Paul Blau (theologian)

Paul Blau (born May 15, 1861 in Suhl , † December 19, 1944 in Posen ) was a German Protestant theologian and author.

Life

Paul Blau was the son of the Prussian consul Otto Blau (1828–1879), who was an orientalist and Slavist in the diplomatic service, among others, in the Ottoman- Bosnian Sarajevo and in the Ukrainian Odessa . He attended the Schulpforta boarding school and then studied in Berlin and Tübingen. His first pastoral position for the Evangelical Church of the older provinces of Prussia was in Haynrode in 1885 , at the time the church province of Saxony. In the same year he took up a pastor's office in Jüterbog , ecclesiastical province of Brandenburg, which he held until 1897. He switched to the Augusta Hospital and the Kaiserin Augusta Foundation in Berlin as a pastor, and in 1902 he became court preacher.

As superintendent in Wernigerode (ecclesiastical province of Saxony), the meanwhile twice widowed Blau founded the "Apologetic Seminar" in 1909, which was later renamed the Luther Academy, had its seat in Sondershausen from 1932 and was headed by Carl Stange . Paul Blau was always present as a speaker at the individual conferences during the Luther Academy meetings. In 1943 he still gave the keynote address entitled “I and We, Individual and Community”. During this time he began to publish books on questions of faith and help in life, from 1938 he published his memoirs.

As successor to Johannes Ezekiel , Blau was general superintendent of the old Prussian church province of Posen from 1911 . In 1920 their area was mainly assigned to Poland. This started a difficult time for Blau, in which he had to lead his church in a Catholic country, having long since been in poor health.

When the Polish government finally banned a cross-border Protestant church fellowship on July 1, 1920, the Poznan provincial church leadership under blue dissolved the unity with the old Prussian regional church and fought for recognition as an independent church by the Republic of Poland. So the ecclesiastical province of Posen - without the parishes remaining in Germany - became independent as the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland . General Superintendent Blau became head of the new church with the same title and function.

Blau opposed the state-imposed attempt to subordinate the church to the Warsaw Consistory of the Augsburg Church of former Russian Poland under General Superintendent Juliusz Bursche . Blue won the Pomeranian Protestant parishes, which did not come to Poland when the Free City of Danzig was created, and the parishes in the former East Prussian district of Soldau to join the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland.

Blau's task was made more difficult by the mass emigration of the German population of Poznan - and thus many Protestants - to the German Empire . The state recognition for the Uniate Evangelical Church was missing.

In addition, the Polish authorities caused difficulties for Poles with German speakers who wanted to study theology at a German university. In his function as “General Superintendent of the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland”, he founded a theological school and a seminary for preachers in 1921. In the theological training, Blau worked with General Superintendent Paul Kalweit from the Regional Synodal Association of the Free City of Danzig , which was a member of the Old Prussian Church, because Poland and the Free City had visa-free travel.

The relationship with Bursche and the Evangelical-Augsburg Church remained tense, and the traditionally difficult relations between the Uniate and the Old Lutherans ( Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poland (Kościół Ewangelicko-Luterański w Polsce) ) could have been better. In contrast, the relations with the Evangelical Church A. u. H. B. in Lesser Poland (Kościoł Ewangelicki Augsburskiego i Helweckiego Wyznania w Małopolsce) under Superintendent Theodor Zöckler and to the Uniate Evangelical Church in Polish Upper Silesia .

When Blau wanted to travel home from Germany to Poznan from a cure in the summer of 1939, the Polish government refused him entry. He only returned there after the German conquest of Poznan. After the Polish annexation of Poznan, Blau had made use of the right, enshrined in the Treaty of Versailles, to opt for the previous citizenship . So he did not become Polish, but remained German and kept his place of residence in Poznan. Therefore, as a German abroad, he was subject to the Polish Aliens Act and could therefore also be expelled from the country. Most of his church members, on the other hand, were part of the minority of ethnically German Poles , who as citizens had the right to freely reside in Poland.

