Marlies Flesch-Thebesius

Marlies Flesch-Thebesius (born March 13, 1920 in Frankfurt am Main ; † December 31, 2018 there ) was a German journalist , theologian , Evangelical Lutheran pastor and author . She was the daughter of the Frankfurt surgeon and local politician Max Flesch-Thebesius (1889–1983) and Amelie Flesch (1894–1984).

Life path

family

Standing on the right: Marlies Flesch-Thebesius, on the left her parents Max and Amelie; Photo from the late 1930s

Marlies Flesch-Thebesius was the last bearer of the name of two families who had settled in Frankfurt am Main for centuries, one Jewish and one Protestant. Her father and grandfather were baptized Protestants who tried to adapt to National Socialism from 1933 onwards on the basis of their patriotic sentiments . This had to fail in view of the regime's hostility to Jews ; they were ostracized, threatened and persecuted.

Childhood and youth

Like her mother before, Marlies Flesch-Thebesius attended the Anna-Schmidt-Schule in Frankfurt , a private grammar school. From autumn 1933, at the age of 13, Marlies Flesch-Thebesius began her confirmation class at the Frankfurt Dreikönigsgemeinde , although the family actually belonged to the Lukasgemeinde . This was due to the fact that the pastor of the Dreikönigsgemeinde, Martin Schmidt, who was at the same time responsible for the pastoral care of the Protestant hospital in which Max Flesch-Thebesius worked as the chief surgeon, had campaigned against his discharge - without success.

During the time of the church struggle , Marlies Flesch-Thebesius found a certain consolation in the attitude of the pastors' emergency union , which spoke out against the adoption of the Aryan paragraph of April 5, 1933 for employees in the church, but far more in the attitude of the Confessing Church , which was founded in the early summer of 1934. On Sunday afternoons in the winter of 1934/35, Marlies Flesch-Thebesius heard the speeches of leading protagonists of the Confessing Church in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt , including several by Martin Niemöller .

Marlies Flesch-Thebesius experienced her confirmation on March 31, 1935 as "the most beautiful day of her (previous) life", as she noted in her diary at the time.

Education

After graduating from high school, she began studying English and Italian at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. During the Second World War she worked as a translator and interpreter in Italy.

In 1957 she decided to start a second degree, that of theology . In retrospect, she described this decision as the best decision of her life.

activity

After the war she first became a journalist, which enabled her to realize her first career dream. She worked for the German news agency (DENA) and later for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and accompanied the reconstruction of the city. But then she decided to leave her hometown, where she and her family were so well known. In Hamburg she worked for four years for the Deutsche Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt , until she realized that her original life plan - job, marriage, children - did not seem to work out because a love had not yet set in. She turned her back on the writing guild and considered leading a comprehensive religious life in the future, for example in a deaconess house or a community .

After ordination in the Evangelical Church in Baden in 1963, she worked from 1965 as director of the Diaconal Year in the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland . In 1972 she returned to Frankfurt am Main, where she became pastor of the Paulsgemeinde and commissioner for mission and ecumenism at the Propstei Frankfurt am Main.

At the age of 63, in 1983, Marlies Flesch-Thebesius retired in order to combine her two passions, theology and writing. From then on she devoted herself to the biographies of Christian women of her generation who were active against National Socialism. At the age of 65, she demonstrated on the street against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

She dealt intensively with the relationship of the Christian church and theology to Judaism and took part in conferences on this topic until old age. In 2005 she received the Leonore Siegele Wenschkewitz Prize .

Audio

My great grandfather and me . By James Krüss . Radio play for children 8 and up. With Uwe Friedrichsen and many others. Edited by Marlies Flesch-Thebesius. Northern German Radio. Hamburg 1960. (2010) ISBN 978-3-89813-960-1 .

Video

Enzio Edschmid: Marlies Flesch-Thebesius - The contradictory is part of the truthful

Works

A feeling of alienation. Correspondence between Elisabeth Schmitz and Karl Barth . In: Manfred Gailus (Ed.): Elisabeth Schmitz and her memorandum against the persecution of the Jews . Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-88981-243-8 .
with Friedrich Karl Barth , Matthias Benad , Folkmar Braun: Because you are sick ... texts, songs, sayings, prayers, pictures to look at . Eschwege and Schubert, ZDB -ID 2318595-8 .
Frosted day. Texts to think about. Evangelical Regional Association, Frankfurt am Main 1994. ISSN 0016-934X .
Flower of the steppe. The life of Pastor Erica Küppers 1891–1968. Evangelical Regional Association, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-922179-23-1 .
with Joachim Proescholdt (Ed.): Evangelical personalities in Frankfurt am Main: for the 1200th anniversary of the city of Frankfurt am Main . Evangelical Regional Association, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-922179-27-4 .
with Helga Engler-Heide (ed.): Women in the gown. A piece of Frankfurt church history . Evangelical Regional Association, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-922179-29-0 .
The main thing is silence - a life under the swastika . Radius-Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-87173-770-4 ; New edition the main thing is silence. A family history (autobiography 1920–1945) published by Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7973-1117-7 .
Placed among the outsiders - The story of Gertrud Staewen (1894–1987) . Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-88981-159-0 .

