Karlheinz Schmale

Karlheinz Schmale (* 1933 in Emden ; † December 31, 2011 ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian .

Life

Following his studies at the University of Hamburg and the Hermannsburg seminar , Schmale worked in southern Africa from 1961 . There he first took on a pastor's position in Botswana for a black Lutheran congregation. Since 1965 he worked in the association for Evangelical Lutheran churches in South Africa .

As a result of his commitment, Schmale took over the work of General Secretary of the Community of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Southern Africa (FELCSA, Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches of South Africa ; today Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa ) from 1970 . Since the same year he was represented in the South African Council of Churches and in 1974 became vice president of this organization. Schmale had criticized the differentiated ethnic base in Evangelical Lutheran churches in southern Africa for years and therefore campaigned for unification. As a result of his efforts, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of South West Africa was established in South West Africa / Namibia in 1972 .

Schmale viewed with concern the existence of ethnically motivated differentiations among Lutheran parishes in South Africa, which, in his opinion, presented themselves as an obstacle to structural unification and consequently reflected the apartheid conditions in South Africa. He also drew attention to the repression in South Africa against church workers in an international context. In a lecture on South African security police arrest black churchmen in Namibia , Schmale reported on developments in Namibia in 1975 at the international congress of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam .

He received an honorary doctorate from Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbus (Ohio) in 1976 on the occasion of a conference stay in Toledo (Ohio) for his work to date and in this context presented his work The Church in a Multi-Racial Society (German about: The Church in one multiracial society ).

Between 1977 and 1996 Schmale worked for the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany and the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation and headed the position in Berlin. He designed the ecumenical cooperation with the Lutheran churches in the GDR and contacts with Lutheran churches in the Eastern European countries. Between 1985 and 1996 his involvement also extended to the work of the board of the Martin Luther Bund , because his international experience was valuable for supporting the Evangelical Lutheran minority churches that existed around the world.

selected Writings

Karlheinz Schmale (Ed.): State and Church . Lectures of the Church Leaders Seminar of the FELCSA, Rustenburg 1969
Lutheran Churches in Southern Africa . In: Lutherische Rundschau 1974, issue 4, p. 515 ff.
Church protest in South Africa . In: Lutherische Monatshefte, Vol. 16 (1977), No. 7, p. 375
The United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany and its Task in Europe / The United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany and its mission in Europe . In: Hans Jürgen Luibl, Christine-Ruth Müller, Helmut Zeddies (eds.): On the way to Europe. Perspectives of Protestant Churches . Frankfurt / M., 2001 ISBN 3-87476-374-9

Web links

Gundolf Holfert: Mourning for Karlheinz Schmale. VELKD pays tribute to the formative work of the longtime head of its Berlin ecumenical office . EKD press archive 2012, at www.ekd.de

United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany: Mourning for Karlheinz Schmale . Obituary in the VELKD-Nachrichten, (PDF document p. 17; 1.59 MB). on www.velkd.de

Gundolf Holfert Senior Church Councilor retired Dr. hc Karlheinz Schmale DD passed away . Message from the Martin Luther Association, January 9, 2012, at www.martin-luther-bund.de

The Blade: Lutheran Church Official Sees Gloomy Future for South Africa Unless White Attitudes Change . In: The Blade. Toledo, Ohio, May 29, 1976, page 8, online at news.google.com, article about Karl Heinz Schmale with portrait

Karlheinz Schmale: Kerkeenheid noodsaaklik . In: Pro Veritate, Vol. 10, No. 12, pp. 3–5, from April 15, 1972, online at www.sahistory.org.za (afrikaans) PDF document pp. 5–7

Individual evidence

^ David Thomas: Black Power and Liberation . In: Christ Divided. Liberalism, Ecumenism and Race in South Africa . Unisa Press, Pretoria 2002 . at www.uir.unisa.ac.za, PDF document p. 3, 5 (English)
↑ Guido Jura: German traces in the churches and social history of Namibia . Bochum 2002 (Diss.), P. 358 (PDF file; 2.57 MB)
↑ World Council of Churches: Sound document: South African security police arrest black churchmen in Namibia . A summary of recent developments in Namibia, with inserts from a report given by the Rev. Karl-Heinz Schmale to the Executive Committee of the Lutheran World Federation at its meeting in Amsterdam (Intervox, September 1975, No. 67). at www.archives.oikoumene.org (English)

personal data
SURNAME	Schmale, Karlheinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schmale, Karl Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Emden
DATE OF DEATH	December 31, 2011

[1] David Thomas: Black Power and Liberation . In: Christ Divided. Liberalism, Ecumenism and Race in South Africa . Unisa Press, Pretoria 2002 . at www.uir.unisa.ac.za, PDF document p. 3, 5 (English)

[2] Guido Jura: German traces in the churches and social history of Namibia . Bochum 2002 (Diss.), P. 358 (PDF file; 2.57 MB)

[3] World Council of Churches: Sound document: South African security police arrest black churchmen in Namibia . A summary of recent developments in Namibia, with inserts from a report given by the Rev. Karl-Heinz Schmale to the Executive Committee of the Lutheran World Federation at its meeting in Amsterdam (Intervox, September 1975, No. 67). at www.archives.oikoumene.org (English)