Siegfried Hotzel

Siegfried Hotzel (born February 12, 1894 in Leopoldshall ; † 1992 ) was a Protestant, German Wehrmacht pastor , parish pastor and author . He gained an exceptional contribution to the reconstruction of St. Augustine's Church and - monastery in Erfurt after the Second World War .

Live and act

Gottfried Maximilian Siegfried Hotzel was born in Leopoldshall in 1894 as the son of the pharmacy owner Maximilian Hotzel. He attended the city high school in Halle . From 1913 to 1920 he was an active officer and participated in the First World War . He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class and was the leader of a pioneer company as first lieutenant. In November 1918 he was wounded and treated in a reserve hospital in Erfurt . Hotzel then studied economics in Jena and was awarded a Dr. rer. pole. PhD . In 1925 he married Gertrud Schätzing, and the marriage resulted in a daughter in the mid-1930s. From 1925 to 1927 Hotzel was a syndic in a business association in Weimar . Then he studied theology in Halle / Saale from 1927 to 1930 . He was then pastor in Glöthe from 1931 to 1934 , and in Leopoldshall from 1934 to 1936. In November 1936, Hotzel was appointed by the Evangelical Field Bishop of the Wehrmacht as local pastor for the garrison town of Erfurt. As a division pastor, he served in the division's fighting areas in the west and east from 1939 to 1944. In 1944 Hotzel came to Wiesbaden as a parish pastor . From there he made his way in March 1945 - with marching orders - to his family in Erfurt, which he reached on April 1st (Easter Sunday). In Erfurt, Hotzel witnessed the invasion of US troops on April 11th and 12th .

Hotzel asked for a pastor's position in Erfurt and received it in April 1945. The pastor of the Augustinian parish was killed in the heavy British bombing of the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt in February 1945 (with 267 dead). Hotzel took over the orphaned pastor's position, but could not move with his wife and daughter until mid-1946 - from his old official apartment in Blosenburgstrasse in what is now a "Russian quarter" of Erfurt - into the Augustinian parsonage, as this was no longer habitable after the attack. There was no undestroyed room in the entire Augustinian monastery, so the services of the Augustinian community had to take place in the All Saints Church . The Augustinian Church was usable again for Advent 1948, and in 1951 it was to be considered restored. The reconstruction of the monastery (with the exception of the completely destroyed library building and the Waidhäuser) took place under the stimulating and organizational direction of Hotzel by committed architects with construction workers. The procurement of building materials caused great difficulties. Hotzel turned to the Evangelical Relief Organization in Stuttgart , the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva and various high church offices in Sweden , USA and England with financial calls for help . The requests for support did not go unnoticed. Hotzel also conducted negotiations with the GDR church minister , Otto Nuschke , with poor results. The ownership structure also had an obstacle to the reconstruction of the Augustinian monastery : one third each belonged to the church, the Evangelical orphanage and the city. A clarification in favor of the church could not be reached until 1950, to which the legal counsel from the legal advisor of the Evangelical Ministry, Selmar Bühling , contributed significantly. When he was supposed to be arrested, among other allegations, Hotzel hid him in his parsonage until he was able to flee to West Berlin , with the corresponding personal risk . Pastor Hotzel also experienced the church struggle in the Soviet Zone and the early GDR up close . When, in 1960, when he reached retirement age, after 15 years of work for the Augustinian congregation, he applied to move to West Germany , the permit dragged on with harassment until March 1961. In April 1961 the family was able to move to Dußlingen (south of Tübingen ) and later to Bad Boll . Hotzel wrote many contemporary historical contributions to the Erfurt home letters of gone to West Germany home faithful Erfurt , the founder and CEO his friend Selmar Bühling was. Pastor Hotzel could still follow the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR at an advanced age.

literature

• Parish book of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony . Volume 4, 2006. Dr. Hotzel, p. 321.
• Siegfried Hotzel: Luther in the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt 1505/1511 . Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1959/1971
• Siegfried Hotzel, articles in Erfurt homeland letters (EHB no./pages, year):
  • The end of the war in April 1945, experienced in Erfurt (13 / 53-58), 1966
  • Erfurt under American occupation (14 / 32-36), 1967
  • The first year under Soviet rule (15 / 27-33), 1967
  • Luther in the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt (15 / 48-60), 1967
  • Erfurt under the Ulbricht regime 1946–61 (16 / 19-30), 1968
  • Returned twice to Erfurt (22 / 56-61), 1971
  • The reconstruction of the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt (23 / 28-41), 1971
  • Erfurt anno 1814 (23 / 51-59), 1971
  • As a military pastor in Erfurt (24 / 31-39), 1972
  • On the motivations of Marx and Engels (32 / 40-44), 1976
  • Forty years of friendship - memories of Selmar Bühling (36 / 4-5), 1978
  • From the last days of the old University of Erfurt (37 / 56-60), 1978
  • Schiller in Erfurt (40 / 54-59), 1980
  • Bismarck and the Erfurt Union Parliament in March / April 1850 (44 / 48-52), 1982
  • It started in Erfurt (46 / 30-39), 1983
• Susanne Böhm: Dr. Siegfried Hotzel - the last Protestant garrison pastor in Erfurt . City and History, Special Issue 11, 2011, pp. 28–29.