Karl Metzner

This article deals with the clergyman and resistance fighter Karl Metzner. For a football player, see Karl-Heinz Metzner , for a member of the Reichstag, see Carl Metzner .

Pastor i. R. Karl Metzner 2009

Karl Metzner (born October 2, 1927 in Großbreitenbach ; † August 26, 2018 in Erfurt ) was a German Protestant pastor . He was a resistance fighter against the Nazi regime and an opposition member in the GDR .

Life

Karl Metzner attended business school in Erfurt Talstrasse in 1942 and 1943. Together with four schoolmates he formed the resistance group around Jochen Bock in order to do something against the Second World War, against Hitler and the Nazi regime. The group labeled shelters in Erfurt's Steigerwald with anti-Hitler slogans and distributed a flyer against the war. In September she was betrayed and the students were taken to prison by the Gestapo . The ringleader was Jochen Bock , who was sentenced to two years in prison and died in 1947 of tuberculosis . Metzner was released after just under nine months of pre-trial detention. In 1944 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and was taken prisoner by the French. During this time the idea of ​​becoming a pastor took root in him.

After returning home from captivity, he studied theology at the Preacher's School in Wittenberg from 1948 . In 1952 he took up his first pastorate in Lauchhammer in southern Brandenburg . In 1957 he was able to build the Johanneskirche in Lauchhammer-Süd , one of the few new churches in the GDR. In 1975 Metzner returned to Erfurt and became a pastor in Hochheim . In 1992 he retired.

Since becoming a prisoner of war, Metzner was a staunch pacifist . He took part in the first operations of Aktion Sühnezeichen in the 1950s . As early as 1967 in Lauchhammer, Metzner turned against pre-military training in the GDR. In 1978 in Erfurt he initiated the peace prayer in the Lorenz Church to set an example against military training . He wore the patch swords to plowshares , the symbol of the church peace movement in the GDR, openly on his robe . He was observed by the Stasi for years and - ultimately unsuccessfully - blackmailed into working as an informant. Even during the GDR era, he was involved in the Christian Peace Conference and in the New Forum during the time of reunification . He later participated in numerous other initiatives such as the German-Israeli Society , the Martin-Niemöller-Foundation , the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists , at Amnesty International and the German-Arab Peaceworks.

On September 6, 1952, Karl Metzner married his fiancée Ursula from Stettin . He was the father of two sons and a daughter and had seven grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Honors and reception

In 2007 Metzner was allowed to register in the city of Erfurt's Golden Book. In 2014 he was awarded the Jochen Bock Prize of the City of Erfurt. In 2018, his fate was portrayed in a graphic novel .

literature

• Gerd Kaiser: Swords to Plowshares (= Das Blättchen, 12th year), Berlin, August 31, 2009, issue 18 ( online edition ).
• Christiane Kuller , Annegret Schüle, Jochen Voit (eds.): “Down with Hitler! The resistance of the Erfurt commercial students around Jochen Bock ”. Erfurt 2016,  ISBN 978-3-943588-91-0 .
• A life for peace and freedom. In: Thüringer Allgemeine , September 30, 2017.
• Jochen Voit, Hamed Eshrat : Down with Hitler! or Why Karl didn't want to be a cyclist. avant-Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-945034-98-9 .

Web links

• Videos with Metzner at www.zeitzeugen-portal.de
• Short biography on the website nieder-mit-hitler.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Farewell to pastor Karl Metzner. Press release of the Working Group on Church and Judaism in Thuringia, September 2, 2018.
2. ↑ Gerd Kaiser: Schwerter zu Pflugscharen, = Das Blättchen, 12th year (XII), Berlin, August 31, 2009, issue 18
3. ↑ Heino Falcke : Laudatory speech for Karl Metzner at the Jochen Bock award ceremony on January 25, 2014 .
4. ↑ 30 years of prayer for peace in Erfurt. News on n-tv , December 4, 2008.
5. ↑ Short biography on the website nieder-mit-hitler.de .
6. ^ Farewell to pastor Karl Metzner. Press release of the Working Group on Church and Judaism in Thuringia, September 2, 2018.
7. ↑ A life for peace and freedom. In: Thüringer Allgemeine , September 30, 2017.
8. ↑ Registered in the city's Golden Book at www.erfurt.de, November 28, 2007.
9. ^ Pastor Karl Metzner receives the "Jochen Bock Prize" from the city of Erfurt. Press release of the Society for Contemporary History , accessed on September 6, 2018.
10. ↑ Jochen Voit, Hamed Eshrat : Down with Hitler! or Why Karl didn't want to be a cyclist. avant-Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-945034-98-9 ; Graphic novel website ; Report on the project .