Johann Schmidt (theologian, 1907)

Johann Schmidt on receiving an honorary doctorate from Christian Albrechts University in 1967

Johann Schmidt (born August 28, 1907 in Gettorf ; † August 30, 1981 in Solling ) was a German Protestant - Lutheran pastor with a broad horizon: theology , mission , church history , pastoral service, popular missions , pastoral care , preaching , teaching, participating in church leaders Office. Most recently he was senior church councilor in the regional church office in Kiel .

Life

schooldays

Schmidt first attended elementary school in Gettorf, later the secondary school and the reform secondary school in Eckernförde . He wrote about this time in his résumé for the first theological examination in 1933:

“The many years that I was a member and later head of a youth corps during my school days did not arouse much sense or enthusiasm for school in me. At the time, my wish was to leave the school, which seemed to be an unbearable compulsion, as quickly as possible and to become a Reichswehr officer. My secret requests to join the Reichswehr were refused. I stayed what and where I was. "

Two pastors, Oskar Jaeger (since 1909 in Gettorf) and Walter Lehmann (since 1919 in Borby near Eckernförde), allowed him to mature the decision to study theology before he graduated from high school on February 26, 1929. A lying between the high school and the start of the study in Kiel Mulus -Leisure in Bistensee gave him important impressions of the future profession.

Education

Schmidt passed the language tests in Hebrew and Greek , he had already learned Latin at school. The study book for the Kiel semester (SS 1929 - WS 1930/31) particularly shows the names Wilhelm Caspari , Hermann Mulert , Heinrich Rendtorff , Otto Scheel , Hans Windisch , and then Kurt Dietrich Schmidt . If a weighting is possible at all for this time, then it was probably with the Old Testament . Striking in SS 1930: Arabic for beginners.

In the summer semester of 1931, Schmidt moved to Erlangen . Here it is Procksch , Strathmann , Elert , Althaus and Hauck that Schmidt listened to - at least 24 hours a week, of which two hours were Arabic and two seminars.

Schmidt returned to Kiel for the winter semester of 1931/32, where four more semesters followed. Overall, he described the results of his studies when registering for the 1st exam as follows:

“Through the brilliant and thorough teaching in the Hebrew language that Professor Dr. Dammann admitted, I have been particularly fond of the Old Testament since my first semester throughout my studies. In addition to the Old Testament lectures and exercises that I heard at the Universities of Kiel and Erlangen, I spent almost three years with the ... Orientalist Professor Georg Hoffmann, first on the additions and corrections to Job , then for a long time until a few days before his death on the Nabatean Inscriptions are allowed to work. Professor Hoffmann also introduced me to the beginnings of the Arabic and Syrian languages and also brought me closer to the Old Testament from here. "

Schmidt wrote his scientific homework for the 1st exam on the topic: "What is righteousness according to the proverbs and the preacher ?" On October 6, 1934, Schmidt completed the 1st exam. By order of the regional church office in Kiel on November 6, 1934, he was appointed vicar .

Vicariate in Kiel

Schmidt was assigned to the Kiel pastor Lic. D. Voss as teaching vicar. With the decision of the regional church office of July 24, 1935, the deletion from the list of candidates took effect with immediate effect. 34 vicars, among them Schmidt, had informed the regional church committee “that they belong to the denominational community of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church in Schleswig-Holstein and are subject to the provisional leadership of the German Evangelical Church in Marahrens - broadly like the bodies recognized by it”.

When asked to comply with the regional church order, they had declared that “in view of the ecclesiastical emergency of our Schleswig-Holstein regional church, they only have the regional fraternity council as the spiritual leadership of the regional church and the training of candidates and vicars that it undertakes in exercising this spiritual leadership recognize". This practically completed the breach, all rights granted with inclusion in the list of candidates were withdrawn, and training fees that had become due had to be repaid.

On July 28th, the State Brothers Council was notified of the 2nd exam, the examination was taken in autumn 1935, and employability was then awarded by the State Brothers Council. On October 26, 1935, Schmidt and his friends were ordained by the Hanoverian regional bishop Marahrens in the old church in Harburg .

The examination of the candidates was carried out by the examination commission appointed by the fraternal council, which expressly adhered to the examination regulations of the regional church according to the employability law of 1924. In the Schleswig-Holstein regional church there had been two lines, but there were also common things in a process as important as a theological test could find expression. So the candidates did not fall out of the context of the regional church structure: They had acquired their employment requirements according to the regulations applicable to the regional church and not according to the fraternal council's own regulations.

Youth pastor, provincial vicar and clergyman in Kiel

The Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein , which was forming, commissioned Schmidt from 1935 to 1937 to succeed Wolfgang Prehn in the youth pastor's office in Kiel.

