Klaus Wurth

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Klaus Nikolaus Wurth (born December 1, 1861 in Dundenheim, now part of Neuried ; † February 22, 1948 in Bretten ) was a German theologian and church president of the Evangelical Church in Baden .

Life

Wurth grew up as the son of a Dundenheim farmer in simple circumstances. The deep piety of the family shaped him.

After attending primary school in Dundenheim, an uncle made it possible for him to attend higher secondary school in Heidelberg up to middle school. After graduating from the high school in Strasbourg , he studied from 1883 to 1891: first mathematics and physics at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, then theology in Heidelberg and Marburg. This was followed by vicarages in Epfenbach and Weingarten (Baden) and from 1894 he was pastor in Liedolsheim .

In 1895 Wurth began working on the "correspondence sheet" of the conservative Evangelical Conference. In 1904 he became editor of this magazine. From 1906 to 1924 he worked as a pastor in Bretten. From 1914 he was a member of the General Synod and Synod .

In 1920 Wurth became a member of the church government. His election as church president by the regional synod of the Evangelical Church in Baden took place in 1924. During his presidency, he worked on the catechism of 1928. In 1930 the new “church book” for church services and casuals was published . After the Nazis seized power , Wurth asked for his release on July 1, 1933. Towards the end of the war, Wurth returned to Bretten to live with his children after being bombed twice, where he died in 1948 after a brief illness.

Political attitudes

Wurth made no secret of his German national sentiments during his work as church president. As President of the Church, Wurth contributed to strengthening the basic aloof attitude towards democracy and human rights in the Weimar Republic.

Wurth belonged to the Church Positive Association , which ended the supremacy of the liberals in the Baden regional church from 1919. As church president, he carried out reforms that were strictly based on the Bible and creed. After the end of the war, the regional church became politicized, as a statement on the Erzberger assassination attempt by Klaus Wurth shows:

"Erzberger was also hit by a bullet, [...]; and all newspapers condemn the assassination attempt of the high school student as something shameful, [...]. Have they perhaps had the same judgment about the revolution and the overthrow of the princes and the destruction of the empire? [...]; But the revolution has always been the mother of such acts, whoever welcomed them or even conjured them up has little right to be appalled at such subsequent acts of violence against 'Reich spoilers'. "

Anti-Semitic statements by Wurth have also been handed down. Wurth represented the widespread stab-in-the-back legend and blamed “international Judaism and international socialist ideas” for the decline in the will of the population. At the same time, Klaus Wurth campaigned for Jewish Christians several times . During National Socialism, he expressed violent criticism of the development of the church. He also helped Jews flee financially and hid them.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yearbook for Church and Religious History in Baden. 1st volume. Edited by Albrecht Ernst, Thomas K. Kuhn , Udo Wennemuth. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-019791-6 , p. 235 ( preview in the Google book search).
  2. ^ Matthias Riemschneider: The history of the church-positive association in Baden. In: Hermann Erbacher (Ed.): Contributions to the ecclesiastical history of the Evangelical Church in Baden. Prize work on the occasion of the Barmen anniversary in 1983 (= publications by the Association for Church History in the Evangelical Church in Baden. Vol. XXXIX). Evang. Presseverband für Baden, Karlsruhe 1989, ISBN 3-87210-317-1 , p. 17; quoted from Caroline Witt: The Confessing Church in Baden. Church conservatism in Baden during the Weimar Republic and at the beginning of the Third Reich. In: Working group for historical regional studies on the Upper Rhine e. V .: (458.) Minutes of the working session on October 20, 2006. In: ag-landeskunde-oberrhein.de, accessed on March 14, 2017.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Finck, 2004 (from Johannes Rogalla von Bieberstein : "Jüdischer Bolschewismus" - Mythos und Reality. With a preface by Ernst Nolte . Ed. Antaios, Dresden 2002, ISBN 3-935063-14-8 , quoted), p 145 ( Preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ↑ See Finck, 2004, p. 146 f. ( Preview in Google Book Search).
  5. ↑ See Finck, 2004, p. 147 ( preview in Google book search).
personal data
SURNAME Wurth, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wurth, Klaus Nikolaus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and church president of the Evangelical Church in Baden
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Dundenheim
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1948
Place of death Boards