Johannes Zwanzger

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Johannes Zwanzger (born January 4, 1905 in Wareo , German New Guinea , † October 29, 1999 in Neuendettelsau ) was an Evangelical Lutheran pastor and opponent of National Socialism .

Life

Until 1939

Johannes Zwanzger was born as the son of the New Guinea missionary and later Bavarian pastor Andreas Zwanzger and his wife Margarethe born. Koschack was born. He finished his school career at the New Humanist High School in Nuremberg with the final examination and then completed a degree in Protestant theology in Rostock .

He took up his first pastor's position on May 1, 1933 in Thüngen in the dean's office in Würzburg. In the Lower Franconian market town there was a relatively high proportion of Jews in the population at the time. Zwanzger became a member of the Bavarian parish Brotherhood and distanced himself in his sermons from the Nazi conformist German Christians to Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller . As a result, the German Christians had no followers in his parish. Zwanzger's own status was unclear. According to the Nazi definition , he was probably a 2nd degree Jewish mongrel , whereby the Protestant Church assumed that both paternal grandparents were Jewish, but this probably only applied to his grandmother. He married Bertha Heller (1907–1986) in Bamberg on April 12, 1934. The marriage has four children.

According to Zwanzger's memory, the local Jews in Thüngen remained “relatively unscathed” until 1938. Zwanzger had always publicly criticized anti-Jewish excesses and "bloodthirsty songs"; He did this all the more after three pogroms against Thünger Jews in 1938, the first on the night of May 12th and 13th. After the annexation of Austria he preached against the riots against defenseless victims. These would be a shame for Germany. The arrest he feared himself did not take place afterwards and so on September 25th, after another pogrom had broken out in his homeland during the Sudeten crisis , he repeated this clear criticism of the fact that innocent people are being persecuted and that Christians also only watch indifferently. After his responsible dean had preached on the Sunday after the Reichspogromnacht , Zwanzger repeated his criticism of the persecution of the Jews in his sermon a week later.

On December 13th and 14th, 1938, the regional church council in Bavaria dealt with the situation of the “non-Aryan” pastors, who, in his opinion, included Zwanzger. After Bishop Hans Meiser had originally advocated their emigration, it was decided in the course of the discussion to transfer Zwanzger to the Inner Mission as Pastor Friedrich Hofmann's assistant, leaving him with the pastor's position and income from Thüngen. The Inner Mission in Munich has been helping persecuted people wishing to leave the country since October 1, 1938. He took up the position on January 1, 1939, with the task of devoting himself to "baptized mongrels". At the time there was probably no idea of ​​his future challenges. In addition to his work for non-Aryan Christians, he was also responsible for old-age care and pastoral care in the deaconess house within the Inner Mission in Munich .

1939 to 1945

Organizational questions were clarified in December in the presence of Zwanzger and members of the Inner Mission even before he took office. On January 2, 1939, the decision was made to officially register the relief agency. In contrast to the position in Nuremberg, work in Munich was not hindered by the Gestapo, despite previous statements to the contrary, according to Zwanzger's memories. He suspected that there were one or two staff members in the Gestapo who were well disposed towards the Inner Mission. On May 1, 1939, Zwanzger was appointed third chaplain of the Inner Mission and at the same time relieved of his pastor in Thüngen. The aid agencies were financed by the regional church of Bavaria under the budget title "Brothers in Faith in Need" with 10,000 RM annually , part of which was also transferred to the Grüber office . Zwanzger was fully supported in his work as a shop steward for non-Aryan Christians by Bishop Meiser, who also personally inquired about individual people seeking help. The closure of the Grüber office in December 1940 and the deportation of Heinrich Grüber to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp made his work quite difficult, as almost everything that had to do with emigration issues was dealt with through the office .

Zwanzger wrote regular reports to the church leadership, in which he described the tragedy for those affected with a tendency to precise information about the number of cases using individual examples. He continued to criticize the attitude of the German Evangelical Church and did not ignore the otherwise mostly taboo subject of suicide by those in care. From these reports it is also clear that his efforts were hampered not only by stricter German emigration regulations, but also to a considerable extent by the restricted willingness of potential host countries, such as Erich Aschenheim, to accept . In his advisory and auxiliary work, he preferred to take care of possible departure options, if these failed, to find a job, to find apartments and to provide legal advice on planned marriages. Last consultations before deportations were also part of the task.

By the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, he had looked after 248 people. This number rose to 534. Of these, 66 were able to emigrate, of whom 36 were “full Jews” and 30 were “Aryan” or “semi-Arab”. In terms of percentage, he achieved higher values ​​of emigrated, converted Christians at the Munich trust center in relation to the total number of emigrated Jews than almost all other trust centers.

In October 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht .

After 1945

From May 1, 1946, Zwanzger was the parish priest in Neuburg an der Donau . In the first years after the war he devoted himself to his pastoral work, especially the many expellees . It was thanks to his personal merit that church services could be celebrated again from 1955 onwards in the castle chapel, which is the earliest Protestant sacred building. During his term of office, the parish center at the Christ Church and the Apostle Church were also rebuilt with a parish center. During his tenure he shaped the ecumenical movement in Neuburg. He retired on October 31, 1972 and died on November 29, 1999.

Honors

  • In Neuburg it was decided on May 21, 2014 to name a street after him.

literature

  • Axel Töllner: A question of race? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Aryan Paragraph and the Bavarian pastor families with Jewish ancestors in the “Third Reich” . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart, 2007; ISBN 978-3-17-019692-6 ; P. 352. Dissertation University of Koblenz-Landau, 2003.
  • Karl-Heinz Fix: Co-religionists in need: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and the help for Protestants persecuted for racial reasons: a documentation . Gütersloher Publishing House, Gütersloh 2011; ISBN 978-3-579-05783-5
  • Jörg Thierfelder, Hartmut Ludwig, Eberhard Röhm (eds.): Baptized Evangelically - Persecuted as "Jews": Theologians of Jewish origin during the Nazi era. A memorial book . Calwer, Stuttgart, 2014; ISBN 978-3-7668-4299-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Axel Töllner: A question of race? P. 352 ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  2. ^ Matriculation portal of the University of Rostock
  3. ↑ Karl-Heinz Fix, p. 44
  4. ↑ Zwanzger on genealogy.net
  5. ↑ Ludwig / Eberhard Röhm , pp. 382–383
  6. ↑ Axel Töllner, p. 353 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  7. ↑ Karl-Heinz Fix, pp. 43–44
  8. ^ Karl-Heinz Fix, p. 176
  9. ^ Karl-Heinz Fix, p. 47
  10. ↑ Axel Töllner, pp. 368–369 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  11. ^ Karl-Heinz Fix, p. 50
  12. ^ Karl-Heinz Fix, p. 54
  13. ↑ Karl-Heinz Fix, pp. 202-207
  14. ↑ Karl-Heinz Fix, pp. 55–56
  15. ↑ Karl-Heinz Fix, pp. 62–63
  16. ↑ Axel Töllner, p. 369 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  17. ↑ a b Winfried Dier: He shaped the ecumenical movement in Neuburg .
personal data
SURNAME Zwanzger, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, opponent of the Nazi regime
DATE OF BIRTH 4th January 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Wareo ( New Guinea )
DATE OF DEATH October 29, 1999
Place of death Neuendettelsau