Rolf Dammann (pastor)

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Rolf Dammann at the inauguration of the community center of the Bethel community in Berlin-Friedrichshain on March 27, 1982

Rolf Dammann (born August 16, 1924 in Görlitz ; † December 3, 2014 in Berlin ) was a German Baptist pastor. From 1969 to 1989 he was Secretary General of the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR .

Life

Rolf Dammann came from a Baptist family. Because of the early death of his father, he had to leave high school in 1940 and began training as a tax inspector at the Görlitz tax office. In 1941 he attended the Reich Finance School in Herrsching am Ammersee .

In 1942 he volunteered for the Navy and served on the destroyer Z 14 Friedrich Ihn until a serious accident in November 1944 . Then he was in various hospitals until the end of the war , from February 1945 in Bayreuth , where Rolf Dammann met his future wife. After brief captivity, he returned to his family in May 1945, who had relocated from Görlitz to Bad Köstritz , and initially worked at the Gera tax office .

From 1946 until his appointment as a mission worker to Schmölln in October 1952, he worked as a tax inspector in Görlitz. The training to become a preacher in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches took place in several courses in Buckow and Leipzig. In 1960 Dammann was ordained a preacher .

In February 1958, Rolf Dammann was appointed managing director of the Federal Office East in Berlin by the Chairman of the Federal Council, Herbert Weist . He initially held this office part-time in addition to his community service in the Bethel community in Berlin-Friedrichshain and from 1965 full-time. At the federal conference from May 8 to 12, 1969 in Dresden , in addition to the new name of the Bund Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR , the new title of Secretary General was decided. Dammann held this position until he retired on August 1, 1989.

Like many other pastors of the Federation, Rolf Dammann was also involved in the training of theological offspring within the Evangelical Free Church Association of the GDR. In the academic year 1959/60 he taught the history of German Baptism at the theological seminar of the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR in Buckow (Märkische Schweiz) and subsequently helped at regular intervals by dealing with special topics.

Dammann worked in various national and international church bodies. On September 13, 1964, there was an encounter in East Berlin with Martin Luther King , who had previously preached in the Marienkirche and the Sophienkirche . 1964 and 1968 Dammann took in Prague as an observer at the Christian Peace Conference conducted Allchristlichen peace meetings in part. He took part in the Congresses of the Baptist World Federation in Tokyo in 1970 and in Toronto in 1980. From 1980 to 1985 he was one of the twelve vice presidents of the Baptist World Federation. Ralph Abernathy , a close friend of Martin Luther King, presented Dammann with a message of greeting to the Baptists in the GDR in September 1973. In 1973, as a member of an international commission, Dammann was involved in drawing up a joint creed of the confederations in the Federal Republic, the GDR, Austria and Switzerland . In October 1982 he received the American Baptist pastor Billy Graham , who was doing a preaching service in the GDR. As General Secretary, Dammann was responsible for the official relationship between the GDR Federation and the state. During his term of office he therefore met several times with the State Secretaries for Church Affairs Hans Seigewasser and Klaus Gysi .

Private

Rolf Dammann was married to Elfriede. The couple had five children and lived in Berlin.

Publications (selection)

  • Festschrift for the 60th anniversary of the Evangelical Free Church Community Schmölln 1895–1955. Union Verlag, Berlin 1957.
  • God's demand on man. Evang. Verl.- u. Versandbuchhandl. Ekelmann, Berlin 1963.
  • Put in the decision. Evangelische Verlagsbuchhandl. Ekelmann, Berlin 1967.
  • The Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR. In: Günter Balders (Ed.): One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. 150 years of Baptist churches in Germany. 3rd revised edition with literature supplements. Onken, Wuppertal / Kassel 1989, ISBN 3-7893-7883-6 .

literature

  • Reinhard Assmann (ed.): The Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR: a guide to structures - sources - research. Baptism Studies 6, Oncken, Kassel 2004, ISBN 978-3-87939-205-6 .
  • Ulrich Materne, Günter Balders (ed.): Experienced in the GDR. Reports from the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches. Oncken, Wuppertal / Kassel 1995, ISBN 3-7893-7220-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ulrich Materne, Günter Balders (ed.): Experienced in the GDR. Pp. 391-401.
  2. ↑ Adolf Pohl (Ed.) The harvest is big - 25 years of the theological seminar of the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR in Buckow (Märk. Switzerland) 1959–1984. Evangelische Versandbuchhandlung O.Ekelmann Nachf., Berlin 1983.
  3. ^ Regina Claas : Greeting on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Hotel Albrechtshof ( memento from June 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 24, 2012.
  4. ↑ Anneliese Vahl: Martin Luther King . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1970. p. 73
  5. ↑ Committed to the Kingdom of God in the GDR - Baptist General Secretary 90 years old ( Memento from December 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), baptisten.de, message from September 8, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Dammann, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Baptist pastor, General Secretary of the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Goerlitz
DATE OF DEATH 3rd December 2014
Place of death Berlin