Oskar Thulin

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Oskar Thulin

Oskar Thulin (born October 13, 1898 in Aschersleben , † February 18, 1971 in Lutherstadt Wittenberg ) was a German Protestant theologian , art and Reformation scholar. From 1930 to 1969 he was the first full-time director of the Lutherhalle Museum in Wittenberg.

Life

Childhood, youth and education

Thulin was born the son of a craftsman (tailor) who immigrated from Sweden and a German mother. The family soon moved to Halle . There he attended high school . After graduating from high school , he studied theology in Halle from 1917 to 1921. At this time he was involved in the youth movement reformed college guild Pachantei . His most important teacher was the professor of church history and Christian archeology Johannes Ficker . He turned Thulin's interest into Christian art . Thulin remained connected to this topic all his life. From 1918 to 1920 Thulin belonged to the Freikorps Halle, from 1919 to 1923 to the Freikorps Oberland .

During his assistantship at Ficker from 1923 to 1925, he prepared his dissertation. From 1925 to 1927 he completed his ecclesiastical training, beginning with the vicariate , then the second theological exam and ordination as a pastor . Subsequently, a Reich scholarship enabled him to work at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome until 1929 .

From starting your career to the end of the war

On January 1, 1930, Thulin began his service as the first full-time director of the Luther Hall Museum in Wittenberg. The museum is located in the Luther House , the former house of Martin Luther , and houses the largest collection of Reformation history of the world.

On January 15, 1930, the University of Halle awarded him the title of licentiate in theology for the work of John the Baptist in the spiritual drama of the Middle Ages and the Reformation . In 1933 he completed his habilitation in Halle with the work The Christ Statuette in the Museo Nazionale Romano . The University of Halle appointed him on May 13, 1933 as a private lecturer at the theological faculty.

Like many Thulin at the time, the National Socialists who came to power in 1933 expected a renewal that would give the church more influence . From the very beginning, the new state emphasized the importance of Martin Luther for the German people. With his entry into the National Socialist German Workers' Party on April 1, 1933, Thulin hoped for better opportunities for himself and his museum. On October 1, 1933, he also joined the Sturmabteilung (SA). He did not hold party offices. On October 10, 1934, he married the pastor's daughter Irmgard Lohmann and moved with her into the former farm building next to the Lutherhaus, which had been converted into a director's house. Six children were born to the couple. In 1935 he received a teaching position for Christian archeology and Reformation studies from the theological faculty of the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg . On March 2, 1940 he was appointed associate professor in Halle. Thulin partially redesigned the permanent exhibition in the Lutherhaus and created several special exhibitions.

From the end of the war to death

As a former member of the NSDAP, Thulin lost his teaching position at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg at the end of 1945. In Wittenberg, in the course of denazification, his nominal management of the Luther Hall was withdrawn. However, he was allowed to continue his work in the Lutherhalle under the part-time director, Kliche, but with the low salary of a research assistant. It was not until 1952 that he was reinstated as the nominal leader.

After the major war damage had been repaired and the items in the collection had been retrieved, Thulin was able to reopen the Luther Hall on February 18, 1946, on the 400th anniversary of Martin Luther's death. Soon there were special exhibitions and other museum rooms were redesigned.

In 1955 Thulin received a teaching position for Christian archeology and church art at the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig . He held lectures and exercises and organized an annual study trip until he was seriously ill in 1964. The theological faculty of the University of Erlangen awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1956 . Since 1930 Thulin has been teaching Christian art in the Evangelical Preachers' Seminar , which was housed in the neighboring Augusteum. From 1948 to 1960 there was the Evangelical Preacher's School in Wittenberg, where Thulin also taught. Thulin was a member of the leadership group of the Evangelical Academy of Saxony-Anhalt, founded in Wittenberg in 1947 . Until 1963, he held annual conferences with Christian artists in the Luther Hall.

In the lecture room of the Luther Hall, the refectory , Thulin invited interested citizens of Wittenberg from 1947 to 1964 as part of the Luther Hall working group to give lectures and presentations on topics from the history of the Reformation and Christian art. A study trip was undertaken every year. In 1964, Thulin fell seriously ill. With limited working hours, he was able to manage the museum until he retired in the summer of 1969. He died on February 18, 1971 in Wittenberg and was buried in the local cemetery.

Thulin had been a member of the Luther Society since 1930 and a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute since 1939 . He has published books, numerous academic papers and articles for lexicons. A complete bibliography can be found in Christian Mai. His book Martin Luther. His life in pictures and contemporary documents appeared in 1958 in the FRG and in 1963 in the GDR . It was translated into English for the 1966 US edition. The richly illustrated volume Cranach Altars of the Reformation appeared in 1955 and became the standard work of the Lucas Cranach literature. Extensive lectures on Christian art and the history of the Reformation took him throughout Germany (GDR and FRG) and in numerous countries (including Sweden , Finland , Hungary , Italy ).

