Johannes Lorentzen
Johannes Lorentzen (born December 9, 1881 in Hadersleben , † June 8, 1949 in Kiel ) was a German Lutheran pastor and people's missionary, most recently provost of Kiel.
Live and act
Lorentzen came from Hadersleben ( North Schleswig ). In one of his résumés it says: “The origin from the border region has been decisive for my whole life”. His two grandfathers had to leave home and home for their German beliefs. Lorentzen also never denied his national convictions. But he subordinated them to his beliefs.
Studies, vicariate and theological teacher
Lorentzen studied Protestant theology in Halle , Munich and Berlin from 1902 to 1906 . In the summer semester (SS) 1902 he joined the Association of German Students (VDSt) Halle-Wittenberg. In the SS 1904 he was chairman of the VDSt Berlin.
He rarely spoke about his theological teachers, whom Lorentzen had heard from during his studies. All the more often he mentioned the names of two men who had a decisive influence on his life. It was the Lutheran Claus Harms , like he was preacher to St. Nikolai , and Nikolai Grundtvig , the gifted God singer of the Danish church. In his book "This side and the other side of the border" he presented the importance of these two personalities for the life of the Evangelical Church.
In addition, he named the general superintendent Theodor Kaftan , the rector of the Flensburg deaconess institution Carl Matthiesen and the Breklum mission director Hans-Detlev Bracker from among his closer home .
He was ordained on December 5, 1909. In 1909 he was vicar provincial in Nustrup and in 1910 vicar in Röm . From June 19, 1910 he was pastor there.
Military service and World War I
Hans Asmussen , Lorentzen's friend and successor as provost in Kiel, told the following anecdote about him:
“When he finished his year in Hadersleben, the company and its Sergeant Hinrichsen were already standing . She waited for the officers - and the one-year-old volunteer Lorentzen, who once again appeared for duty at the last moment. The sergeant had a sense of humor and ordered 'Stand still' when Lorentzen finally appeared. Then he reported the company to the one-year-old with the words 'Mr. Pastor, the congregation is assembled', to which Lorentzen is said to have replied beaming: 'Let us move, Sergeant'. (My source is Pastor Hinrichsen, later in Jevenstedt , the son of the sergeant at the time.) That was Johannes Lorentzen, carefree and radiant, disarming people with his unselfish cordiality. "
During the First World War Lorentzen served as a division pastor on the Dnieper .
Pastor in Kiel
After holding various municipal offices in the north (1910 Röm, 1914 Hadersleben), Lorentzen came to Handewitt in 1919 . From 1925 he officiated at St. Nikolai in Kiel. In 1926 he became a member of the " Flensburger (Luth.) Conference" initiated by Emil Wacker , and in 1930 of the "Niederdeutsche ev.-luth. Conference ”chaired by Simon Schöffel .
At the beginning of his work in Kiel he once said that while walking through Jungmannstrasse and Koldingstrasse with their densely populated three- and four-story houses he asked himself the question: “How do you want to reach these people with your message!” Prayed in his despair he: "Dear God, if you don't help me to get in touch with these people, then nothing will come of it."
During the many years of his ministry and countless visits to the homes of his congregation, he has learned in an exhilarating way that God answers prayers. In his Sunday sermons in St. Nikolai and on many pulpits in the country, he saw the first and most important task of the pastor in offering the gospel in all its fullness in the good confidence that these seeds will germinate, grow and bear fruit in its time .
With this central task connected with him a tireless commitment in the service of the pastoral care and the personal assistance. In Kiel, especially since 1928, there was depressing unemployment. He took special care of the people who suffered this need, inviting them again and again and looking for ways to help and alleviate them.
Lorentzen joined the NSDAP during the "fighting time", ie before October 1, 1928 (and was therefore awarded the " Golden Party Badge " in 1933 ). His basic understanding of Christian and German history is derived from the "Glockenspiel" The Bells of St. Nikolai , which Lorentzen wrote in 1929 on the occasion of the consecration of the new bells for the Nikolaikirche in Kiel.
Lorentzen did not usually wait for people to come and see him in his office hours. He went to them. When a stream of German returnees from Russia came to Kiel in 1930, he was one of the first to visit these people in their emergency accommodation in a large silo on the canal. He already knew their need from the time when he preached the gospel to them on the Dnieper during World War I while serving as a division pastor. Now he did the same service for them, preaching the gospel to them, helping them out wherever he could and establishing contacts that continued for decades.
The acquisition of the parish hall at Jägersberg 16 also follows this line. He needed a place where people of all generations could gather. The house on Jägersberg was a very modest building, a converted old villa. But he loved this house. He once said when one was in the process of creating stately church meeting rooms, "it is easier to build a large house than to fill it with people over and over again". The Jägersberg became the second center of his extensive parish work next to the Nikolai Church, a home for the old and young, for the men's and women's groups and for his lively Bible study group. The third center was his rectory on Faulstr. 23, and after its destruction the many other shelters that gave him shelter for a while, until the next attack came.
On November 18, 1930, Lorentzen took up the discussion on Hitler's “ Mein Kampf ” in the 16th circular of the “ Brotherhood of Young Theologians ” and quotes Müller-Schwefe with approval , who “is heartily pleased that it is declared here: We want to go with the power of positive Christianity to build our national life. " Lorentzen warned that “the church, as well as the socialist workers' movement, is now missing the hour in relation to the Hitler movement”.
