Klara Hunsche

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Klara Julie Emma (Klare) Hunsche (born February 5, 1900 in Nova Petropolis , Brazil ; † November 23, 1979 in Berlin ) was a German teacher, Protestant theologian and author. She played an important role in the Confessing Church in Germany.

Life

Klara Hunsche had three siblings, namely Emmi, Theodor and Margarethe. Both parents came from Protestant German pastor families. The grandfather pastor Heinrich Wilhelm Hunsche emigrated from Lienen in Westphalia to southern Brazil in 1867 as a pioneer of the Gospel . In 1912 she moved to Germany with her parents Theodor Johannes Hunsche and Clara Hunsche. Klara's father was a Protestant pastor and since he also belonged to the Confessing Church, he was forced to retire in 1939.

After graduating from high school in 1919, she attended the Oberlyzeum in Hermannswerder , passed the teacher's examination there in 1920 and worked as a tutor. Due to the high level of unemployment among teachers, she began studying Protestant theology in Berlin from 1928, but shortly afterwards got a teaching position. She then continued to study theology in parallel.

In 1934 she became a member of the newly founded Confessing Church in Berlin. This resulted from the part of the church struggle took place separating the Protestant German Church (DEK) in the Nazi state supported German Christians and the Confessing Church . In 1935, Klara Hunsche passed the first theological state examination and now worked as a vicar at the Brotherhood of the Confessing Church. She was also a public school teacher. In 1937 she passed the second state examination in theology before the examination board of the Confessing Church and was consecrated afterwards. At that time she was not allowed to become a pastor by ordination . Afterwards she gave up the school service and worked in the education office of the Brother Council of the Confessing Church, which was banned by the NSDAP in 1941. There she wrote, among other things, auxiliary books for religious instruction until 1943.

In parallel to this work, from 1938 she was a religion teacher in the family school Oranienburger Straße of the Confessing Church for non-Aryan children of Christian faith who otherwise would have had to go to Jewish schools. Thanks to her co-initiative, this school found a place in Pastor Grüber's office in Berlin-Lichterfelde in 1939 , where Protestant and Catholic religion teachers worked together. The office had to close in 1940. The school itself closed in 1943. She also worked on this with the Protestant teacher Hildegard Kuttner . In 1941 there was also a service obligation for "useful work" as a clerk in the Army Weapons Office.

Although she was not ordained, she took over the pastoral position of her brother Theodor Hunsche in Großmutz from mid-1945 to October 1946 , as he was in captivity. When he returned, she had to vacate this position for him. Then she worked at the school chamber in West Berlin - eight years after her retirement in 1960.

Since she could not be ordained as a woman for a long time, the consecration did not take place until 1962 after a long struggle, when she was already in retirement. Until her death on November 23, 1979 in Berlin, she was still closely associated with the Church and led a Bible study group.

Klara Hunsche was strongly influenced by Martin Niemöller , Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth . After the war, she maintained friendly contacts with Martin Albertz , Kurt Scharf and Helmut Gollwitzer . All of them were also members of the Confessing Church.

Services

Klara Hunsches motto was: yourself involved . According to Karl Barth, the following applied for them: The word of God is the standard of all things, not man, not the state. which was also the basis of the Confessing Church. She opposed the policy of harmonization and the NSDAP's claim to totality. For many people she was a role model and at the same time intelligent and energetic, with a never-ending kindness.

She was a passionate theologian and teacher. Klara Hunsche fought for equality between the vicars and pastors from an early age. Education was very important to her; it shaped the teaching structure of the Confessing Church and thus set religious pedagogical impulses. For this purpose she wrote a number of brochures and handouts.

