Otto von Dorrien

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Otto August Carl von Dorrien (born June 14, 1889 in Plön ; † April 7, 1945 near Königsberg ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian and member of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein . He belonged to the Christian resistance against National Socialism .

Life

Dorrien was the son of Christian Otto Michael von Dorrien (1839-1902) and his wife Mechtilde Elisabeth Wilhelmine, née Stemann.

He was a volunteer in World War I and was wounded several times. Most recently, Dorrien was a fighter pilot for Fighter Wing No. I, Freiherr von Richthofen. After the end of the First World War, he studied theology and married, from this marriage had five children.

Report on his letter to Adolf Hitler

Otto von Dorrien was considered a courageous man and in public he did not shy away from taking a stand against the emerging National Socialism . For this behavior he was also vigorously attacked in Uetersen. When the Nazis got stronger and stronger and also determined the leadership in the church as German Christians , Otto von Dorrien began to fight against it with many other pastors. So he joined forces with them to form the Confessing Church , which tried to form a church that was independent of the state. Above all, he and many others held fast to the traditional Christian creed and resisted a national , heroic and Aryan image of Jesus.

Dorrien was pastor at the monastery church in Uetersen from 1930 to 1945 . Various eyewitnesses report that he also had to endure personal danger. The Gestapo showed up at his church services and observed him during his sermons. Presumably it was only due to the fact that von Dorrien, as a member and aviator of the Richthofen Squadron in World War I, whose commander had temporarily been Hermann Göring , had too much reputation to be arrested.

In 1932 he wrote an open letter to Adolf Hitler in which he asked: “Do you consider it positive Christianity when one of your leaders at the grave of a murdered SA man says: Comrade, we will avenge you, even if it is against God's will ". There was no answer to the letter.

Von Dorrien was drafted into the Wehrmacht at the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 . He fell in command of the fortress at the Battle of Königsberg on April 7, 1945.

He was deeply rooted in the national thought, at times strict in his preaching, but a man of deep faith and a popular pastor. Above all, the Christian education of the youth was close to his heart.

Theodor Vierck , a former companion of Otto von Dorrien, wrote about him: “When he met his old comrades in Berlin once a year in later times, he never missed an opportunity there to clearly acknowledge his status as a pastor and his personal beliefs testify, also in the Third Reich as a member and representative of the Confessing Church. The speeches that he had to give as a part-time military chaplain at swearing-in sessions were not patriotic speeches, but Christian sermons, unabridged and unadulterated. "

Fonts

  • Family tree of the Dorrien family (1906)
  • The Journey of the Knights: A Legend from Our Time (1920)
  • Your marriage . Issue 15, self-published by the Office for People's Mission, Breklum (1937)

literature

  • Theodor Vierck: Otto von Dorrien , in: Wolfgang Prehn u. a. (Ed.): Time to walk the narrow path. Witnesses report on the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein , Kiel: Lutherische Verlagsgesellschaft 1985, pp. 179–181.
  • Lothar Mosler : Uetersen Focus: History and Stories (Heydorn Verlag, Uetersen 1985)
  • Lothar Mosler: Uetersen Air Base, Marseille-Kaserne: A Documentation of Local History (Heydorn Verlag, Uetersen 1987)
  • Mogens Kragsig Jensen: Stamtavle over slægten Dorrien , in: Danmarks Adels Aarbog 2006-08 (Syddansk Universitetsforlag 2009).
  • Karl Ludwig Kohlwage , Manfred Kamper, Jens-Hinrich Pörksen (eds.): “You will be my witnesses!” Voices for the preservation of a denominational church in urgent times. The Breklumer Hefte of the ev.-luth. Confessional community in Schleswig-Holstein from 1935 to 1941. Sources on the history of the church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein . Compiled and edited by Peter Godzik , Husum: Matthiesen Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-7868-5308-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reprinted in: Kohlwage, Kamper, Pörksen (ed.): “You will be my witnesses!” ... , Husum 2018, p. 346 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Dorrien, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dorrien, Otto August Carl von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, member of the Confessing Church
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Plön
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1945
Place of death near Königsberg (Prussia)