Reinold von Thadden

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Reinold von Thadden in conversation with Richard von Weizsäcker at the German Evangelical Church Congress in 1965

Reinold Leopold Adolf Ludwig von Thadden (also called von Thadden-Trieglaff ; born August 13, 1891 in Mohrungen , East Prussia ; † October 10, 1976 in Fulda , Hesse ) was a German lawyer , politician , member of the Confessing Church and founder of the German Evangelical Church Kirchentag and its first president.

family

Reinold von Thadden came from the old Pomeranian noble family von Thadden and was the son of the multiple landowner Adolf von Thadden (1858-1932), royal Prussian district administrator of the district of Greifenberg , member of the Pomeranian provincial parliament and chairman of the Pomeranian district association, and his first wife Ehrengard von Gerlach (1868-1909).

Thadden married on January 19, 1921 in Brückenau (Lower Franconia, Bavaria) Elisabeth Freiin von Thüngen (* July 7, 1893 in Bamberg ; † October 4, 1988 in Gersfeld ), the daughter of the Bavarian treasurer and Colonel Rudolf Freiherr von Thüngen, landlord Heilsberg near Zeitlofs , and the Elisabeth Princess of Ysenburg and Büdingen in Büdingen .

The marriage resulted in five sons and a daughter: Ernst Dietrich von Thadden (1922–1942), Leopold von Thadden (1923–1943), Franz-Lorenz von Thadden (1924–1979), Elisabeth Ehrengard von Thadden (1926–1926) , Bogislav von Thadden (1927–1945) and the historian Rudolf von Thadden (1932–2015). The three sons who died during World War II were killed in service.

His sister Elisabeth von Thadden , who was one year older , was sentenced to death by the People's Court in 1944 as a resistance fighter ; she was executed in September 1944. His granddaughter, the journalist Elisabeth von Thadden (* 1961), has been a member of the Presidium of the German Evangelical Church Congress since 2009.

His half-brother Adolf von Thadden (1921–1996) was chairman of the NPD from 1967–1971 .

Life

Thadden studied political science and law at the universities of Paris , Leipzig , Munich and Greifswald . In 1920 he was awarded a dissertation on international law and the League of Nations. A study on the legal nature of international relations in Greifswald for Dr. iur. PhD . After completing his studies, he took over the management of the Trieglaff and Gruchow family estates in Pomerania. He took part in the First World War as a soldier with the 1st Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 17 , most recently as a lieutenant in the reserve.

Thadden was a member of the DNVP during the Weimar Republic . In March 1933 he was elected to the Prussian state parliament, which was dissolved that same year.

From 1932 to 1944 he was a member of the Prussian General Synod, after 1933 he joined the Confessing Church. In May 1934 he was elected President of the oppositional Confessional Synod in Stettin and in the same year was one of the signatories of the Barmen Theological Declaration , which distanced itself from the German Christians who were subservient to the government , and was part of the church's resistance to National Socialism . He was a member of the Brother Council of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , a member of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Provincial Brother Council of Pomerania.

In 1937 he was one of those who signed the declaration of the 96 Protestant church leaders against Alfred Rosenberg because of his writing Protestant Rome Pilgrims . In 1937 and 1946 he was Vice President of the World Christian Student Union . Called up for the Wehrmacht in 1940 , Thadden was military district commander in the Belgian city of Leuven from 1942 to 1944 . There he campaigned successfully for the civilian population several times, including against plans by the SS. Transferred to the Eastern Front , he was taken prisoner by the Soviets shortly before the end of the war and was interned in a forced labor camp on the Arctic Ocean . During this time he developed the vision of an Evangelical Church Congress. He was released in December 1945.

Back in Germany, he worked for the World Council of Churches , on whose behalf he a. a. Visited German prisoners of war in Belgium in 1947. There was also a visit to the city of Leuven, which honored him with a festive reception.

The evangelical week in Frankfurt in 1948 gave rise to preparations for the first German Evangelical Church Congress, which took place in Hanover in 1949 under the motto Church on the move . Thadden was elected its president and held that position until 1964. After that he held the honorary presidency of this biennial meeting of Protestant Christians until his death.

Thadden has received honorary doctorates from several universities (including Kiel , Aberdeen , Chicago and Paris) . He was also Honorary Commander of the Order of St. John .

literature

Web links

Commons : Reinold von Thadden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dirk Palm (2002): “We are brothers!”: The Protestant Church Congress and the German Question 1949–1961. P. 40 ( online )
  2. ↑ kirchentag.de: Seven newly elected members of the Kirchentag presidium. ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2010 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. from October 9, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kirchentag.de
  3. ↑ Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze (Ed.): Ecumenical Yearbook 1936–1937 . Max Niehans, Zurich 1939, pp. 240–247.
personal data
SURNAME Thadden, Reinold von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thadden-Trieglaff, Reinhold von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, politician and founder of the Evangelical Church Congress, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Mohrungen , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1976
Place of death Fulda