Kurt Meier (church historian)

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Kurt Meier (born June 18, 1927 in Venusberg in the Erzgebirge) is a German Lutheran theologian and university professor. From 1965 to 1992 he taught as a professor for church history at the University of Leipzig .

Life

As the son of a self-employed master painter, Meier also began an apprenticeship as a painter in 1941, but decided to study Protestant theology after the end of the war . He made up his Abitur and began his studies at the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig in 1949. After graduating in 1955, Meier, as a scientific aspirant, was given the opportunity to gain further scientific qualifications and was able to study for a semester at the University of Zurich . After graduating as Dr. theol. with a thesis on the German Christians (1960) he was promoted to lecturer in 1961 and in 1965 received a professorship with a teaching position for church history at the University of Leipzig. In 1969 he became a full professor and taught in Leipzig after his retirement in 1992.

Meier set up a department for contemporary church history in Leipzig and, thanks to numerous publications on Protestantism in the first half of the 20th century, is one of the most prominent representatives of this subject in Germany.

Meier had been a member of the FDJ since 1948 and, as a student, belonged to a group that advocated the “formation of a progressive theologian in the church”. In 1957 he joined the Ministry for State Security as " IM Werner" and reported on faculty affairs and contacts with specialist colleagues in the Federal Republic of Germany until the end of the GDR. In 1989 he received the Humboldt Medal in Gold.

Fonts (selection)

  • The German Christians. The image of a movement in the church struggle of the Third Reich . VEB Niemeyer, Halle 1964 (licensed edition Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen).
  • The Protestant church struggle . Three volumes. VEB Niemeyer, Halle 1976–1984 (licensed edition Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen).
  • Evangelical Church in Society, State and Politics 1918–1945. Essays on contemporary church history . Berlin (East) 1987.
  • Volkskirche 1918–1945. Ecclesiology and Contemporary History . Kaiser, Munich 1982.
  • Church and Judaism. The attitude of the Protestant Church to the Jewish policy of the Third Reich . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1968.
  • Cross and swastika. The Protestant Church in the Third Reich . dtv, Munich 1992 (2nd edition 2008).
  • The theological faculties in the Third Reich . de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1996.
  • Church and Third Reich. Time experience and research focus . In: Dietrich Meyer (Ed.): Church history as an autobiography. A look into the workshop of contemporary church historians . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1998, pp. 143-228.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Clemens Vollnhals (Ed.): The Church Policy of the SED and State Security. An interim balance . Chr. Left: Berlin, 2nd edition 1997, p. 272f.
  2. ↑ Gerhard Besier : The SED State and the Church 1969–1990 . Berlin, Frankfurt a. M. 1995, pp. 549-558.
personal data
SURNAME Meier, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and church historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Venusberg (Drebach)