As one of the "leaders of the denominational camp" he wrote in July 1931:
“Our time is dominated by the big city , which is breaking the ties that have naturally grown. Behind the big city stands Bolshevism , the coarse and the fine, the near and the distant, which consciously wants what the big city does unconsciously ... Western rationalism ... smashes with its five-day week, with its sundayless year, and on everyone possible other way the naturally grown structures. He tears up the family, the friendship, the church. He set himself the goal of taking away the children of the parents, of leaving the youth on their own and of creating a bee state shaped by the human brain in place of an organically structured people in his communal farms and red factories. "
Change from the German Christians to the denominational community
On May 22, 1933, Pastor Moritzen-Kiel informed State Bishop Rendtorff :
“ Paulsen- Kiel makes a creditable effort to push aside the terror that the ' German Christians ' are trying to use on the Berlin model. Lorentzen has joined the DC after the Königsberg direction gained more influence. Paulsen had courted him in vain ... "
In May 1933, Lorentzen made the confession of a National Socialist :
“The following confession does not want to compete with the growing number of confessions in which a word of confession is uttered from the church at this time. They certainly have their broader meaning. This confession is deliberately placed in the national breakthrough in order to say from here what a Christian SA man or another conscious follower of Adolf Hitler , who is at the same time a conscious Christian, has to confess. ... I want a church that is bound by the holy will of God. And then I say: It doesn't help a word of God whose teeth have been broken off. No god can help me who cannot challenge me. That is why I reject all those who say God and yet only mean man, the divine in us, or whatever it is. I know that the struggle against the liberalist spirit, against the spirit of the individual who is not bound by any obligation to the whole, can be victoriously waged on all fields, but that the battle will be decided in the center of the battlefield. ... I want the Church that can express the truth that God has entrusted to her in the clear word of confession. I am pleased to be in agreement with my Führer, Adolf Hitler, here in particular. I want the church that is committed to its people, the church, the workshop and tool of the Holy Spirit, which is our home and eternal support ... "
Lorentzen trusted the promises of National Socialism in its early days. He hoped for a new rise of resignation and hopelessness for his people. But when he realized very early that he had been deceived here, he was brave enough to say a resounding no. His place was in the Confessing Church as early as 1933 .
On December 6, 1933, Lorentzen signed the declaration of no confidence in Regional Bishop Paulsen as one of 140 of the 450 pastors of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church
On December 10, 1933, the 2nd Advent, the pulpit declaration from Schleswig-Holstein pastors , which Lorentzen had drafted together with Johann Bielfeldt and Volkmar Herntrich , was read out .
Lorentzen later described his "change of position" as follows:
“Immediately after the national movement broke through , I held evangelistic meetings with others and saw how open their hearts were to the Word from eternity. Then came the setback. The turmoil came in our church, which had its cause in the attempt to drive the new awakening of the church not from within the church's own strength, but by means outside the church. And hand in hand with this action that paralyzes the church's clout, hand in hand also with the national defamation of those who opposed them in the Church, which started out by the German Christians, a defamation that has hurt us to the point of our blood, which has infinite our people Has brought harm, which we have withstood, but for the sake of which we accuse those who perpetrated and perpetrate it, the one who was awakened by the incorrect ecclesiastical actions of the German Christians and the Reich Bishop , fed from old and new sources hostile to Christianity, always went with them more open opposition to the church and the preaching of the church. "
For a time (from November 1934 to July 1935) Lorentzen was also a member of the State Brotherhood of the Confessional Community.
Head of the Office for Popular Mission
Lorentzen's love was the people's mission , to which he and Heinrich Rendtorff gave important impulses. He was an evangelist by God's grace, whose proclamation was heard with gratitude in many congregations, including outside of Schleswig-Holstein. As he endeavored to strengthen the believing community, to win over the alienated, he turned with all sharpness against the false teachers and destroyers of the faith. Whether it was the free thinkers of all shades, whether it was Gustav Frenssen , Professor Hauer or Count Reventlow with their German belief in God or Mathilde Ludendorff with their mockery of Christianity, they all heard from his mouth or his pen that only the gospel of Jesus was heard Christ saves us temporally and forever.
Lorentzen was appointed by the 1st Confessional Synod in Schleswig-Holstein in July 1935 to head the Office for People's Mission of the Confessional Community (BG), based in Breklum . He gave a lecture about it on "Popular Mission of the Confessing Church":
“… The key words for our fathers' confession are the words' before God '. The confession is pervaded by the seriousness of the concern to exist 'before God'. It is deeply breathed by the adoration of those who know of the grace through which they can stand 'before God'. ... The popular mission of the Confessing Church speaks clearly of the living God. She preaches the First Commandment ! She is convinced that this is not a reaction ... That is why she fears every blurred preaching and speaks untiringly and clearly of sin and grace. She also says the word about sin to those who think that this word offends German people ... We know that wherever this word is concealed or concealed, reality as it is is ignored ... The people's mission of the BK preaches incessantly: There is no salvation in any other! It can preach in this way because it does not want to awaken human piety, because it is rather allowed to preach God's eternal salvation ... then that is the will of the Lord of the Church that our church should learn that it can only build itself up from the power of the word God, and that she does her service to her people right in the power of the word of God ... I think of the more than 400 people's mission meetings that we were able to hold at once last spring, and of the fine work that our young vicars and students do in house-to-house visits and about 200 evening meetings around the same time ... This is why we do popular missions ... believing in the power of the living God. We do it as people who zealously watch over the clear principles of their work and who then shake hands with anyone who wants to place themselves under these principles, trusting in the sustaining, gifting and helping goodness of their Lord. "
Lorentzen wrote three of the twenty Breklum notebooks :
- Book 1: The Christian Confession and the German Faith Movement. An argument with Count Reventlow and Professor Hauer. 1935.
- Book 9: The Confession - Life Witness of the Church. 1936.
- Book 19: What the Bible Really Says! 1939.
Lorentzen was the editor of the special volume published in Breklum in 1936 : The North Mark in the Battle of Faith. An answer from the church to Gustav Frenssen .