Work in the Lutherhalle

Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

Luther House

The museum, founded in 1883 as the Luther Hall, called the Luther House since 2003, houses the largest collection of Reformation history in the world. From the time it was founded, the museum was looked after by the respective director ("Ephorus") of the Evangelical Preachers' Seminar located in the neighboring Augusteum on a part-time basis . A board of trustees, in which representatives of the Free State of Prussia and the Church of the Old Prussian Union sat, acted as the supervisory authority and existed until 1945. On January 1, 1930, Thulin became the first full-time director. State and church contributed to his salary: two thirds came from the Free State of Prussia , one third came from the Evangelical Upper Church Council of the Church of the Old Prussian Union. Thulin saw running the museum as his life's work. He stayed here until he retired in 1969 .

From the beginning, Thulin set particular priorities in his work. In addition to the presentation of historical pamphlets in numerous exhibition tables (as in the existing exhibition), working with the people who came to the Luther Hall was important to him. Influenced by his teacher Johannes Ficker , he wanted to find better access to the visitors through “perception”. More picture exhibits and more explanatory signs were used. In his book The Scientific Principle of the Luther Hall in Wittenberg , he described his museum educational objectives. In the refectory , the former dining room of the monastery, he created a space for lectures, conferences and special exhibitions. He organized larger exhibitions in 1934 on the subject of 400 years of the German Bible and in 1936 for Johannes Bugenhagen's 450th birthday.

During the Second World War , Thulin arranged for the most important parts of the collections to be relocated. The collection items were packed in 110 boxes and distributed to 11 villages in the vicinity of Lutherstadt Wittenberg , some of them by estate managers who were personally known to Thulin. Some important documents were stored in the vault of the local savings bank. In 1945 bombs fell near the Luther House and caused damage to the house.

Museum director in the GDR

Since Thulin was allowed to continue working under certain conditions after the end of the war, he devoted himself to the repair of war damage and the return of the evacuated collections. He received support from the Soviet occupying forces. On February 18, 1946, he was able to reopen the Lutherhalle.

After 1945 the state ended the church's ability to participate in the museum. The Luther Hall Board of Trustees was abolished. In the following years, Thulin was able to redesign most of the exhibition rooms on the first and second floors of the Lutherhaus and make them more clearly arranged. In 1951 he showed a highly regarded exhibition on Martin Luther during the Kirchentag in Berlin. He succeeded in presenting this exposition in 1952 in Hanover at the conference of the Lutheran World Federation . In 1953, the Luther Hall, next to the Castle Museum in Weimar, was the central exhibition venue for the GDR honors on the 400th anniversary of Lucas Cranach the Elder's death . In 1960 Thulin was able to organize a much-visited special exhibition on the 400th anniversary of Philipp Melanchthon's death . During the GDR era, it was Thulin’s credit that the Lutherhalle remained a museum for Luther and was not converted into a museum of the early bourgeois revolution with the highlights of the Peasant War and Thomas Müntzer . In 1959, the sharpest attack by the state took place, which it was possible to repel with the support of the Western churches and the Lutheran churches , especially from the Scandinavian countries.

Since then, the church, partly supported by the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (GDR) (CDU), has endeavored to revive the Luther Hall Board of Trustees, which is made up of representatives of the state and the church. As part of the preparations for the celebrations planned for the 450th anniversary of the Reformation in the GDR, discussions took place in the Ministry of Culture (GDR) and in the CDU executive committee. As a result, at the end of 1965, under the chairmanship of the mayor of Lutherstadt Wittenberg, an advisory board of the Lutherhalle was appointed, which also included three church representatives. In the history of the GDR, a more comprehensive presentation of the early bourgeois revolution prevailed after 1960, which was largely shaped by the Leipzig historian Max Steinmetz . Martin Luther was no longer devalued compared to Thomas Müntzer, and the Reformation movement was perceived independently alongside the Peasants' War.

For the Martin Luther anniversary in 1967, Thulin was able to present an exhibition that had been technically modernized in all rooms, the contents of which, however, remained essentially unchanged.

