Johann Gerhard Schomerus

Johann Gerhard Schomerus (born August 24, 1906 in India, † 1985 in Bochum ) was a German pastor who did his best to research the Marienkirche in Marienhafe from 1929 onwards .

Life

Johann Gerhard Schomerus was born as the son of the missionary Hilko Wiardo Schomerus from Marienhafe in India and did not return to Germany with his parents until 1912. His childhood and youth were characterized by frequent changes of location, as his father had activities and a. pursued in Kiel , Leipzig , Rendsburg and Halle an der Saale . Hall graduated Schomerus his High School and studied there and in Marburg then 1927-1931 theology . After completing his studies, Schomerus planned to return to Schleswig-Holstein, where he had spent some years of his youth from 1915 to 1926, but then in 1932 accepted an offer that was tempting for him as vicar in the Lutherhalle in Wittenberg , that with a five-year-old Service obligation in the province of Saxony went hand in hand . In 1933/34 he attended the seminary in Wittenberg and joined the Confessing Church . Then he was assistant preacher in Könnern and Rosian , before he found a preaching position in Hohenziatz at St. Stephen's Church in 1936 . In 1940 he was called up for military service and suffered a serious injury in Belgium, after which he was only "fit for writing". In 1943 he took part in the Russian campaign, but was transferred to a hospital because he was still unfit for the field troops. In 1945 he was a paramedic in Stettin and when he withdrew he was taken prisoner by the Soviets due to his physical impairments. After he was mistakenly shot in captivity, he was released so that on May 12, 1945 he was the first to return to Hohenziatz.

In 1946 he was appointed as a study inspector at the Wittenberg seminary. When this had to close again after three semesters, he took a pastor's position in Kemberg . There he came into conflict with the SED in 1951 , was imprisoned in prison and, after the uprising of June 17, 1953, released with a five-year professional ban . However, since he continued to do pastoral work with the approval of the church leadership, he was soon urged to move to West Germany. From 1954 to 1961 he was pastor in Brambauer and then took early retirement due to his war damage and the consequences of his imprisonment . The church leadership then placed him at the Institute for New Testament Text Research at the University of Münster, where he worked until 1979 and a.o. a. worked on the Novum Testamentum Graece from Nestle-Aland.

In addition to his pastoral and later scientific work, Schomerus made outstanding contributions from 1929 to researching the history of the Marienkirche in Marienhafe. At first he supported the art historian Jan Fastenau and then provided evidence of the early colonization of Brookmerland , on which his dating of the current church and its predecessor buildings is based. The opening of the church museum in 1932 goes back in particular to his reconstructions of the old frieze pictures, which he made from the master builder Martens' sketchbook from 1829, which he rediscovered. Schomerus published the sketchbook in 1968, an extensive text on the church in 1984. He was also able to locate numerous stones from the church in Marienhafe and give them to the museum. In 1936 he also made a wooden model of the church.

In addition, Schomerus also worked as a chronicler of his family, which produced pastors and scientists over several generations. He was married to Beatrice geb. from Wenckstern.

literature

• Johann Gerhard Schomerus: My curriculum vitae , in: The Marienkirche von Marienhafe. The cathedral in Brookmerland , Norden 1984, pp. 62/63.

Web links

• Schomerus, Fam. In the Biographical Lexicon for East Frisia