Peter Bockemuehl

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Robert Peter Bockemühl (born June 12, 1896 in Wermelskirchen , † September 15, 1953 in Wuppertal-Cronenberg ) was an Evangelical Reformed theologian and a leading member of the Confessing Church at the time of National Socialism in Germany.

Life

Bockemühl was born on June 12, 1896 as the son of a coppersmith in Wermelskirchen . After high school in Elberfeld and Abitur (1914), he began studying theology at Bethel. In 1915 he volunteered for military service and was deployed as a soldier in the naval artillery on the Western Front ( Somme, 1916 , Flanders, 1917 ) until the end of the war . He was awarded the Iron Cross . At the end of the war his rank was vice fireworker (reserve officer candidate).

After the war he continued his studies in Halle and Bonn and in 1923 became a pastor in Puderbach ( Westerwald ). In 1927 he took over a pastor's position in the Protestant Reformed community in Cronenberg. In 1929 he married Ruth Putsch and Karl Barth gave the wedding speech . In 1939 Bockemühl was drafted as a lieutenant for military service. Until the end of the Second World War he was employed by the Navy in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Wuppertal-Ronsdorf, which performed control functions in the armaments industry (last rank: lieutenant captain ).

In 1949 Bockemühl became superintendent of the Wuppertal-Elberfeld parish. He died - accompanied by his vicar Paul Gerhard Aring - on September 15, 1953 of heart disease. He was the father of Justus Bockemühl .

Confessing Church

In the late summer of 1933 Bockemühl joined opposition theologians and in the following year the Confessing Church (BK) founded in Barmen, among other things as a member of the Rhenish and Old Prussian Brother Council of the BK. In sermons, writings and lectures he contradicted theological reasons the efforts of the regime to use the church for the objectives of the national-socialist state ( DC circuit ). He consistently emphasized the church's sole commitment to the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and rejected any subordination of theology to other ideological or state guidelines. In particular, he also resisted the attacks by Nazi ideologues (e.g. Alfred Rosenbergs ) on the Old Testament.

This engagement led to considerable conflicts with the Nazi rulers and the church leadership in Düsseldorf , which was dominated by representatives of the " German Christians " loyal to the regime . The Secret State Police ( Gestapo ) searched Bockemühl's rectory about fifteen times for illegal documents, his mail was monitored, he himself was repeatedly interrogated and was temporarily banned from speaking .

His work “Mythus or Evangelium” (1935), which was directed against the ideology of Alfred Rosenberg , was banned and was put on the state “list of harmful and undesirable literature”. The weekly newspaper “Unter dem Wort”, the organ of the Confessing Church, of which Bockemühl was co-editor, was banned in 1936. In the Gestapo files, Bockemühl was listed as an " enemy of the state ".

In 1938, together with Pastor Martin Albertz from Berlin, a half-brother of the later Governing Mayor Heinrich Albertz , Bockemühl designed a divine service prayer order in connection with the impending outbreak of war. This text was perceived by the Nazi rulers as interference in state affairs and the authors were insulted in the press as "traitors and criminals who should be exterminated".

On the instructions of the Reich Minister for Church Affairs, the church leadership in Düsseldorf initiated disciplinary proceedings against Bockemühl with the aim of dismissing him; his salary was suspended. Thereupon Bockemühl made a statement to the Reich Minister in which he emphasized that he had not "wanted to pronounce a judgment on measures taken by the state"; He did not intend to "affront" the state. Disciplinary proceedings have ended and the salary freeze has been lifted.

Works

  • An hour of temptation - where do the Reformed belong in the current church struggle? ; Wuppertal 1934
  • The Lord of State and Church ; Wuppertal around 1934
  • as co-editor: Unter dem Wort (Biblical weekly paper); Wuppertal from 1934 (banned by the regime in 1936)
  • Myth or gospel ; Wuppertal 1935 (banned by the National Socialist regime - see "List of harmful and undesirable literature" 1938)
  • What is the Church's response to the attacks on the Old Testament? ; Wiesbaden around 1936
  • What everyone should know about the new church order ; Wuppertal 1952
  • Under the Word of Grace (Sermons 1952/53); Wuppertal 1953
  • There is my home - Cronenberg, history and individuality ; Wuppertal 1954, 2nd edition with current additions by Jürgen Eschmann, Wuppertal 2009

literature

  • Simone Rauthe: Sharp opponents - the disciplining of church workers by the Evangelical Consistory of the Rhine Province and its finance department from 1933 to 1945; 2003, R. Habelt (Bonn). ISBN 3-7749-3215-8
  • Uwe Eckardt: Cronenberg - people, data and facts , Geiger Verlag (Horb am Neckar) 2000. ISBN 3-89570-654-X
  • Hans Helmich: The church fight in Elberfeld and Barmen , in: Klaus Goebel (Hrsg.): Wuppertal in the time of National Socialism, Wuppertal 1984 (p. 93 ff).
  • Theodore N. Thomas: Women against Hitler - Christian Resistance in the Third Reich , Westpoint, Connecticut 1995 (pp. 58, 62). ISBN 0-275-94619-3

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Simone Rauthe: Sharp opponents - the disciplining of church employees by the Evangelical Consistory of the Rhine Province and its finance department from 1933 to 1945; 2003, R. Habelt (Bonn) p. 133.
  2. ^ Simone Rauthe: Sharp opponents - the disciplining of church employees by the Evangelical Consistory of the Rhine Province and its finance department from 1933 to 1945; 2003, R. Habelt (Bonn) p. 134.
personal data
SURNAME Bockemühl, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bockemühl, Robert Peter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Evangelical Reformed theologian
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Wermelskirchen
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1953
Place of death Wuppertal-Cronenberg