Pastor Moritzen was the organizer and coordinator of the Kiel denominational community until 1937. In those years he also kept in touch with the “young brothers”, the students, vicars and vicars. Some of them think back to that with great gratitude. He says: "If an agreement could be reached with Lorentzen, Hansen, Kasch and Jessen on a matter , then it could start."
The working ring of the four parishes St. Nikolai, Lutherkirche , St. Jürgen and Ansgar formed the basis for the inter-congregational work of the confessional community in Kiel. The required registration at the state police station took place in the afternoon. At a number of events, the "golden Meyer", a BK student with a gold party badge, had his place near the entrance to the hall to fend off troublemakers from the party.
With Professor Rendtorff, now pastor in Schwerin and clearly with the Confessing Church (BK), and Hanns Lilje -Berlin was invited to a Lutheran Day in St. Nikolai Church on November 14th and 15th, 1935. “Our commitment to God from a Reformation perspective” (Rendtorff) and “The Church from a Reformation perspective” (Lilje) were the themes. For the members of the confessional community who were able to identify themselves with the red membership card, there was a special meeting with Rendtorff and Lilje (“On the situation of our church” and “Our youth”) on Friday afternoon at 4 o'clock in the Lutherhaus in Gartenstrasse. In addition, Lorentzen and Moritzen invited the pastors to the parish hall at Jägersberg 16. There Rendtorff was supposed to talk about the future path of the denominational community. A report on the meeting of the Lutheran World Convention in Paris was expected from Lilje . At 11 a.m. Lilje spoke to the theology students.
In the parish hall of St. Nikolai on Jägersberg, evening courses were held for the Protestant youth on the subject of "The Church of Jesus Christ in Struggle". The following speakers are named: Miether, Dunker, Rönnau, Pörksen , Heinrich Meyer-Neumünster, Prehn, Johanssen and Lorentzen. On Ascension Day of Ev. A special train was organized in 1936 in Bistensee . The mission conference from 9-11. September 1936 was the 38th Schl.-Holst. Mission conference merged and expanded with a large number of speakers. The mission directors Karl Hartenstein , Piening-Breklum, Schomerus-Hermannsburg, Walter Freytag spoke, as well as missionary Bräsen-India and Dr. Machleidt-Hamburg. Simon Schöffel held the closing service .
On December 30, 1936, Lorentzen reported from the people's mission that 70 pastors had come to Bistensee to prepare. In the autumn, 118 congregations opened up to the people's mission. Further events should follow in January and February. Lorentzen was happy about the unexpectedly good visit and the inner sympathy. Such an opportunity would succeed in getting the congregations to sit up and take notice.
The preparation days for popular missions and community development from 16.-18. September 1937 in Bistensee. Lorentzen wrote with the invitation:
“Just as there is not a time for the great evangelists in the area of the whole Protestant Church , so we do not have any great names either. But we have a gentleman who has awakened a team for the work of the people's mission, as Schleswig-Holstein at least has not known it before ... From the ever increasing concern for the church and from the ever increasing joy in the gifts that entrusted to the Church, as to communion in word and sacrament , this has been given to us. It is always a pleasure for me that with age, the years get wider and wider. "
Mediator in matters of regional church committee
When a regional church committee was to be formed in Kiel at the beginning of 1936, Lorentzen was one of the candidates because, as pastor of the confessional community, he also had the confidence of German Christians (such as Christian Thomsen, Altona).
In an express letter dated January 31, 1936, Reich Minister Kerrl invited his ministry to form a regional church committee for Tuesday, February 4, 10 a.m. Horstmann, Provost Peters, Spanuth , Provost Dührkop, Regional Bishop Paulsen, Senate President Matthiessen, Martensen, Provost Siemonsen , Lorentzen, Hildebrand, Ernst Mohr , Chr. Thomsen; from the Ministry of Hanns Kerrl and Julius Stahn and from the Reich Church Committee Christhard Mahrenholz . The Altona pastors Hildebrand and Thomsen reported on this meeting.
When the minister was about to close the debate, Lorentzen asked to speak. It must be said that it was April 11, 1934. This day could not be canceled out in the history of the church in Schleswig-Holstein. Paulsen did not use that in any way. That cannot be repeated now. With the demand “line and peace” would be anticipated what is to come. That is why the confessional community must attach importance to the composition of the committee. The reorganization had to be in such a way that it became clear in every way that this story was now over. That must be for the sake of the whole church and also for the sake of the theological offspring. Clearly ordered spiritual leadership is therefore required, not just an occasional replacement of the bishop by another clergyman. It should start something new.
Kerrl then stated that he would withdraw with his people for consultation and would then nominate some members for a conclave. Mahrenholz came back and announced: The minister asked the following gentlemen: Regional Bishop Paulsen, Pastor Matthiessen, Provost Peters, Pastor Mohr, Pastor Chr. Thomsen. Later, the sixth President of the Senate, Matthiessen-Kiel, who had been Vice President of the Higher Regional Court, joined the group.
The Conclave of the Named took place on February 5, 1936. Pastor Christian Thomsen-Altona reported on this in a subsequent protocol. This first regional church committee failed. A new one had to be named.
In the circular of February 29, 1936, Wester announced that on Thursday, February 27, the regional church committee for Schleswig-Holstein had been appointed in Braunschweig. Its members were: Pastor Adolphsen-Itzehoe, Pastor Mohr-Flensburg, Regional Bishop Paulsen, Provost Schetelig-Blankenese and Senate President a. D. Stutzer-Kiel.
The committee issued a statement asking pastors and congregations for their trustful cooperation. The German Church was not mentioned by name, but was clearly described. She is one of the many to whom the cornerstone of the church has become a stumbling block and offense. However, the declaration was not allowed to be published because of the upcoming Reichstag elections on March 29, 1936.
