Johannes Hempel

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Johannes Hempel (2003)

Johannes Hempel (born March 23, 1929 in Zittau ; † April 23, 2020 in Dresden ) was a German Protestant theologian and from 1972 to 1994 regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony .

Life and work

After leaving school, Hempel first studied German and philosophy in Tübingen and then Protestant theology in Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1949 he returned to Saxony at the request of the then Saxon regional bishop Hugo Hahn . From 1955 he was pastor in Gersdorf ( church district Glauchau [- Rochlitz ]) and from 1959 study inspector at the Leipzig Predigerkolleg St. Pauli, where the doctorate to Dr. theol. took place. In 1961 he became director of the college. From 1963 to 1966 he was a student pastor in Leipzig. In October 1971, the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony elected him regional bishop. He held the office from 1972 until his retirement in 1994. In October 1973 he was elected chairman of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR (BEK) . He held this office until 1977. After the reunification of Germany, he was elected by the EKD Synod as a member of the new EKD Council and as the deputy chairman of the council.

In 1955 he married Dorothea Schönbach. The couple had two sons and a daughter.

In November 1981 Hempel was elected as the successor to Bishop Heinrich Rathke as the leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) - East Area (VELK GDR). A year later he also became chairman of the conference of church leaderships of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR (BEK) and thus successor to the bishop of the Evangelical Church of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony , Werner Krusche , who briefly held this office. In August 1983 Hempel also became one of the seven Presidents of the World Council of Churches . In 1986 Hempel renounced another candidacy as chairman of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR. The Thuringian bishop Werner Leich was elected as his successor . He had already given up his position as the leading bishop of the VELK GDR, and Werner Leich was his successor here too. Hempel remained Saxon regional bishop until he retired in 1994. The Saxon synod then elected Volker Kress as his successor as regional bishop . Hempel lived in Dresden. He died in April 2020 at the age of 91 in the elderly center of the Diakonissenanstalt Dresden .

Focus of his work

Hempel worked for a lifelong preaching of the Gospel and for a democratic church. In addition, he tried to strengthen the language skills and self-confidence of Christians in the atheistic GDR . He often named injustices of the SED regime against Christians, students, and citizens in general. B. in the months before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, led to repression, both against him and other officials of the Saxon Church. In 1989 he acted publicly as an interpreter of angry, angry citizens vis-à-vis the GDR government and repeatedly warned them to speak directly to the citizens themselves and not to use violence.

Honors

Hempel received honorary doctorates from the following universities: Karl Marx University Leipzig , Muhlenberg College (USA), University of Kent (Great Britain). In 2004 he was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit. The British Queen accepted him as an honorary member of the Order of the British Empire . In 2000 he was voted one of the “100 Dresdeners of the 20th Century” in the daily newspaper Dresdner Latest Nachrichten .

Publications

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ In a report by the SED district leadership in Leipzig in the 1963/64 academic year and in Hempel's autobiography, the person and situation are characterized as follows: “His external appearance is unconventional and more secular than “ priest ” . After a short time he could have established good contact with the students and achieved recognition. The [ read: The] state authorities saw in his work the continuation of [Dietrich] Mendt's line . 1053 His main focus was also on Bible study . The students did not ask for answers to political or cultural questions, but rather […] »This generation of students was shaped by a passion for the Bible […].« 1054 “Cornelia Schnapka-Bartmuß: The Protestant student communities in Leipzig and Halle / Saale in 1945 until 1971. Dissertation. Universität Leipzig , Leipzig 2008, p. 238 (as well as notes 1053 and 1054), quoted here from: SächsStAL ( Sächsisches Staatsarchiv Leipzig ), SED district leadership Leipzig, IV / A / 4/066, as well as in the last sentence from Hempel: Experiences and Bewahrungen, p. 31. - “According to state assessments, he [Hempel] did not turn directly and obviously against the GDR or the SED in public events. He stressed that professing God is not a profession against the government. But he gives individual hidden and discriminatory references [relating to the GDR and the SED]. "Cornelia Schnapka-Bartmuß: Die Evangelischen Studentengemeinden , p. 239.
  2. ^ Regional bishop Johannes Hempel died , accessed on April 23, 2020.
  3. ^ Regional Bishop retired Johannes Hempel has passed away , notification from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony dated April 23, 2020.
  4. ↑ 100 Dresden residents of the 20th century . In: Dresdner Latest News . Dresdner Nachrichten GmbH & Co. KG, Dresden December 31, 1999, p. 22 .
personal data
SURNAME Hempel, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Zittau
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 2020
Place of death Dresden