Reinhard Schröder

Reinhard Matthias Andreas Albertus Schröder (* 21st June 1902 in Sehestedt ; † 19th July 1984 in Escheburg ) was a German Protestant - Lutheran pastor , since 1933 a member of the Confessing Church in Landessuperintendentur Lauenburg , 44 years pastor in Wohltorf and 21 years as a member the church leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Schleswig-Holstein .

Live and act

Schröder, great-great-grandson of Matthias Claudius , completed his vicariate with Karl Witte , head of the Hamburg city mission and later bishop. On 6 May 1928 he was in Altona ordained and was then vicar provincial in Albersdorf , where he Hans Asmussen met. From July 20, 1928 until his retirement on July 1, 1972, he was Provincial Vicar and (since March 23, 1930) Pastor in Wohltorf. On March 6, 1930 he married his wife Marie, b. Voigt (born January 27, 1906, † August 25, 1982), with whom he had six children.

On April 19, 1929, seven pastors founded the “ Brotherhood of Young Theologians ” in Neumünster . This small group grew to 60 to 70 people in the course of a few years; In 1933 it had about 100 members. According to circular no. 30 of October 24, 1932, there were 73 theologians and three lay people, i.e. H. more than a third of the younger pastors of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church, to the brotherhood, etc. a. also Schröder.

At the suggestion of the Wohltorfer villa colony, Schröder founded an "ideological lecture group" from 1930, to which speakers from Hamburg and beyond were invited. His "vicar father" Karl Witte thought out loud about "The question of God in the technical age" and about "Völkische Religion", Pastor Engelke thought about "Subjectivity and the reality of God", Senior Pastor Schöffel from St. Michaelis in Hamburg analyzed the current topic "World design und Evangelische Kirche ”and Superintendent Schwietering from Winsen an der Luhe looked for answers to the question“ God and suffering ”. Further topics were: "Our responsibility in the present", "Unemployment and Church", "Freethinkers and godless movements as a worldview", "The Christianization of the Teutons", "Do we need a new creed?", "People, state, church" , "What does the Old Testament mean for us Germans?", "Eugenics and worldview", "Race as a worldview principle", "Jesus Christ, Jew, Aryan or what else?".

One of his successors, the Wohltorf pastor Erich Zschau (1946-2018), judged him:

“As early as the 1930s Schröder was practicing what would only become a theological program 30 years later, namely:“ Theology as information ”, spiritual enlightenment through lecture and discussion. Basically, with his parish practice, he also anticipated the model of the Evangelical Academies - which were only founded after the Second World War : to enable people to make their own judgment through demanding presentations. In Wohltorf, however, there was also the right audience for this work, educated people who - often in leading positions - were happy to seek inspiration and help in their own conflicts of conscience. Thanks to his exposed position and his theological-political lectures, Schröder quickly became known nationwide. So he was asked to hold the opening and closing services for the ' Evangelical Weeks ' in Reinbeck Castle in Wohltorfer Church . "

On September 12, 1933, the Schleswig-Holstein regional synod in Rendsburg passed the so-called "Bishop's Law", with which the bishops Eduard Völkel and Adolf Mordhorst were deposed. Only eight synodals voted against the law: the pastors Reinhard Schröder (Wohltorf) and Georg Hansen (Kiel), the consistorial councilors Karl Nielsen (Kiel, Hl. Geist) and provost Hermann Siemonsen (Flensburg), bookseller Möbius (Neumünster), mission director Peter Piening (Breklum), Rector Carl Matthiesen (Flensburg, Diakonissenanstalt) and Professor Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (Kiel; later forcibly retired).

Soon after the establishment of the “Emergency and Working Group of Schleswig-Holstein Pastors” (NAG) on October 20, 1933 in Rendsburg, Schröder joined this forerunner of the Confessing Church in Schleswig-Holstein (membership number 35).

On December 6, 1933, Schröder, as shop steward for the state superintendent of Lauenburg, signed a declaration of no confidence from 140 pastors to Bishop Adalbert Paulsen at the shop stewards meeting of the pastors' emergency and working group in Schleswig-Holstein . In 1934, 1936 and 1938 he was listed in the Schleswig-Holstein Confessional Community (BK) as a shop steward for the state superintendent of Lauenburg.

