Kurt Walter

Kurt Walter (born November 12, 1892 in Danzig -Weichselmünde, † June 26, 1963 in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran pastor. The Confessing Church (BK) in Danzig elected him in 1934 as its leader. From 1942 until shortly before the end of the war in 1945 he was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp .

Life

His father was the rector and organist Ferdinand Walter, his mother Martha geb. Grabowski. After graduating from high school in Danzig , he studied Protestant theology in Berlin, Tübingen (1913) and Königsberg from 1911 until the beginning of the First World War in 1914. He was a war volunteer on the Russian front. In 1915 he was promoted to officer . In the same year a lower leg was wounded and amputated. In 1916 he joined the air force and was deployed in France and Vardar-Macedonia .

During the war he continued his theological training, passing the first in 1918 and then the second in 1919 before the Danzig Consistory . The ordination in Gdańsk's Marienkirche was on October 4th, 1919. Walter completed his vicariate in Pröbbernau on the Fresh Spit . Then he was pastor in the community of Friedenau (West Prussia), in 1923 he was transferred to the community of Barendt in the district of Großes Werder . There he married Gertrud Richter (1890–1978). They had five children (Hanns-Dietrich, Hannelise, Christlinde, Brigitte and Ekkehard). In 1930 Walter became pastor at the Luther Church in Danzig-Langfuhr .

As a result of his function in the Confessing Church from 1934 onwards, he was increasingly restricted, intimidated and harassed in his work by state and political authorities. In 1937 he was imprisoned for three months, and in July 1942, after another three-month imprisonment in Danzig, he was interned in the pastors' block of the Dachau concentration camp. His two sons had meanwhile been drafted into the Wehrmacht. Walter was released from the Dachau concentration camp on April 3, 1945. Pastor Walter also preached in the camp chapel; this can be proven for November 26, 1944 (Sunday of the Dead), namely "thoughtful and powerful".

Even after the invasion of Russian troops on Good Friday 1945, his wife Gertrud kept parish life in Danzig-Langfuhr with the remaining pastors and pastors' wives. She held services in the Luther Church, then after prohibitions in the cemetery chapel, in a park and secretly in her house. After being expelled from Gdansk, she and her daughter survived an eight-month ordeal through Polish prisons and labor camps. All the children survived the turmoil of the war.

Initially, after his release, Walter came to Biberach an der Riss in Upper Swabia and helped out in the local community. However, he still expected to return to his old parish in Danzig-Langfuhr when he applied to the Protestant High Church Council in Stuttgart in July 1945 for employment in a parish in Württemberg. But this hope was dashed. From August 1945 to April 1949 he was pastor in the Andreägemeinde in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt . In connection with the personnel realignment of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Schleswig-Holstein after 1945, Walter was in discussion for a position in the Regional Church of Lübeck, but he withdrew the application. In 1948 he was elected to the board of the Gdansk Federation . Until 1958 he was a hospital pastor in Stuttgart.

Walter died at the age of 70 in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt.

Service in the Confessing Church

In November 1933 Kurt Walter and six of a total of 70 pastors in the Free State of Danzig joined the Pastors' Emergency League . The first confessional meeting in mid-May 1934, at which about 100 people took part, elected Pastor Walter as chairman. As a result, congregational brotherhoods were formed, confessional meetings and confessional services were held. About 3,000 people came to the first confessional service in late summer 1934 in the Heiliggeist Church (500 seats). Pastor Hugo Hahn , who later became the regional bishop of Saxony, preached . Other preachers from abroad in the following period were Otto Dibelius , Friedrich Müller , Johannes Lilje , Hermann Ehlers , Wilhelm Niesel and Ludwig Steil . A circular, which appeared every four to six weeks with a circulation of 5,000, informed and strengthened the Confessing Church.

Pastor Walter took part in several confessional synods , for example in Berlin-Dahlem (1934), Augsburg (1935), Berlin-Steglitz (1935), Bad Oeynhausen (1936) and Halle (Saale) (1937)

The Catholic-conservative weekly newspaper Der Deutsche in Polen (1934–1939) reported in its issue No. 9 of March 3, 1935 that the leading confessional pastor in the Reich, Martin Niemöller , had been prevented from entering Gdansk; the "packed" Katharinenkirche had to make do with the leadership of the service by Pastor Walter in the presence of the political police .