With the German conquest and annexation of the Polish territories, which included the territory of the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland , some things changed, but not for the better. The Protestant parishes in the area of the newly formed Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia were merged with the Evangelical Church of the Free City to form the church area Danzig-West Prussia under Danzig's Bishop Johannes Beermann and were again subject to the Old Prussian Church.

The remaining church area of the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland was completely in the area of the National Socialist model dictatorship Reichsgau Wartheland . Here the church struggle came into its own. The religious community now called Evangelical Church in Wartheland did not gain state recognition as a public corporation on the German side, but was henceforth an association.

Reichsstatthalter Arthur Greiser wanted to keep the influence and work of the churches as low as possible. Because the brutalization of the German occupiers and settlers in the course of the murderously executed national politics, which included the extermination and expulsion of the Polish-speaking population, should not be disturbed by Christian exhortations to divine commandments. When Hanns Kerrl wanted to extend the jurisdiction of his German Reich Church Ministry to the Wartheland in 1940 , Greiser rejected this with the greatest support.

While Catholic priests with the Polish tongue, pastors of the Polish -speaking Augsburg Church and rabbis in the Warthegau were murdered and otherwise expelled in large numbers, German-speaking pastors were tolerated, but only on the condition that they did not criticize the ubiquitous violent crimes. Blue could hardly do anything to counter this development. He died in Poznan in the final phase of the war in 1944.

Works (selection)

Life riddle. Three apologetic treatises on suffering, death, and the like Sin , 1910
Our faith. 16 sermons following the Apostles' Creed , 1911
Practical pastoral care in individual pictures from your work . Ed. With men from the pastoral practice of Paul Blau, Hamburg 1912
How it whispers and whispers in the green forest . Fairy tales (with Anna Blau), 1914
Art of living. A guide to happiness in life , 1915
Parish office and pastoral care , 1927
Life and Work of a German Abroad in the Last Century. Memories of Dr. Otto Blau , 1928
Uphill! The story of a life wandering .

I: Departure. Childhood and Adolescent Memories , 1938

II: rise. Candidate period and first years of office , 1939

III: mountain summer. Term of office in Wernigerode and Posen until 1920 , 1941

IV: Autumn Storms , 1942

Beyond. Human issues and God's answer , 1941

Remembrance day

December 19 in the Evangelical Name Calendar

literature

Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : Blue, Paul. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 617-618. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
Hermann Strathmann: Blue, Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 293 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Literature by and about Paul Blau in the catalog of the German National Library
Paul Blau in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
Hugo Rasmus: Blue, Paul . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)

Remarks

^ Richard Blanke: Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland, 1918-1939. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 1993, ISBN 0-8131-1803-4 , p. 79seq.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hugo Rasmus: Blau, Paul . In: Ostdeutsche Biographie (Kulturportal West-Ost), accessed on May 3, 2012.
^ Wilhelm Hüffmeier : The Evangelical Church of the Union: A brief historical orientation. In: "... according to the great purposes of Christianity" - The Evangelical Church of the Union 1817 to 1992. A handout for the communities. Published by the church chancellery of the Evangelical Church of the Union, edited by Wilhelm Hüffmeier. Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 1992, ISBN 3-7858-0346-X , pp. 13–28, here p. 22.
↑ Olgierd Kiec: Kościoły ewangelickie w Wielkopolsce wobec kwestii narodowościowej w latach 1918–1939. Upowszechnianie Nauki Oświata, Warszawa 1995, ISBN 83-85618-21-X (German The Evangelical Churches in the Poznań Voivodeship 1918–1939 (= sources and studies, German Historical Institute Warsaw / Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie ; Vol. 8) by Siegfried Schmidt, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04030-0 , p. 85).
^ Eduard Kneifel: History of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. Self-published, Niedermarschacht 1964, p. 17.
↑ Blau had probably trusted that Poland would not expel him from the country as a theologian respected by the Lutheran World Federation . See Hugo Rasmus, Blau, Paul . In: Ostdeutsche Biografie (Kulturportal West-Ost), accessed on November 24, 2018.
↑ Claus Wagener: National Socialist Church Policy and Protestant Churches after 1933. In: Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, Claus Wagener (eds.): Church battle in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 city stories (= studies on church and Judaism, vol. 18) . Institut Kirche und Judentum, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-923095-61-9 , pp. 76–96, here p. 95.
↑ Gunnar Heinsohn : How does the Holocaust differ from the other genocides in Hitler's Germany? Lecture given for the German-Israeli Society , Berlin, April 22, 1999 in the parish hall of the Jewish Community in Berlin , p. 3.
↑ Barbara Krüger, Peter Noss: The structures in the Evangelical Church 1933-1945. In: Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, Claus Wagener (eds.): Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932-1945: 42 city stories (= studies on church and Judaism, vol. 18). Institut Kirche und Judentum, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-923095-61-9 , pp. 149–171, here p. 167.