“ Youth work of the church ! - We took this ministry so seriously because we are baptized to do it ... On the other hand, it is the youth themselves who question the church ... The youth today know themselves to be a member of the church ",

Schmidt wrote in Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , No. 14 of July 22, 1937.

A lot of youth gathered around the preaching of the Word of God: in Hamburg 2,500 girls on Youth Sunday May 1936 with Otto Riethmüller , in Breklum and on the Bistensee on Ascension Day 1937 alone 1,000 and 1,200 youths respectively. Schmidt himself held Bible studies in various youth groups, organized camps and camps with confirmands, and collected primary school students who were interested in theology. He called on mission men like Walter Freytag , Heinrich Meyer , Martin Pörksen , Reimer Speck and others to help him . He negotiated so skillfully with leaders of the Reich Labor Service and the Hitler Youth that he was able to close his work report with the following sentence:

"All camps could be carried out without disturbance." - "Youth work has to be preaching."

The appointment as provincial vicar could only take place after the formation of the regional church committee, namely in November 1936. The provincial vicar Schmidt was given the management of an auxiliary chaplain in Kiel, where he had previously worked as a youth pastor. In 1937 he was appointed assistant chaplain in Kiel.

Pastor in Flensburg

In 1938 Johann Schmidt was appointed second pastor to the Diakonissenanstalt in Flensburg . Above all, it was the pastoral ministry that completely fulfilled it, but there was also the "immersion" in the theological tradition and the piety of this institution: Emil Wacker and Carl Matthiesen were formative witnesses of the Gospel and Lutheran theology for him .

Theological fathers

Schmidt felt particularly attached to one figure in the history of the Church in Schleswig-Holstein: Claus Harms , the theologian of the “second educational path”, who had been pastor in Kiel for forty years. Schmidt called him a "church father of the 19th century". With tireless diligence he collected and preserved sermons, lectures and writings by Claus Harms. He played a decisive role in the publication of the "Selected Writings and Sermons" (Flensburg 1955), he dedicated a large number of lectures and essays to him, and finally, after 1976, compiled a small selection from his work. When, through his initiative, a second training path for theologians was opened in Kiel in 1965, it was a matter of course for Schmidt that this institution should be named "Claus-Harms-Kolleg", just as a scholarship for the training of pastors bore the name of this important theologian .

In addition to Claus Harms, Schmidt Hans Asmussen was one of the theological "fathers". He was also a consciously Lutheran theologian, also rooted in the Flensburg tradition, who with his writings “The Revelation and the Office”, “The Pastoral Care”, “The Doctrine of Worship” and “The Church and the Office” was a downright radical Lutheran Brought a new approach to pastoral theology . It was also he who for many young pastors at that time decisively shaped the theology of the church struggle in the constant tracing back to the Bible and creed.

The relationship with the later bishops Halfmann and Wester was of a completely different nature . Schmidt dedicated his small volume with selected writings by Claus Harms (Gütersloh 1976) to the memory of these two men. This relationship, too, started out from the church struggle and then found its intensive continuation later, after he was appointed as the department head for training and mission in the Kiel regional church office soon after the end of the war - initially in 1947 and then finally since 1950. Schmidt did not speak to the bishops by the mouth, but he listened to them, and that all the more easily since both, Halfmann and Wester, despite their differences, were of convincing authority for him in terms of their personalities. This feeling for their authority was so pronounced with him that he could infect others with it: Many saw Halfmann and Wester as Schmidt had conveyed them to them. One can certainly see that critically today.

People's missionary in Breklum, soldier in Husum

The work in Flensburg came to an end in 1939 when he moved to Breklum , where Schmidt worked with great dedication until 1947 - although this was interrupted by military service. During this time there was a special brilliance of fulfillment and happiness in view of the spiritual challenges in difficult times.

Training officer in Kiel, parish office in Flemhude

After 1945, Schmidt initially worked for two years as a people's missionary "from the very beginning" in the catechetical seminary in Breklum and from 1947, in addition to provisional responsibility for the training of theologians in the regional church office, took over a full parish ministry at the St. George and Mauritius Church in Flemhude near Kiel. At that time Flemhude was a large community with four refugee camps. During his service there, he visited all the houses in the community and took care of the refugees. He remained connected to the patron family until his death. This is also where the Flemhuder Conference came into being, which gave so many young theologians a piece of theological and ecclesiastical home.

Head of Education

In 1950 Schmidt became theological department head in the Kiel regional church office. At that time he was already a well-known man in the regional church, to whom many expectations and hopes were attached.

When Schmidt took over the training department in 1947, the situation was still very much characterized by the post-war period: material hardship, many students involved in the war, some of whom were families; but also quite “normal” students. You needed a lot of empathy if you wanted to do justice to what the individual expected of you.

