Roland Adolph

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Roland Adolph (* 1946 in Dohna ; † February 5, 1997 near Moritzburg ) was a Protestant pastor and a leading member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony . He and his wife Petra Adolph died as victims of a violent crime.

Life

Roland Adolph grew up in Weesenstein in the Müglitztal . After leaving school, he first learned to be a toolmaker and married in 1969. Adolph then studied theology in Berlin and Naumburg until 1975 and, after his preparatory service and ordination in 1977, took over his first pastor's position in Struppen near Pirna. In 1985, Adolph moved to the pastorate in Neustadt / Saxony , before he was given the position of rector and head of the deacon house in Moritzburg in 1988 .

Adolph was a member of the Saxon regional synod from 1978 to 1994. With the rank of Oberlandeskirchenrat, he was from September 1, 1994, as a department head for the Upper Lusatia area and responsible for questions of principle in the relationship between state and church, for diakonia, church training centers and child and youth work. He took over the department from Volker Kreß , who had previously been elected as the new regional bishop at the time, and Harald Bretschneider was the successor in office after his death .

In 1995 Adolph was elected to the Synod of the Evangelical Churches in Germany (EKD) . During and after the peaceful revolution in 1989 he was involved in sifting through the Stasi documents. The family with two children lived in Moritzburg beyond his appointment to the regional church office.

assassination

The married couple Adolph died when they happened to witness an illegal target practice at noon on February 5, 1997 in the forest near Moritzburg. After a verbal confrontation, the Adolphs and their dog Hedda were killed by several pistol shots at close range. The case generated dismay and sympathy, and attracted a great deal of public interest and extensive investigation. After speculations about the perpetrators and motives for the crime, DNA samples were used to prove that a Dresden resident was 34 years old who had participated in the crime four years later. In the course of the murder trial, which began in January 2001, the suspicion was confirmed and the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment, but questions about possible complicity and the exact course of the crime remain open to this day.

Adolph and his wife were buried on February 15, 1997 after a funeral service in the Hoffnungskirche Dresden-Löbtau on the New Annenfriedhof by the then regional bishop Volker Kress. The criminal case was broadcast on August 22, 1997 in the program Aktenzeichen XY (Case 1).

literature

  • Manfred Müller, Thomas Schade: Death in the crucian forest. The mysterious murder of Roland Adolph and his wife , Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3938325384

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE: Lifelong for double murder of the Adolph couple , June 29, 2001
  2. ↑ File number Laibach's testicle well: 298 file number xy from August 22, 1997. May 18, 2014, accessed September 24, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Adolph, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Dohna
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1997
Place of death Moritzburg (Saxony)