Johannes Schulze (theologian, 1901)

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Johannes Schulze, Evangelical Week 1949 , Hanover

August Friedrich Wilhelm Johannes Schulze (born January 14, 1901 in Celle ; † June 3, 1980 in Langenhagen ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian.

Life

Johannes Schulze during a sermon

Schulze was born on January 14, 1901 as the son of the Sparkasse director Georg Heinrich Friedrich Gustav Schulze (1867-1922) and Johanna Dorette Auguste Schulze, née Mirre (1875-1957), in Celle. After graduating from high school in January 1919 at the Ernestinum Gymnasium in Celle, he became a student of Protestant theology at the universities of Göttingen (April 30, 1919 to August 10, 1920) and Leipzig ( April 29 , 1919 to August 10, 1920) , initially to the incomprehension of his parents . October 1920 to August 9, 1921)

In Göttingen he became a member of the Christian fraternity "Germania" belonging to the Schwarzburgbund (SB) , whose secretary he became in the 1920 summer semester. In the winter semester of 1921/22 he was a "senior" and thus held the highest office in the fraternity.

In 1923 he passed his first theological exam. The second exam was completed in 1925 after attending the Loccum seminary . Here he met Johannes Lilje , who later became the regional bishop of Hanover's regional church, and with whom a lifelong friendship developed. Johannes Schulze was ordained on October 10, 1925.

Pastor in Rotenburg and Hankensbüttel

The first professional station was the position of the 2nd pastor in the "Asylum for Epileptics and Idiots" (from 1930: "Rotenburger Anstalten der Innere Mission, sanatorium and nursing home for epileptics, the mentally weak and sick"; today: Rotenburger Werke der Innere Mission eV ) in Rotenburg (Wümme) , where he worked from October 15, 1925 to July 15, 1931. This was his first contact with the Inner Mission.

On February 5, 1926, he married Irmgard Franziska Elisabeth Ahlrichs, the daughter of Theodor Ahlrichs , who was pastor of the Delmenhorst town church from 1907 to 1935 . The couple had four children, a daughter and three sons. On July 15, 1931, Schulze became a pastor in the St. Pankratius Church in Hankensbüttel (today the district of Gifhorn).

Superintendent in Bremervörde

On February 1, 1936, he became superintendent in Bremervörde and looked after numerous pastors and parishes in the church district.

On October 26, 1943, Schulze was commissioned by the Protestant field bishop of the Wehrmacht in Berlin as a local pastor in the secondary office for the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag XB in Sandbostel. As a result, he became the site pastor for the German Wehrmacht members who were stationed in this POW camp. After the end of the war, Schulze remained the camp pastor until 1948, now for the British internment camp Sandbostel.

During his tenure in Bremervörde, Schulze was repeatedly exposed to attacks by the National Socialists , because from 1938 he was regional chairman of the Brotherhood of the Confessing Church in the regional church of Hanover, which opposed the state intervention of the National Socialists in church matters. As a result of this task and the connection to other oppositional religious groups in Germany, Schulze found himself in a dangerous position, especially since he was critical of the actions and letters of the then regional bishop August Marahrens . Schulze's task at this time "required spiritual strength, courage and the willingness to sacrifice oneself", as it was later stated in the reason for the honorary doctorate from Waterloo Lutheran University.

After the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, Marahrens had sent a telegram to Berlin in which he expressed that it was thanks to God that the authorities that had been attacked had not fallen. Schulze wrote in a letter to the bishop that he should never have written this telegram.

After the end of the Nazi dictatorship, he was asked to participate in the new political beginning at the local level. He took over the chairmanship of the municipal committee for welfare and health, youth, culture and community care. Schulze continued to work as chairman of the Brotherhood Council after 1945 and, from this function, also helped found the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), where he was a member of the Synod from 1946 .

On May 1, 1948, Schulze was appointed regional representative for the Inner Mission in the Lutheran Regional Church in Hanover . Up until 1957, in this post he made special contributions to the merging of the Inner Mission and the Evangelical Relief Organization. This merger resulted in the Diaconal Work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover at the regional level and the Diaconal Work of the EKD at the federal level .

In 1953 he became chairman of the first German main committee in the Lutheran World Federation . Here he took the view that, despite the difficulties after the war, the German churches should be "giving" and not just receiving churches, which led the German Lutheran churches to a new perception of the problems and needs of other countries and peoples of the world came. Schulze ensured a smooth cooperation with the ecumenical workplaces, especially with the emergency program for interchurch aid and emergency aid. He campaigned strongly for the Arab refugees in Jordan.

State superintendent

On April 1, 1957 he became the first Superintendent of reform after a newly created diocese Calenberg-Hoya , were among the 250 pastors in 178 municipalities. It was introduced on April 23 in the Marktkirche in Hanover .

In the same year he was elected to the World Service Commission of the Lutheran World Federation, where he organized aid for the church in the GDR and other churches behind the iron curtain as well as for those in need around the world. On November 5, 1961, he received the fourth pastor's position in the collegiate church in Wunstorf , which he held until 1964. He also became a member of the Committee for Ecumenical Diakonie ( Bread for the World ) and was elected to the convent of the Loccum Monastery. The introduction by regional bishop Johannes Lilje, who was also abbot of the monastery, took place on May 3rd. Together with Johannes Schulze, Dieter Andersen , the director of studies at the time , was introduced as a conventual.

