Karl August Hahne

Karl Hahne is a redirect to this article. For other people see Carl Hahne .

Karl August Hahne (born January 6, 1906 in Osnabrück , † April 25, 1982 in Gelsenkirchen ) was a German Baptist clergyman and Protestant pastor. After his return to Lutheranism, he worked as a Protestant vocational school pastor in Gelsenkirchen. He is considered to be the founder of the Evangelical Lutheran Apostolate of St. Ansgar and served as an episcopal leader within this association until his death . He received his episcopal ordination from Bishop Hans Heuer, who was in apostolic succession and head of the Knights Templar Ordo Militiae Templi .

Life

After completing his school education, Karl August Hahne attended the state teacher training college in Lüneburg from 1923 to 1926 , which later became the college of education . During his studies, he volunteered for the Lüneburg sports association Eintracht from 1903 , where he was the editor in charge of the club newspaper and head of the youth department.

In Lüneburg he also made contact with the local Baptist congregation and joined them. After his teacher exams, he completed a two-year service as a missionary helper in the Hamburg-Altona Baptist church . From 1928 he attended the Baptist theological seminar , which at that time had its seat in Hamburg-Horn . In 1931 he was appointed pastor of the Gelsenkirchen-Schalke Baptist congregation. At first he worked next to Pastor Emil Kerner and after his departure in 1935 took over the main pastoral responsibility in the community.

Baptist pastor in Gelsenkirchen

In the historical retrospective on the occasion of the centenary of 1991, Hahnes' period of service, which lasted until 1955, is described as the “second great epoch” of the community's history. His preaching attracted many people and had a positive effect on the growth of the church. He promoted the branch congregations and, as a trained pedagogue, placed a special focus on the development of the congregational catechesis . By 1939 the membership of the Gelsenkirchen Baptist Church grew by more than 20%.

Hahne, who came from the Evangelical Lutheran Church, developed an unusual understanding of ministry for the congregational Baptism. He called himself a preacher within the congregation and in internal church publications , which was the usual job title of an ordained Baptist clergyman at the time. Outwardly, however, he used "sounding official titles". For example, a personal official seal carried by him bore the inscription Propst , Praeses , Presbyter next to his name . He was probably alluding to roles that he held in the ward and regional Baptist association, but which were usually named association leader , chairman, and elder .

Karl August Hahne was active as a journalist, among other things, by publishing the Zionsbote and founding a congregational press service, the press service of the Baptist Congregation of Gelsenkirchen (PBGG) . Articles from his pen were headed, among other things, Why am I and will I stay a Baptist? ; Why healing hours? - For baptismal class ; Community regulations on marriage and marriage ; Believing in God - GG., We are not!

Hahne is considered to be the founder of German Baptist scouting work . He dissolved the boy scouts tribe Johann Gerhard Oncken , founded by him in 1932, in February 1934 in order to "prevent the cooperative integration , ie the transfer of the boy scouts to the Hitler Youth as ordered by Reich law ". In the so-called farewell certificate that every scout of the dissolved association received, Hahne described himself as the "Reichsführer" of the Baptist scouting community.

Karl August Hahne was a supporter of the National Socialist movement in the early years of the Nazi state . Therefore, he had no objection to his parishioners participating in Nazi associations or attending church services in SA uniform. He showed understanding for the intervention of the state in the community life and defended them against critical inquiries from the community. He also changed the name of the Baptist church; the Church of the Redeemer became the Church of the Redeemer . Hahnes reason was: “[…] the name should be a figurehead, an advertising word for people who pass by. And due to the guilt of the old covenant people (note: Israel is meant ), this name, which our church has used up to now, is not understood and also misunderstood by many. ”This explanation echoes what belonged to Karl August Hahne's basic conviction at that time and what he did also announced orally and in writing. So on October 20, 1935 - about four weeks after the Nuremberg Race Laws were promulgated - he gave a sermon on the subject of “Salvation - from the Jews?” It was primarily directed against Christians who clung to the special divine election of Israel and this among other things with the Jewish authorship of the Old Testament as well as the Jewish origin of Jesus Christ . According to Hahne, these are false conclusions. The Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and had forfeited their claim to the blessings of election with the exclamation “His blood be upon us and our children”. Salvation now belongs to the new covenant people. Those who still hold on to the election of Israel would “largely promote the partisanship for Judaism. Yes, here and there there is hidden resistance to the politics of the new Germany for allegedly religious reasons. As a result, religion and Christianity are discredited, and even more so, religion can sin against the people and also against God. "

Personal experiences during interrogations by the Gestapo changed his attitude towards National Socialism in the last years of the Third Reich. He later expressly distanced himself from his so-called “Jewish sermon” and the convictions associated with it - but only after the collapse of the Third Reich.

