Kurt Essen

Kurt Essen (born May 17, 1904 in Deutsch-Wartenberg (Kr. Grünberg / Silesia); † November 26, 1993 in Duisburg ) was a German Protestant pastor , member of the Confessing Church and persecuted by the Nazi regime.

Live and act

Kurt Walter Eduard Essen was the son of Pastor Adolf Essen and a brother of the population scientist Werner Essen . He grew up in Elberfeld . After obtaining his university entrance qualification , he studied Protestant theology , got involved in the youth movement-reformed association of St. George and was then accepted into the vicariate . He gained his first experience as a preacher in the parishes of Inden , Mülheim / Ruhr-Dümpten and - Saarn . In 1933 he was appointed pastor in the Volpertshausen parish near Wetzlarelected. He joined the Confessing Church here and became a shop steward. This led to confrontations with the NSDAP and its subordinate judicial authorities, which took him into custody for four weeks in 1939. He was u. a. accused of not witnessing a Hitler salute before confirmation class . The consistory of Düsseldorf did nothing to protect him from this persecution. He escaped further reenactments because he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1939 and had to do military service.

After the liberation from National Socialism , he was elected pastor in 1947 to pastor IV of the evangelical parish of Duisburg, which belongs to the Neuenkamp district, where he worked until his retirement in 1969.

Within his church he worked as a synodal and as a representative for the women's aid in Duisburg. As an avowed Christian, he belonged to the Church Brotherhood in the Rhineland , which built on the experiences of the church struggle and wanted to spread the ideas of justice and tolerance in post-war society. From 1963, Essen became a co-founder and board member of the Christian-Jewish working group in Duisburg.

Following on from the declaration of the EKD Synod in Weissensee in 1952, he campaigned against the rearmament of the Federal Republic, for the right to conscientious objection, and became a representative of the peace movement . In 1952 he became the second chairman of the working group for peace and against German rearmament in the Duisburg district association. From 1952 to 1954 he accepted the election to the presidium member of the German Youth Congress. Because this organization was associated with the Free German Youth of the GDR, he went to court in 1959, but was acquitted. In 1956 he prepared the second West German peace meeting in Duisburg. He was also a member of the Presidium of the Federal Peace Committee. Essen continued to belong to the International Union of Reconciliation and the German Peace Society / United War Service Opponents . He also appeared as a co- editor of "Mitteilungen. International voices for a peaceful solution to the German question".

Instead of Martin Niemoeller , Essen took part in the 1952 People's Congress for Peace in Vienna . There he was elected to the World Peace Council, of which he was a member until 1968. In the following years he took part in several peace conferences abroad: 1953 in Budapest , 1954 and 1956 in Stockholm , 1955 in Helsinki , 1957 in Tokyo , 1958 in Prague and in the GDR . During visits to Eastern Europe in the 1950s, he visited Protestant parishes in Czechoslovakia , People's Poland and the Soviet Union . He took an active part in the meetings of the Christian Peace Conference in Prague in 1959 and 1960.

Even in retirement, Kurt Essen advocated spreading his convictions in the peace movement and wrote his memoirs.

Kurt Essen's estate has been in the archives of the consistory of his regional church since 1993 and 2002 respectively.

Works

• Report of the Confessional Synod in Wetzlar. In: Protocols of the Wetzlar District Synod (1945), pp. 16–21 (signature SI w 1)
• On the history of the church struggle in Volpertshausen. An addition to Gustav Biesgen: Eleven Years of the Confessing Church of the Wetzlar Church District. In: Monthly Issues for Protestant Church History of the Rhineland 28 (1979), pp. 245–255 (call number ZH 73)
• A dove doesn't make peace. On the history of the peace movement in Duisburg after the war. Duisburg 1982, 16 pp.

literature

• Kurt Essen In: Simone Rauthe: "Sharp opponents". The discipline of church employees by the Evangelical Consistory of the Rhine Province and its finance department from 1933-1945. Bonn 2003 (SVRKG 162), p. 167–169 (with photo) (signature archive library from 10 l 182)
• Andreas Permien : The formation of opinion in the Evangelical Church on Adenauer's rearmament concept 1950-1955. Shown using the example of d. Rhenish regional church. o. O. [approx. 1985], pp. 124-127

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kurt Essen: Left in the lurch by the consistory