Individual evidence

^ Astrid Standhartínger: Marlies Flesch-Thebesius . In: Hannelore Erhart (ed.): Lexicon of early Protestant theologians. Biographical sketches . Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2005, p. 113.
↑ Peter Hanack: Standing up for justice. In: FR.online . January 3, 2019, accessed September 3, 2019 .
↑ Flesch-Thebesius, Max. Hessische Biographie. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
↑ Film premiere in the new old walls. In: frankfurt.de. May 18, 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2014 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 . Talking about silence: The message of Marlies Flesch-Thebesius from Frankfurt. In: roemer9.de . Archived from the original on December 3, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 . Lecture on Marlies Flesch-Thebesius. In: fnp.de . Archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .
↑ Baptized, cast out, forgotten. In: fnp.de. January 29, 2012, archived from the original on February 6, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .
^ Pastor Martin Schmidt with his wife in 1960. In: ffmhist.de. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 (photo).
^ Marlies Flesch-Thebesius (middle, in white dress) on March 31, 1935, freshly confirmed. In: ffmhist.de. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 . Lutz Becht: The Protestant Church between 1918 and 1933 as a confirmant in the church struggle 1933–35. In: frankfurt1933-1945.de. January 1, 2008, accessed September 3, 2019 .
↑ Hartmut Schmidt: "Basic mood cheerfully": Marlies Flesch-Thebesius is a passionate journalist and theologian. November 2004, archived from the original on March 3, 2013 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .
↑ A keen look outside: The Frankfurt theologian and author Marlies Flesch-Thebesius celebrated her 95th birthday. In: frankfurt-evangelisch.de. March 18, 2015, archived from the original on April 21, 2016 ; accessed on April 21, 2016 .
^ Hansjörg Buss: Contours of a forgotten biography. Elisabeth Schmitz (1893–1977). In: H-Soz-Kult . June 5, 2007, accessed September 3, 2019 .
↑ Film premiere “Marlies Flesch-Thebesius - The contradictory is part of the truthful”. In: prinz.de. Archived from the original on December 30, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Flesch-Thebesius, Marlies
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German journalist, theologian and author
DATE OF BIRTH	March 13, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH	December 31, 2018
Place of death	Frankfurt am Main

[1] Astrid Standhartínger: Marlies Flesch-Thebesius . In: Hannelore Erhart (ed.): Lexicon of early Protestant theologians. Biographical sketches . Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2005, p. 113.

[2] Peter Hanack: Standing up for justice. In: FR.online . January 3, 2019, accessed September 3, 2019 .

[3] Flesch-Thebesius, Max. Hessische Biographie. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

[4] Film premiere in the new old walls. In: frankfurt.de. May 18, 2012, archived from the original on April 26, 2014 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 . Talking about silence: The message of Marlies Flesch-Thebesius from Frankfurt. In: roemer9.de . Archived from the original on December 3, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 . Lecture on Marlies Flesch-Thebesius. In: fnp.de . Archived from the original on April 8, 2016 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .

[5] Baptized, cast out, forgotten. In: fnp.de. January 29, 2012, archived from the original on February 6, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .

[6] Pastor Martin Schmidt with his wife in 1960. In: ffmhist.de. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 (photo).

[7] Marlies Flesch-Thebesius (middle, in white dress) on March 31, 1935, freshly confirmed. In: ffmhist.de. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 . Lutz Becht: The Protestant Church between 1918 and 1933 as a confirmant in the church struggle 1933–35. In: frankfurt1933-1945.de. January 1, 2008, accessed September 3, 2019 .

[8] Hartmut Schmidt: "Basic mood cheerfully": Marlies Flesch-Thebesius is a passionate journalist and theologian. November 2004, archived from the original on March 3, 2013 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .

[9] A keen look outside: The Frankfurt theologian and author Marlies Flesch-Thebesius celebrated her 95th birthday. In: frankfurt-evangelisch.de. March 18, 2015, archived from the original on April 21, 2016 ; accessed on April 21, 2016 .

[10] Hansjörg Buss: Contours of a forgotten biography. Elisabeth Schmitz (1893–1977). In: H-Soz-Kult . June 5, 2007, accessed September 3, 2019 .

[11] Film premiere “Marlies Flesch-Thebesius - The contradictory is part of the truthful”. In: prinz.de. Archived from the original on December 30, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .