Otto Maercker

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Otto Maercker (born April 25, 1899 in Ludwigslust ; † March 24, 1978 in Mölln ; full name: Otto August Martin Ludwig Maercker ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman whose conviction in 1957 for inciting boycotts in a show trial as a signal of repressive church policy GDR was seen.

Life

Otto Maercker was a son of the Ludwigslust rector and later pastor in Vipperow and from 1910 in Burow Carl (Martin Friedrich Adolf) Maercker (1864-1921). He attended the Friedrich-Franz-Gymnasium (Parchim) and did military service in the First World War . In 1918 he was taken prisoner in Canada , from which he returned in 1919. From October 1919 he studied Protestant theology at the Universities of Rostock and Berlin . In April 1921 he returned to the University of Rostock, interrupted his studies in 1922 and re-enrolled for the winter semester 1922/23. In 1923 he attended the seminary in Schwerin and in 1924 the Bethel Candidate Convict near Bielefeld .

In 1924 he became assistant preacher in Schwaan and in 1926 parish administrator in Blücher, today part of possession (Mecklenburg) . In the church struggle he belonged to the Confessing Church , was banned from speaking in 1933 and was dismissed in 1935 by the German-Christian- dominated Oberkirchenrat. Only after an eviction process in 1938 did he leave the community and find a job in Mölln (Mecklenburg) .

After the end of the Second World War he took over a regular pastor's position in Pampow and became provost. In 1957 there was a massive state campaign and trial against him because he was accused of denying the burial of the 19-year-old daughter of the LPG chairman von Holthusen because of her participation in the youth consecration in the church cemetery. According to the church, Maercker had simply refused a church funeral service and referred to the place in the cemetery for the grave for the non-religious population . In the course of just this year escalating clashes between church and state, the question Confirmation versus Jugendweihe Maercker received in a DDR-wide published procedures a conviction for incitement to boycott a prison sentence of two years and six months.

After completing his sentence in the Bautzen II prison , Maercker left the GDR, went to the West and took up residence in Mölln ( Duchy of Lauenburg district ). A great nephew is the psychologist Andreas Maercker .

Uwe Johnson took up the case in 1969 in his Berlin speech on the Day of Repentance and Prayer .

literature

  • Stephan Sehlke: The spiritual Boizenburg: Education and the educated in and from the Boizenburg area from the 13th century to 1945 . ISBN 978-3-8448-0423-2 , pp. 290 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Felix Robin Schulz: Death in East Germany, 1945-1990. New York: Berghahn Books 2013 ISBN 978-178-238-013-9 (Monographs in German history 35), pp. 98f

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Halbrock : Evangelical Pastors of the Church Berlin-Brandenburg 1945-1961: Official Autonomy in the Guardian State? Berlin: Lukas-Verlag 2004, zugl .: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss., 2003 ISBN 3-936872-18-X , p. 370f
  2. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  3. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  4. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  5. ↑ See also Niklot Beste : The church struggle in Mecklenburg from 1933 to 1945: history, documents, memories. Berlin (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt) / Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, licensed edition; works on the history of the church struggle, supplementary series; 9) 1975 ISBN 3-525-55533-4 , p. 122.
  6. ↑ Christian Halbrock : Evangelical Pastors of the Church Berlin-Brandenburg 1945-1961: Official Autonomy in the Guardian State? Berlin: Lukas-Verlag 2004. Zugl .: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss., 2003 ISBN 3-936872-18-X , p. 370f
  7. ↑ See the critical analysis by Rainer Paasch-Beck: A speech about church and death. Uwe Johnson's speech on the day of repentance. In: Johnson-Jahrbuch 6 (1999), pp. 163-182

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Maercker, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maercker, Otto August Martin Ludwig (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman, whose conviction for boycotting in a show trial was seen as a signal of repressive church policy in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigslust
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1978
Place of death Mölln