On March 11, 1936, the regional church committee sent a letter to the clergy of the regional church, which was also sent to the auxiliary clergy of the Confessing Church on March 21 by the regional brotherhood council. Here, too, publication in the Church Law and Ordinance Gazette was only permitted for the period after the Reichstag election. The Reich Church Committee endorsed this declaration and published it on April 21 in the DEK's Law Gazette . All pastors were given their ordination vows with their commitment to scripture and creed on their hearts and consciences.
This letter from the regional church committee left little to be desired in terms of clarity. To a large extent it did justice to the concerns of the confessional community and rated it very positively. On the other hand, it called for a strong protest from the German Church. On four closely printed pages, Dr. Franzen, senior pastor Andersen and Neelsen the strictest legal detention against the behavior of the regional church committee. There one could read that the regional church committee was completely dominated in its theological doctrine by the “Confessing Church”, by rigid Pauline theology and Pauline intolerance, theological delusion. They appealed to the church people and the general priesthood of all Protestant Christians and spoke of the danger of internal catholization of the regional church.
The "Lutheran Comradeship" also commented on the establishment of the regional church committee:
“We're not exactly thrilled about the composition. We have also clearly expressed our grave concerns before and after the education at the crucial points ... He now has to prove whether he is capable of living and working. For the moment, we see the importance of the establishment of the committee in the fact that the legal situation is impeccable again and that church leadership is clearly legalized. Now there is again an authority that can create incontestable, legally valid laws and regulations ... We also considered the previous situation to be lawful. However, as is known, the confession side had tried to raise legal concerns against the management for the past two years. This has now come to an end with the establishment of the committee. There is no doubt about its legal validity. "
A message in the Kieler Neuesten Nachrichten of March 3, 1936 was probably edited by this page. She reports on the establishment of the committee and connects it with the reference to the ordinance of December 2, 1935, with which the exercise of church regimental measures by "groups" was prohibited, and the further reference that the regional bishop is legalized by being accepted into the regional church committee . The denominational community meant it the other way around: Because the regional bishop and the previous church government were neither constitutionally legal nor ecclesiastically legitimate, legal assistance is required, which has now been presented by the regional church committee.
Halfmann reported to Wester on March 5, 1936 from Flensburg that Ernst Mohr had informed him that Christiansen's hand was suspected in the press reports. He had a conversation with Christian Kinder . A great battle was in prospect with the German Church. “Just at the right time, the church lifts its head and confesses the gospel, the power of God, to the country - and the devil will go!” Mohr, please, to keep the organization of the BK firmly in place. Paulsen hardly makes an appearance, nor is he very much noticed by Stutzer.
On the same March 5, 1936, Lorentzen wrote to Wester from Kiel: “Please don't get nervous! The DC look cloudy. We shouldn't disturb them in this. Moritzen sits with me and asks: In addition to keeping in touch with the Reich, you should also keep in touch with us! Sticking together and staying together with Mohr, Adolphsen and Halfmann. Don't let the community shatter. "
In March 1936 the State Brotherhood Council (LBR) of the Confessional Community called meetings of the provost shop stewards and all spiritual members. He presented them with an application (A) from Halfmann, which affirmed the cooperation within the given framework, and an application (B) from Wester, which made the cooperation subject to fundamental reservations. In order to avoid a crucial test, the shop stewards commissioned a group of pastors to unite the two opposing proposals. This application Lorentzen (C) declares the readiness of the confessional community to work with the committee on the condition that he hand over the examinations, ordinations and visitations of the students, vicars and pastors of the BG to P. Halfmann and to consult him with their assignments and disciplinary cases.
The weighting of this motion came much closer to the opinion that emerged during the Rendsburg BG General Assembly on March 30, 1936 than Wester's and Halfmann's motions. These threatened to split the denominational community into two irreconcilable halves, one of which believed it could not fundamentally give up the emergency law of the Dahlem Synod of 1934 and the other now believed that the new situation of the committee era meant that it would be able to overcome the isolating emergency law through limited church participation .
Paul M. Dahl summarized Lorentzen's mediating role:
“When Reinhard Wester returned from Berlin from the meetings of the Reich Brotherhood Council , his judgment was often harsher and more radical than what our Schleswig-Holstein situation meant. Then Lorentzen, Moritzen and others made every effort to bring it back to the Schleswig-Holstein standard. The congregations also suffered from the tougher course of the old Prussian brother councils. That could largely be prevented in this country. "
Lorentzen was self-critical of the attempts at reconciliation and mediation in the Schleswig-Holstein regional church:
“We have certainly said from the State Brotherhood Council that he [sc. Christian Kinder ] may not be increased, but we have ... promised that he will do the work ... When it comes to children, we went with them to a large extent ... The humor has disappeared from our ranks. Did we pray for our brothers on the committee every day? "
Second World War
Lorentzen's special role as pastor in Kiel during the Second World War was described by his vicar at the time, Wolfgang Prehn:
“Because the pastoral office was his highest obligation, it was impossible for him to abandon his community, the people entrusted to him. He proved this in times of greatest danger to his city. In countless nights of bombing , with constant threat of death, he endured in unbroken loyalty to his ever smaller community. There are probably not very many people from that time who, like the Lorentzen couple, were totally bombed six times in a row. Moving from one emergency shelter to the other, starting over and over again, he comforted and helped the desperate. He never gave up and stood like a man in a shattering world. He had to learn to let go of all that one had in terms of earthly possessions. Church and rectory destroyed, his valuable Claus Harms collection burned, the beautiful pictures of his wife destroyed, no books, no furniture, no clothes he called his own anymore. With gratitude and joy he saw that there were always people who helped him with the most essential things. "
Reconsideration after the war
Prehn continued:
“When the war was over, Lorentzen was one of the first to put his hand on the plow to rebuild. Physically exhausted and emaciated, but mentally unbroken, he went to work. With the last of his strength, he campaigned for the restoration of church life in his city. There was no church, no pastorate. With modest means, the first community halls were repaired so that people could gather. The restoration of the least destroyed St. Paul's Church then followed. Foreign friends donated emergency churches in Gaarden and Ellerbek. The Vicelinkirche rose again. His worries were about the Nikolai Church. He did not live to see the completion. "
At the appeal of Pastor Lorentzen at the first meeting of the Preliminary General Synod in August 1945 that the Church should be the advocate of the people, it was about one of the central problems in which many people felt the victor's iron fist most strongly: the so-called denazification in the form of imprisonment and massive threats or dismissals from the respective professional positions. Pastor Lorentzen pictured the dangers - also for the environment outside of Germany - from the many people without office, bread and hope for the future who lived in the “heaped together” of overpopulated post-war Germany .