Schmidt developed imagination when he began visiting the Schleswig-Holstein theology students in the individual faculties every semester. That hadn't happened before. But it soon became a matter of course, which was quickly adopted by other regional churches. In this way, the students came into very close contact with their church. And that was exactly the goal: accompaniment not in the sense of control or even control, but in the sense of an integration of the students and their studies in the church context or in the sense of making the home church present in the course of study. It had nothing to do with provincialism. On the contrary: It was important that the young people study outside of it. But they should also know where their church was based.

The Claus-Harms-Kolleg, also an "invention" by Schmidt, also belongs in the context of theological training. It originally arose from the idea of ​​founding a Protestant grammar school. This idea found many followers at the time, including the religious educator Gerhard Bohne . But in the end she couldn't prevail. What remained was a Protestant advanced high school that was supposed to lead young people with practical vocational training to the Abitur and prepare them for theology studies. Similar institutions existed elsewhere, but this focus on preparation for theology studies, which then also determined the curriculum, was new. After years of preparation, the facility was finally able to start work in 1965 and has brought many young people to graduation for a good ten years. When the general school system, with its greater permeability, made such advanced training available itself, the Claus-Harms-Kolleg was able to cease its activities. At first it was thought to turn it into a full Protestant grammar school, but there was a lack of non-material and material support.

Head of Mission

As head of the department and lecturer for mission, Schmidt could do a lot to ensure that mission happened and that love for it was awakened. He himself was never outside - apart from a trip to India in 1969/70 - but he was an excellent expert on the mission fields and the history of religion . His theological fathers in this area were Walter Freytag and Georg Vicedom , but he also maintained a lively exchange with Hans-Werner Gensichen and Jochen Margull . He belonged to a large number of committees and boards of the mission, especially the board of trustees of the Mission Academy in Hamburg, to which he gladly sent vicars for a semester.

Schmidt followed the ecumenical path with great attention , especially the work of the Faith and Order Commission . It was typical of him that here, too, people were of decisive importance for his attitude: Nathan Söderblom was the central personality for him. He learned a lot from him and felt obliged to his thinking.

Retired

After his retirement, Johann Schmidt started again. He did not simply leave the past behind him: He was still a lecturer for missions in Kiel (with an amazing number of listeners), he continued to work on boards and committees of the mission, gave lectures, wrote essays, and remained a man of Schleswig-Holstein church history.

He also built something new: He became a preacher at the aristocratic Preetz monastery and pastor at the Freudenholm health clinic near Preetz. He was once again full pastor on both assignments, and served in that ministry for nearly ten years. Through his friendly and accommodating manner, always clear in the matter, he won over and over again people who liked to listen to him when he preached and talked to them, and who also gladly accepted it when he prayed with them. As a pastor he had a good name in the Preetz parish.

He died during a vacation in Solling .

family

On August 18, 1938, Schmidt married Lieselotte Kuhrt from Osdorf . They and the growing crowd of children, and later also the grandchildren, were the natural background of his work. Together with his family, he gave home to many others.

Honors

• Honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty of the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel
• 1973: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class
• Honorary membership in the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History

Publications

• From work for work , in: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , No. 14 of July 22, 1937; reprinted in: Wolfgang Prehn (Hrsg.): Time to go the narrow way. Witnesses report on the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Kiel 1985, pp. 59–63.
• Volksmission und Hausgemeinde , in: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , No. 21/22 of November 2, 1939, pp. 299-300.
• Church people's mission? , in: Das Niederdeutsche Luthertum , No. 3/4 of February 6, 1941, pp. 27–30; reprinted in: Karl Ludwig Kohlwage , Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” Voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times. The Breklumer Hefte of the ev.-luth. Confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein from 1935 to 1941. Sources on the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein. Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-7868-5308-4 , pp. 489–494.
• Bishop D. Wilhelm Heinrich Koopmann , general superintendent of the Duchy of Holstein from 1855 to 1871 , in: Festschrift for the centenary of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church Office in Kiel , Flensburg 1968, pp. 63–79 (special print from: Writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History , II. Series (articles and communications) 23/24 volume, 1967/68).
• "... to stir the spirits mightily". On the 200th birthday of Claus Harms on May 25, 1978 , in: SSHKG II 34/35 (1978), pp. 9–24.
• Spiritual Fathers of our Church. Claus Harms - Theodor Kaftan - Wilhelm Halfmann , in: Jens Motschmann (Hrsg.): Church between the seas. Contributions to the history and shape of the North Elbian Church , Heide in Holstein 1981, pp. 101–107.
• What is right before God , Kiel-Holtenau 1981, in: Kurt Jürgensen , Friedrich-Otto Scharbau , Werner H. Schmidt (eds.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial book by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 9-21 ( online at pkgodzik.de ).
• Klaus Harms and the Basel Mission , in: Walter Bauer et al. (Ed.): I believe - A holy church. Festschrift for Hans Asmussen on his 65th birthday in 1963 , Stuttgart / Berlin / Hamburg 1963, pp. 168–174.
• in the Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck
  • Bugenhagen, Johannes , Vol. 1, Neumünster 1970, p. 93 f.
  • Halfmann, Wilhelm , Vol. 1, Neumünster 1970, p. 156 f.
  • Harms, Claus , Vol. 2, Neumünster 1971, pp. 164-166.
  • Rendtorff, Franz Martin , Vol. 2, Neumünster 1971, p. 207 f.
  • Rendtorff, Heinrich , Vol. 2, Neumünster 1971, p. 208 f.
  • Matthiesen, Carl , Vol. 3, Neumünster 1974, p. 187 f.
  • Völkel, Eduard , Vol. 3, Neumünster 1974, p. 271 f.
  • Eitzen, Paul , Vol. 5, Neumünster 1979, pp. 85-87.
  • Koopmann, Wilhelm Heinrich , Vol. 4, Neumünster 1976, p. 132 f.
  • with Jendris Alwast: Kortholt, Christian , vol. 6, Neumünster 1982, p. 151 f.
• Claus Harms and the Mission , in: Otto Waack ua (Ed.): So I send you. Festschrift for Martin Pörksen on the occasion of his 70th birthday , Stuttgart 1973, pp. 191–201.
• Piety and theology in Schleswig-Holstein from the beginnings of Christianization to the eve of the Reformation , in: Schleswig-Holsteinische Kirchengeschichte , Vol. 2, Neumünster 1978, pp. 189–242.
• Asmussen, Hans , in: TRE, Vol. 4, Berlin / New York 1979, pp. 259-265.

