Richard Schröder (theologian)

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Richard Schröder, 1990
Richard Schröder (2nd from left), 1990
Richard Schröder awards the Quadriga 2010 in the “Architecture of Unity” category to Lothar de Maizière (left) and Wolfgang Schäuble, whose wife Ingeborg Schäuble (right) receives the award on their behalf

Richard Schröder (born December 26, 1943 in Frohburg ) is a German philosopher and Protestant theologian . From 1991 until his retirement at the age of 65, he was a member of the teaching staff of the theological faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin . On March 18, 1990 , he was elected to the People's Chamber, where he was parliamentary group leader of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR from April 3 to August 21, and from October 3, 1990 to the constitution of the twelfth Bundestag after the first all-German federal election on August 2 , 1990 . December 1990 Member of the eleventh German Bundestag in the SPD . He is chairman of the Friends of the Berlin Palace and was chairman of the board of the German National Foundation from 2003 to 2018 .

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Richard Schröder studied theology and philosophy at the church universities in Naumburg (Saale) and Berlin . From 1973 to 1977 he was pastor in Wiederstedt in the Harz Mountains . In 1977 he received his doctorate , which was officially recognized by the new government in 1990. From 1977 to 1990 he was a lecturer in philosophy at the Catechetical Oberseminar Naumburg and the Sprachenkonvikt Berlin . In 1991 he completed his habilitation at the Church University of Leipzig . In 1988/89 Richard Schröder worked at the “ Ecumenical Assembly for Justice, Peace and the Preservation of Creation ” in the German Democratic Republic as an advisor to the working group “More Justice in the GDR”. In 1989 he joined the Social Democratic Party in the GDR (SDP, later SPD).

On March 18, he was elected to the People's Chamber, was there from April 3 to August 21, 1990 parliamentary group chairman of the SPD and was one of the 144 members of the eleventh German Bundestag that the People's Chamber according to Article 42 of the Unification Treaty for the time of the reunification of Germany on October 3 until the constitution of the twelfth Bundestag after the first all-German federal election on December 2, 1990 . From 1990 he was a member of the SPD Fundamental Values ​​Commission , from which he resigned in 2001. He justified this with the fact that his party cooperated with the PDS . Richard Schröder continued his teaching activities in 1991 at the theological faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin . From 1991 to 1997 he was a member of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and since 1992 a member of the advisory board of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR (BStU). In 1993 he was appointed professor to the chair for philosophy in connection with systematic theology at the theological faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin , where he was also dean in 1993 and 1994 . After reaching the age of 65 he retired.

From 1993 to January 2009 Richard Schröder was a judge at the constitutional court of Brandenburg . From 2003 he was chairman of the board of the German National Foundation and was replaced by Thomas Mirow on December 1, 2018 due to the statutory age limit of 75 years . He continues to be a member of the Foundation's Senate. From 1995 to 2000 he was also chairman of the board of trustees of the World Exhibition Expo 2000 in Hanover. Schröder has been chairman of the advisory board of the Evangelical Academy in Berlin since 1999 . In addition, he is Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Association Against Forgetting - For Democracy . From 2001 to 2007 he was a member of the National Ethics Council . In 1994 Schröder was under discussion as a candidate for the election of the Federal President , also five years later . In 2004 Schröder was elected chairman of the Friends of the Berlin Palace . In addition, he has been a member of the board of the Deutsche Gesellschaft e. V. and is currently its deputy chairman. He is a member of the New Wednesday Society in Berlin.

Contributions to public debates

Richard Schröder repeatedly interferes in public debates.

In 1999 he took part in the discussion about the Berlin Holocaust Memorial with his own proposal . Schröder also spoke up in the debate about advances in brain research and biomedicine . In the cartoon dispute, he reprimanded the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing the Mohammed cartoons . He accuses Richard Dawkins of the New Atheism of absolutizing the scientific perspective and an inadequate cultural theory as well as language and impetus that are close to the old atheism of the former GDR. In contrast to Dawkins' new atheism and creationism , Schröder asserts a humanities and theological tradition that differentiates between different text genres, classifies narratives in their context of the history of ideas and takes developments in the text to be interpreted into account.

