Kronberger Kreis (Protestant)
The Kronberger Kreis , originally Friends of Protestant Cooperation , was a group of Protestant leaders that existed from 1951 to 1976.
The group was founded by Eberhard Müller , the head of the Evangelical Academy Bad Boll in consultation with the Hanoverian regional bishop , Hanns Lilje , and the president of the German Evangelical Church Congress , Reinold von Thadden . They worked together in Protestant organizations such as the German Christian Student Association and the Protestant Weeks during the Weimar Republic .
The reason for the founding of the circle was the balance of power between the Evangelical and Catholic Churches in the Federal Republic of Germany after the division of Germany. Due to the assumed better organization of the Catholics, Müller feared that the Protestants would give up their previous position of priority to the Catholics, who were already the majority within the ruling CDU . In order to be able to assert the interests of Protestants in public, a small group of influential Protestant men should be founded who support one another, exchange ideas and can effectively represent the concerns of Protestantism.
The members of the circle orientated themselves on the political culture of the United States and advocated a western union of Germany. In this context, Müller published the first result of the discussions of the Kronberg Circle in the spring of 1952, the memorandum “Military contribution and Christian conscience” on the question of rearmament . There was no direct advocacy of rearmament, but it was denied that a Christian should be against rearmament for reasons of conscience; it is rather a decision of conscience.
“Left to personal opinion, it was a de facto endorsement of rearmament. Because: Firstly, this is how all people understood this, who knew the attitude behind it, and secondly, with the release of faith, they contradicted those who believed they had to say no from the Christian faith. "
In Protestantism, the Kronberg Circle thus formed the opposite position to the idea of a demilitarized, neutral Germany between the two power blocs, represented by Martin Niemöller , Helmut Gollwitzer and Karl Barth .
In the further future, however, the circle refrained from similar publicly effective measures and limited itself to its work as a discussion group and carried out political lobbying. In its effect, the Kronberg Circle was an "inner evangelical, active and powerful circle that became an agency for post-war Protestantism to adapt to the political realities of the Federal Republic and to the ideological currents in West German society."
The elitist circle, which was only supplemented by co-optation , included Protestant theologians, Christian Democratic politicians and entrepreneurs, but neither scientists, artists, cultural workers, nor women. In addition to the three founders, u. a. the following people should be named: Friedrich Ernst , Otto A. Friedrich , Heinrich Giesen , Kai-Uwe von Hassel , Volkmar Herntrich , Heinrich Kost , Ernst Lemmer , Hans Meinzolt , Edo Osterloh , Robert Pferdmenges , Hans Puttfarcken , Axel Seeberg , Gerhard Stoltenberg , Helmut Thielicke , Robert Tillmanns , Wolfgang Trillhaas , Fritz von Waldthausen , Hans Hermann Walz , Hermann Weinkauff and Richard von Weizsäcker .
literature
- Sauer, Thomas: Orientation towards the West in German Protestantism? Concepts and activities of the Kronberger Kreis . Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56342-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Sauer: The Kronberger Circle: Christian-Conservative Positions in the Federal Republic of Germany (PDF; 131 kB). In: The American Impact on Western Europe: Americanization and Westernization in Transatlantic Perspective , 1999, p. 1.
- ↑ a b Anselm Doering-Manteuffel: The formation of ideological blocs in the Cold War and its significance for West German Protestantism in the 1950s and 1960s ( Memento from January 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Lecture at the conference of the Evangelical Church in divided Germany. Research results and trends , 1998.
- ↑ Uwe Walter: World in Sin - World in Arms. The dispute over the rearmament of the Federal Republic and the Evangelical Academy Bad Boll (PDF; 149 kB). 2006, p. 8; Walter quotes from his interview with Gollwitzer on November 20, 1988, printed in current talk No. 3/1989, vol. 37, p. 13.
- ↑ Lutz Hoeth: The Evangelical Church and the rearmament of Germany in the years 1945–1958 (PDF; 1.2 MB). In: opus.kobv.de , 2007, p. 141.
- ^ Thomas Sauer based on a presentation by Jens Murken: Conference report: History of social Protestantism . In: H-Soz-u-Kult, March 2, 2001, accessed September 5, 2012.