Karl Lücking

Karl Hermann Lücking (born November 23, 1893 in Lüdenscheid , † November 30, 1976 in Bad Salzuflen ) was a German Protestant theologian.

Life

After studying Protestant theology in Tübingen , Halle (Saale) , Leipzig and Münster (interrupted by serving as a soldier in World War I ), Lücking was ordained in 1922 and came to Kirchlinde as an assistant pastor . Later he moved to the parish of Bodelschwingh . In 1929 he became pastor at St. Reinoldi , the largest and oldest inner city church in Dortmund .

Since 1933 Lücking has been firmly committed against the National Socialist church policy and was one of the leading men of the Confessing Church . In the summer of 1933 he founded the parish brotherhood in Westphalia, which later joined the parish emergency union. In October he was elected to the first Reich Brotherhood Council. As chairman of the Westphalian Brother Council, he campaigned for the Confessing Church to found its own seminary in Bielefeld-Sieker in 1934 . At the confessional synod in Bad Oeynhausen in February 1936, he worked alongside Martin Niemöller to continue to reject any cooperation with state-controlled bodies. In June 1938 the office of the Westphalian Brother Council, which was located in the Lückings rectory, was closed by the Gestapo . Lücking, who had also refused the oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler , was arrested and only released after 111 days and then expelled from the province of Westphalia. It was not until 1942 that he was able to take over a pastor's office in Barkhausen an der Porta .

After the end of the war, Lücking became superintendent in Minden and in 1946 (initially part-time) a member of the church leadership of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia . He was a co-founder of the Evangelical Research Academy Christophorusstift in Hemer . When this was incorporated into the research facility of the Evangelical Study Community (FEST) in 1957/58 , Lücking became its first chairman.

From 1948 until his retirement in 1960, Lücking was theological vice-president of the regional church office and thus deputy to the president of his church. He was largely responsible for the new church order of 1953.

Honors

In recognition of his services, the University of Münster awarded Lücking an honorary doctorate in 1954 . In Dortmund District Downtown East Karl Lücking Street was named after him.

Fonts (selection)

• (with Günter Howe :) Faith and Research: Lectures and Treatises of the Evang. Academy Christophorus-Stift , Volume 1 a. 2. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1949/50.

literature

• Ernst Brinkmann: Karl Lücking 1893-1976. A biographical sketch . In: Yearbook for Westphalian Church History 70 (1977), pp. 179–186.
• Markus Möhl: Lücking - His work in the church struggle . In: "Love the Brothers." Contributions to the history of the Evangelical Church Community Bodelschwingh , ed. from the Evangelical Church Community Bodelschwingh, Dortmund 1986, pp. 157–169.
• Reinhard Jüstel:  Karl Lücking. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 858-865.
• Michael Basse , Traugott Jähnichen , Harald Schroeter-Wittke (eds.): Protestant profiles in the Ruhr area. 500 life pictures from 5 centuries . Spenner, Kamen 2009. ISBN 978-3-89991-092-6 , pp. 434f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History on the FEST website.