Leni Always

Leni Immer (born February 24, 1915 in Rysum , East Friesland; † May 17, 1998 in Baltrum , East Friesland) was a German religion teacher and pastor. She experienced the church struggle of the Confessing Church first hand and wrote several books about it.

Life

Leni Immer grew up in Wuppertal-Barmen from 1927 , where her father Karl Immanuel Immer was pastor of the Reformed community at the Gemarker Church . When a free Reformed Synod took place there on January 3rd and 4th, 1934, she helped with the catering and care of the participants and was a listener during the deliberations. A lecture by Karl Barth left a lasting impression on her. Her parents and her brother Karl Immer (later President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland ) took part in the Barmen Confessing Synod in May 1934. One day after the end of the Synod, she heard the development of the Barmen Theological Declaration through detailed accounts of her family .

After completing an apprenticeship as a parish nurse at the "Center for Protestant Parish Work on Young Girls" at the Burckhardthaus in Berlin, she took on tasks in youth work in the Gemarker parish in 1939 as well as in religious instruction for the girls' high school in Sternstrasse, which from 1942 was only allowed to take place in church rooms . On May 1, 1941, she was officially employed as a community nurse.

After the Second World War, she worked as a religion teacher at the Am Kothen grammar school and at various vocational schools in Barmen. In 1974 she passed the church missionary exam and was ordained a pastor.

Gravestone of Waltraut and Leni Immer in the Hugostraße cemetery in Wuppertal

Leni Immer maintained lively contact and correspondence with people at home and abroad. In Germany and the USA she gave numerous lectures about the time of the church struggle. From 1963 to 1979 she was the first woman to be a member of the leadership of the Rhenish Mission , later the United Evangelical Mission in Wuppertal. She went on numerous trips, including a. to Israel, Indonesia and various countries in Africa. She published travelogues about her trips to Israel and Indonesia.

Leni died on May 17th, 1998 in Baltrum / East Frisia during the annual conference of the Federation of German Biblical Groups . She is buried with her parents, her sisters Friederike and Waltraut and the brothers Adalbert (lost in World War II) and Udo (died in Thuringia in World War II) in the cemetery on Hugostraße in Wuppertal-Barmen.

Fonts (selection)

with Werner Braselmann: This is how the district came about - pictures from the beginnings of the Reformed community of Barmen-Gemarke Wuppertal. Published by the presbytery of the Reformed community of Barmen-Gemarke, Wuppertal 1954.
Spring 1961 in Israel. Wuppertal 1961.
Visiting Indonesia in Wuppertal 1966.
Karl Always. From the life of a witness of faith. Wuppertal 1984.
My youth in the church struggle. Vorw. V. Johannes Rau, Stuttgart 1994.

Individual evidence

↑ life data after her obituary notice .
↑ Anna-Maria Reinhold: The long way to ordination of women in the Protestant Church using the example of Wuppertal , p. 10, accessed on February 5, 2019.
^ Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 42f.
^ Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle . Stuttgart 1994, p. 46 .
^ Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 151. Anna-Maria Reinhold: The long way to ordination of women in the Protestant Church using the example of Wuppertal , p. 11, accessed on February 5, 2019.
^ Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 140.
^ Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 151.
^ Written information from the Archive and Museum Foundation of the United Evangelical Mission from January 23, 2019, on request.
^ Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 151.
^ Fritz Mehnert: Oberbarmer community history - district - Wichlinghausen - Wupperfeld - Hatzfeld - Heidt - Heckinghausen . Association of Evangelical Churches in the district of Wupperfeld, Wuppertal 2002, p. 123 .

personal data
SURNAME	Always, Leni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German religion teacher and pastor
DATE OF BIRTH	February 24, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rysum , East Frisia
DATE OF DEATH	May 17, 1998
Place of death	Baltrum , East Frisia

[1] ta after her obituary notice .

[2] Anna-Maria Reinhold: The long way to ordination of women in the Protestant Church using the example of Wuppertal , p. 10, accessed on February 5, 2019.

[3] Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 42f.

[4] Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle . Stuttgart 1994, p. 46 .

[5] Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 151. Anna-Maria Reinhold: The long way to ordination of women in the Protestant Church using the example of Wuppertal , p. 11, accessed on February 5, 2019.

[6] Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 140.

[7] Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 151.

[8] Written information from the Archive and Museum Foundation of the United Evangelical Mission from January 23, 2019, on request.

[9] Leni Immer: My youth in the church struggle. Stuttgart 1984, p. 151.

[10] Fritz Mehnert: Oberbarmer community history - district - Wichlinghausen - Wupperfeld - Hatzfeld - Heidt - Heckinghausen . Association of Evangelical Churches in the district of Wupperfeld, Wuppertal 2002, p. 123 .