Klaus Engelhardt

Klaus Engelhardt (born May 11, 1932 in Schillingstadt ) is a German Protestant theologian and former regional bishop of the Evangelical Church in Baden .

Life and work

Engelhardt grew up in Wiesloch , where he also attended elementary school. He later attended the Kurfürst-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Heidelberg , where he graduated from high school in 1952. He then studied Protestant theology at the Universities of Göttingen , Basel and Heidelberg . In 1960 he received his doctorate in church historian Hans von Camphausen Dr. theol. At that time he attended the seminary in Heidelberg. After his 2nd theol. Engelhardt was vicar in Heidelberg and Hinterzarten and from 1962 student pastor in Karlsruhe . In 1966 he was appointed professor for Protestant theology and religious education at the Heidelberg University of Education , which he headed from 1971 to 1976 as rector . The university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1998 .

In October 1980 Engelhardt ended his activity at the University of Education because the synod of the Evangelical Church in Baden elected him in the 5th ballot as regional bishop and thus successor to Hans Heidland . During his tenure, Engelhardt knew how to unite the various currents within the church. Originally coming from the left-wing Protestant direction of Barthsch origin, Engelhardt was soon known as a “man of balance” due to his prudent, pastoral nature.

From 1983 to 1989 Engelhardt was a member of the Presidium of the German Evangelical Church Congress . In 1985 he was also elected to the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany . The EKD Synod then elected Engelhardt in 1991 as the successor to Bishop Martin Kruse of Berlin as Chairman of the Council and thus the highest representative of the EKD. One year after the political reunification, Engelhardt became the first council chairman of an all-German Evangelical Church. In the years that followed, the EKD benefited from his ability to integrate, not least in the difficult internal church discussion about contacts between individual church representatives and the GDR Ministry for State Security (“Stasi”).

On July 25, 1997, the Baden regional synod elected the Mannheim dean Ulrich Fischer to succeed Engelhardt as regional bishop in Baden. He took office on March 31, 1998. On November 5, 1997, the EKD Synod also elected a successor to Engelhardt, President Manfred Kock, as chairman of the EKD. Engelhardt therefore retired in the spring of 1998. He lives in Karlsruhe and is still in great demand as a preacher and speaker in many places.

Engelhardt published several books, especially sermon meditations and religious education literature.

He is a member of the honorary council of AMCHA Germany , the central organization for psychosocial help for Holocaust survivors and their descendants in Israel .

In February 2014, Klaus Engelhardt was appointed to the board of trustees of the Karlsruhe Community Foundation .

family

Klaus Engelhardt was married to Dorothea Schlink (born April 7, 1935 in Gadderbaum ; † March 25, 2019 in Karlsruhe ), daughter of the theologian Edmund Schlink , and has two sons and a daughter since 1960 . His brother-in-law is the writer and lawyer Bernhard Schlink .

Publications

• The place of theology among the Greek fathers around 200 , two volumes. o. O. 1960, DNB 480964297 (Dissertation University of Heidelberg, Theological Faculty 1960, 147 and 59 pages).

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Engelhardt in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karlsruhe Community Foundation