonnewalde , Niederlausitz , † August 8, 1976 in Adelaide - North Adelaide ) was an important Lutheran theologian in Germany and Australia .

Life

Until 1933

After school, Sasse studied Protestant theology in Berlin. The professors of the School of Religious History and the so-called Cultural Protestantism were able to convince Sasse of their theological point of view at first. During this time, Sasse was mainly influenced by the old Ernst Troeltsch . For the time being, however, Sasse was unable to finish his studies because of the First World War. He served as an infantry soldier in the trenches on the Western Front. According to his own judgment, his whole worldview broke there. The theology of Harnack and Troeltsch, and indeed the whole worldview of the late 19th century, fell apart in Verdun, Sedan and the battlefields of Flanders. In 1917, the year of the Reformation, some of Luther's writings finally ended up in Sasse and others in the trenches. Here he learned "that we had to proclaim God's word and not human wisdom". Sasse made the turn from a subjective religiosity to the objective Word of God there. Karl Barth's early dialectical theology was what triggered Sasse to deal with Luther and the revival . In many respects Sasse's path was different from that of the Swiss theologian, but he always had a certain bond with Barth.

Immediately after the war he was able to take his exams in 1918 and was in Berlin on June 13, 1920 ordained . First he was pastor in Oranienburg (1920), Templin (1921–1928) and in 1928 in St. Marien in Berlin (until 1931 also social pastor). There the basic experiences of the war solidified, and he dealt intensively with Luther and the Lutheran awakening of the early 19th century, above all with August Friedrich Christian Vilmar , Wilhelm Löhe and Neuluthertum . But his contemporaries Hermann Bezzel , Ludwig Ihmels and Wilhelm Zoellner also had a great influence on him. Also in this time his doctorate fell to Dr. theol. in Berlin in the New Testament subject with Adolf Deißmann . From 1931 to 1934, he succeeded Johannes Schneider as the editor of the “Church Yearbook”.

Professorship and commitment to ecumenism

In 1933, Sasse became an associate professor at the University of Erlangen . However, further advancement was no longer possible due to Sasse's critical statements against the new state power. His most important colleagues there were Werner Elert and Paul Althaus , who behaved differently towards the NSDAP and probably also hindered Sasse in his work. In the whole time before 1933 Sasse was very strong in the cooperation of the international ecumenical movement. In 1927 he took part as a delegate to the Conference on Faith and Order in Lausanne, which is considered to be one of the two roots of the modern ecumenical movement and the WCC. Following this conference, Sasse published the German reports. Sasse was later invited as an official observer to the 2nd Vatican Council .

1933 to 1945

His participation in the church resistance movement against the National Socialist attempts to take over the church by the church party German Christians in the church elections in 1932 and his cooperation with some representatives of the Confessing Church developed more problematically . Together with Gerhard Jacobi , Sasse founded the “ Theological Working Group for Church and Office ” in 1932 , the so-called “Jacobi Circle”, in which mainly younger pastors from Berlin and Brandenburg participated and from which the Young Reformation Movement emerged on May 9, 1933 ; Out of this movement, the " Pfarrernotbund " was founded on September 11, 1933 , in which Sasse also worked.

At the beginning of August 1933, Sasse acted as one of the main authors of the Bethel Confession alongside Dietrich Bonhoeffer . This emphatically Lutheran confession in the church struggle , however, was too Lutheran for Karl Barth and not all-Protestant enough; The original main authors Bonhoeffer and Sasse distanced themselves from a version of the Bethel Confession which was heavily revised and published by Martin Niemöller in 1934 . When Sasse finally fell ill during the decisive preliminary consultation for the Barmer Theological Declaration in 1934 and the text became confessional, he was no longer able to work in this group. Sasse feared that this declaration could drive the individual denominational regional churches into unionism . In fact, there was a noticeable tendency among a number of representatives, including the Lutheran churches, to place the church struggle above the traditional confession. Sasse saw here a violation of Article 7 of the Confessio Augustana , because for the unity of the church, especially the confessional unity, there must also be unity about what the gospel and the sacraments are. Especially on the question of the Lord's Supper, Sasse saw such a great dissent between the signatories that he saw no other option than to reject a joint confession.

After 1934 there was also a break with Bonhoeffer over the question of confession; Sasse accused Bonhoeffer of "enthusiasm", while Bonhoeffer Sasse accused him of "confessional formalism". After the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the official pressure on the churches and thus also on Sasse eased. Nevertheless, since 1934 he was relatively isolated in the church. At least for the Bavarian regional church , Sasse continued to be a critical warner and formative authority.

