Peter Kuhlen

Peter Kuhlen (born September 30, 1899 in Rheydt ; † November 17, 1986 in Düsseldorf ) was a German clergyman and one of the founders of the Apostolic Community .

Peter Kuhlen (date of photo unknown)

Life

Peter Kuhlen was born in Rheydt (today Mönchengladbach). At the age of 15 he came into contact with the New Apostolic Church . On October 15, 1915, he was accepted into the church by the then Chief Apostle Hermann Niehaus in Düsseldorf. In 1922 he married the daughter of District Apostle Paul Dach. On May 9, 1921, Kuhlen was ordained a priest, further ordinations soon followed:

• May 22, 1922 as an evangelist
• December 9, 1923 as a community elder
• March 12, 1933 to the bishop and finally on
• March 31, 1935 as an apostle

Shortly after his ordination as bishop, he joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933. According to a statement by Werner Kuhlen, his son, “his father found it very difficult to join the party.” There are no indications, not even in his personal file, that Peter Kuhlen was a staunch Nazi. On the contrary, he turned against the increasing use of National Socialist propaganda in church magazines and spoke at length in a church service in the early 1940s about the atrocities committed by Emperor Nero against Christians. He didn't specifically mention the Nazi government, but everyone knew what was meant.

On March 31, 1935, Peter Kuhlen was appointed apostle and helper to the apostle Dach, his father-in-law, in the Düsseldorf-Flingern church, which was built in 1926. He was the youngest apostle at just 35. When his father-in-law Apostle Paul Dach retired on November 6, 1938 , he took over the management of the Rhineland Apostle District as District Apostle . In 1944 he also took over the Westphalia Apostle District after the sudden death of Hermann Schüring due to a heart attack on February 1, 1944.

In particular, Kuhlen promoted Walter Schmidt , who was ordained an Apostle on September 29, 1946 on his advice and who then took over the Apostle District of Westphalia as District Apostle on September 19, 1948, after Kuhlen's election as Chief Apostle.

On May 21, 1948, in a secret vote by the apostles, Peter Kuhlen was unanimously elected as the successor and helper of Chief Apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff . The overseas apostles who were not present subsequently gave their written consent. On August 1, 1948, Peter Kuhlen was ordained as Chief Apostle Helper in a festive divine service in the Oetkerhalle in Bielefeld, expressly in the name of the Triune God and on behalf of the Apostle College.

The Chief Apostle Helper was certified to have organizational talent on all sides, even if this partially clashed with the independence-oriented approach of other District Apostles. Before joining the full-time service of the Church in 1935, he worked as an auditor and accountant. It can be assumed that as District Apostle for initially two large and important districts and especially as a helper to the Chief Apostle, he also gained insight into the finances of the Church. Basically, the districts were legally independent and thus also financially independent, since each was an independent corporation under public law or associations.

In February 1950, the Chief Apostle Helper received the order from the Apostles' Meeting to examine the Articles of Faith. The changes presented were postponed on July 3, 1950, then the task was transferred by the Chief Apostle to his son Friedrich Bischoff , who was still district elder at the time. That must have been an affront for all apostles, but especially for the helper Kuhlen, that the most important doctrinal questions should not be decided by the apostles college, but by a significantly lower-ranking elder. The same thing happened again with the revision of the New Apostolic textbook “Questions and Answers”.

He declared on November 25, 1950, due to continued bullying, in particular by Friedrich Bischoff and Gottfried Rockenfelder against him, in particular because of his resistance to a 25-year supply contract between the New Apostolic Church and Friedrich Bischoff's publishing house, and a deterioration in his relationship with the Chief Apostle as a result resigned from the office of Chief Apostle Helper and designated Chief Apostle and worked again as District Apostle for the Rhineland. At first, after Kuhlen's resignation, calm actually seemed to have returned; he continued to be respected in apostolic congregations, and his recommendations were often heard until about 1954.

In 1953 the Apostle District Mainz was re-established, District Apostle Friedrich Bischoff. Apostle Kuhlen had to cede the southern parts of his Rhineland district to the new Apostle district.

When, from 1954, the belief in the so-called “message” of Chief Apostle JG Bischoff, that he would not die until the return of Christ, was to be linked with acceptance into the New Apostolic Church, Apostle Kuhlen turned against this plan. He and his two Rhenish counterparts Siegfried Dehmel (Oberhausen) and Ernst Dunkmann (Düren) demanded that the acceptance or rejection of the "message" be left to the free decision of each individual. The situation escalated, so that on January 23, 1955, all district offices from the Rhineland in Frankfurt were removed from office and excluded from the New Apostolic Church. On January 24, 1955, they founded the Apostolic Community in Düsseldorf. They were followed by around 10,000 members. A total of around 20,000 people left the New Apostolic Church during this time.

Apostle Kuhlen quickly made contact with other excluded persons and founded the Association of Apostles of the Apostolic Congregations (VAG) with them in July 1956, also in Düsseldorf , which he chaired until his retirement.

Although, according to the teaching of the VAG, there was no longer any “chief apostle office” and all apostles were regarded as equal, Peter Kuhlen continued to retain a special position in the consciousness of many believers. He worked as an Apostle for the Apostle District of Düsseldorf until his retirement on April 5, 1970.

After his retirement he visited the community of Düsseldorf-Mitte until his death in November 1986.

literature

• Thoughts on the message of Chief Apostle JG Bischoff (letter from Peter Kuhlen on the subject of the message)
• Association of Apostolic Congregations: Apostle Peter Kuhlen - a life for the Lord . In: Der Herold, bi-monthly publication on the maintenance of apostolic faith , 16th year, 1970, pp. 49–76
• Volker Wissen: The conflict Bischoff ./. Kuhlen , lecture manuscript for the conference of the Network of Apostolic History in October 2011 in Mainz, August 2011
• Association of Apostolic Congregations: Apostle Peter Kuhlen dies . In: Der Herold , 33rd year, February 1987, pp. 14–24