Johannes Heinzelmann

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Evangelical church in the city park, Villach, the place of activity of Johannes Heinzelmann for many years

Johannes Heinzelmann (born April 15, 1873 in Halberstadt , † January 14, 1946 in Linz ) was an Austrian Protestant theologian and from 1928 to 1945 Superintendent of the Diocese of Vienna .

Live and act

Heinzelmann was born in Halberstadt near Magdeburg in 1873 into a line of Protestant theologians. He studied theology from 1892 to 1896 in Tübingen, Halle and Berlin. In 1899 he went to Austria to do pastoral work in the Protestant diaspora. In Gorizia he got to know the Protestant Countess Elvine de La Tour . She found him a job as parish vicar in Villach , where around 500 Protestants lived, but who did not have their own parish. At that time, the branch community was already building its own church, and Heinzelmann's sermons and services were held in the gymnasium of the grammar school until its completion.

In 1902 Heinzelmann became the first pastor of the new evangelical community in Villach. However, he was always very active outside of his community. His lecturing activities brought him to the entire German-speaking area.

At the age of 55, in 1928, Heinzelmann was elected superintendent of the Diocese of Vienna, which at that time included Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria and Carinthia.

On May 30, 1934, Heinzelmann was elected steward and authorized spokesman by the superintendent. The background to this was that the church constitution, adopted at the second general synod in 1931, which was supposed to establish the independence of the Protestant church from the state, was only passed on to the responsible Ministry of Education after three years by the state council of churches under Viktor Capesius . Capesius had discredited himself as a representative of the church. Heinzelmann carried the unofficial title of bishop, as provided for in the new, non-applicable church constitution. The Protestant parishes called him an emergency bishop. Heinzelmann was not involved in the beginning negotiations on the church constitution; it was not until October 1935 that the first conversation with Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg took place , which was followed by intensive negotiations at expert level from 1936.

In July 1936 Heinzelmann protested against the order by Capesius to hold church memorial services for Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, who was murdered in 1934 . This earned him the designation "Nazi superintendent". Heinzelmann was of the opinion that the memory of the creator of Catholic Austria should be left to the Catholic Church.

In 1937, negotiations on the new Protestant law were well advanced, and Bishop Heinzelmann personally took part in the last round of negotiations. However, due to the annexation of Austria, the amendment never came about. Heinzelmann recommended the Protestant clergy to join the Patriotic Front. The recommendation was not uncontroversial; 122 clergymen followed it. In addition to 45 pastors and vicars , Heinzelmann himself stayed away from the VF.

During the time of the corporate state there was a symbiosis between evangelical institutions and National Socialism. The Protestant Church was also known as the "Nazi Church".

In the New Year's Shepherd's Letter in 1938 he called for peace with the corporate state and fundamentally criticized the Nazi worldview. This was received unfriendly in large circles of the church people, who were largely already Nazi-oriented, and in many parishes the pastoral letter was not even read out. He was given names such as "Confessional parson", "Rompilger" or "Confessional pig". Heinzelmann resigned from his office as bishop in January. However, he confirmed his criticism of National Socialism in a letter at the end of January, particularly of Alfred Rosenberg's myth .

After the Anschluss in March 1938, he carried out demonstrative acts of resistance, for example visiting Jewish business people after the Reichspogromnacht . He stayed as a pastor in Villach. In 1944, in his role as the oldest superintendent, he introduced his son-in-law Gerhard May to the office of bishop. Seriously ill, he moved to live with his daughter in Linz. He died here on January 14, 1946 at the age of 72. The family turned down an offer from the city of Villach to dedicate an honorary grave to him.

Works

Heinzelmann composed a 6-verse song for the “Days of the 'Bells Removal'” (during the First World War , in / before 1917) for the evangelical community in Villach in Carinthia, to be sung according to the way Befiehl du Ihrwege .

literature

supporting documents

  1. a b c d Anton Kreuzer: Carinthian Biographical Sketches. 14th - 20th century . Kärntner Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Klagenfurt 1999, ISBN 3-85391-166-8 , pp. 136-138.
  2. a b c d Maximilian Liebmann : The Protestant Church in the First Republic and in the authoritarian corporate state . In: Rudolf Leeb, Maximilian Liebmann, Georg Scheibelreiter, Peter G. Tropper: History of Christianity in Austria. From late antiquity to the present . Ueberreuter, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-8000-3982-6 , pp. 417-422.
  3. Song notes for the removal of bells in the church chronicle of the Ev. St. Nikolai parish in 63674 Altenstadt.