The synod unanimously agreed to the petition to the military government that he had requested and signed by ten other synods : only those should be punished who were personally guilty of real crimes; But “hundreds of thousands of people” should not be condemned across the board who joined the NSDAP and its organizations “out of patriotism” and who in some cases had long since turned away from them inwardly out of disappointment; the Church must not allow them to succumb to hopelessness.
On March 29, 1946, at an extraordinary meeting of the preliminary church leadership (VKL) in Kiel, which was attended by President Halfmann, Bishop Völkel , Consistorial Councilor P. Treplin, Provost Hasselmann , President Bührke , Senior Studies Director Hahn and Bauer Thomsen, Pastor Lorentzen also took part the new considerations drawn the consequences. Unimpressed by Bührke's announcement that the military government's stance had hardened, “guidelines” were laid down for the further handling of the denazification proceedings.
Among the practical tasks of the provisional church leadership elected in August 1945, it was particularly important to clear up the leading offices and their owners. It became particularly urgent when Asmussen learned that the British military government was also preparing denazification questionnaires for clergy in order to remove "Nazi pastors". This already motivated the preparatory group to anticipate such an intervention as far as possible in their own ecclesiastical way. Lorentzen, Halfmann and Bührke formulated a motion to the synod that “the church standards should be decisive” when dealing with personnel issues (section 2) and that any “government-planned”, i.e. extra-church measures should be submitted to a church personnel committee (section 3, so-called . Protection application).
Because of the British Major Wilcox present at the Synod, Halfmann left out the protective passage in his speech on The Present Tasks of the Schleswig-Holstein Regional Church . The first part of the application, the settlement of personnel issues according to church criteria, remained and included the express assurance that the party-political impeachments of 1933 "will not be repeated with the opposite sign". He built on the discerning and voluntary renunciation of those who held an office "whose origin today no longer gives authority".
The newspaper publication of the Stuttgart confession of guilt in the Kieler Kurier on October 27, 1945 triggered a flood of inquiries and objections. They came from pastors and parish councils of all ecclesiastical directions, and yet they contained a largely consistent spectrum of critical concerns. Pastor Lorentzen, Kiel, was one of those who raised concerns. The concerns ranged from doubts about the completeness of the text to the accusation of the political rather than ecclesiastical content to the condemnation of one-sidedness and national indignity. According to Kurt Jürgensen (1976), the EKD's declaration of guilt was rejected by "the vast majority of clergy and parishioners".
Quotation from the letter of the incumbent Provost Lorentzen-Kiel of November 6, 1945 to President Halfmann:
“Just as in the past in the Confessing Church we often brought to the pulpit what had not yet passed through the little room, now what belongs to God is brought before people. I do not mean that confessions of guilt belong only to God, but I think we should hold back with such confessions where one does not - and then also openly - with us under the first part of the 5th petition [of the Our Father : 'Forgive us our debts.'] Wants to ask. But the other side also has good reason to do this: Versailles , which is ahead of everything else. "
At the 2nd provisional synod of September 1946, when Upper President Theodor Steltzer campaigned for the church's political commitment, the provosts Johannes Lorentzen, Kiel, and Eduard Juhl , southern Tondern, spoke of “restraint in politicis” and “political abstinence " the word.
Provost in Kiel
On December 1, 1945, Provost Maximilian Gehrckens, who had taken office in 1944, was retired. He was followed in August 1946 by the Kiel pastor Johannes Lorentzen.
Prehn wrote about it:
“Johannes Lorentzen always saw the office of pastor as the highest office of the church. During his tenure in Kiel he was repeatedly offered the post of provost. But he did not want to leave his community, which he served with absolute dedication. Only when almost all houses in Kiel had been destroyed after the war did he decide, at the request of Bishop Wilhelm Halfmann and all pastors from Kiel, to be provost in the rubble city. He wanted to do his part to do the work of rebuilding the destroyed churches and parsonages and collecting the parishes. He drew the strength for such service from a tireless and rich life of prayer. "
In Schleswig-Holstein in the summer of 1946 a. a. the intended dismantling of the Kiel shipyard, which had escaped destruction by the aerial warfare , raised tempers. The Kiel provost, on behalf of all church councils in the city, joined the appeal of state authorities, in particular the state parliament, that the military government should retain the remaining jobs for the working population in the largely destroyed Kiel.
