Ludwig Diehl (theologian)

Ludwig Diehl (born January 17, 1894 in Weilerbach ; † October 15, 1982 in Zweibrücken ) was a German Protestant theologian and regional bishop in the Palatinate .

Life

Ludwig Diehl was the son of a farmer and had three siblings. He completed his school career at the elementary school in his hometown and at the humanistic grammar school in Kaiserslautern . After passing the school leaving examination, he studied theology at the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn from 1914 to 1918. He interrupted his studies in 1916 for a brief assignment with the German Army during the First World War . In 1918 he became a private vicar in Zweibrücken and, after his ordination in 1919, city vicar. From 1924 he worked as a pastor in Mackenbach and in the Schernau workers' colony . He joined the NSDAP in 1925 and 1927 and worked for the party u. a. active as a Gauredner.

After the handover of power to the National Socialists , Diehl became chairman of the parish association in 1933 and, in May of that year, the country leader of the German Christians , for which he belonged to the working group of church leaders. In 1933 he participated in the German Evangelical National Synod in Wittenberg . From 1934 to October 1945 he was regional bishop of the Palatinate Church. In 1934 he received the Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP . From October 1935 to 1937 he was a member of the Reich Church Committee (youth work department) and from 1939 represented his regional church in the newly founded institute for the research and elimination of the Jewish influence on German church life in Eisenach . During the Second World War , after the campaign in the west, he was also responsible for the Reformed and Protestant parishes of the annexed part of Lorraine .

After the end of the war he was released from his functions and interned by the French occupation authorities in 1946. He became pastor again in Mackenbach until he officially retired in 1963.

literature

• Hans L. Reichrath: Ludwig Diehl, 1894–1982: Cross and swastika in the life of a Palatinate pastor and regional bishop , Evangelischer Presseverlag Pfalz, Speyer 1996 (2nd revised edition), ISBN 3-925536-59-0 .
• Hannelore Braun, Gertraud Grünzinger: Personal Lexicon on German Protestantism 1919–1949 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2006, ISBN 3-525-55761-2 ISBN 978-3-525-55761-7 .
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Ludwig Diehl in the catalog of the German National Library