Theo Mechtenberg

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Theodor “Theo” Mechtenberg (* 1928 ) is a German Roman Catholic theologian , Germanist and publicist . He is one of the initiators and today's honorary chairman of the Pan-European Student Union (GESW) in Vlotho , Herford district , an educational institution with a focus on political education.

Life

Theodor Mechtenberg first studied Catholic theology in the GDR and was ordained a priest . He worked as a vicar in Wittenberg and then as a student pastor in Magdeburg .

Since 1963 he has headed the Pacem in Terris working group , which was established by the Erfurt auxiliary bishop Hugo Aufderbeck , and has been involved in German-Polish relations since the mid-1960s. He was laicized in 1971 , moved to Poland in 1972 and married there. He stayed until 1979, studied at the University of Wroclaw and obtained a doctorate in German. He was an employee of the weekly newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny . In 1979 he came back to Germany and started working as a lecturer for the GESW. Later he was chairman of the sponsoring association of GESW.

Mechtenberg helped authors who had moved from the GDR and continued to cultivate his contacts in the GDR. He was monitored by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) for around 30 years .

Honors

  • In 2017 he received the Lothar Kreyssig Peace Prize

Fonts (selection)

  • Utopia as an aesthetic category. An examination of Ingeborg Bachmann's poetry. Academic publishing house Heinz 1978 (dissertation at the University of Breslau, 1977), ISBN 978-3-88099-048-7 .
  • Full of grace. Reflections on Mary. Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1980, ISBN 978-3-222-11257-7 .
  • The Way of the Cross of Maximilian Kolbe. Butzon and Bercker, Kevelaer 1982, ISBN 978-3-7666-9262-7 .
  • The situation of the churches in the GDR. Hanns Seidel Foundation, Academy for Politics and Current Affairs, Munich 1985, ISBN 978-3-88795-046-0 .
  • Commitment to resistance. The contribution of the Catholic Church in the GDR to reconciliation with Poland. Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 978-3-7462-1295-1 (with the assistance of Bernd Schäfer)
  • Poland's Catholic Church between tradition and modernity , Neisse-Verl., 2011, ISBN 978-3-940310-96-5
  • Intercultural empathy. Contributions to German-Polish understanding.   Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt 2014, ISBN 3-631-62722-X (collection of articles).

Translations from Polish

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the GESW on the website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education , accessed on November 23, 2019
  2. ↑ Author's website from Herder-Verlag , accessed on November 23, 2019
  3. ↑ Theo Mechtenberg has published his experiences. Lord's Day, early 2002 , accessed November 23, 2019
  4. ↑ Peace Prize for Theo Mechtenberg, GESW press release of July 6, 2017 , accessed on November 23, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Mechtenberg, Theo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mechtenberg, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian, lecturer, publicist, Germanist, translator
DATE OF BIRTH 1928