After 1945

After the Second World War, he finally became a full professor for church and dogma history in Erlangen, where he had previously been commissioned to review the professors of the theological faculty in a "confidential memorandum". Soon after, the military government named him Vice Rector of the university. In autumn 1945, Sasse was only given the chair as successor to Hans Preuss against fierce opposition from the faculty . In 1948 Sasse joined the Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church in protest against the founding of the EKD , in particular against the accession of the Bavarian State Church . In 1949 he accepted the call to the Lutheran Church of Australia and emigrated. In addition to Karl Mützelfeldt , who emigrated in 1934, he took over teaching at the Immanuel Seminar in Adelaide. He was also active as a journalist and was involved in the unification of the Lutheran churches in Australia.

Through numerous publications and the "Letters to Lutheran Pastors", Sasse always remained connected to the Lutherans in Germany and had a not inconsiderable influence on them.

Theological and church impulses

The most important theological impulses can all be clearly seen in the three major turning points in his life. The First World War brought about a first turn back to the Church and its confession. The church struggle reinforced this interest and underpinned it by the special interest in Holy Communion. Ultimately, the establishment of the EKD meant that Sasse could no longer stay in a church that affirmed the union of Lutheran, Reformed and Uniate churches due to the convictions he had gained about the church and the Lord's Supper and his commitment to the Lutheran Church. In spite of all this, Hermann Sasse never lost sight of the ecumenical work, for which he always wanted a more truthful basis than that given by blind unionism. "Hermann Sasse's life's work is due to the tension between Lutheran confession and ecumenical breadth."

Hermann Sasse Prize

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK), based in Hanover, has awarded the Hermann Sasse Prize since 1996, which has been awarded annually until 2001 and biennially since then. The prize money is currently 1,500 euros.

According to the statutes, the prize is awarded “in order to honor authors or editors of such works who make a contribution to the spread of Lutheran theology with their publication”. The basis for the honor is therefore a publication with an Evangelical Lutheran profile or Evangelical Lutheran topic. The Hermann Sasse Prize is awarded by a mostly seven-member jury and is usually presented personally by the bishop in the rooms of the Lutheran Theological University Oberursel in Oberursel . For many years, Hartmut Günther and Armin Wenz were chairman of the jury for the Hermann Sasse Prize and is currently the Oberursel exegete Jorg Christian Salzmann .

Award winners

  • 1996: Albrecht Peters (Heidelberg) posthumously
  • 1997: Jörg Baur (Göttingen)
  • 1998: Oswald Bayer (Tübingen)
  • 1999: Gunther Wenz (Munich) for his two-volume work Theology of the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church .
  • 2000: Johannes Wirsching (Berlin) for his three volumes Faith in Controversy ,
  • 2001: Karlmann Beyschlag (Erlangen) for the two-volume outline of the dogma story
  • 2003: Ernst Koch (Leipzig) for his publication The Confessional Age - Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism (1563–1675)
  • 2005: Michael Roth (Bonn) for his book Sense and Taste for the Finite. Reflections on the joy of creation and the joy of play .
  • 2007: Bengt Hägglund (Lund / Sweden) for his essay volume Chemnitz - Gerhard - Arndt - Rudbeckius. Essays on the study of old Lutheran theology
  • 2009: Johannes Hund (Mainz) for his dissertation The word became flesh - A systematic-theological investigation into the debate about Wittenberg Christology and the doctrine of the Lord's Supper in the years 1567 to 1574
  • 2011: Maria Marten (Hanover) for her dissertation Letter, Spirit and Nature. The Evangelical Lutheran plant sermons in the post-Reformation period
  • 2013: Robert Kolb (St. Louis / USA) for his book Luther and the stories of God
  • 2015: Irene Dingel (Mainz) for the publication of the new edition of the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (BSELK)
  • 2017: Johann Anselm Steiger (Hamburg) for his book The Organ Prospect in Lüne Monastery as a testimony to Baroque Lutheran image and music theology
  • 2019: Udo Schnelle (Halle / Saale) for his commentary The Gospel according to Johannes ( ThHNT 4)

Fonts (selection)

