Paul Vogt (pastor)

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Paul Vogt (born May 23, 1900 in Stäfa ; † March 12, 1984 in Zizers ) was a Protestant pastor in Switzerland . He founded the free space campaign and from 1943 held the refugee parish office. For his services in assisting refugees during the Second World War he was in 1947 by the University of Zurich Dr. appointed hc. His estate is managed in the Archives for Contemporary History at ETH Zurich .

Training and first parish offices

Paul Vogt was the son of a pastor who immigrated from Silesia . After graduating from the Evangelical College in Schiers in 1922, he studied theology in Basel , Zurich and Tübingen from 1922 to 1926 . He completed his vicariate in the Neumünster Church in Zurich. He then worked as a parish priest in Ellikon an der Thur (where he married Sophie Brenner in 1927), from 1929 in Walzenhausen in Appenzell .

During this time Vogt was already involved in social institutions: he founded the relief organization for the unemployed in the canton of Appenzell and in 1933 built the Sonneblick Protestant social and homeless home in Walzenhausen.

Nazi era

In 1936 Vogt was appointed to Zurich-Seebach . In the spring of 1937 he founded a contact point for members of the Confessing Church (BK) in Germany who were persecuted by National Socialism . The prominent Swiss theologian Karl Barth and leading German BK representatives such as Martin Niemöller and Helmut Gollwitzer supported the project. It was first given the name Confession-Pastor-Family Help , enabled BK families to take a rest in Switzerland and, through Vogt's personal contacts, also served to pass on information in Switzerland about the situation in Germany. For Advent 1937, Barth wrote an appeal for solidarity, which was quickly approved by 700 Swiss pastors. The organization was then expanded and in April 1938 renamed the Swiss Aid Organization for the Confessing Church in Germany (SEHBKD). Barth worked on the theological commission of this aid organization , his partner Charlotte von Kirschbaum on the welfare commission ; Barth's comrades-in-arms Eduard Thurneysen and Emil Brunner also campaigned for the aid organization. It developed into one of the most important refugee organizations in Switzerland during the Second World War .

Vogt also co-founded the Swiss Central Agency for Refugee Aid (SZF) . He developed a strong commitment to refugees; in particular, the so-called refugee lump and the free space campaign (which tried to accommodate refugees in private homes instead of in labor camps) can be traced back to him. Finally, from 1943 to 1947, Vogt took over the refugee pastoral office, which had been set up by the Federation of Swiss Evangelical Churches , the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich and the Swiss Church Aid Committee for Evangelical Refugees.

post war period

After the war, Vogt campaigned for an understanding between Christians and Jews. He was the initiator of the Working Group of Christians and Jews founded in 1945, a member of the Switzerland-Israel Society and advocated the existence of the State of Israel .

From 1947 Vogt was pastor in Grabs . In 1951 he was appointed dean of the parish chapter Rheintal-Werdenberg-Sargans, and from 1952 to 1957 he was president of the Protestant college in Schiers-Samedan. Vogt held his last pastor's office from 1959 to 1965 in Degersheim .

After his retirement, Paul Vogt lived in Grüsch in the Prättigau until he moved to the old people's home in Zizers in 1982 after the death of his wife .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christiane Tietz: Karl Barth: A life in contradiction. Beck, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72523-4 , p. 294 f.


personal data
SURNAME Vogt, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss refugee pastor
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Stäfa
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1984
Place of death Zizers