The particular need of the city of Kiel, in which most of the churches were destroyed and no church remained undamaged, was clearly reflected in the lectures and deliberations of the constituent meeting of the “extraordinary synod of provosts” on May 7, 1947. Provost Lorentzen gave a comprehensive report on the long period from 1933 to 1947 because - with the exception of the provisional provost synod of July 1945 - no synod had met in the meantime. He attached importance to ascertaining how the church had suffered outward damage through persecution and destruction, but on the other hand the infinite need - especially in the fear of death of the nights of bombing - had awakened and strengthened the spiritual life: the growing awareness of what the Church goes, gave the pastors "a deepening unity" which - as the Kiel provost hoped - would like to prove itself in cooperation with the new church councils.
The reports from the church work in the provost's office confirmed how the spiritual awakening in the exactly two years since the end of the war had led to a new, visible development of church life, with personal and external help. The help from outside (including the so-called care packages and cralog programs , which were largely mediated by the American Mennonites and the Swiss Evangelical Aid Organization for children, the elderly and the sick) was accepted by the synod with great thanks in a feeling of worldwide ecumenical solidarity . The Christian and brotherly spirit thus manifested from the outside strengthened one's own inner willingness to gather everyone in community work, in men's work, in youth work, in refugee care, in women's aid, in Christian aid organizations beyond the alleviation of spiritual and material need Believers and to get to the "witness service for Christ", as Pastor Scharrenberg-Kronshagen put it. This gave rise to a stronger bond with the Church than ever before.
The spiritual address by Bishop Halfmann, the reports by Provost Lorentzen and Pastors Hagge, Haupt, Kraft, Martensen, Plath, Scharrenberg and other speakers, the contributions to the discussion by various synodalists, the subsequent lecture by Pastor Husfeldt on "The Church in the Flow of Time" everyone was drawn to seeing the post-war period as the “hour of the church”.
His friend and successor Hans Asmussen wrote about him:
“Provost Lorentzen's ecclesiastical attitude was determined by the Lutheran pietism he brought with him from his home in northern Schleswig. It is to be seen as an act of God's decree that the first provost after the unheard of collapse had a special relationship with the small circles from which he wanted to have carried the spiritual life around in the congregations. Even after 1945 there was no room at all in which large congregations could meet. Provost Lorentzen had to live in the poorest conditions in those years and perform his office. As openly as he had resisted nationalism, he was also against the English governor when he confronted him in the name of God about the dismantling in Kiel. "
Family and private
Lorentzen married Margarete Zeidler in the spring of 1910. They had six children: Jürgen, Helga (* 1911) and four others. Prehn characterized Lorentzen's family life and his personal attitude as follows:
“It was amazing to what extent this busy man had time and leisure for his large family. He lived in a very happy marriage. His wife, highly respected far beyond the community, was a tireless support and helper in all matters of his family and pastor life. His six children had a father whom many envied. Free from all legality and open to everything that occupied the children's lives, the parents complemented each other in order to prepare a happy home for the children. He said: Children must be dared. Words like self-expression and self-realization were not yet invented. He also radically refused to misuse the gospel for human purposes or to see his own wishes fulfilled in his children. All the greater was his joy that his son Jürgen, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, decided to become a theologian. The soldier's death of this hopeful son hit his parents hard. But the dignity and certainty of faith with which they endured this loss was for many a strengthening of their faith and a help in their needs.
His parsonage was not a private house, but an open house in the best sense of the word. Countless people have come and gone in it. Church members, pastors and bishops, students, persecuted, oppressed and certainly not a few beggars. Nobody left their home empty-handed or uncomfortable. It also did not appeal to him if he occasionally found that his kindness was being abused. Two pictures in his study reflected the climate of this house. A framed saying hung over his desk with the words from the Book of Judges (chap. 5, v. 31) "Those who love him must be like the sun rises in their power". On the opposite wall hung a picture that his wife had painted based on a motif by Rudolf Schäfer . It shows the pilgrim with his burden, whose path leads into an impenetrable darkness. But beyond the dark wall of clouds is indicated the beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem, the future of God's people. These two pictures are a living expression of what Johannes Lorentzen lived and believed.
The radiation of joy that comes from the heart and the certainty of God's new creation in eternity were the focal points of his existence. He lived entirely in this world with all its needs, riddles, problems and joys. At the same time, however, he was completely at home in the eternal world of God. His piety was very warm, but at the same time very sober. He didn't like to use big words. In a male chastity he hid the most delicious things of his life and took care not to conduct his conversations with pious vocabulary. He was careful not to allow the authenticity of his statements to be called into question in everyday practice. That gave him the fearlessness to say and do at all times what he alone had to answer to his God-bound conscience. "
His energies were exhausted in the service of his congregations and in the pastoral care of his ministerial brothers, whom he assisted in the work of construction in an unprecedented manner. A period of severe suffering followed, until his life was completed on June 8, 1949, a life that he himself called a happy pastor's life on his deathbed.
Publications
As an author
- The voice of the church, an experience of the church. Potsdam: Stiftungsverlag 1927 (with very many autobiographical references).
- The bells of St. Nikolai. [A game of bells] , Kiel: Karl J. Rößler 1929.
- Sermon in the church service at the consecration of the bells on Easter day 1929. In: The bells of the St. Nikolaikirche in Kiel. Handorff, Kiel 1929, pp. 3–8.
- The Augsburg Confession. The struggle for the source of life of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 1530–1930. Sehrohr-Verlag, Neumünster [1930].
- Claus Harms and the turmoil of our time. In: The village church. 1931, issue 7, p. 226 f.
- Church and nationality in the light of the little catechism. A word to people of the church who support the people and a word to people with a national mind who want to affirm the church. Heinrich Möller Sons, Rendsburg [1931].
- This side and beyond the border. Nicolai Frederic Severin Grundtvig and Claus Harms. Questions of the present in the light of the past. Ihloff, Neumünster 1933.
- The final stage of the Oxford movement. Essen 1935.