Publications

  • Klara Hunsche, Ilse Jonas , Magdalene Vedder, Hanna Wehnert: Oh stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus stories for our little ones . Evangelical publishing house "Der Rufer", Hermann Werner Nachf., Wuppertal-Barmen, 1939?
  • Klara Hunsche, Ilse Jonas, Magdalene Vedder, Hanna Wehnert: Oh stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ! Retelling biblical stories for our little ones . Licensed edition by the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Berlin 1952. (Largely identical 2nd edition of the previous quote)
  • Klara Hunsche: The struggle for the Christian school and education 1933-1945 . Ecclesiastical Yearbook 76, 1949/1959. Pp. 455–519 (also available as a special print on these pages). C. Bertelsmann Verlag Gütersloh, 1950.
  • Klara Hunsche: Family School Oranienburger Strasse . In: Gerda Drewes, Eva Kochanski (Ed.): Heimliche Hilfe. Report on aid to racially persecuted people . 1961 or 1963. pp. 16-23.
  • Klara Hunsche: Church and School in the Total State. The Confessing Church and the School in the Third Reich . In: The Evangelical Educator 1. Nov./Dec. 1949, pp. 19-27.

literature

  • Kerstin Söderblom : Klara Julie Emma Hunsche. The passionate double look: the theologian and teacher Klara Hunsche. approx. 6 pages. In: 500 years of the Reformation: designed by women, women and the Reformation . Copyright: Archives of the Convention of Protestant Theologians of the FRG. Retrieved Jan. 7, 2019
  • Kerstin Söderblom: Klara Hunsche, teacher and theologian in the Confessing Church of Berlin-Brandenburg. In: Susi Hausammann , Nicole Kuropka, H. Scherer (eds.): Women in dark time (= series of publications of the Rhenish Church History, vol. 118). Cologne 1996, pp. 161-184 [1] pfd-file (4.3 MByte)
  • Dagmar Herbrecht: Klara Hunsche, February 5, 1900 to November 23, 1979. In: Manfred Gailus , Hartmut Lehmann (Ed.): National Socialist Mentalities in Germany (1870 to 1970). Contours, lines of development and upheavals in a worldview . In the chapter The courageous women of the church struggle . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 351–354. #
  • Wolfgang Gerlach: When all the witnesses were silent. Confessing Church and the Jews . 2nd Edition. Institute for Church and Judaism, Berlin. Volume 10. 1993.
  • Wolfgang Gerlach: And the Confessing Witnesses Were Silent. The Confessing Church and the Persecution of the Jews . Univ. of Nebrasca Press, Lincoln & London. Edited and translated by Victoria J. Barnett. Year 2000. Edited translation of the book: When all the witnesses were silent .
  • Theodor (Johannes) Hunsche: Pastor Heinrich Wilhelm Hunsche. A gospel pioneer in southern Brazil. Written down by his son Theodor (Johannes) Hunsche . 62 pages. Lettner-Verlag, Berlin. 1964.
  • Hans-Rainer Sandvoss: "It is asked to monitor the services ...". Religious communities in Berlin between adaptation, self-assertion and resistance from 1933 to 1945 . 564 pages. Editor of the German Resistance Memorial Center. Lukas Publishing House. Berlin. 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Theodor Hunsche: Pastor Heinrich Wilhelm Hunsche. A gospel pioneer in southern Brazil. Written down by his son Theodor (Johannes) Hunsche . 62 pages. Lettner-Verlag, Berlin. 1964.
  2. ↑ Hans-Rainer Sandvoss: "It is requested to monitor the services ...". Religious communities in Berlin between adaptation, self-assertion and resistance from 1933 to 1945 . 564 pages. Editor of the German Resistance Memorial Center. Lukas Publishing House. Berlin. 2014.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Gerlach: And the Confessing Witnesses Were Silent. The Confessing Church and the Persecution of the Jews . Univ. of Nebrasca Press, Lincoln & London. Edited and translated by Victoria J. Barnett. Year 2000. Translation of the book: When all the witnesses were silent .
  4. ↑ Cf. Dagmar Harbrecht: Klara Hunsche, February 5, 1900 to November 23, 1979. In: Manfred Gailus, Hartmut Lehmann (Ed.): National Socialist Mentalities in Germany (1870 to 1970). Göttingen 2005, p. 354.
personal data
SURNAME Hunsche, Klara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hunsche, Klara Julie Emma (full name); Hunsche, Klara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher, Protestant theologian and author
DATE OF BIRTH 5th February 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Nova Petropolis
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1979
Place of death Berlin