In 1961 Schulze became chairman of the Evangelical Lutheran (Leipzig) Mission in Erlangen and federal director of the Martin Luther Association , where he took care of foreigners and diaspora. In the same year, he received an honorary doctorate (Divinitatis Doctorem honoris causa) from Waterloo Lutheran University (Ontario, Canada) for his efforts to serve the needy in his and other churches. From then on he had the addition "DD" after his name. In 1964 he became a member of the Evangelical Central Agency for Development Aid .

He continued to work as a state superintendent; In addition to the district of Calenberg-Hoya, on October 20, 1966, he provisionally took on the task of looking after the district of Hanover, which was orphaned by the death of the Hanoverian state superintendent Eberhard Klügel . On September 9th of that year he had already taken over the substitute service in the city church council for the sick Klügel. From December 9, 1966, Johannes Schulze was also the first chairman of the Hannover City Council of Churches. He held both offices until January 8, 1969.

On July 19, 1968 he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the then Deputy Prime Minister of Lower Saxony and Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs Richard Langeheine .

retirement

Gravestone in the cemetery of the Loccum monastery

Johannes Schulze retired on January 31, 1969. At least in his family circle, he was still active as a clergyman afterwards: he baptized his grandchildren, born between 1968 and 1971. In a letter dated December 29, 1971, he stated that this year, for the first time since 1922, he had "not officiated at all at Christmas".

On September 25, 1975, Schulze and his wife moved from Hanover to Langenhagen to the Anna-Schaumann-Stift retirement home, where he continued to work as a pastor and regularly held devotions and services, sometimes including communion, for residents and staff.

He died on June 3, 1980 in Langenhagen and was buried on June 7, 1980 in the cemetery of the Loccum monastery. His estate is in the regional church archive in Hanover.

Quotes

“I don't know who gave him his name, but we, who have worked with him for many years in the Martin Luther Bund, made this name our own: Schulzenvater. Johannes Schulze was a father figure in the best sense of the word. We venerated him as a fatherly friend, to whom we gladly paid respect because he combined authority with human warmth. "

- Joachim Meyer, long-time treasurer of the Martin Luther Association

Awards

literature

  • Hannelore Braun, Gertraud Grünzinger (Hrsg.): Person lexicon on German Protestantism 1919-1949 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006, page 231.
  • Heinrich Grosse, Hans Otte , Joachim Perels (Eds.): Preserve or Confess? The Hanoverian regional church under National Socialism . Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hanover, 1996, pages 179, 180, 213, 447, 491, 492, 513, 534, 548
  • Horst Hirschler, Ernst Derneburg (ed.): Stories from the Loccum monastery. Studies, pictures, documents . 2nd, improved edition, Lutherhaus-Verlag, Hanover, 1982, pages 70/71
  • Rudolf Klein (Ed.): Lower Saxony Lexicon . Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, 1969, page 346
  • Thomas Jan Kück: Schulze, August Friedrich Wilhelm Johannes . In: Jan Lokers, Heike Schlichting (ed.): CVs between the Elbe and Weser . Volume 2. Stade 2010, pp. 292-294
  • Carsten Nicolaisen , Karl-Heinz Fix, Nora Andrea Schulze: The Protocols of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Volume 3 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006.
  • Stephan Immanuel Knapmeyer: The “Questionnaire on the history of the regional church from 1933 to the end of the war” using the example of superintendents Paul Crusius and Johannes Schulze . Work on the seminar The Ev.-luth. Regional church of Hanover during the Nazi era in the 2018/19 winter semester at the Chair of Church History in Göttingen

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archive information from the University of Göttingen v. January 18, 2010
  2. ^ Archive information from the University of Leipzig v. January 18, 2010
  3. ^ Archive information from the fraternity "Germania" from January 14, 2010
  4. ^ Joachim Behnken: "The camp church of Sandbostel", page 13, ISBN 3-9807521-4-3
  5. ↑ Preserve or confess ?, page 447
  6. ^ Stories from Loccum Monastery, Lutherhaus-Verlag 1982, page 71
  7. ↑ Dr. Thomas Kück in Résumés between Elbe and Weser - a biographical encyclopedia , Landschaftsverband Stade, 2002. ISBN 978-3-931879-08-2
  8. ↑ from the reason for the award of the Federal Cross of Merit
  9. ^ Certificate of appointment of the Loccum monastery
  10. ↑ Certificate of Appointment
  11. ^ Archive information from the city superintendent of Hanover v. January 28, 2010
  12. ↑ Award certificate of the office of the Federal President
  13. ↑ http://www.landeskirchlichesarchiv-hannover.de/bestaende/nachlaesse
  14. ↑ From God's Box to the Martin Luther Bund - 150 Years of Diaspora Care in Hanover; Martin Luther Verlag, Erlangen, 2003; Page 141
  15. ↑ Information from the regional church archive Hanover v. March 1, 2010
  16. ↑ Information from the Archive for Diakonia and Development of the Diakonisches Werk, 7 January 2016
  17. ^ Award certificate, present
personal data
SURNAME Schulze, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schulze, August Friedrich Wilhelm Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Evangelical Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Celle
DATE OF DEATH 3rd June 1980
Place of death Langenhagen