Works (selection)

  • The Christ statuette in the Museo Nazionale Romano. In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department . Volume 44, 1929, pp. 201-259.
  • John the Baptist in the spiritual drama of the Middle Ages and the Reformation period. In: Studies on Christian Monuments. Issue 19, 1930.
  • The Lutherstadt Wittenberg and Torgau ( Deutsche Lande - German Art ). German Art Publishing House, Berlin 1932.
  • The scientific principle of the Lutherhalle in Wittenberg. In: Luther yearbook. Volume 15, 1933, pp. 176-198.
  • The image of Christ from the time of the catacombs. Lutheran Publishing House, Berlin 1954.
  • Cranachaltars of the Reformation. Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1955.
  • Martin Luther. His life in pictures and contemporary documents. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1958. Edition in the GDR: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Berlin 1963. English edition in the USA: A Life of Luther - Told in Pictures and Narrative by the Reformer and his Contemporaries . Translated by MO Dietrich. Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1966.
  • Praise to God in the language of church architecture. Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1960.
  • Christian art calendar for the glory of God. 19 years 1953–1971, Wartburg-Verlag Max Keßler, Jena.

Editions u. a.

  • Reformation in Europe. Edition Leipzig 1967. Editions in English, Swedish and Dutch.

literature

  • Max Steinmetz: The early bourgeois revolution in Germany (1476-1535 ). In: Journal of History . Volume 8, 1960, pp. 113–124.
  • Ronny Kabus: State Luther Hall Wittenberg - 100 years of the Reformation History Museum. In: Series of publications by the State Luther Hall in Wittenberg. Issue 1/1984.
  • Ronny Kabus: Treasures of the Luther Hall between destruction and preservation. In: Series of publications by the State Luther Hall in Wittenberg. Issue 2/1986, pp. 1-7.
  • Wolfdietrich von Kloeden :  THULIN, Oskar. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 11, Bautz, Herzberg 1996, ISBN 3-88309-064-6 , Sp. 1513-1515.
  • Hartmut Mai: Prof. D. Dr. Oskar Thulin (October 13, 1898 - February 18, 1971) . In: Hostels of Christianity. Yearbook for German Church History. Volume 23, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-374-01761-4 , pp. 111-118.
  • Christian Mai: Oskar Thulin. Bibliography. In: Hostels of Christianity. Yearbook for German Church History. Volume 23, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-374-01761-4 , pp. 119–125.
  • Friedrich Winter: The Evangelical Church of the Union and the German Democratic Republic. Relationships and effects. In: Unio and Confessio. Volume 22, Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 2001, Chapter 4.3.4 The EKU in Wittenberg , 4.3.4.1 Lutherhalle , pp. 328–332.
  • Stefan Laube: The Lutherhaus Wittenberg - a museum story . In: Writings of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt. Volume 3, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-374-02052-6 , pp. 266–342.
  • Christian Mai: The contribution of Oskar Thulin (1898–1971) for education and science in Wittenberg after 1945. In: Wissensspuren. Education and science in Wittenberg after 1945. Edited by Jens Hüttermann and Peer Pasternack . Drei Kastanien Verlag, Lutherstadt Wittenberg 2004, ISBN 3-933028-85-X , pp. 71-82.
  • Jan Scheunemann: Luther and Müntzer in the museum. German-German reception stories (= writings of the Luther Memorials Foundation in Saxony-Anhalt. Volume 20). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-374-04058-2 , pp. 31–40, 47–79, 121–155, 163–177, 208–216.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Entry on Oskar Thulin in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis
  2. ↑ Stefan Laube: The Luther House Wittenberg . P. 266.
  3. ^ Oskar Thulin: John the Baptist in a spiritual drama .
  4. ^ Oskar Thulin: The Christ statuette in the Museo Nazionale Romano .
  5. ↑ Stefan Laube: The Luther House Wittenberg . P. 330
  6. ↑ Ronny Kabus: Treasures of the Luther Hall . P. 40
  7. ↑ Hartmut Mai: Prof. D. Dr. Oskar Thulin . P. 116 ff.
  8. ^ Christian Mai: The contribution of Oskar Thulin for education and science . P. 75.
  9. ^ Christian Mai: Oskar Thulin Bibliography . Pp. 119-125.
  10. ^ Christian Mai: The contribution of Oskar Thulin for education and science . P. 79.
  11. ^ A b Friedrich Winter: The Evangelical Church of the Union . P. 328.
  12. ^ Oskar Thulin: The Scientific Principle of the Luther Hall .
  13. ↑ Stefan Laube: The Luther House Wittenberg . P. 308.
  14. ↑ Ronny Kabus: Treasures of the Luther Hall . Pp. 1-7.
  15. ↑ Hartmut Mai: Prof. D. Dr. Oskar Thulin . P. 114.
  16. ↑ Stefan Laube: The Luther House Wittenberg . Pp. 325-326.
  17. ↑ Friedrich Winter: The Evangelical Church of the Union . Pp. 329-330.
  18. ↑ Max Steinmetz : The early bourgeois revolution in Germany . Pp. 113-124.
personal data
SURNAME Thulin, Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, art and Reformation scholar
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Aschersleben
DATE OF DEATH 18th February 1971
Place of death Lutherstadt Wittenberg