predecessor	Office	successor
John Ezekiel	General superintendent of the ecclesiastical province of Posen of the Evangelical Church of the older provinces of Prussia 1911 - 1919	himself ( for the independent church province ) Alfred Kiehl (from 1924 general superintendent of the church province Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia)
(1) himself ( Prov. Posen ) and (2) Wilhelm Reinhard ( Prov. West Prussia )	General Superintendent of the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland 1920 - 1940	(1) himself ( for the reduced church ) and (2) Johannes Beermann ( for the old Prussian church area Danzig-West Prussia )
himself ( for the larger church )	General Superintendent of the Evangelical Church in Wartheland 1940 - 1944	none ( Ev. church in Wartheland perished )

personal data
SURNAME	Blue, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Protestant theologian and author
DATE OF BIRTH	May 15, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH	Suhl
DATE OF DEATH	December 19, 1944
Place of death	Poses

[1] Richard Blanke: Orphans of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland, 1918-1939. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 1993, ISBN 0-8131-1803-4 , p. 79seq.

[Rasmus-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hugo Rasmus: Blau, Paul . In: Ostdeutsche Biographie (Kulturportal West-Ost), accessed on May 3, 2012.

[Hüffmeier_1992_22-3] Wilhelm Hüffmeier : The Evangelical Church of the Union: A brief historical orientation. In: "... according to the great purposes of Christianity" - The Evangelical Church of the Union 1817 to 1992. A handout for the communities. Published by the church chancellery of the Evangelical Church of the Union, edited by Wilhelm Hüffmeier. Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 1992, ISBN 3-7858-0346-X , pp. 13–28, here p. 22.

[4] Olgierd Kiec: Kościoły ewangelickie w Wielkopolsce wobec kwestii narodowościowej w latach 1918–1939. Upowszechnianie Nauki Oświata, Warszawa 1995, ISBN 83-85618-21-X (German The Evangelical Churches in the Poznań Voivodeship 1918–1939 (= sources and studies, German Historical Institute Warsaw / Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie ; Vol. 8) by Siegfried Schmidt, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04030-0 , p. 85).

[Kneifel_1964_17-5] Eduard Kneifel: History of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. Self-published, Niedermarschacht 1964, p. 17.

[6] Blau had probably trusted that Poland would not expel him from the country as a theologian respected by the Lutheran World Federation . See Hugo Rasmus, Blau, Paul . In: Ostdeutsche Biografie (Kulturportal West-Ost), accessed on November 24, 2018.

[7] Claus Wagener: National Socialist Church Policy and Protestant Churches after 1933. In: Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, Claus Wagener (eds.): Church battle in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 city stories (= studies on church and Judaism, vol. 18) . Institut Kirche und Judentum, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-923095-61-9 , pp. 76–96, here p. 95.

[8] Gunnar Heinsohn : How does the Holocaust differ from the other genocides in Hitler's Germany? Lecture given for the German-Israeli Society , Berlin, April 22, 1999 in the parish hall of the Jewish Community in Berlin , p. 3.

[9] Barbara Krüger, Peter Noss: The structures in the Evangelical Church 1933-1945. In: Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, Claus Wagener (eds.): Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932-1945: 42 city stories (= studies on church and Judaism, vol. 18). Institut Kirche und Judentum, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-923095-61-9 , pp. 149–171, here p. 167.