Shortly before the end of the war, Hahne was drafted into the Wehrmacht's medical service. He was taken prisoner by the Soviets and did not return to Gelsenkirchen until the end of the 1940s, seriously ill. The last years of service as a Baptist preacher were shaped by the gathering of the scattered congregation and the great challenges of the post-war period. At the beginning of 1945, the Karl August Hahnes congregation had shrunk so much that they could gather for worship in the preacher's apartment. When Hahne resigned as a Baptist preacher in 1955 and rejoined the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the congregation of the Church of the Redeemer had 788 members.

Evangelical pastor

Hahne's resignation as Baptist pastor and his re-entry into the Evangelical Church caused consternation in the Baptist community of Gelsenkirchen and beyond. The fact that he stayed in Gelsenkirchen and now worked as a Protestant vocational school pastor in his former municipality caused unrest. He himself described his way back to the regional church as the "result of theological further work and clarifying experience". In his book, the title of which in a way reflects his personal position as that between the regional church and the free church , he explains his way back. Above all, his understanding of ministry and sacrament, as well as the missionary chances of a national church in the 20th century, which he judged to be favorable, finally gave him the impetus to become a member of the Protestant regional church again. For the Baptists he developed the proposal to become a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany while retaining their special character . This would also offer the Protestant regional church a special opportunity to benefit from the free church heritage.

During his time as a local vocational school pastor, he took part in the development of a Gelsenkirchen local branch of the Johanniter Accident Aid , whose local representative he then also became.

Founder and episcopal director of the St. Ansgar High Church Association

During his time as a Baptist pastor, Hahne had to represent his understanding of ministry and the sacrament of a free church, which to this day sees itself largely as a lay movement and, based on its biblical convictions, is more than critical of a church-hierarchical order of offices. The traditional Baptist understanding of the Lord's Supper and baptism is more in line with the Calvinist than the Lutheran and certainly not the Roman Catholic. As a Protestant pastor, he now saw himself on a different front. Above all, liberal theology and the flattening of the liturgy bothered him . The understanding of ministry and the sacrament seemed to have finally fallen into disrepair, "when [add .: end of the 1960s ] young theologians were ordained everywhere without the laying on of hands and the most absurd communion celebrations were held in many places." Hahne began a circle of high church Oriented Lutherans to gather around, celebrated Lutheran masses with them and hoped to constitute this group as a solid high church community within the Protestant church. In August 1971, he received a Protestant pastor, the ordination of Bishop Helmut Echternach , head of the St. Athanasius Brotherhood. In December of the same year he was Bishop Hans Heuer bishop in apostolic succession consecrated .

Hahne gave the circle that had gathered around him the name High Church Apostolate St. Ansgar . While the Gelsenkirchen circle dissolved after his death in 1982, the musicologist and organist Helmut Tramnitz , who had been ordained bishop by Hahne on November 27, 1977 , began to continue the work of the high church apostolate in Detmold . Tramnitz consecrated the Evangelical Lutheran Pastor Karsten Bürgener from Bremen, who has been the episcopal director of the St. Ansgar Church Association since March 1985 .

How far Karl August Hahne had removed himself from Baptism in his thinking and beliefs, but also from the mainstream of the Protestant Church, is revealed in his personal Church Credo , which he formulated and published in 1975.

Succession line

With his consecration by Bishop Hans Heuer, Karl August Hahne stands in a line of consecration that goes back to Cardinal Scipione Rebiba (1504–1577).

Fonts

• Karl-August Hahne, Otto Dibelius: Between regional church and free church. Witten 1965.
• Karl August Hahne: Tomorrow's winners. Believe without reservation. Gelsenkirchen 1975.
• Karl August Hahne (ed.): Lutheran letters from Gelsenkirchen. Gelsenkirchen 1975.

literature

• Manfred Bärenfänger: Karl August Hahne (1931–1955). In: Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 19 ff.
• Katarzyna Stokloza, Andrea Strübind (Ed.): Faith - Freedom - Dictatorship. Festschrift for Gerhard Besier for his 60th birthday. Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35089-8 , p. 127 ff.