Schröder came under fire in 2007 after an interview with Deutschlandfunk . In it he accused the 1968 movement of “atheist propaganda”. There was also atheist propaganda in the GDR. Christianity was "thrown on the rubbish heap of history" by the 1968 movement. Schröder also criticized the education in the interview . Critics accused Schröder of using the Nazi language with the term propaganda in order to bring atheism and the achievements of the Enlightenment into the vicinity of the Nazi regime and, by comparing the GDR with communism.

abortion

In 2008, Wolfgang Böhmer commented on a series of child killings in East Germany and blamed the GDR mentality for this: Since an abortion had been possible in the GDR since 1972 without giving any further reasons, there would have been a "more frivolous attitude towards developing life ”, which continues to have an impact today. Schröder was one of the few who supported Böhmer. Schröder argued that the GDR saw abortions as a welcome means of increasing the availability of labor.

Migration crisis

In 2017 and 2018, Schröder was critical of German migration and refugee policy . In September 2015 and thereafter, the federal government made numerous mistakes. Schröder summarized the principles that should apply in his eyes: There is no human right to immigrate, especially not to the country of one's own choice. Every migrant has to identify himself properly at the German state border or at the European external border with personal papers. Anyone who does not do this is crossing the border illegally. Nobody is illegal, but everyone could be illegal anywhere, for example as a burglar. A distinction must be made between refugees or persons entitled to asylum and immigrants: "Granting refugees a protective stay is a requirement of humanity, and that may also cost something or: It doesn't have to be worthwhile for us [...] On the other hand, we can assert our interests with immigrants . Immigration has to pay off for us. ”Unsorted immigration is the most unprofitable way of attracting a lack of workers. The mistake that the poorest come to us has fatal consequences. Because then we would overlook the really poorest who couldn't travel at all. Because our immigration conditions are too restrictive, those who want to immigrate would apply for asylum. According to international law, poverty and economic hardship, war and civil war are no grounds for the status of a person entitled to asylum. Those who come to us should follow our rules or they have to leave again. In addition, Schröder thinks it would be better if migrants had come to a "reception center" on entry or would come in the future. That's how it was done with GDR refugees and ethnic German repatriates from Eastern Europe. While every German citizen has to identify himself with documents, it has been accepted since 2015 that migrants would hinder the establishment of their identity and deliberately mislead the authorities by providing false information. As a result, terrorists who would have come disguised as refugees could have carried out terrible acts of terrorism in Germany. For the future, Schröder advises: "It would be best if the newcomers stayed in the reception center until the final decision about their status has been made."

Honors

Selected publications

  • Johann Gerhard's Lutheran Christology and Aristotelian Metaphysics (= contributions to historical theology. Volume 67). Tübingen 1983.
  • Thinking in the twilight. Lectures and essays from the old GDR. Tubingen 1990.
  • Germany difficult fatherland. Freiburg 1993.
  • On the use of freedom. Stuttgart 1996.
  • Objections and appeals. Comments on current affairs. Stuttgart 2001.
  • The most important misconceptions about German unity. Freiburg im Breisgau 2007.
  • Abolition of religion? Scientific fanaticism and the consequences. Freiburg im Breisgau 2008.
  • Gunter Weißgerber , Richard Schröder, Eva Quistorp : Cosmopolitan Germany? - Ten theses that will change our country. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2018.

