Johannes Bähr (pastor)

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Johannes Bähr (born September 5, 1902 in Düsseldorf ; † May 26, 1980 in Landau in the Palatinate ) was a Protestant clergyman and pastor of many years in Mutterstadt and Mußbach . During the time of National Socialism he got involved with Jewish citizens.

education

Bähr studied Protestant theology in Bethel , Tübingen , Rostock and Berlin from 1921 to 1926 . In 1926 he entered the service of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate .

job

Bähr started out as a vicar in Kusel . In the same position he worked in Ludwigshafen-Oppau and Germersheim . He then worked as a parish administrator in Neustadt an der Haardt . He received his first pastor in Heuchelheim-Klingen . There he received threats from the Hitler Youth because of his commitment to Jewish fellow citizens . On September 3, 1934, he and others founded the Palatinate Parish Brotherhood , which was close to the Confessing Church and whose computer he was until 1937. After he refused to exclude Jewish families from the local deaconess association in 1937, he was transferred.

Bähr came to Mutterstadt, where he protested against the handling of religious instruction in the so-called “Christian community school ”. When the November pogroms also broke out in Mutterstadt on November 9, 1938 , he turned to a fifth grade on the day after the synagogue fire and protested against the crimes against the Jews in the community. He was then placed under house arrest by Mayor Ewald Backe and interrogated. Then he was transferred to the Ludwigshafen District Court and, after imprisonment, released two days later at the insistence of Regional Bishop Ludwig Diehl . He received a fortnightly expulsion from his place of residence , and proceedings for violating the Treachery Act were later dropped.

Bähr came into conflict with the NSDAP again in 1939 when he emphasized in an annual report that he had to put up with events by the association Kraft durch Freude in his community hall , even though this was not compatible with the Christian conscience. In 1942 and 1943 he was summoned and questioned several times because, according to the authorities, he had made "anti-state statements in the sermon, degradation of the Hitler salute and intercession for those persecuted for the sake of faith". On December 14, 1943, Bähr secretly buried the Jewish wife of his organist in the Jewish cemetery in Mannheim .

The last pastor of Bähr before his retirement was Mußbach, which was incorporated into Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in 1969.

family

Johannes Bähr had ten children, five sons and five daughters. Traugott (* 1936) became a pastor like his father, Gustav-Adolf (1938–2020) made a name for himself as a culture editor at Südwestfunk (today Südwestrundfunk ), as a layman in the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate and as the initiator of the renovation of today's Herrenhof cultural center Neustadt district of Mußbach ; he received high honors for his services. Further descendants are involved - now in the second, third and fourth generation - in the Mußbach Trombone Choir , which Johannes Bähr founded in 1956 and which is now directed by his grandson Alexander (* 1969).

Commemoration

In 1987, in memory of Johannes Bähr's merits, the Protestant parish hall “Pfarrer-Johannes-Bähr-Haus” was opened in the Blockfeld residential area of ​​Mutterstadt.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ingrid Schellhammer: The Protestant pastor Johannes Bähr 1938. A relentless convict of the National Socialist tyranny. (No longer available online.) JudeninMutterstadt.org, archived from the original on November 4, 2005 ; Retrieved November 8, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.judeninmutterstadt.org
  2. ↑ quoted from Ingrid Schellhammer: The Protestant pastor Johannes Bähr 1938. A relentless condemnator of the National Socialist tyranny. (No longer available online.) JudeninMutterstadt.org, archived from the original on November 4, 2005 ; Retrieved November 8, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.judeninmutterstadt.org
  3. ↑ Heike Klein: Almost like a family business. In: Die Rheinpfalz (online). February 10, 2017, accessed March 10, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Pastor Bähr House. Protestant parish of Mutterstadt, accessed November 8, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Bähr, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant clergyman, pastor for many years in Mutterstadt and in Mußbach
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1980
Place of death Landau in the Palatinate