Thomas A. Seidel

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Thomas A. Seidel, 2013

Thomas A. Seidel (born September 15, 1958 in Neukirchen / Pleiße ) is a Protestant theologian and historian. He has been a senior church councilor since 2010 and was the representative of the Thuringian state government for the preparation of the Reformation anniversary Luther 2017 as well as the author and editor of numerous articles and books on church history, contemporary church history and on theological, philosophical and political topics. He has been the Managing Director of the International Martin Luther Foundation since 2007 and Chairman of the Board since November 2019 . In November 2018 Seidel took over the management of deacon training at the Eisenacher Diakonisches Bildungsinstitut Johannes Falk (dbi).

Life

Thomas A. Seidel was born as the first son of a master electrical engineer and a textile worker. After graduating from high school in Werdau / Sa. an application for a high school diploma was refused for political reasons, he completed an apprenticeship as an electrician in the VEB Kombinat Starkstromanlagenbau Leipzig-Halle from 1975 to 1977 . From 1979 to 1986 he studied Protestant theology at the Theological Seminary (Church University) in Leipzig . He completed his vicariate from 1986 to 1988 in Ollendorf / Thuringia. On November 6, 1988, he was in the St. George Church in Eisenach ordained . From January 1, 1989, he worked as a parish and district youth pastor in the parish of Ollendorf.

On March 3, 1990 he was elected (part-time) managing director of the Kuratorium Schloss Ettersburg / Weimar and in this capacity was appointed (until January 1993) by the Thuringian state government to head the project for a future European cultural and educational facility at Schloss Ettersburg . Since February 1, 1994 he was director of studies for history and politics at the Evangelical Academy of Thuringia (75%) and parish pastor in Ollendorf (25%). From 1996 to 2005 he was director of the Evangelical Academy of Thuringia. In 2002 he did his doctorate on the subject of church reorganization in Thuringia - studies on a central German regional church in the transition from dictatorships from 1945 to 1950 with Kurt Nowak at the University of Leipzig ; this dissertation was published at the end of 2003 by Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart under the title In the transition of dictatorships. A study of the church reorganization in Thuringia 1945–1951 . In 2005 he was appointed to the church council and from 2005 to 2010 he was the representative of the Protestant churches in the state parliament and state government in Thuringia and since 2007 he has been the executive director of the International Martin Luther Foundation . He has held the title of Oberkirchenrat since 2010. From September 2010 he was also the representative of the Thuringian state government in preparation for the Luther 2017 anniversary of the Reformation .

Seidel has been head of deacon training at the Eisenacher Diakonisches Bildungsinstitut Johannes Falk since November 1, 2018 .

He has been married to Cornelia Seidel since 1983 (founding priority of the Collegiate Foundation St. Peter & Paul zu Erfurt, 2009); they have two children and four grandchildren. He has lived in Weimar since 2003 .

Political positions

As a spiritual director, Seidel is a member of the management level of the Evangelical Brotherhood of St. George's Order in Erfurt. In this role, Seidel criticized z. B. "turbo-capitalist, mass media forms of totalitarian synchronization". In April 2019 he was elected to the office of Grand Commander at their convention in Erfurt .

Voluntary engagement / memberships

  • since 1987 member of the Solidarity Church (AkSK) working group
  • since 1989 member of the New Forum
  • 1989 co-founder of a local SPD group in Ollendorf / Thuringia (SPD member until 2005)
  • since 1990 executive board member of the Kuratorium Schloss Ettersburg eV / Weimar
  • 1995–2010 member of the advisory board of the foundation for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship / Berlin
  • 1997–2005 chairman of the Open Church Forum in Thuringia.
  • since 1998 chairman of the board of the Society for Thuringian Church History
  • 2000–2005 Chairman of the Chamber for Labor and Economics of the Ev.-Luth. Church in Thuringia
  • 2002–2011 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Evangelical Adult Education in Thuringia
  • 2007–2018 Managing Director of the International Martin Luther Foundation, since 2019 Chairman of the Board
  • 2009–2011 Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Collegiate Foundation St. Peter & Paul eV / Erfurt
  • 2009–2011 member of the board of the Bonhoeffer-Haus eV, since 2018 chairman of the board
  • since 2014 Chairman of the Board of the Christian Collegiate Foundation (SCC)

Fonts

Since 1990 Thomas A. Seidel has published various publications on GDR history, contemporary church history and theological and political topics:

As an author:

