Johannes Lohr

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Johannes Lohr (born January 17, 1875 in Freckenfeld , † 1941 in Baden-Baden ) was a Protestant pastor in Gangloff in the dean's office in Lauterecken . He was the only Palatinate pastor who after the seizure of power of the Nazis was dismissed for political reasons.

Life

Lohr grew up as the son of the businessman Balthasar Lohr in the Palatinate Freckenfeld. He studied theology in Strasbourg from 1894 to 1898 and from 1904 worked as a pastor in Dunzenheim in Alsace . After the First World War he was expelled from the French occupying forces in 1920 and returned to the Palatinate. He then became a pastor in Laumersheim and Dirmstein . In 1929, however, he insulted the presbyters of the community in a dispute over a new parsonage and then mocked the regional church council , who then transferred him to Gangloff. The service penal law of the Protestant Church of 1920 was first applied here.

In contrast to the previous pastor and the pastor of the neighboring community of Odenbach , Lohr had a deep dislike of the NSDAP and warned against the party in his sermons . For example, he once opposed the smear sheet Der Stürmer , which he described as "inhuman". In addition to the agitation against the party, Lohr also reported the NSDAP and its supporters to the district office in Kusel or wrote down complaints. He also boycotted the shops of NSDAP sympathizers. On Volkstrauertag 1932 he preached against Adolf Hitler and highlighted his opponent Paul von Hindenburg as a role model.

However, his behavior met with little approval in the village. In the Reichstag election of March 5, 1933 , the NSDAP was able to almost double its share of the vote compared to the previous election at the end of 1932 and achieved 80% of the votes. Protestants close to the NSDAP boycotted his service and went to Pastor Wolfrum, who was a member of the NSDAP, in the neighboring community of Odenbach.

After the " seizure of power ", the pastor finally fell out of favor. He continued to preach against the NSDAP and said "the national revolution is on the way to becoming a predatory state". Supporters of the NSDAP threatened him and threw stones at his house. On March 24, 1933, he was finally given leave of absence by the regional church council at the urging of the Kuseler special commissioner of the SA . On the same day, the NSDAP district leadership spoke to the deanery and pushed for a quick solution. The upper church councilors Stichter and Mayer interrogated the pastor and came to the conclusion that a transfer to retirement would be the best choice. Lohr was officially retired due to his diabetes and an enlarged heart and lungs for health reasons.

Lohr moved to Baden-Baden, where he died in 1941.

literature

  • Thomas Fandel: Denomination and National Socialism. Evangelical and Catholic pastors in the Palatinate 1930–1939 . Ed .: Ulrich von Hehl for the Commission for Contemporary History (=  research . No. 76 ). Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-506-79981-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b An opponent of the Nazis: Association remembers Pastor Johannes Lohr. Pfälzischer Merkur , March 17, 2011, accessed on January 3, 2013 .
  2. ^ Removal from office of a Protestant pastor from the Palatinate in 1933. (No longer available online.) District Association Palatinate, October 21, 2010, archived from the original on March 28, 2014 ; Retrieved January 3, 2013 . 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.bv-pfalz.de
  3. ^ Thomas Fandel: Denomination and National Socialism. Evangelical and Catholic pastors in the Palatinate 1930–1939 . Ed .: Ulrich von Hehl for the Commission for Contemporary History (=  research . No. 76 ). Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-506-79981-9 , p. 140 f .
  4. ^ Thomas Fandel: Denomination and National Socialism. Evangelical and Catholic pastors in the Palatinate 1930–1939 . 1997, p. 141 f .
  5. ^ Thomas Fandel: Denomination and National Socialism. Evangelical and Catholic pastors in the Palatinate 1930–1939 . 1997, p. 142 .
  6. ^ Thomas Fandel: Denomination and National Socialism. Evangelical and Catholic pastors in the Palatinate 1930–1939 . 1997, p. 143 .
  7. ^ Thomas Fandel: Denomination and National Socialism. Evangelical and Catholic pastors in the Palatinate 1930–1939 . 1997, p. 143 ff .
personal data
SURNAME Lohr, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant pastor, resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Freckenfeld
DATE OF DEATH 1941
Place of death Baden-Baden