Hermann Art

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hermann Kunst at the memorial act for Gerhard Schröder (CDU) , 1990 in Bonn

Hermann Kunst (born January 21, 1907 in Ottersberg ; † November 6, 1999 in Bonn ) was the first authorized representative of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) to the federal government and Protestant military bishop .

Life

After attending grammar school in Bocholt and doing a bank apprenticeship, Hermann Kunst studied Protestant theology in Marburg, Berlin and Münster and was ordained on June 12, 1932 - after teaching vicariate in Ostscheid and two years of assistant preaching in Herford . Theologically he was strongly influenced by denominational neo-Lutheranism within the Union . From 1934 to 1952 he was pastor of the Evangelical Luth. Mariengemeinde Stift Berg in Herford. From 1942 he was also the successor of Friedrich Niemann , superintendent of the Herford church district . As such, he temporarily headed the Lutheran Conference of Minden-Ravensberg . During the church struggle he was active in the Confessing Church ; He worked closely and trustingly with President Karl Koch in particular . In 1939 he became a war pastor . He accompanied Wehrmacht troops on the attack on Poland and on the western campaign . In 1940 he was elected superintendent of the Herford church district, and one year later he was appointed to represent President Koch in the management of the Church of Westphalia . From 1943 until the end of the war he was on the Eastern Front .

In October 1945 he was released from captivity; in October 1947 he founded the emergency community of the occupation victims in Herford to represent the interests of over 6,500 victims. From 1945 to 1949 he was a member of the church leadership of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia . In the candidacy for the office of President of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, in November 1948, by 72:77 votes, he was narrowly defeated by pastor Ernst Wilm from Mennighüffen, who was temporarily imprisoned in Dachau .

From 1950 - initially parallel to his duties as pastor and superintendent - until 1977, Kunst was the first authorized representative of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany ( EKD ) in the federal government. During this time, the diplomatic recognition of the State of Israel by the Federal Republic of Germany took place on May 12, 1965. The EKD Council was one of those who put the public pressure on, which finally induced Chancellor Ludwig Erhard to initiate the exchange of ambassadors against the will of the Foreign Office : on October 26, 1964, the EKD Council sent a letter to the Federal government, in which a clear plea was made in favor of this exchange of ambassadors. Before and after the writing of the letter, Kunst acted as a "courier" between the EKD Council and the Federal Government, explaining the Federal Foreign Office's wait-and-see attitude at the Council meetings and informing the Federal Government of the Council's request.

Art played a major role in the negotiation of the military chaplaincy contract of 1957 and served as a part-time Protestant military bishop in the German armed forces from 1957 to 1972 . In 1980 he took over the chairmanship of the Arbitration Commission to monitor compliance with the election campaign agreement in the Bundestag election campaign .

After the Second World War, art was one of the founders of the Westphalian refugee town of Espelkamp . The Evangelical Social Academy Friedewald and the Evangelical Central Agency for Development Aid are also based on his initiative. He was a member of the RSC Corps Normannia Marburg and Cheruscia. From 1958 to 1987 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation . He was an honorary member of the board until his death.

Hermann Kunst had been married since 1932 and had five children and 17 grandchildren. He is buried in the Erika cemetery in Herford next to his wife Elisabeth (1905–1977).

Awards and reception

In 1977 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in 1985 he received the Augsburg Peace Prize . The city of Espelkamp made him an honorary citizen , a total of five universities, including the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in 1966 , awarded him honorary doctorates .

In 1991 he was the recipient of the Foundation Prize of the Bible and Culture Foundation .

The Hermann Art Foundation for the promotion of New Testament text research , which promotes the work of the Institute for New Testament Text Research founded by Kurt Aland in Münster, the "Bishop Hermann Art School", a special school for young emigrants in Herford and Germany , are named after him the Bischof-Hermann-Kunst-Schule with an attached boarding school in Espelkamp . The Evangelical Military Pastoral Care in Germany awards the Hermann-Kunst-Medal for services to the pastoral care of the soldiers .

"Art is a churchman made of real grist and grain, not one of those Protestant theologians who, in the pulpit or even in their gowns, misuse religious beliefs as ideology for political propaganda."

