Otto Fretzdorff

Otto Fretzdorff

Otto Fretzdorff (born December 19, 1881 in Stralsund ; † November 21, 1950 in Magdeburg ) was the consistorial president of the church province of Saxony in Magdeburg from 1936 to 1945 .

Life

Otto Fretzdorff studied law at the University of Greifswald and the University of Leipzig . In Leipzig he became a member of the Leipzig fraternity Dresdensia in the winter semester of 1900 and in 1932 also an honorary admission to the Greifswald fraternity Rugia . In 1907 he was employed at the University of Greifswald with the work Generate the legal transactions concluded by the heir prior to the order of the estate administration in the administration of the estate? (published 1911) as Dr. jur. PhD.

In 1910, Fretzdorff became a court assessor and legal assistant at the consistory of the church province of Pomerania in Stralsund. Since then he has worked in the legal church service of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . From 1918 to 1923 Consistorial Councilor of the Evangelical Consistory of Brandenburg in Berlin, then from 1923 to 1930 in the Evangelical Consistory of the Old Prussian State Synodal Association of the Free City , Danzig , and from 1925 Senior Consistorial Councilor in Magdeburg, Church Province of Saxony. In terms of church politics, he represented the position of the German Christians .

From 1932 Fretzdorff was head of the finance department and representative of the consistorial president in Berlin. On June 10, 1937, the Reich Church Ministry appointed him consistorial president, an office which he held until 1945 - as the successor to Ernst Loycke. He was explicitly assigned not only the administration, but also the spiritual direction of the church province (“one-man church”) - with the 17th implementing regulation for the law to safeguard the German Evangelical Church, the “Enabling Act” for the Reich Church Minister. As a German-Christian administrative officer, he tried to consistently enforce this claim, which at the same time helped the German Christians to regain ground in many institutions and communities in the ecclesiastical province. The Confessing Church belonging vicars were, however, exposed to severe repression in part.

At the urging of the new old Prussian church leadership, Fretzdorff had to resign on August 15, 1945; he took over the legal position of conductor in the consistory. In 1946 he was reappointed senior consistorial councilor.

Otto Fretzdorff had two daughters, Annemarie and Brigitte (married Wenzlau).

literature

• Theological Real Encyclopedia-Gerhard Krause, Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Müller, Siegfried M. Schwertner, Claus-Jürgen Thornton, p. 584.
• Harald Schultze (Ed.): Reports of the Magdeburg church leadership on the conferences of the Provincial Synod 1946-1989. P. 629.
• Werner Reusch: Cronik of the Leipzig fraternity Dresdensia , Ratingen 2009
• Werner Reusch: Regular role of the B! Dresdensia Leipzig from 1853-1899 , Giessen 2006
• Thomas Großbölting: Evangelical Christians in National Socialism and in the early GDR. The ecclesiastical province of Saxony , in: From the Babylonian captivity of the Church in the National, Berlin 2006, p. 215
• Martin Onnasch : About ecclesiastical power and spiritual authority. A contribution to the history of the church struggle in the church province of Saxony 1932-1945 , Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 2010