The work was made increasingly difficult by fines, official suspensions, compulsory leave and interrogations. Walter had to relinquish the chairmanship of his parish council. At the end of July 1935, he was arrested for the first time with interrogation and warning at the police headquarters. The attempt to form and convene a Danzig Confession Synod in November 1936 failed due to a ban by the National Socialist Senate. Walter was cautioned about baptizing Jews and interceding for persecuted pastors in church services and arrested again in 1937. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the pastors of the BK Danzig did not comply with the request to submit proof of Aryan identity . Walter was arrested again on Easter Tuesday 1942. After three months in prison, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp. He wrote about it in 1963: “I should never forget how the last greeting from the Confessing Congregation came to me when I was sitting in the Danzig police prison in front of the transport to Dachau and touched me Obstruction by a policeman unswerved the song 'I know what I believe in', which penetrated through the weakly opened small cell window. The greeting from the congregation went with me into the need of imprisonment and has often strengthened me in the certainty: Vivat! The church lives because HE lives! "

He sums up the Confessing Church in Danzig from 1934 to 1945 as follows: “We […] did not fully adhere to the“ line ”of the Confessing Church in Danzig […] not just because only two BK pastors presided over their parish councils . […] The lack of the Confessional Synod […] as well as the shock effect emanating from the multiple arrests of some pastors inhibited our actions. We also repeatedly encountered the fact that in the narrow area of our small church province everything we tried happened much faster stuck [...]; eight people were easier to deal with than a hundred, and among eight it is not so easy to find someone with real spiritual superiority as among a hundred. We were very weak, and everything happened in great weakness [...] But what we can think of with thanks [...] is that it was given to us nevertheless, in the midst of the destruction of the Church, the sign of sole rule in our place too Of Jesus Christ, and that in the midst of our weakness and impotence [...] a fellowship of genuine brotherhood among a few pastors and in a small group of parishioners was given. "

theology

Kurt Walter had heard from Adolf Schlatter at the University of Tübingen in 1913 , but did not call himself his student. As a young pastor he was influenced by Adolf von Harnack and Karl Holl . But it was only through Karl Barth that he became “actually a theologian”; through him he learned what "God's word and what the task of a preacher of God's word" is.

literature

Kurt Walter: Danzig . In: Günther Harder and Wilhelm Niemöller (eds.): The hour of temptation. Parishes in the church struggle 1933–1945. Testimonials . Munich 1963. pp. 37-56.
The broken gate. Sermons and devotions by pastors imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. Preface by Martin Niemöller . Contribution u. a. by Kurt Walter. Neubau Verlag, Munich undated [1946].
Gertrud Slottke : Pastor Kurt Walter . In: Our Danzig. Issue 15 No. 14 (1963), p. 13.
Ernst Sodeikat: The persecution and resistance of the Evangelical Church in Danzig from 1933 to 1945. In: Heinz Brunotte (Hrsg.): To the history of the church struggle. Collected essays (= work on the history of the church struggle. Volume 15). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965, pp. 146–172.

Individual evidence

^ Gertrud Slottke: Pastor Kurt Walter . In: Our Danzig. Edition 15, No. 14 (1963), p. 13.
^ Obituary notice from Gertrud Walter, Stuttgarter Zeitung No. 113 from May 19, 1978.
↑ Handwritten curriculum vitae of Kurt Walter from July 19, 1945, 4 pages. State Church Archive Stuttgart .
^ Internationaler Karl-Leisner-Kreis eV Kleve (Ed.): The Dachau altar in the camp chapel of the concentration camp. Starting point and destination of religious life . Newsletter No. 50, February 2005, p. 116.
↑ Ernst Sodeikat: The persecution and resistance of the Evangelical Church in Danzig from 1933 to 1945. In: Heinz Brunotte (Ed.): To the history of the church fight. Collected essays (= work on the history of the church struggle. Volume 15). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965, pp. 146–172, p. 171.
^ Letter of July 27, 1945 to the Evangelical High Church Council in Stuttgart in the State Church Archives in Stuttgart.
↑ Reinhold Ansel, Sibylle Hahn: Andreaegemeinde 50 years Andreäkirche. Compiled according to the minutes of the parish council meetings with explanations. Edited by Andreaegemeinde. Stuttgart 2006.
^ The website of the parish .
↑ Stephan Linck: New Beginnings? How the Protestant Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism; the regional churches in northern Elbe . Volume 1: 1945-1965 . . Kiel 2013: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft, ISBN 978-3-87503-167-6 , p. 84.
^ Wilhelm Niemöller (ed.): The Prussian Synod of Dahlem. The second confessional synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . History, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 29). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, ISBN 3-525-55532-6 .
^ Wilhelm Niemöller (ed.): The third confessional synod of the German Evangelical Church in Augsburg. Text, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 20). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969.
^ Wilhelm Niemöller (Ed.): The Synod of Steglitz. The third Confessional Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . History, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 23). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1970.
^ Wilhelm Niemöller (Hrsg. =): The fourth confession synod of the German Evangelical Church in Bad Oeynhausen. Text, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 7). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1960.
↑ Gerhard Niemöller (ed.): The Synod of Halle 1937. The second meeting of the Fourth Confession Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . Text, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 11). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1963.
^ Albrecht Hagemann: Hermann Rauschning. A German life between Nazi fame and exile . Boehlau, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-412-51104-3 , p. 137.
↑ Ernst Sodeikat: The persecution and resistance of the Evangelical Church in Danzig from 1933 to 1945. In: Heinz Brunotte (Ed.): To the history of the church fight. Collected essays (= work on the history of the church struggle. Volume 15). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965, pp. 146–172, p. 163.
^ Kurt Walter: Danzig . In: The Hour of Temptation. Parishes in the church struggle 1933–1945. Testimonials . Edited by Günther Harder and Wilhelm Niemöller. Munich 1963. pp. 37-56.
↑ Handwritten curriculum vitae of Kurt Walter from July 19, 1945, 4 pages. State Church Archive Stuttgart.