Web links

• Official homepage of the High Church Association St. Ansgar ; Accessed August 24, 2009
• Homepage of the Evangelical Free Church Peace Church in Marl / Chronicle ; Accessed August 24, 2009
• Homepage of the Baptist scouting body “Stamm der Staufer” / history ; Accessed August 24, 2009

References and comments

1. ↑ Official homepage of the High Church Association St. Ansgar, viewed on August 24, 2009
2. ^ Club chronicle of the sports association Eintracht from 1903 on the occasion of its 25th anniversary in 1928,  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed September 12, 2009  
3. ↑ Since 1942 the official name of the German Baptist congregations has been Evangelical Free Churches .
4. ^ Theological seminar Hamburg Horn (Hrsg.): Festschrift to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the seminary of the Evangelical Free Churches (Baptists) in Germany. Hamburg-Horn 1955, p. 53.
5. ↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (Ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 19.
6. ↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (Ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 19; In retrospect, the first "great epoch" is connected with the parish pastor August Broda , who worked in the Gelsenkirchen Baptist church from 1893 to 1926.
7. ↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (Ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 89 (statistics): The community grew from 1029 to 1270 community members.
8. ↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (Ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 19.
9. ↑ Zionsbote no. 6, February 1935
10. ↑ Zionsbote No. 18, February 1936
11. ↑ Zionsbote no. 30, February 1937
12. ↑ Zionsbote No. 48, August 1938. Hahne was concerned with the correct denomination “Baptist” in relation to authorities - as a demarcation from the Nazi-oriented neo-paganism .
13. ↑ Homepage of the Baptist scout group “Stamm der Staufer”: The history of the Baptist scouting  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ English website: Historical Boys' Uniforms ; Accessed September 12, 2009
15. ↑ quoted from Evangelical-Free Church Youth Organization Baden-Württemberg: Baptist Scouts in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches and in the Federation of Free Evangelical Congregations. Concept and work aids , 1997/2001, p. 3 ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); viewed on August 25, 2009 (PDF file; 281 kB)
16. ↑ The certificate can be found in: Evangelical-Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 23; it bears the date “10. Hornung (Germanic name for February ) 1934 ”.
17. ↑ cf. for example Messenger of Zion No. 12, August 1935; Hahnes publicly commented on a Sunday school excursion that was initially forbidden by the state police
18. ^ Karl August Hahne in the special issue of the Congregational Letter of the Baptist Congregation Gelsenkirchen , March 1941
19. ↑ The subject of the sermon challenged a word of Jesus transmitted through the Gospel of John. It reads: “Salvation comes from the Jews” (John 4:22).
20. ↑ Zionsbote No. 16, December 1935. quoted according to: Katarzyna Stokloza, Andrea Strübind (ed.): Faith - Freedom - Dictatorship. Festschrift for Gerhard Besier for his 60th birthday. Göttingen 2007, p. 127ff.
21. ↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (Ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 25.
22. ↑ Evangelical Free Church Community Gelsenkirchen “Erlöserkirche” (Ed.): Festschrift for the centenary. Gelsenkirchen 1991, p. 90 (statistics); It has to be taken into account that in 1945 and 1946 two branch congregations became independent and with around 270 members were dismissed from the mother congregation.
23. ^ Karl August Hahne: Between the regional church and the free church. Witten 1965, p. 11.
24. ^ Karl August Hahne: Between the regional church and the free church. Witten 1965, p. 80.
25. ↑ Open day for friends and sponsors (Gelsenkirchen September 23, 2013). The Johanniter, accessed on October 17, 2015
26. ↑ What is the high church apostolate St. Ansgar? Homepage of the High Church Apostolate St. Ansgar, viewed on August 26, 2009.
27. ^ Homepage of the High Church Apostolate St. Ansgar ; accessed on August 27, 2009
28. ^ Karl August Hahne: Tomorrow's winners. Believe without reservation. Gelsenkirchen 1975. Hahnes Credo is also published here .
29. ^ Karl August Hahnes succession list