- Anton Boehm

Fonts (selection)

  • Catholicism after the Council. Evangelical view . 1966.
  • Martin Luther and the war. A historical consideration . 1968.
  • Confidence and Service. Evangelical proclamation in the military chaplaincy . 1970.
  • Evangelical faith and political responsibility. Martin Luther as political advisor to his sovereigns and his participation in questions of public life. 1977.
  • Martin Luther. A house book. 1982.
  • Creed Ecclesiam. Lectures and essays 1953 to 1986 . Edited by Kurt Aland , 1987.

As editor

  • with Gerhard Heilfurth : We are challenged. Questions of Christian Responsibility . Superintendent D. Dr. Carl Gunther Schweitzer on his 65th birthday . 1954.
  • Evangelical chant and prayer book for soldiers . 1957.
  • with Günter Jacob & Wilhelm Stählin : Protestant Christianity in Germany. Form and order . 1958.
  • with Roman Herzog & Wilhelm Schneemelcher : Evangelisches Staatslexikon . 1966.
  • For freedom and justice. Eugen Gerstenmaier on his 60th birthday . 1966.
  • Martin Luther and the Church. "What about the church, who and where it is and how it should be recognized" . 1971.
  • Protestant positions in German politics . 1972.
  • with Friedrich Hübner & Hugo Schnell : Hans Asmussen . Life and Work IV. Small Writings . 1973.
  • with Heinrich Tenhumberg : Social justice and international economic order . 1976.
  • with Friedrich Hübner & Hugo Schnell: Hans Asmussen. Life and Work III, 1. Articles 1 (1927-1934) . 1976.
  • with Helmut Kohl & Peter Egen: Committed to the state. Festival ceremony for Gerhard Schröder . 1980.
  • God can not be fooled. Franz Dohrmann . Field Bishop under Hitler . 1983.
  • with Theodor Schober & Hans Thimme : Ökumene. Fellowship of a serving church. Learn - understand - dare . 1983.
  • with Roswitha Wisniewski : Handbook for women's issues. On the position of women in the present. Information - analysis - suggestions . 1988.

literature

  • Kurt Aland / Wilhelm Schneemelcher (ed.): Church and State. Festschrift for Bishop D. Hermann Kunst DD for his 60th birthday on January 21, 1967 . 1967.
  • Paul Collmer et al. a. (Ed.): Church in the field of tension of politics. Festschrift for Hermann Kunst on his 70th birthday. 1977.
  • Hermann Kunst in conversation with Meinold Krauss . 1991.
  • Kristian Buchna: A clerical decade? Church, denomination and politics in the Federal Republic during the 1950s (= Historical Foundations of Modernism 11), Nomos, Baden-Baden 2014, ISBN 978-3-8487-1230-4 .

Web links

Commons : Hermann Kunst  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kristian Buchna: Hermann Kunst - biographical, ecclesiastical and theological coinage , p. 232ff in A clerical decade? ... (see under literature)
  2. ↑ Kristian Buchna: A clerical decade? Church, Denomination and Politics in the Federal Republic during the 1950s . Baden-Baden 2014, p. 236-245 .
  3. ↑ Holger Banse: In the shadow of military success - Church war aid using the example of the field preacher in the 'Edelweiss' division
  4. ↑ Kristian Buchna: A superintendent as a “secular” lobbyist - Hermann Kunst and the “Emergency Community of Occupation Damage ” in the post-war period , p. 265ff in A clerical decade? ... (see under literature)
  5. ^ So Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism. Perceptions in church and journalism from 1948 to 1972 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2013, ISBN 978-3-525-55772-3 , pp. 185–190 (dissertation, table of contents here (pdf) ).
  6. ↑ Other members were Eugen Gerstenmaier (for the CDU ), Alex Möller (for the SPD ), Rudolf Hanauer (for the CSU ) and Bernhard Leverenz (for the FDP ). Source: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from March 20, 1980.
  7. ^ CORPS - das Magazin (Deutsche Corpszeitung), 110 year, issue 1/2008, p. 25
  8. ↑ https://recht.nrw.de/lmi/owa/br_mbl_show_pdf?p_jahr=1977&p_nr=23
  9. ^ Foundation Bible and Culture - Awards. Retrieved December 27, 2019 .
  10. Jump up ↑ Our Church, October 6, 1991
  11. ↑ Homepage of the Bischof-Hermann-Kunst Schule Espelkamp , accessed on July 13, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Art, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant military bishop
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottersberg
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1999
Place of death Bonn