Max Meinertz

Max Meinertz (born December 19, 1880 in Braunsberg , † December 18, 1965 in Münster ) was a Catholic theologian and New Testament scholar .

Life

Meinertz, son of the grammar school director Otto Meinertz, spent his childhood and youth in Poznan . When the father became a provincial school councilor in 1895, the family moved to Breslau . Meinertz graduated from high school here and studied Semitic philology for two semesters . He then studied - interrupted by an interim semester in Bonn - Catholic theology in Braunsberg. After his ordination on April 26, 1903, he went to Strasbourg and received his doctorate there in 1904. After a year as chaplain in Glottau and in Königsberg , he completed his habilitation in 1906 at the University of Bonn with a thesis on Jesus' position on the mission of the Gentiles.

After teaching in Bonn and Braunsberg, Meinertz became a full professor at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster, succeeding Augustinus Bludau , who had been appointed Bishop of Warmia . Meinertz taught in Münster until his retirement on April 1st, 1950. Among his students is the Erfurt New Testament scholar Heinz Schürmann .

As a student, Meinertz became a member of the Catholic student associations Unitas-Breslau and Arminia Bonn , in Münster honorary philistine of the K.St.V. Ravensberg, all in the KV , to which Meinertz was loyal all his life.

Act

In addition to numerous other works, Meinertz was one of the first Catholic theologians to publish a detailed overall presentation of New Testament theology on a scientifically high level.

In 1920/21 Meinertz was Rector of the University of Münster and in 1947/48 Vice Rector, three times he was dean of the theological faculty. In 1920 he founded the “Working Group on Theological Faculties in Germany”, and in 1932 he became a board member of the Görres Society .

Honors

Because of his close relationships with the Catholic Banat Swabians , Meinertz became consistorial councilor of the Diocese of Temesvár in 1928 . Meinertz was the papal house prelate , honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959.

Works (selection)

• New Testament Theology (1950)
• Encounters in My Life (1956)

literature

• Christoph Schmitt:  Meinertz, Max. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 16, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-079-4 , Sp. 1047-1051.
• N. Adler: On the Word of Life - Festschrift for Max Meinertz (1950)
• H. Preuschhoff in Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 1st part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 2). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1991, ISBN 3-923621-55-8 , p. 67 f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Max Meinertz in the catalog of the German National Library

predecessor	Office	successor
Gerhard Schmidt	Rector of the University of Münster 1931–1932	Rudolf Rosemann