Martin Schröter

Martin Schröter (* 1918 ; † 1991 ) was a German Protestant theologian and student pastor .

Life

Schröter was the son of a teacher and a German conservative pastor belonging to the Confessing Church in Breslau . After attending elementary school and completing a high school in Breslau, he obtained his university entrance qualification . Since 1937 he served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht, took part in the war against the Soviet Union and was wounded in the process. After his recovery, and after Germany was liberated by Allied troops, he studied Protestant theology and became a priest ordained . He worked first in a village in Baden, then in Heidelberg and later in Dortmund.

In his first pastor, Schröter was one of the founders of the CDU local association , but left it after discussions about rearmament and switched to the SPD . Since 1958 he was a member and from 1971 to 1974 he was also the chairman of the Evangelical Working Group on Conscientious Objection and Peace (EAK). It went beyond the individual pacifist approach customary in the church . He declared the civilian alternative service to be a future-shaping service, separated it completely from the military service and described it as the actual peace service:

“The peace service without weapons wants to be service for tomorrow ... We know the enemies of tomorrow: hunger and economic underdevelopment, intolerance and discrimination, illiteracy and population explosion. Weapons are no use against these enemies ... Twice our century has seen a general mobilization for the world war. "

Schröter wrote two articles in issue no. 120 of the magazine Theological Existence Today from 1965. In it he wanted to free conscientious objection from the image that it was the private matter of the individual conscience without political relevance and basically without participation in political responsibility.

“The no to military service is… part of the sweeping yes to peace. The initial question is: What do we have to do in a world that - for the sake of human existence - has to learn to live without war? "The conscientious objectors answer:" We are ahead of developments by one leap into the future. We are already doing today what everyone should and may do tomorrow: We no longer do military service. We only commit ourselves to a service that clearly serves peace. "

- (29.30.)

In his second contribution, which is devoted to alternative service, Schröter pleaded that this service should be understood, conceived and designed as a peace service in line with the motivation for conscientious objection. He calls for a politicization of the ZED in this sense. Politicians and the public should understand the political function of this service. The name suggestion "Civil Peace Service" can also be found. (Citations 64-71).

He has worked there since the establishment of the Christian Peace Conference in 1958; However, he left them in 1969. He also took an active part in the Easter marches against nuclear weapons that had been organized since 1961 . He belonged to the group of people who called for this protest.

Martin Schröter served as student pastor at Heidelberg University from 1956 to 1965 . In this context he also became chairman of the Protestant student pastors' conference. In 1964, a collection of his sermons appeared in the Heidelberg university church services , which the well-known Old Testament scholar Gerhard von Rad added a foreword to.

Then he became a pastor in Dortmund . One of his pastors was the then newly emerging Evangelical Shalom Church Community in Dortmund-Neuscharnhorst . Here there was a sensational uproar because of an article intended to be satirical in the Kirchenblatt No. 16/1972 published by him. In it the pastor had printed a children's manifesto , which, in the style of the Communist Manifesto, called for children to protest against those well-tended green spaces where play and romping areas should be created for children who play. After several trials that went through four instances, he was finally acquitted. After provisional suspension from duty by the Church authority and initial punishment with a heavy fine him saying, ultimately, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm free 1975th

Schröter was a member of the EKD conscientious objection committee until 1974. He was also active in helping the disabled. Since 1976 he was synodal commissioner for conscientious objection and community service. Socio-politically he was involved in the Nicaragua solidarity.

Publications

• Courage to love. Berlin: Verlag Käthe Vogt 1962 (on the way; 17)
• Biblical and political peace certificate Usingen / Taunus: Verlag Dt. Mennonite Peace Committee 1963 (The Path of Peace Volume 8)
• Annunciation in the student community: twelve sermons. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1964 (A new plow; H. 13/14)
• Conscientious objection as a Christian decision. Munich: Chr. Kaiser 1965 (Theological Existence Today, NF Issue 120)
• Does peace service have a chance in the Federal Republic? Young Church Publishing 1971
• Hero or murderer? Record of a soldier of Adolf Hitler. Wuppertal: P. Hammer, 1991 (Hambach series) ISBN 3-87294-448-7

literature

• Patrick Bernhard: Community service between reform and revolt: a German institution in the course of social change 1961–1982 . Munich: Oldenbourg, 2005 ( sources and representations on contemporary history; 64 ) ISBN 3-486-57800-6 (on Martin Schröter pp. 83f., 88-90, 362)
• Sibylle Hübner-Funk: Loyalty and delusion: Hitler's guarantors of the future as bearers of the second German democracy . Potsdam Studies; 10. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1998, ISBN 3-932981-11-1 (pp. 120 and 136 on the autobiography hero or murderer? )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Victoria Barnett: For the soul of the people: Protestant protest against Hitler. OUP, New York 1998, ISBN 978-0-19-512118-6 , p. 164.
2. ↑ Barnett, p. 218
3. ↑ kirche-im-ruhrgebiet.de (PDF; 125 kB)
4. ↑ ecunet.de
5. ↑ dkp-online.de
6. ↑ theologie.uni-hd.de ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Since 2010 part of the Evangelical Peace Church Community Dortmund-Nordost through merger
8. ↑ The satire was recognizable. In: Die Zeit , No. 13/1975
9. ↑ Patrick Bernhard: Community service . Munich 2005, p. 84 fn. 137