Reimer lean

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Reimer Mager (born July 22, 1906 in Cologne , † October 10, 1966 in Dresden ) was a Christian trade unionist and German Lutheran President who was active in the resistance during National Socialism and was later appointed to the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has been.

Life

Reimer Mager grew up in Cologne as the son of a lathe operator . He himself learned the trade of textile weaver . In 1921 he joined the Central Association of Christian Textile Workers to protest against the bad treatment of unskilled workers in the textile industry. In 1926 and 1927 he attended a technical college for business and administration in Düsseldorf. In October 1927 he became the union secretary of the central association and moved to Zittau , where the office was located. There he met his future wife Dora Kießling. The marriage had three children.

In 1930 he moved to Dresden as managing director of the regional association for Saxony . After the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the dissolution of all unions Mager was dismissed. First he stayed with the factory owner Richard Böhme and found new work with the church winter aid, which was soon ousted by the winter relief organization of the German people . In 1934 he became the managing director of the Brother Council of the Confessing Church and as such organized the Protestant resistance in Saxony . He organized the meetings of the emergency pastors and published a series of publications. He was also involved in several confessional synods . Contacts existed with Elfriede Nebgen and Jakob Kaiser as well as with the Christian trade unions in Czechoslovakia . From April 28 to May 12, 1937, he was taken into " protective custody " by the Gestapo , and a second time from November 23 to December 15, 1937.

In 1940 Mager was drafted and served as a soldier in World War II . He fell into American captivity, from which he was released on April 17, 1946. He immediately began to get involved again in the evangelical movement and in local politics. In September 1946 he was elected city councilor and parliamentary group chairman of the CDU Dresden and in April 1947 one of the four chairmen of the Saxon CDU. As such, he was also a member of the 1st People's Council of the Soviet Zone . In 1948 he was forced to resign and later became a sharp critic of the SED policy. In 1950 he resigned from the CDU. Later he was close to the SPD .

In the same year he became President of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony . He held this office until his death in October 1966. In 1949 he was also appointed to the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany . In this function he organized the all-German Kirchentag in Leipzig in 1954 . He was also involved in planning an all-German church convention in Berlin in 1961, which, however, took place in West Berlin and therefore could not be attended by many East Germans.

The Hamburg theological faculty awarded him an honorary doctorate for his resistance “against heresy and tyranny” . The Reimer Mager retirement home in Rosenthal-Bielatal , which was opened in 1989 and has been sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Pirna since 2001, was named after him .

literature

  • Willy Buschak : The Christian trade unionist Reimer Mager . In: Work in the smallest circle: Trade unions in the resistance against National Socialism . Klartext, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1206-9 , p. 429-431 .

Web links

  • Brief information on Reimer Mager from the Evangelical Lutheran Confessional Community of Saxony

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Karl-Hermann Kandler : Reimer Mager: Worker and confessing Christian. Kirche-Chemnitz.de, accessed on June 18, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c Willy Buschak: The Christian trade unionist Reimer Mager . In: Work in the smallest circle: Trade unions in the resistance against National Socialism . Klartext, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1206-9 , p. 429-431 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Widera: Dresden 1945–1948: Politics and society under Soviet occupation . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005, ISBN 978-3-647-36901-3 , p. 357 .
  4. ↑ Setup time home. Church district Pirna, accessed on June 18, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Skinny, Reimer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1966
Place of death Dresden