editor

• Wilhelm Halfmann: Sermons, speeches, essays, letters. Compiled from the estate and edited by Wilhelm Otte, Karl Hauschildt and Eberhard Schwarz , Kiel 1964.
• Claus Harms, a 19th century church father. Selection from his writings, Mohn, Gütersloh 1976.

literature

• Johann Bielfeldt : The Church Struggle in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 , Göttingen 1963.
• Kurt Jürgensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (eds.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a motto (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984.
• Klauspeter Reumann: Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1988.
• Gothart Magaard , Gerhard Ulrich (ed.): 100 years of Preetz seminary. A Festschrift , Kiel 1996.

Web links

• Literature by and about Johann Schmidt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Portrait of Johann Schmidt

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich-Otto Scharbau: Johann Schmidt - his life and his time , in: Kurt Juergensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 25–33, here pp. 25 f.
2. ↑ Scharbau: Johann Schmidt ... , p. 26. Cf. Ernst Dammann: Missionary Research Endeavors in Kiel during the Twenties , in: Kurt Jürgensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): God praise that is ours Office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 225–231, especially p. 229.
3. ↑ Scharbau: Johann Schmidt ... , p. 27. See also Claus Jürgensen: Das Predigerseminar Preetz from the beginnings to World War II , in: Gothart Magaard, Gerhard Ulrich (Ed.): 100 years Predigerseminar Preetz. Eine Festschrift , Kiel 1996, pp. 9–57, esp. Pp. 48–56: The uprising of the candidates in the summer semester of 1935 ( online at vikariat-nordkirche.de ).
4. ↑ Scharbau: Johann Schmidt ... , p. 27.
5. ^ Johann Bielfeldt: The church fight in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1945 , Göttingen 1963, p. 117.
6. ↑ Johannes Juergensen: The cross on the globe. The sign of the Protestant youth on the move after World War II , in: Kurt Juergensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 143–153, especially p. 146 f.
7. ↑ http://www.alfakom.se/specks/speck,reimerhans.htm
8. ↑ Martin Pörksen: Johann Schmidt as a people's missionary , in: Kurt Jürgensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 35–48, especially p. 35.
9. ↑ Joachim G. Vehse: The youth pastorate for Schleswig-Holstein and the disputes about the integration of the Protestant youth into the Hitler Youth 1933/1934 , in: Klauspeter Reumann: Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Neumünster 1988, pp. 247–306, especially p. 287.
10. ↑ Scharbau: Johann Schmidt ... , p. 28 f.
11. ^ Lieutenant Johann Schmidt was temporarily adjutant of the Husum airfield command . He was later transferred to the Western Front . Travels took him to Denmark and Holland. In his free time, he did not work on a planned doctorate, but served as a pastor to many contested Christians. Pörksen reports on this: Johann Schmidt as a people's missionary ... , p. 42 ff.
12. ^ Pörksen: Johann Schmidt als Volksmissionar ... , pp. 44–47.
13. ↑ Hans Günther Richers: The Flemhuder Theological Conference , in: Friedrich-Otto Scharbau: Johann Schmidt - his life and his time , in: Kurt Juergensen, Friedrich-Otto Scharbau, Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): God praise that is ours Office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt) , Kiel 1984, pp. 49–51.