  • The people according to the teaching of the Protestant Church (= Confessing Church, booklet 20), Chr. Kaiser, Munich 1933/34.
  • What does Lutheran mean? Kaiser, Munich 1934. (2nd edition 1936; translations into English, Finnish, Norwegian [by Leiv Aalen ] and Latvian , among others ).
  • Church regiment and secular authorities according to Lutheran doctrine (= Confessing Church, issue 30), Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1935.
  • Union and Confession (= Confessing Church , issue 41/42), Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1936.
  • Church and Lord's Supper. A contribution to the understanding of the altar sacrament (= Confessing Church, issue 59/60). Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1938. (Reprint: Flacius Verlag, Fürth 1990).
  • In statu confessionis. Collected essays, ed. by Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf , Lutherisches Verl.-Haus, Berlin 1966.
  • In statu confessionis (new edition)
    • Vol. 1: Collected articles . Publishing house Die Spur, Berlin 1975.
    • Vol. 2: Collected essays and small writings . Die Spur Publishing House, Berlin 1976.
    • Vol. 3: Texts on Union, Confession, Church Struggle and Ecumenism . Edited by Werner Klän and Roland Ziegler. Oberurseler Hefte supplementary volumes Volume 10. Edition Ruprecht , Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-7675-7144-0 .
  • Corpus Christi. A Contribution to the Problem of the Sacrament Concord . With a foreword by Joachim Heubach , ed. by Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf, Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission , Erlangen 1979.
  • Testimonies. Erlangen sermons and lectures before congregations 1933–1944. With a foreword by Hermann Dietzfelbinger , ed. by Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf, Erlangen 1979.
  • Sacra scriptura. Studies on the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, ed. by Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf, Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission, Erlangen 1981.

As editor

  • From the sacrament of the altar. Lutheran contributions to the question of Holy Communion , Leipzig 1941.

literature

Web links

Commons : Hermann Sasse  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e German biographical encyclopedia: (DBE), p. 707
  2. ^ Sasse, In Statu Confessionis I , pp. 7f
  3. ↑ Christian Homrichhausen: Evangelical Social pastor in Berlin and Brandenburg . In: Traugott Jähnichen, Norbert Friedrich (Ed.): Protestantism and social question. Profiles in the time of the Weimar Republic . Münster 2000, p. 66 ff .
  4. ↑ Klaus Scholder : The Churches in the Third Reich, Vol. 1: Prehistory and Time of Illusions 1918-1934 ; Frankfurt / M., Berlin: Ullstein, 1986; Pp. 579-582
  5. ↑ Clemens Vollnhals: Evangelical Church and Denazification 1945-1949 . Diss. Univ. Munich 1986, Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1989, pp. 171ff
  6. ^ Peter Noss:  Sasse, Hermann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 1380-1399.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive  on 2007-06-29)
  7. ^ Yearbook for Political and Administrative Science, Volume 2, 1999, p. 48 Google Book, Online
  8. ↑ Hermann Sasse and Karlmann Beyschlag, Two Lutheran Theologians in the 20th Century, in: Peter Gemeinhardt , Karl Pinggéra (Ed.), Wolfgang A. Bienert : Church History in Ecumenical Responsibility, V&R unipress GmbH, 2009, p. 241 Online
  9. ↑ BRÜDERN-RUNDBRIEF March / May 2013, p. 38 ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 973 kB)
  10. ↑ Evangelische Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig: Experienced Life - Liberating Word, Sermons 1990–2011, Jörg Baur
  11. ↑ SELK Information No. 237, Volume 27 October 1999, p. 8 (PDF; 173 kB)
  12. ^ Gunther Wenz: Lutheran identity: Studies on the legacy of the Wittenberg Reformation, Volume 1 , Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 2000, p. 8 online
  13. ↑ SELK.Info No. 250, December 2000, p. 2 (PDF; 373 kB)
  14. ↑ SELK: Hermann Sasse Prize Winner 2001 ( Memento from June 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  15. ^ History in Science and Education, Volume 52, E. Klett, 2001, p. 705 Online
  16. ↑ Theologische Literaturzeitung , Volume 127, p. 234 Online
  17. ↑ Who is who ?, Volume 46, 2007, p. 99 online
  18. ↑ SELK pays tribute to Ernst Koch on the occasion of his 80th birthday ( memento from June 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  19. ↑ General parish convention experiences the Sasse Prize
  20. ↑ 2005: Subjects of Consultation and Sasse Prize
  21. ↑ Michael Schätzel, Hermann Sasse Prize awarded (PDF; 574 kB).
  22. ↑ Hermann Sasse Prize 2009 awarded
  23. ↑ Dr. Johannes Hund, lecturer at the seminar for church and dogma history
  24. ↑ Maria Marten, dissertation “Letter, Spirit and Nature. The Evangelical Lutheran plant sermons in the post-Reformation period " ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ SELK: Hermann Sasse Prize 2013 goes to Robert Kolb ( Memento from June 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  26. ↑ Stefanie Wiehl: Irene Dingel receives the Hermann Sasse Prize 2015. Leibniz Institute for European History Mainz, press release from February 6, 2015 at Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw-online.de), accessed on February 6, 2015.
  27. ↑ Hermann Sasse Prize awarded to Udo Schnelle. Retrieved May 6, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Sasse, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sasse, Hermann Otto Erich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Australian Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Sonnewalde , Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1976
Place of death Adelaide , Australia