Martin Gerhardt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Martin Gerhardt (born December 1, 1894 in Berlin ; † May 27, 1952 in Cologne ) was a German church historian and archivist .

Live and act

Martin Gerhardt was the second of four children of Ernst Oswald Gerhardt and his wife Jenny Otilie Krüger. His father was a high school professor. After childhood in an economically secure, middle-class conservative family, he graduated from high school in 1913. He then studied Protestant theology for three semesters at the University of Tübingen and the University of Berlin . He then volunteered for military service during the First World War . Gerhardt was of the opinion that the German people stood in the tradition of Martin Luther , Friedrich the Great and Otto von Bismarck and had a special historical task to fulfill.

After the end of his military service in March 1919, Gerhardt continued studying theology. In particular Karl Holl and his theological thinking and scientific work shaped Gerhardt, who graduated in 1920. He then intended to become a university professor. Gerhardt went through a vicariate in Potsdam from 1920 to 1922 and received his doctorate in Berlin in 1922 . After his habilitation at the University of Erlangen with a thesis on the old church , he worked at the Erlangen University as a private lecturer for church history and since 1923 as an archivist at the Rauhen Haus in Hamburg . In 1924 he received his doctorate in philosophy in Erlangen. Gerhardt left the university for private reasons.

In Hamburg, Gerhardt dedicated himself to the archive of the Rauhen Haus, which was newly established at the time. He dealt mainly with the estate of Johann Hinrich Wichern , whose works he organized and recorded. Gerhardt thus enabled a scientific study of Wichern's works. In addition, the archivist was committed to a structured archive system for the Inner Mission and can be seen as a pioneer in the historical processing of diakonia.

In 1931 Gerhardt went to Kaiserwerth , where he set up an archive at the local deaconess institution. During the Weimar Republic , the archivist was seen as politically skeptical and resigned due to the deep social and societal rifts. In 1933 he voted for German nationalism, became a member of the NSDAP in 1934 and pursued the idea of ​​a national community . From 1933 to 1936 Gerhardt took an active part in the German Christians . After moving to the University of Göttingen in 1937, he was given a teaching position there and later became the chair of church history. During the Second World War he was an officer in the Wehrmacht . He was a Protestant National Socialist, said Gerhardt looking back in 1946.

Due to a denazification process , the university dismissed him after the war. Gerhardt, who increasingly distanced himself from National Socialism and the German Christians, continued the history of the Inner Mission. He died in Cologne in May 1952.

Works

Martin Gerhardt wrote a three-volume biography about Johann Hinrich Wichern. The work can be regarded as the first such work that meets scientific requirements. During the time at the Kaiserwerther Diakonissenanstalt, the archivist wrote a biography about Theodor Fliedner . Another work on Friedrich von Bodelschwingh remained unfinished and was completed by Alfred Adam after his death .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Gerhardt, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerhardt, Paul Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German church historian and archivist
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1952
Place of death Cologne