- Popular mission of the Confessing Church. In: Brother Council of the Confessional Community (ed.): What is right before God. First Confession Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein on July 17, 1935 in Kiel. Office of the Confessional Community, Westerland / Sylt 1935, pp. 27–33.
- The Christian Confession and the German Faith Movement. An argument with Count Reventlow and Professor Hauer. Ihloff, Neumünster 1935.
- The confession. Life witness of the Church. Office for People's Mission, Breklum 1936.
- Gustav Frenssen's image of Christ. In: The North Mark in the Faith Struggle. An answer from the Church to Gustav Frenssen , Breklum: Missionsbuchhandlung [1936], pp. 18-25.
- Claus Harms. A picture of life (= fathers of the Lutheran Church. Volume 5). Martin Luther-Verlag, Erlangen 1937.
- What the Bible Really Says! Mission bookshop, Breklum [1939].
- 700 years of St. Nikolaikirche in Kiel. Mission bookshop, Breklum 1941.
As editor
-
The Nordmark in the religious struggle. Mission bookshop, Breklum [1936]; therein as an author:
- Preface , p. 3.
- Gustav Frenssen's picture of Christ , p. 18 ff.
literature
- Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (ed.): The confessions and fundamental statements on the church question in 1933. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1934, DNB 368146812 .
- Volkmar Herntrich : A new way? Demonstration of the Schleswig-Holstein clergy in the Heiligengeist Church in Kiel on April 11, 1934. Sent in by the Brother Council of the Pastors' Emergency Association in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Young Church . 2 (1934), pp. 322-328.
- Brother Council of the Confessional Community (ed.): What is right before God. First Confession Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein on July 17, 1935 in Kiel. Office of the confessional community, Westerland / Sylt 1935, DNB 1169430929 .
- Synodal Committee (Ed.): Community Book Kiel. Ev. Publishing company, Stuttgart 1952.
- Richard Quasebarth (Ed.): Reports on the 3 meetings of the preliminary general synod in the years 1945-46 and the meeting of the 5th ordinary regional synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein from October 13 to 17, 1947 in Rendsburg. Regional Church Archives, Kiel 1958.
- Johann Bielfeldt : The church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein 1933-1945. Dedicated to the memory of Bishop D. Wilhelm Halfmann. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1964.
- Kurt Jürgensen : The hour of the church. The Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein in the first years after the Second World War. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1976.
- Paul M. Dahl: Experienced church history. The time of the church committees in the Ev.-Luth. State Church of Schleswig-Holstein 1935–1938. Manuscript completed in 1980, revised for the Internet and edited. by Matthias Dahl, Christian Dahl and Peter Godzik 2017 ( geschichte-bk-sh.de [PDF; 1.9 MB]).
- Wolfgang Prehn (Ed.): Time to walk the narrow path. Witnesses report from the church fight in Schleswig-Holstein. Kiel 1985.
- Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in the Protestant regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein (= writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History. Series I. Volume 35). Wachholtz, Neumünster 1988, ISBN 3-529-02836-3 .
- Friedrich Hammer : Directory of the pastors of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church 1864–1976. Edited by the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1991, p. 230.
- Volker Jakob: The Evangelical Lutheran State Church Schleswig-Holstein in the Weimar Republic. Social change and political continuity. Munster 1993.
- Volker Jakob: The Evangelical Lutheran State Church Schleswig-Holstein in the Weimar Republic. Church life in the 20s. In: Schleswig-Holstein Church History. (SHKG) Volume 6/1: Church between self-assertion and external determination (= writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History. Series I. Volume 31). Wachholtz, Neumünster 1998, ISBN 3-529-02831-2 , pp. 37-77.
- Klauspeter Reumann: The church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein from 1933 to 1945. In: Schleswig-Holstein church history. (SHKG) Volume 6/1: Church between self-assertion and external determination (= writings of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein Church History. Series I. Volume 31). Wachholtz, Neumünster 1998, ISBN 3-529-02831-2 , pp. 111-473.
- Johannes Rempel : Jump over the wall with God. From Mennonite farm boy in the Urals to pastor in Kiel. (Posthumous) published by Hans-Joachim Ramm. Matthiesen, Husum 2013.
- Marc Zirlewagen : Biographical Lexicon of the Associations of German Students. Volume 1: Members A – L. BoD, Norderstedt 2014, p. 520.
- Karl-Heinz Fix, Carsten Nicolaisen (†) and Ruth Pabst (ed.): Handbook of the German Evangelical Churches 1918–1949. Organs - offices - people. Volume 2: State and Provincial Churches. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, pp. 557–559.
- Karl Ludwig Kohlwage , Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” Voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times. The Breklumer Hefte of the ev.-luth. Confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein from 1935 to 1941. Sources on the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein. Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik . Matthiesen Verlag, Husum 2018, ISBN 978-3-7868-5308-4 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Johannes Lorentzen in the catalog of the German National Library
- Biogram Johannes Lorentzen. In: geschichte-bk-sh.de
- Johannes Lorentzen's estate. In: Estate database
Individual evidence
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 204.
- ^ A b c Biographical Lexicon of the Associations of German Students. 2014, p. 520.
- ↑ Entries Bracker in the manual of the German Evangelical Churches 1918–1949. 2017, p. 340.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 201.
- ^ Synodal Committee: Community Book Kiel. 1952, p. 10.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 202.
- ↑ The latter published the Niederdeutsche Kirchenzeitung from 1930 under the editorship of Karl Hasselmann and Theodor Rohrdantz; regional employees of the editorial staff were a. P. Lorentzen-Kiel and P. Fischer-Hübner, Ratzeburg.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 201 f.
- ↑ Schleswig-Holstein Church History. 6/1, 1998, p. 68, note 133.
