Karl Kühnle (clergyman)

Karl Kühnle (born February 14, 1923 in Unterbrüden ; † December 7, 2003 in Stuttgart ) was the 143rd Apostle of the New Apostolic Church . He was President of the New Apostolic Church in Württemberg for 20 years, and also President of the New Apostolic Church in Bavaria for 13 years and thus responsible pastor for around 100,000 parishioners.

Life

Karl Kühnle was born as the third child of a master carpenter. On the occasion of the inauguration of the New Apostolic Church in Lippoldsweiler in March 1926, Karl Kühnle received the sacrament " Holy Sealing " and thus became a member of the New Apostolic Church. He was confirmed in 1936 . His father died on his 15th birthday in 1938. Karl Kühnle completed a commercial apprenticeship and supported his widowed mother with his apprenticeship wages. After World War - Kühnle was as a Wehrmacht soldier in southern France in captivity fall - he found work as a clerk in a training company, a motor and machine factory in Backnang , in which he stayed a total of 22 years. In 1948 he married Gertrud Krautter. The marriage resulted in two sons, Werner and Volker, who are or were also active as apostles in the New Apostolic Church.

Activities in the New Apostolic Church

In 1958 the family moved to Schwäbisch Gmünd , where Karl Kühnle took up a position as managing director. At the instigation of the then leader of the New Apostolic church congregations in Württemberg, District Apostle Ernst Fahrtisen , he gave up this position on April 1, 1967 to work full-time for the New Apostolic Church. In the meantime he had received the office of bishop in the church . On February 25, 1968, he was ordained an apostle in a festive service in Göppingen , and on May 4, 1975, he received the office of district apostle in Stuttgart on the occasion of a youth service and was appointed head of the "Stuttgart Apostle District", that is, the congregations in Württemberg , commissioned.

On January 1, 1980, he was also temporarily commissioned as District Apostle for Switzerland with the countries of Austria , Italy , Spain and Eastern European countries served from there , until the future Chief Apostle Richard Fehr was selected as District Apostle for Switzerland on June 7, 1981 . On November 28, 1982 District Apostle Karl Kühnle was commissioned to look after the congregations in Bavaria as District Apostle . From August 1985 countries in West Africa, later part of the Ukraine , countries on the Persian Gulf and other areas were added, so that Karl Kühnle was responsible for the pastoral care of church members in around 20 countries.

For reasons of age, he retired on December 10, 1995. As part of a reorganization of the work areas, Klaus Saur (at that time already District Apostle for the District Church of Baden) also took over the management of the District Church of Württemberg and Bavaria. In the last years of his life, Karl Kühnle and his wife attended church services in the Stuttgart-Sillenbuch community. On November 29, 1998, in Heilbronn, Chief Apostle Richard Fehr gave them the blessing for their golden wedding .

Web links

• List of all apostles of the New Apostolic Church with additional data on apwiki.de
• Interview with Karl Kühnle from 2000 on nak-sued.de
• Report from the funeral for District Apostle retired Karl Kühnle on nak-sued.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ New Apostolic Church South Germany: District Apostle Karl Kühnle died  ( 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. .  last accessed on March 8, 2012