Hermann Maas (theologian)

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Hermann Ludwig Maas (born August 5, 1877 in Gengenbach , Baden; † September 27, 1970 in Mainz-Weisenau ) was a Protestant pastor and pioneer of Jewish-Christian dialogue . He was a Zionist and a lifelong friend of Martin Buber . Since 1915 he was pastor at the main Protestant church, the Heiliggeistkirche , in Heidelberg and since 1933 a member of the parish emergency union . In 1952 he was elected honorary citizen of the city of Heidelberg.

Life

After school in Gernsbach (Baden) and studying Protestant theology in Halle (Saale) , Strasbourg and Heidelberg, where he belonged to the Academic-Theological Association Wartburg , he initially worked as a vicar in Rheinbischofsheim and Weingarten and since 1903 was a pastor in Laufen / Sulzburg active. From 1915 he was pastor at the Heiliggeistkirche in Heidelberg.

Hermann Maas House in Heidelberg-Kirchheim

Maas was interested in politics and engaged in political work. His lifelong interest was the peaceful understanding of peoples and religions. Maas made extensive international contacts, which he benefited from his work to help persecuted Jews during the Nazi era .

In 1903 he took part in the 6th Zionist Congress in Basel , whereupon he called himself a (Christian) Zionist. From 1913 to 1922 he headed the liberal magazine Süddeutsche Blätter for Church and Free Christianity and was a member of the Baden General Synod from 1914 to 1919 as a representative of the Church-Liberal Association . In 1918 he joined the DDP ( German Democratic Party ) and worked for them for two legislative periods in the Heidelberg city council.

In 1919 he joined the Freemasons . In 1925 he was a delegate at the meeting of the World Association for International Friendship Work of the Churches in Stockholm . In the same year he caused a scandal because he gave a memorial address at the funeral of President Friedrich Ebert . Since Ebert was baptized a Catholic and later resigned from the church, disciplinary measures were taken against Maas by his superiors in the Baden regional church, who were nationally -minded and opposed to the republic .

In 1932 Maas joined the anti-Semitism defense association . He was also involved in the pastors' emergency association from 1933/1934. In Heidelberg he ran an aid center for those who were racially persecuted and worked closely with the Grüber office in Berlin . Emil Fuchs writes that he organized a real “subway” (a term from the US-American slave liberation ) for the persecuted. What is meant by this is that Maas, with his international contacts, was able to help many Jews to emigrate until the start of the war in 1939. Despite being banned from working, he preached against the Nazis' persecution of the Jews. In 1943 he was forced into retirement by the Baden Evangelical Church Council under pressure from the regime . Eventually he was taken to France for forced labor .

After the liberation in 1945, he resumed his work as a pastor, became a prelate of the Evangelical Church in Baden and continued his international work. Maas was the first Christian German to be officially invited and received by the State of Israel to visit the country. In March and April 1950 he was in Israel. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial honored Maas with one of the highest honors of the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations .

Since 1904 Hermann Maas was married to Kornelie Hesselbacher (1879–1975). There are three daughters from the marriage.

Tree in honor of Hermann Maas, Yad Vashem / Jerusalem 2008

Honors

Hermann Maas has received many awards. In 1949 he was the first non-Jewish German to be invited to Israel.

  • 1947: Honorary doctorate from the Heidelberg Theological Faculty
  • 1952: Honorary citizen of the city of Heidelberg
  • 1953: The Hermann Maas Grove was planted in his honor in the Gilboa Valley in Israel
  • 1954: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1966: Yad Vashem , Medal: Righteous Among the Nations

literature

  • Markus Geiger: Hermann Maas - a love for Judaism: life and work of the Heidelberg pastor of the Holy Spirit and Baden prelate. Edited by Peter Blum (= book series of the city of Heidelberg , volume 17, edition Guderjahn ). Publishing house for regional culture, Heidelberg / Ubstadt-Weiher / Neustadt an der Weinstrasse / Basel 2016, ISBN 978-3-89735-927-7 (dissertation, Heidelberg University of Education , 2014, 472 pages). Or more briefly in Norbert Giovannini (as ed.), Moraw, Riese, Rink: Stille Helfer - A search for traces in Heidelberg 1933–1945. Heidelberg, 2019; from p. 73.
  • Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism: Perceptions in Church and Journalism from 1948 to 1972 (= works on contemporary church history , series B, representations , volume 57). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen / Bristol 2013, pp. 109–110, ISBN 978-3-525-55772-3 (Dissertation University Erlangen, Nuremberg 2008, 518 pages, under the title: The Perception of the State of Israel in West German Protestantism from 1948 until 1972 taking into account Protestant journalism ).
  • Werner Keller u. a. (Ed.): Life for Reconciliation - Hermann Maas (= Edition Zeitzeugen ). 2nd, revised and expanded edition (169 pages), Hans Thoma Verlag, Karlsruhe 1997, ISBN 3-87297-129-8 (1st edition 1986 under the title: Talking to Jerusalem in a friendly way: testimonials from and about Hermann Maas , developed by Werner Keller…, foreword by Klaus Engelhardt and Reinhold Zundel, Evangelical Press Association for Baden, Karlsruhe 1986, ISBN 3-87210-311-3 (108 pages)).
  • Peter Noss:  Maas, Hermann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 505-510.
  • Markus Schlicher: “I stand with you, not 'despite' you are a Jew, but 'because' you are.” The Protestant pastor Dr. Hermann Maas. In: Wolfram Wette (Ed.): Silent Heroes. Rescuing Jews in the border triangle during the Second World War. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau / Basel / Vienna 200, pp. 125–141, ISBN 3-451-05461-2 .
  • Jörg Thierfelder : The Heidelberg pastor Hermann Maas and his work in Heidelberg and Baden 1945–1946. In: Jürgen C. Heß u. a. (Ed.): Heidelberg 1945 (= Transatlantic Historical Studies , Volume 5). Steiner, Stuttgart 1996, pp. 276-293, ISBN 3-515-06880-5 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography at the H. History Association
  2. ^ So Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism. Perceptions in church and journalism from 1948 to 1972 (= work on contemporary church history, series B, representations , volume 57). Göttingen 2013, p. 109, ISBN 978-3-525-55772-3 .
  3. ^ So Gerhard Gronauer: The State of Israel in West German Protestantism. Perceptions in church and journalism from 1948 to 1972 (= work on contemporary church history, series B, representations , volume 57). Göttingen 2013, p. 110, ISBN 978-3-525-55772-3 .
  4. Hermann Maas on the website of Yad Vashem (English)