In the summer of 1936, in view of the imminent retirement of the nearly seventy-year-old superintendent Johannes Lange , the pastors of Lauenburg began to act in the name of a reconciliation in terms of church politics: the non-BK pastors initiated a signature campaign that brought about the overthrowed by the German Christians in 1933 and who came from the Lauenburg region Bishop Völkel asked to make himself available for the office of superintendent; the BK pastors joined with their own address, which is committed to their church goals. Towards the end of the year, both groups sent a joint petition to the regional church committee, which has now been signed by all the Lauenburg pastors. This petition, which was also supported by Schröder, failed in March 1937 when the President of the Regional Church Office asked Christian Kinder Lange to remain in office beyond the age of 70 "for Lauenburg's sake", to which Lange agreed to the incomprehension and even the indignation of the initiators. In September 1937, Kinder Völkel officially announced that he would not receive the approval of the Ministry of Churches and could therefore not be appointed superintendent of Lauenburg.

After his basic training, Schröder was assigned to the 11th Air Force Intelligence Regiment in Pinneberg in July 1941 . He immediately tried to get permission to continue to work for his congregation in Wohltorf and at least to hold services. After three months he was transferred to the air watch command in Hamburg. This order was linked to a home sleep permit.

After the " Operation Gomorrah ", the major attack on Hamburg in July 1943, whole trains came to Wohltorf with people who had been bombed out, old people, sick people and mothers with children. They all had to be distributed among the houses. After each new attack, those seeking help knocked on the door of the pastorate for days. Schröder's wife Marie became an authority in Wohltorf: she was a welfare worker, advisor, community helper and manager.

In August 1944, Schröder was transferred to the Danish border (to Lütjenhorn near Leck) to an anti-aircraft radar station and had to entrust his community to other clergymen: War Pastor Daur from Bergedorf, Pastor Forck from Hamburg and Superintendent Klatt from Gumbinnen.

In the post-war period up to 40 people were quartered in the Wohltorf pastorate.

On July 14, 1950, the Wohltorfer Church, built in 1930, burned down. The fire may have been caused by carelessness when smoking a wasp's nest on the church floor. The new Wohltorfer church was inaugurated for Christmas vesper 1950. On the 1st day of Pentecost, 1951, the renovated organ was put back into service in a broadcast service.

At the fifth Evangelical Week in Flensburg on the subject of “Clear Course in Everyday Life” in October 1951, Schröder led a discussion group on October 6, 1951 on the subject of “Lies at work”.

Thanks to the special nature and work of Pastor Schröder, the Wohltorf congregation retained its supra-regional appeal even beyond the critical period of the Third Reich. From 1946 to 1973 Schröder also gave religious instruction at the Reinbek grammar school and thus reached thousands of young people looking for orientation in poor times. In discussion groups he gathered interested young people for discussions about God and the world, theology and questions of the time. Several pastors such as Christa With, Uwe Hamann and Peter Schellenberg emerged from his work. Otto Diehn also owes important impulses to Pastor Schröder. He studied history and theology, became a teacher and school director and later appointed by the Schleswig-Holstein Church to head the office for community service.

At the end of the 1950s, Schröder took a stand against the plans to establish a “Protestant grammar school in the Sachsenwald” with an argument from Karl Barth : “Our mission today is not to concentrate and found Christian institutions, but to be present in the middle of the world , in state schools. The few Christian teachers belong as 'the icing on the cake' and not concentrated in one place. That is a misunderstood gospel. "

Schröder was appointed to the church leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Schleswig-Holstein several times:

• in February 1951
• on February 25, 1953
• on June 10, 1958
• on December 30, 1960
• on November 25, 1966

This may also have been due to the fact that Schröder was a representative of the richest community in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein and was thus able to contribute to the financial equalization between the parishes and church districts.

In spite of all construction activities (kindergarten, parish hall, remodeling of the church) and many successful external activities, the focus of his work remained for Schröder the preaching. His services were also broadcast on the radio more often in the 1950s and 1960s. In the new parish hall, the Wohltorf lecture evenings also reached many more people. The evenings with the professors of the University of Hamburg will not be forgotten:

• 1968: Pascual Jordan : "The modern man between science and belief".
• 1969: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker : "The Influence of Cybernetics on Human Life".
• 1970: Rudolf Kautzky : "The doctor and the phenomenon of death".
• Science journalists also gave lectures in Wohltorf. The ZEIT editor Theo Löbsack described: "The biology of the future and the responsibility of science".
• Well-known theologians were also frequent guests in Wohltorf; So in 1968 the Hamburg chief pastor Hartmut Sierig with the then current topic: "Future of the world - fear dream or hope?"
• the theological editor-in-chief of the Deutsches Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt , Heinz Zahrnt , explained "The matter with God" as it was seen by modern theology.
• In 1969, Bishop Hans-Otto Wölber warned of “politicization - danger to the unity of the Church”.
• Ulrich Wilckens , who later became Bishop of Holstein-Lübeck, presented his favorite topic in Wohltorf in 1970: "The Resurrection of Jesus as a historical problem".

