Johannes Theodor Horn

Johannes Theodor Horn (born August 24, 1882 in Orsoy ; † December 11, 1967 in Bad Bentheim ) was a German Reformed theologian and long-time church president of the then Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover , which was called the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany from 1949 .

After his ordination in 1909, Horn first worked as a prison chaplain in Wittlich and from March 1913 as a pastor in Nordhorn . The very patriotic Horn volunteered as a chaplain after the outbreak of war in 1914. During his time as a chaplain, he made friends with the emperor's son, Prince Oskar , with whom he stayed in contact throughout his life.

In the regional church council since 1928, he was elected church president of his regional church in 1933. In this office he had to lead the synod and at the same time represent the church externally. In the church struggle, like the state superintendent Walter Hollweg , he took a mediating stance and advocated cooperation with the church committees. In his community he turned against the National Socialist German Christians , but avoided any confrontation with the regime and always came out to the state in potential conflicts. One of his three counterparts had been a party member since 1933. Because of his great willingness to compromise, Horn was isolated within the Reformed clergy of the Bentheimer Land, as the Schüttorf pastor Friedrich Middendorff and his Neuenhauser counterpart Anton Rosenboom were very active in the Confessing Church . They demanded Horn's solidarity in the event of a conflict, but did not receive it because Horn did not want to endanger the pastoral care of the communities.

In 1946 he retired.

literature

• Hannelore Braun, Gertraud Grünzinger: Personal Lexicon on German Protestantism 1919–1949 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2006; ISBN 978-3-525-55761-7 ; P. 116.
• Helmut Lensing: The Nordhorn Christian churches in the "Third Reich". In: VHS Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim / Study Society for Emsland Regional History (Ed.): Nordhorn im 3. Reich (= history workshop at the adult education center in Nordhorn for the administrative district Grafschaft Bentheim, volume 8; series of publications by the adult education center in Nordhorn, vol. 14) . Haselünne 2016 (3rd revised and significantly expanded edition), pp. 202–254.