- ↑ Based on the model of the Drebnitz game of bells from the home of the Saxon pastor and bell expert Ernst Seidel from Beiersdorf in Upper Lusatia : http://d-nb.info/gnd/1131102053 .
- ↑ The bells of St. Nikolai. [A game of bell encounter.] Karl J. Rößler, Kiel 1929.
- ↑ See Rempel: Jump over the wall with God. 2013.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 202.
- ^ Reumann: Church and National Socialism. 1988, p. 57.
- ↑ Schleswig-Holstein Church History. 6/1, 1998, p. 68.
- ↑ Lorentzen: Claus Harms and the confusion of our time. 1931, p. 226 f.
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 8 f.
- ↑ Lorentzen is alluding to the Altona Confession of January 11, 1933.
- ↑ Schmidt: The Confessions… of 1933. 1934, pp. 38–40 ( online at geschichte-bk-sh.de .
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 204.
- ↑ online at geschichte-bk-sh.de .
- ^ Schmidt: The confessions ... of the year 1933. 1934, pp. 89–91 ( online at geschichte-bk-sh.de ).
- ↑ Lorentzen: People's Mission of the Confessing Church. 1935, p. 31.
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 16.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 205.
- ↑ Brother Council of the BG: What is right before God. 1935, pp. 27-33.
- ↑ The Christian Confession ... ( geschichte-bk-sh.de [PDF; 9.4 MB]).
- ↑ The Confession - Life Witness of the Church. ( geschichte-bk-sh.de [PDF; 8.7 MB]).
- ↑ What the Bible Really Says! ( geschichte-bk-sh.de [PDF; 1.1 MB]).
- ↑ online at geschichte-bk-sh.de .
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 59.
- ↑ Example of a BG ID card ( online at evangelischer- Resistance.de ).
- ↑ Biogram Wolfgang Miether ( online at geschichte-bk-sh.de ).
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 59 f.
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 107.
- ↑ See the article on participation in the church committees ( online at evangelischer- Resistance.de ).
- ↑ Schleswig-Holstein Church History. 6/1, 1998, p. 253.
- ↑ Biogram Gottfried Horstmann ( online at nordschleswigwiki.info ).
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, pp. 28-30.
- ↑ Herntrich: A new way? In: Young Church. 2 (1934), pp. 322–328 ( geschichte-bk-sh.de [PDF; 189 kB]).
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 29.
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 30 f.
- ↑ Dahl reports on the exciting development in February 1936 (failure of the first committee, nocturnal meeting of the Brotherhood Council, 4th Synod of Confessions in Bad Oeynhausen, following meeting of the Brotherhood Council): Miterlebte Kirchengeschichte 1980/2017, pp. 31-42.
- ↑ Based on the 8th implementation regulation of February 26, 1936 ( DEK Law Gazette , p. 24 f.).
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 42 f.
- ↑ 11. Letter from the "Lutheran Comradeship" of March 2, 1936, p. 11.
- ↑ Biogram Nikolaus Christiansen ( online at apt-holtenau.de ).
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, pp. 42-43.
- ↑ Schleswig-Holstein Church History. 6/1, 1998, p. 274 f.
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 88.
- ↑ Dahl: Experienced church history. 1980/2017, p. 70.
- ↑ Biogram Wolfgang Prehn ( online at geschichte-bk-sh.de ).
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 204.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 204 f.
- ↑ Quasebarth: Reports on the 3 meetings of the preliminary general synod. 1958.
- ↑ In his so-called Word to the Allied Powers on the question of party membership , Lorentzen stated, “that he [sc. the motion] out of the sense of responsibility that the church must be the mouth of the people and also in this matter, as perhaps the only place that is currently heard, must not remain silent "(Jürgensen: Die hour der Kirche. 1976, P. 391, note 100).
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1976, p. 167.
- ^ LK Schleswig-Holstein - Church leadership (inventory)
- ↑ Biogram Hans Treplin ( online at geschichte-bk-sh.de ).
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1976, p. 174 f.
- ↑ online at geschichte-bk-sh.de .
- ↑ Schleswig-Holstein Church History. 6/1, 1998, p. 405.
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1976, p. 242.
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1976, p. 423 f., Notes 80 and 82.
- ↑ Schleswig-Holstein Church History. 6/1, 1998, p. 425.
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1975, p. 87.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 201.
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1975, p. 166 f. See also: Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 202: “After 1946 he turned passionately to the British occupation forces and to the Bishop of Chichester to prevent the dismantling of the shipyards from bringing new misery to the so badly afflicted city. His word was heard, and the then Mayor Andreas Gayk thanked him in a personal letter. "
- ↑ Jürgensen: The hour of the church. 1975, p. 95 f.
- ^ Synodal Committee: Community Book Kiel. 1952, p. 10.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 202 f.
- ^ Prehn: Time to walk the narrow path. 1985, p. 205.
- ↑ Reprinted in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (ed.): "You will be my witnesses!" ... , Husum 2018, p. 476 ff.
- ↑ Reprinted in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (ed.): “You will be my witnesses!” ... , Husum 2018, p. 19 ff.
- ↑ Reprinted again in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (ed.): “You will be my witnesses!” ... , Husum 2018, p. 237 ff.
- ↑ Reprinted in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” ... , Husum 2018, p. 182 ff.
- ↑ Reprinted in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (ed.): “You will be my witnesses!” ... , Husum 2018, p. 406 ff.
- ↑ Reprinted in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (ed.): “You will be my witnesses!” ... Husum 2018, p. 169 ff.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lorentzen, Johannes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Lutheran pastor and people's missionary |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 9, 1881 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hadersleben |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 8, 1949 |
| Place of death | Kiel |