Theodor Knolle

Theodor Ludwig Georg Albert Knolle (born June 18, 1885 in Hildesheim , † December 2, 1955 in Hamburg ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian and bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Hamburg state .

Life

The son of a merchant, attended high school in Magdeburg . After graduating from high school, he began studying theology. To do this, he frequented the universities in Halle (Saale) , Marburg and Berlin . He took his first theological exam in Halle in 1907, attended the Protestant seminary in Wittenberg in 1908 and passed his second theological exam in Magdeburg in 1909. After he had completed his theological training in Wittenberg, he was ordained on June 23, 1910 for the Evangelical Church of the older provinces of Prussia in Magdeburg as assistant preacher in Greppin . Knolle became a pastor there in 1913; In 1916 he moved as the third pastor to the Wittenberg town church .

In Wittenberg he worked, among other things, as a student chaplain for the Protestant preacher's seminary before he was appointed senior pastor to St. Petrikirche in Hamburg in the Protestant-Lutheran Hamburg regional church in 1924 . In the same year, on April 19, 1924, he received his doctorate in theology from the theological faculty of the University of Halle-Wittenberg .

After the dismissal of the more liberal senior of the Hamburg regional church Karl Horn by conservative Lutherans and supporters of the Young Reformation movement and the implementation of a new hierarchical church constitution, Knolle was appointed general superintendent, a newly created office, deputy of the regional bishop, also a new office, from July 25, 1933 then occupied by Simon Schöffel . Since he was an opponent of the National Socialist measures to integrate the Hamburg Church into an imperial church, he resigned from this office on March 1, 1934. He became a member of the Confessing Church and was a co-founder of the Luther Society.

In 1945 he became a member of the Spiritual Council in Hamburg, in 1946 a member of the general synod of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany , in 1948 a member of the church assembly in Eisenach , as well as president of the regional synod and in 1949 a deputy member of the synod of the EKD . Knolle also became senior church councilor in 1946 as a training officer, in 1948 lecturer in theology at the church college in Hamburg and in 1950 professor there. After the church college in Hamburg was affiliated as the theological faculty of the University of Hamburg , he was also honorary professor there from 1954. In the same year he was elected regional bishop of Hamburg, which office he took up on January 23, 1955.

Knolle married Johanna Marie Elisabeth Lindemann on February 3, 1920 in Suhl. From this marriage come a son and a daughter.

Grave slab in the Ohlsdorf cemetery

Act

In his writings, Knolle devoted himself primarily to Luther research. Many of his essays appeared , for example in the Luther yearbook . His books also dealt with this topic centrally.

Works (selection)

• German people and German church! 1916
• Reformation celebration in Wittenberg 1917. 1917
• Luther our fellow campaigner !: Sermon about PS. 89, 20, go. At the Reformation Festival. 1917
• Wittenberg's celebration of the act Dr. Martin Luthers, Dec. 10, 1520. 1920
• Luther's marriage according to statements made by him and his contemporaries. 1925
• Lutheran Hamburg: essays on history and Present d. Lutheranism. 1928
• From Hamburg's church: 1529-1929. 1929, together with Karl Horn
• Luther and the iconoclasts in his and his contemporaries' statements. 1922
• The prototype of the Luther picture with the swan. 1931
• Binding and freedom in the liturgical organization. Göttingen 1932
• The celebration of the Eucharist and the Lutheran service. 1939
• Luther in the German Church of the Present. 1940
• as editor with Volkmar Herntrich : Scripture and Confession. Testimonies of Lutheran theology , Hamburg 1950.

literature

• Dagmar Pöpping : The minutes of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2005 ISBN 3-525557-58-2 Vol. 5: 1951 p. 588
• Parish book of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony. Vol. 5, p. 21. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig, 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02137-6
• Hannelore Braun, Gertraud Grünzinger: Personal Lexicon on German Protestantism 1919-1949. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2006, ISBN 3525557612 , p. 139
• Hans-Volker Herntrich:  Knolle, Theodor. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 160-161.

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich Gottlieb Theodor Rode	Senior Pastor at St. Petri in Hamburg 1924–1955	Karl Witte

predecessor	Office	successor
Simon Schoeffel	Regional Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Hamburg State 1954–1955	Volkmar Herntrich