Paul Gerhard Braune

Paul Gerhard Braune (born December 16, 1887 in Tornow ( Landsberg an der Warthe district ); † September 19, 1954 in Gadderbaum ( Bielefeld district )) was pastor , director of the Hope Valley Institutions Lobetal and "euthanasia" opponents as well as churchman in the GDR .

The first years

Paul Gerhard Braune was born the son of a pastor. After attending grammar school in Eberswalde, he studied theology at the Bethel Church University and the Universities of Halle and Berlin . In Bethel he met Friedrich von Bodelschwingh . After ordination in 1913 he became assistant preacher in Hägermühle near Eberswalde and in 1914 pastor in Hohenkränig near Schwedt / Oder . In 1922 Bodelschwingh called him to Lobetal to the Bodelschwingh Institute there . Braune took over the management of this residential complex for the socially disadvantaged, the disabled and the elderly. At the same time he was elected mayor of the place.

During the time of National Socialism

After the death of his first wife, Paul Gerhard Braune married Berta Mohr in 1932, with whom he had four children. In the same year Braune became vice-president of the central committee for the internal mission . He consistently opposed their appropriation by the National Socialist People's Welfare since 1933. At the same time he joined the Confessing Church and a year later he was interrogated for the first time by the Gestapo . His fight (together with Friedrich von Bodelschwingh) against the so-called euthanasia is considered an important act of Protestant resistance under National Socialism. He succeeded in preventing the evacuation of residents. From the information he knew about scheduled relocations and massive reports of deaths from all over the Reich, he formulated a "memorandum on the situation of non-Aryan Christians" addressed to Hitler, which was submitted to the Reich Chancellery. Braune refused to hand over sick people to the hope valley institutions. Racially and politically persecuted people and deserters also found support there. This fight against “euthanasia” and against the appropriation of the Inner Mission led to his imprisonment by the Gestapo on August 12, 1940. He was imprisoned for three months in the Gestapo prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse.

In 1943 Braune campaigned for the arrested homosexual residents of the Hope Valley establishments and wrote, unsuccessfully, appeals for clemency for those sentenced to death.

In the DDR

In 1945, Braune became President of the Central Committee of the Inner Mission (East) and Canon of Brandenburg. As mayor and head of the institution, he became a member of the Eastern CDU and maintained close, trusting contacts with the managerial staff in the main department “Connection to the Churches” of the government chancellery of the GDR, Kurt Grünbaum , who visited Lobetal in 1951 on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Otto Nuschke .

Braune and the institutional diakonia were severely hostile to the SED government . When, on May 18, 1953, local SED state officials from the council of the Bernau district and the Frankfurt district wanted to confiscate the Hope Valley institutions in Lobetal for nationalization, Paul Gerhard Braune was able to persuade the occupiers to withdraw and thus prevent the expropriation. Paul Braune died on September 19, 1954 in Bethel of complications from a heart attack. His grave is in the Zionsfriedhof in Bielefeld / Bethel.

literature

• Eckhard Hansen, Florian Tennstedt (Eds.) U. a .: Biographical lexicon on the history of German social policy from 1871 to 1945 . Volume 2: Social politicians in the Weimar Republic and during National Socialism 1919 to 1945. Kassel University Press, Kassel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7376-0474-1 , pp. 20 f. ( Online , PDF; 3.9 MB).
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Braune, Paul Gerhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 734-735.
• Berta Braune: Hope against hardship. My life with Paul Braune 1932–1954. Wuppertal 1983, ISBN 3-417-12319-4 .
• Jan Cantow: Evangelical “Non- Aryan Aid ” using the example of the Hope Valley institutions in Lobetal. Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 3-8364-7768-8 .
• Jan Cantow, Jochen-Christoph Kaiser : Paul Gerhard Braune (1887–1954). A man of the church and diakonia in difficult times. Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-018351-6 .
• Kurt Scharf : Paul Gerhard Braune. A man of ecclesiastical resistance. Bethel 1979, ISBN 3-922463-03-7 .
• Jan Cantow: Pastor Paul Gerhard Braune. In the "house prison" of the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. Short biography and documents. In: Topography of Terror. Notes, Volume 5, Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-942271-85-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Gerhard Braune in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
• Exhibition on Braune 2006/2007 of the Brandenburg Center for Political Education
• Jan Cantow: Paul Gerhard Braune. In: Diakonie.de
• Dirk Baas: 75 years ago Hitler officially stopped the killing program for the disabled. "Secret Reich Matter" on the Alb. In: Dom-Radio , August 24, 2016 (Revealing of the euthanasia murders by Pastor Braune)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Antonia Kleikamp: "Weeding out all those who are insane". World History, July 8, 2015
2. ^ Kaiser, Jochen-Christoph: Evangelical Church and Social State. Diakonie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert , Stuttgart 2008, p. 268 and especially footnote 30; ISBN 978-3-17-020163-7
3. ^ Kaiser, Jochen-Christoph: Evangelical Church and Social State. Diakonie in the 19th and 20th centuries , Stuttgart 2008, pp. 268–271; ISBN 978-3-17-020163-7