Johannes Koch-Mehrin

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Udo Johannes Koch-Mehrin (born November 21, 1899 in St. Vith ; † March 23, 1968 in Kleve ) was a German pastor, member of the Confessing Church and active in the resistance against National Socialism .

Life

Johannes Koch (additional name Mehrin since 1946) was the son of an upper station master. As a 17-year-old high school student he volunteered during the war as a volunteer and completed during a leave from the front in October 1918, the War School in Kleve. He was released from the army in Hildesheim on January 21, 1919 and then studied Protestant theology in Bonn, and later in Kiel and Münster . In 1923 he took the first and in 1925 the second theological examination in Koblenz .

Church activity

In 1927 he became pastor in the Wetzlar district for the double community of Oberwetz and Griedelbach . In 1934 he joined the Rhenish Pastors' Society and the Confessing Church. He was hostile to National Socialist racial anti-Semitism . After the attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, he broke off his vacation in Switzerland as a reservist in the Wehrmacht and returned to Germany, where he was arrested by the Gestapo , because a teacher from Griedelbach had committed an deserter and treason to have accused. He was then exonerated in a court martial, drafted into the Wehrmacht on September 6, 1939, and employed there as an interpreter in Hessian prison camps with English and French officers. In the winter of 1940/41 he was released from the Wehrmacht. From 1941 to 1946 he was provisional pastor in Gruiten . In 1946 he was transferred to a pastor's post in Wuppertal - Unterbarmen , where he was responsible for the reconstruction of the Unterbarmer main church from 1950 to 1952 . In 1956 he was appointed pastor in the small Lower Rhine community of Keeken-Schenkenschanz near Kleve. He retired in 1965.

In the Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage to correspondence chef is because of several criminal proceedings on charges of state hostility, exclusion from the National Socialist People's Welfare and seizure of books from his possession, also a reconstruction of his accusation letter to Adolf Hitler are of 18 February 1945. Other documents in Hessian main state archive , in the state archive of North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland department and archive of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland .

family

In order not to be confused with the National Socialist church president of the same name, after the Second World War he successfully applied to the regional president in Düsseldorf to change his family name with the consent of the mayor of Mehrin . One of his ancestors worked as a pastor in Mehrin.

The marriage with Else Gerdes resulted in three children. He was the grandfather of the politician Silvana Koch-Mehrin .

Fonts

  • The position of the Christian to the state according to Rom. 13 and Apok. 13. In: Evangelical Theologie , December 1948, pp. 378–401. Lecture given in 1938 in the parish brotherhood of the Braunfels / Lahn synod.
  • Obedience and resistance to state authority as reflected in the denominations. In: Evangelische Theologie , December 1952, pp. 320–340.

Honors

Street sign for the parish-free Pastor-Johannes-Koch-Weg , Gruiten / Haan
  • July 24, 1918: Iron Cross 2nd class, at Villeblain
  • Naming of the Pastor-Johannes-Koch-Weg , Gruiten / Haan

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Udo Koch-Mehrin: Youth and military service. Evangelischer-Widerstand.de, Research Center for Contemporary Church History, Munich; accessed on November 2, 2017.
  2. ^ Udo Koch-Mehrin: Studies. Evangelischer-Widerstand.de, Research Center for Contemporary Church History, Munich; accessed on November 2, 2017.
  3. ↑ Koch-Mehrin, Johannes. In: Margarete Schneider: Paul Schneider - The preacher of Buchenwald. Newly published by Elsa-Ulrike Ross and Paul Dieterich, SCM Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 2009, p. 194. ISBN 978-3-7751-4996-9
  4. ^ Udo Koch-Mehrin: Hostile member of the Confessing Church. Evangelischer-Widerstand.de, Research Center for Contemporary Church History, Munich; accessed on November 2, 2017.
  5. ↑ Udo Koch-Mehrin: Critique of War Theology. Evangelischer-Widerstand.de, Research Center for Contemporary Church History, Munich; accessed on November 2, 2017.
  6. ^ A b Pastor Johannes Koch. In: Gruiten. The historic village on the Düssel , Velbert-Neviges 2004; FdR Udo Koch-Mehrin.
  7. ↑ see the web link to the name entry in the German Digital Library.
  8. ↑ Udo Koch-Mehrin: Starting a career and starting a family. Evangelischer-Widerstand.de, Research Center for Contemporary Church History, Munich; accessed on November 2, 2017.
  9. ↑ Udo Koch-Mehrin: Obedience and Resistance. Evangelischer-Widerstand.de, Research Center for Contemporary Church History, Munich; accessed on November 2, 2017.
  10. ↑ doi : 10.14315 / evth-1952-1-625
  11. ↑ Oliver Richters: Greetings: Pastor Johannes Koch - father was on the death list. Westdeutsche Zeitung, April 15, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Koch-Mehrin, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Johannes Udo (maiden name); Koch-Mehrin, Udo Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Vith
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1968
Place of death Kleve