Karl Steinbauer

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Karl Steinbauer (born September 2, 1906 in Windsbach , † February 6, 1988 in Buckenhof ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian and member of the Confessing Church .

biography

He was born in a parsonage in Windsbach as the tenth child of a pastor and rector. At the beginning of his theology studies he joined the Germania Erlangen fraternity in 1927 , to which he remained connected throughout his life. Steinbauer became vicar in Heiligenstadt in 1931 , before he became an independent vicar in the Protestant community of Penzberg , a miners' town south of Munich, in the summer of 1933 . In 1934 he married Eugenie Beckh. After the Second World War , Steinbauer headed parish offices in Lehengütingen (1946–1951), Wolfratshausen (1951–1962), Pettendorf (1962–1967) and Amberg (1967–1971).

Having joined the NSDAP early on , Steinbauer took Adolf Hitler's declaration of solidarity with the Potempa murderers at the end of August 1932 as an opportunity to leave the party because his constitutional beliefs and hopes for the NSDAP were profoundly violated.

During Steinbauer's time as vicar in Penzberg, the ecumenical bond between the denominations grew . The resistance against the National Socialist rulers united Steinbauer and the chaplains of the neighboring Catholic parish, Erich Beneke and Rudolf Bernhard. Steinbauer criticized National Socialism early on in speeches, letters and sermons. The conflicts that arose from this were also conflicts with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria . Steinbauer was one of the founding members of the Bavarian Pastors' Brotherhood , which opposed the state's harmonization of the Evangelical Church.

He refused to ring the bells for half an hour for the NSDAP's election victory in March 1936, just as he refused from then on to flag any flags. “I speak when I think I have to talk” was his principle with which he fought against submissive obedience in the “ Third Reich ”. In 1938, however, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler and refused to submit an " Aryan certificate ", which meant that he was forbidden to preach. He wrote to government and church authorities with long letters, all of which are still preserved today. Regarding the race doctrine, he said: “I can't tell the children in class: Today I'll tell you about people from the Bible who unfortunately did not have an Aryan passport.” He also protested against the deportation of church members of Jewish origin to concentration camps . For Steinbauer, the whole spirit of the Nazi era was a scandal, he had never come to terms with its political implications.

“But look, I'm facing a much more terrible thing than Dachau . I am threatened with the Last Judgment, ” Steinbauer replied in 1936 to a commissioner who interrogated him because of his sermons. “The day will come when all people will be on their knees before the coming Christ, Adolf Hitler, you and me.” The pastor Steinbauer was in favor of such characteristic sentences, who on June 20, 1936, after he heard the bell ringing Hitler's election victory with the sentence "The election was an imposed hoax and you have to lie without God" , first time in protective custody. Steinbauer was arrested four times in total; he spent nine months in the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin as inmate No. 297, his cell neighbor is Pastor Martin Niemöller . In 1940, after nine months in a concentration camp, he was pardoned for military service and seriously wounded during the war against the Soviet Union .

“It wasn't about making people and human size or thoughts and ideals small. It was only about my Lord and his good news to make his kingdom great, ” Steinbauer writes looking back. “I was unable to remain silent on political and ecclesiastical events that smelled of tactics, diplomacy, lazy compromises and submissive obedience. "

On Sunday, September 3, 2006, the Protestant community of Uttenreuth organized a day of remembrance for the 100th birthday of Pastor Steinbauer with a service in the Uttenreuth cemetery at Steinbauer's grave and in the Matthäuskirche with regional bishop Johannes Friedrich as well as an exhibition about Steinbauer's life.

Works

  • On the obedience of faith. Moses sermons. Kaiser, Munich 1946, 81 pp. ( Theological Existence Today. NF 2).
  • The Christmas message before the court martial. Verlag "Kirche und Mann", Gütersloh 1951, 47 pp.
  • The sermon before the court-martial. Verlag Kirche und Mann, Bielefeld 1996, 49 pp.
  • Grant one another the testimony. Karl Steinbauer, Buckenhof, An den Hornwiesen 24, Volume 1, 4th edition 1986, 337 p .; Volume 2, 2nd edition 1984, 262 p .; Volume 3, 1st edition 1985, 322 pp.
  • Grant one another the testimony. Zu Barmen - Romans 13 - Two Reichs doctrine Karl Steinbauer, Buckenhof, An den Hornwiesen 24 1986?, 35 pp.
  • “I think that's why I speak!” Texts and sermons in the resistance. Edited by Johannes Rehm, TVT-Medienverlag, Tübingen 1999, 321 pages, ISBN 3-929128-21-7 .

literature

  • Karl Steinbauer (author), Erhard Giesen (editor): “I believe, that's why I speak!” - Catalog for the exhibition “Karl Steinbauer 1906-1988”. Athmann, P, Verlag, 2007, 56 pp., ISBN 978-3980728881 .
  • Johannes Rehm (preface, editor), Karl Steinbauer (author): “I believe, that's why I speak!” Karl Steinbauer - texts and sermons in the resistance. VTVT Medienvlg, 1999, 320 pp., ISBN 978-3929128215 .
  • Friedrich Mildenberger and Manfred Seitz (eds.): Obey God more. Colloquium on the 80th birthday of Karl Steinbauer . Munich: Claudius-Verlag, 1986, 141 pages, ISBN 3-532-62049-9
  • Christian Blendinger: Committed only to God and conscience. Karl Steinbauer - witness in dark times. A text and reading book . Munich: Claudius Verlag, 2001, 168 pages, ISBN 3-583-33110-9 .
  • Paul Gerhard Schoenborn: Review of the book by Blendinger . In: Transparent No. 66, October 2002
  • Thomas Öder: But God's word is not bound. The Bavarian pastor Karl Steinbauer: Witness of Jesus Christ in the “Third Reich” . Introduction by Johannes Friedrich; Editor Hartmut Hövelmann. Nürnberg: Athmann, 2006, 140 pp., ISBN 3-9807288-7-0 (not published according to the publisher)
  • Berndt Hamm: The other side of Lutheranism: the Bavarian pastor Karl Steinbauer in the resistance against National Socialism . In: Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 104, No. 4, 2007, pp. 455–481.
  • Helmut Winter: He resisted Meiser and Hitler , article on the 100th birthday of Karl Steinbauer in the Sunday paper 36/2006 of September 3, 2006
  • Matthias Freudenberg :  Steinbauer, Karl. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 1529-1532.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft . Vol. 1, Part. 8, Supplement L-Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6051-1 , pp. 309-310.

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Steinbauer, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Evangelical Lutheran theologian, victim of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Windsbach
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1988
Place of death Buckenhof