Articles and essays (selection)

Speeches (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Richard Schröder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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  1. ↑ Resignation from the Basic Values ​​Commission: "I ask for your understanding". In: Der Tagesspiegel . July 30, 2001.
  2. ↑ farewell of the President of Homboldt University on 4 February 2009 .
  3. ↑ https://www.nationalstiftung.de/pdf/PM_30_11_18.pdf
  4. ↑ eaberlin.de ( Memento from March 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ Helmut Schmidt , Richard Freiherr von Weizsäcker (ed.): Interior views from Europe. C. H. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-40655-864-X , p. 334 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  6. ↑ R. Schröder: Not like that! A lazy compromise on the memorial is looming. In: The time. January 21, 1999; ders .: You shouldn't murder. The memorial formulated as a reminder. In: FAZ . March 22, 1999; ders .: Forbid killing! Answer to six objections to my memorial proposal. In: The time. April 29, 1999. Karl Heinz Bohrer was critical of Schröder's proposal : Theological escapism . Address to Richard Schröder. In: SZ . 27./28. March 1999; Eberhard Jäckel / W. Boeckh: You should build a memorial. The neverending story of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial: Is Richard Schröder's proposal better than Peter Eisenman's design ? In: FAZ. June 23, 1999.
  7. ↑ See e.g. BR Schröder: Aliens don't laugh. Consciousness will never be proven in the laboratory. In: The time. July 2, 1998; ders .: What are we allowed to do, what should we do? A philosopher's questions about advances in biomedicine. In: FAZ. July 21, 2001, p. 8.
  8. ^ R. Schröder: Provocation without need. "Jyllands-Posten" shouldn't have printed the Mohammed cartoons. In: Der Tagesspiegel. February 7, 2006.
  9. ^ R. Schröder: Abolition of Religion? Scientific fanaticism and the consequences. Freiburg im Breisgau 2008.
  10. ↑ a b Josef Bordat: Christian Enlightenment - Richard Schröder succeeds with "Abolition of Religion" a knowledgeable and beneficial differentiated analysis of the problem of science fundamentalism . In: Literaturkritik.de No. 4, April 2009, accessed on August 22, 2016.
  11. ↑ Peter Monnerjahn: Intellectual suicide. The theologian Richard Schröder wants to defend faith against science, above all against Richard Dawkins, but this goes completely wrong. In: Telepolis . March 8, 2011, accessed May 19, 2012.
  12. ↑ Stefan Höltgen: When two argue. Fortunately, at the end of the Darwin year, one question remains unanswered. In: Telepolis December 23, 2009, accessed August 22, 2016.
  13. ↑ Protestant theologian: We have to strengthen the charisma. In: Deutschlandfunk from November 6, 2007.
  14. ^ Periscope: "Careless attitude". In: Focus No. 9/2008. February 25, 2008, accessed April 12, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Philipp Oehmke, Dietmar Pieper: The GDR coinage continues . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 2008 ( online - Mar. 3, 2008 ).
  16. ^ Gunter Weißgerber, Richard Schröder, Eva Quistorp: Cosmopolitan Germany? - Ten theses that will change our country. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2018. p. 26.
  17. ^ Gunter Weißgerber, Richard Schröder, Eva Quistorp: Cosmopolitan Germany? - Ten theses that will change our country. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2018. P. 46 ff.
  18. ^ Gunter Weißgerber, Richard Schröder, Eva Quistorp: Cosmopolitan Germany? - Ten theses that will change our country. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2018. p. 50.
  19. ↑ Award ceremony for the Day of German Unity , accessed on October 4, 2015.
  20. ↑ the church . No. 19, May 8, 2016, category people and quotations, ISSN  0949-8664 , p. 9: “As the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group [ the only freely elected people's chamber in the GDR in 1990 ], during the crucial months of preparation for the German unity gained high recognition and extraordinary esteem across party lines, it was said to justify the award. During the reconstruction of the new federal states and the creation of the internal unity of Germany, 'he was a committed and much sought-after companion and advisor to politics, business, culture and society', according to the German Unity Board of Trustees. "
  21. ↑ Merits for German Unity Richard Schröder awarded Point Alpha Prize ( Memento from June 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), mdr.de, message from June 19, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Schröder, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher, theologian and politician (SPD), MdV, MdB
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Frohburg , Saxony