Remarks

↑ Father of Martha Grabowski: teacher Otto Friedrich Grabowski (1828–1902); Mother: Natalie Sellin (1836–1910); Brothers: teacher Franz Otto Grabowski (* 1858) and businessman Paul Otto Grabowski (1870–1905).
↑ Built from 1896 to 1899 according to a design by the architect Gotthilf Ludwig Möckel , it is now called Parafia Matki Odkupiciela w Gdańsku and belongs to the Roman Catholic Church ( The Polish website of the church ).

personal data
SURNAME	Walter, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH	November 12, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH	Danzig -Weichselmünde
DATE OF DEATH	June 26, 1963
Place of death	Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt

[2] Gertrud Slottke: Pastor Kurt Walter . In: Our Danzig. Edition 15, No. 14 (1963), p. 13.

[3] Obituary notice from Gertrud Walter, Stuttgarter Zeitung No. 113 from May 19, 1978.

[5] Handwritten curriculum vitae of Kurt Walter from July 19, 1945, 4 pages. State Church Archive Stuttgart .

[6] Internationaler Karl-Leisner-Kreis eV Kleve (Ed.): The Dachau altar in the camp chapel of the concentration camp. Starting point and destination of religious life . Newsletter No. 50, February 2005, p. 116.

[7] Ernst Sodeikat: The persecution and resistance of the Evangelical Church in Danzig from 1933 to 1945. In: Heinz Brunotte (Ed.): To the history of the church fight. Collected essays (= work on the history of the church struggle. Volume 15). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965, pp. 146–172, p. 171.

[8] Letter of July 27, 1945 to the Evangelical High Church Council in Stuttgart in the State Church Archives in Stuttgart.

[9] Reinhold Ansel, Sibylle Hahn: Andreaegemeinde 50 years Andreäkirche. Compiled according to the minutes of the parish council meetings with explanations. Edited by Andreaegemeinde. Stuttgart 2006.

[10] The website of the parish .

[11] Stephan Linck: New Beginnings? How the Protestant Church deals with the Nazi past and its relationship to Judaism; the regional churches in northern Elbe . Volume 1: 1945-1965 . . Kiel 2013: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft, ISBN 978-3-87503-167-6 , p. 84.

[12] Wilhelm Niemöller (ed.): The Prussian Synod of Dahlem. The second confessional synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . History, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 29). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, ISBN 3-525-55532-6 .

[13] Wilhelm Niemöller (ed.): The third confessional synod of the German Evangelical Church in Augsburg. Text, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 20). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969.

[14] Wilhelm Niemöller (Ed.): The Synod of Steglitz. The third Confessional Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . History, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 23). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1970.

[15] Wilhelm Niemöller (Hrsg. =): The fourth confession synod of the German Evangelical Church in Bad Oeynhausen. Text, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 7). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1960.

[16] Gerhard Niemöller (ed.): The Synod of Halle 1937. The second meeting of the Fourth Confession Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . Text, documents, reports (= work on the history of the church struggle . Vol. 11). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1963.

[17] Albrecht Hagemann: Hermann Rauschning. A German life between Nazi fame and exile . Boehlau, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-412-51104-3 , p. 137.

[18] Ernst Sodeikat: The persecution and resistance of the Evangelical Church in Danzig from 1933 to 1945. In: Heinz Brunotte (Ed.): To the history of the church fight. Collected essays (= work on the history of the church struggle. Volume 15). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965, pp. 146–172, p. 163.

[19] Kurt Walter: Danzig . In: The Hour of Temptation. Parishes in the church struggle 1933–1945. Testimonials . Edited by Günther Harder and Wilhelm Niemöller. Munich 1963. pp. 37-56.

[20] Handwritten curriculum vitae of Kurt Walter from July 19, 1945, 4 pages. State Church Archive Stuttgart.

[1] Father of Martha Grabowski: teacher Otto Friedrich Grabowski (1828–1902); Mother: Natalie Sellin (1836–1910); Brothers: teacher Franz Otto Grabowski (* 1858) and businessman Paul Otto Grabowski (1870–1905).

[4] Built from 1896 to 1899 according to a design by the architect Gotthilf Ludwig Möckel , it is now called Parafia Matki Odkupiciela w Gdańsku and belongs to the Roman Catholic Church ( The Polish website of the church ).