The list of speakers that Reinhard Schröder has brought to Wohltorf is a “Who's Who” of the intellectual capacities of the time. In the topics of all these lectures one can clearly see Schröder's goal of interpreting secular phenomena from the Christian faith and providing ethical orientation. The model in the background can be found in Matthew 5: 13-16, where the evangelist quotes Jesus: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. ”To be the icing on the cake for society, to“ stand by one's Christians ”in everyday life, Reinhard Schröder wanted to guide his listeners and interlocutors. Hardly any pastor has attracted so many young people, inspired them and brought them to the center of the Church.

literature

• Friedrich Hammer : Directory of the pastors of the Schleswig-Holstein regional church 1864–1976 , Neumünster: Wachholtz o. J.
• Walter Göbell : From Northern Albingen to Northern Elbe. On the historical development of the church in a region . In: Jens Motschmann (ed.): Church between the seas. Contributions to the history and shape of the North Elbian Church . Westholsteinische Verlagsanstalt Boyens & Co., Heide in Holstein 1981, pp. 15-69.
• Christian Dethleffsen: Pastoral existence in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. The “Brotherhood of Young Theologians” in Schleswig-Holstein 1929–1933. In: Klauspeter Reumann (Ed.): Church and National Socialism. Contributions to the history of the church struggle in the Protestant regional churches of Schleswig-Holstein. Karl Wachholtz, Neumünster 1988, pp. 49-70.
• Klauspeter Reumann: The church struggle in Schleswig-Holstein from 1933 to 1945 . In: Schleswig-Holstein Church History. Vol. 6/1: Church between self-assertion and external determination , Neumünster 1998, pp. 111–451.
• Erich Zschau: The church on the mountain. Wohltorfer Kirchengeschichte (n) , Hamburg: Einhorn-Presse 2009, ISBN 978-3887560645 .
• Benjamin Hein: The Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Schleswig-Holstein. Data - facts - materials. On the 150th anniversary of the regional church office in Kiel (writings of the regional church archive of the northern church - Volume 3) , Kiel 2017; accessible on the Internet at: http://www.archivnordkirche.de/files/landeskirchliches_archiv/downloads/schriften3_2017_web.pdf .

Web links

• https://kirche-wohltorf.de/unsere-kirche/#Geschichte

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich Hammer: Directory ... , p. 350.
2. ↑ https://kirchenrecht-nordkirche.de/kabl/31891.pdf , p. 186.
3. ↑ Christian Dethleffsen: Pastoral Existence ... , 1988, pp. 51 and 60.
4. ↑ Zschau: The Church on the Mountain ... , 2009, p. 39.
5. ↑ http://www.kirche-christen-juden.org/dokumentation/pastor_hahn.html
6. ↑ Zschau: The Church on the Mountain ... , 2009, p. 42.
7. ↑ Ibid.
8. ↑ Walter Goebell: From Nordalbingen to Nordelbien ... , 1981, p 59th
9. ^ Zschau: The Church on the Mountain ... , 2009, p. 41.
10. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Personen/Misstüberserklaerung_von_140_Pastoren_an_Landesbischof_Paulsen.pdf
11. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Quellen/Pastoren_der_BK_in_SH.pdf
12. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Quellen/BK-Pastoren_36.pdf
13. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Quellen/BK-Pastoren_38.pdf
14. ↑ NEKA 98.38 NL. Völkel, letter from P. Schröders, BK representative for Lauenburg, to Völkel from January 6, 1939
15. ↑ Klauspeter Reumann: Der Kirchenkampf in Schleswig-Holstein ... , 1998, p. 323 f.
16. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/index.php?id=384
17. ↑ http://www.geschichte-bk-sh.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Ev._Wochen/Ev._Woche_1951.pdf , p. 6
18. ↑ Zschau: The Church on the Mountain ... , 2009, p. 43 ff.
19. ↑ Quoted from Otto Diehn: Ansverus Communität - Together on the way , Aumühle 2005, pp. 22–26.
20. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 11, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Pp. 41-43 
21. ^ Zschau: The Church on the Mountain ... , 2009, p. 57.
22. ↑ Zschau: The Church on the Mountain ... , 2009, p. 68.