  • “Thuringian Way and Thuringian Initiative. A regional group of the Solidarity Church at the end of the GDR ”, in: The Solidarity Church in the GDR. Experiences, memories, insights , ed. Joachim Goertz, Berlin 1999, pp. 35-54.
  • German-Christian mortgage and compromise on restructuring. The Protestant parish of Jena after 1945, in: Macht und Milieu. Jena between the end of the war and the building of the wall, Rudolstadt 2000, pp. 103-133.
  • Paul Dahinten and his chronicle of the Thuringian pastors' association: historical notes on a liberal theologian, in: Vestigia pietatis. Studies on the history of piety in Thuringia and Saxony, Leipzig 2000, pp. 267–286.
  • In the transition of dictatorships. An investigation into the church reorganization in Thuringia 1945 - 1951, Stuttgart 2003 (dissertation), 430 pp.
  • "The outstanding feature of the city". The destruction of the Jena city church St. Michael in the Second World War and its reconstruction after 1945, in: Inmitten der Stadt - St. Michael in Jena , ed. Volker Leppin and Matthias Werner, Petersberg 2004, pp. 195–233.
  • The theo-logic of being moved - Paul and Romans 13, in: Obey God more than men - Christian roots, contemporary history and the presence of resistance , ed. Martin Leiner, Hildigund Neubert, Thomas A. Seidel and Ulrich Schacht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 49–65.
  • Oberkirchenrat Erich Hertzsch and the church policy of the SED, in: State and Church in Thuringia - Continuity and Change , series of publications by the Landtag, Weimar 2005, pp. 227–250.
  • Wolf Jobst Siedler: Ettersburg Lietz student, urban planning critic and successful entrepreneur, in: Ettersburg Castle. A laboratory of European culture, Jena 2006, pp. 10-14.
  • ENCLOSED rooms, in: Ettersburg Castle. A Laboratory of European Culture, Jena 2006, pp. 22–24.
  • Laboratory of European Culture -> Kulturwerkstatt Schloss Ettersburg <, in: Schloss Ettersburg. A laboratory of European culture, Jena 2006, pp. 146–156.
  • Saint Elisabeth in Erfurt. A search for traces of history and sacred art. Erfurt 2007, pp. 9-23.
  • The "Grundmann denazification file". Notes on the career of a formerly leading DC theologian, in: Walter Grundmann. A New Testament scholar in the Third Reich, ed. Roland Deines, Volker Leppin and Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Leipzig 2007, pp. 349–369.
  • Leffler's confession - comments on “coming to terms with the past” in the Thuringian Evangelical Church after 1945, in: “… in the middle of the German people”. Buchenwald, Weimar and the National Socialist Volksgemeinschaft , ed. Volkhard Knigge and Imanuel Baumann, Göttingen 2008, pp. 134–149.
  • The Protestant Church, in: Thuringia. A political geography, ed. Karl Schmitt, Baden-Baden 2010, pp. 213-235.
  • Sixteen theological miniatures ,  in: On the way to Luther . Weimar and Eisenach 2010.
  • 16 Theological miniatures, in: In the Footsteps of Martin Luther . Weimar and Eisenach 2010.
  • Maria. Mother of God and bride of souls. A visual theological approach from an evangelical perspective, in: Maria. Evangelical . Leipzig 2011, pp. 19–41.
  • Lindenhayn. A student residential community idyll, in: An island in the red sea. Memories of the Theological Seminary in Leipzig . Leipzig 2017, pp. 188–196.
  • Schiller's skull. Goethe's fear of death and some art-religious consequences, in: Death, where is your sting? Fear of death and lust for life in Christianity. GEORGIANA 2. Leipzig 2017. pp. 111–130.
  • The RefoStab. A report from the engine room, in: The Reformation Decade "Luther 2017" in Thuringia. Documentation, reflection. Perspective, Leipzig 2018, pp. 10–17.
  • New Ichtershausen Monastery, in: The Reformation Decade "Luther 2017" in Thuringia. Documentation, reflection. Perspective, Leipzig 2018, pp. 157–159. With Sebastian von Kloch-Kornitz.
  • “The Reformation is a citizen of the world”. The international dimension of the Luther Decade , in: Reformation anniversary 2017. Review, ed. the state office “Luther 2017” and the EKD office “Luther 2017 - 500 Years of Reformation”, editorial team, Leipzig 2018, pp. 153–156.
  • With roses through life into paradise, in: Thuringian Anthology. A poetic journey, ed. Jens Kirsten and Christoph Schmitz-Scholemann, Weimar 2018, pp. 82–83.

As editor:

  • Destruction through progress, using the example of rocket production in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, Berlin - Bonn 1995.
  • The relaxed nation, anthology with contributions by Roman Herzog, Joachim Gauck, Bernhard Vogel, Hildegard Hamm-Brücher and others. a., Jena 1996.
  • With Volkhard Knigge and Jürgen Maria Pietsch, Petrified Commemoration. The Buchenwald memorial from 1958, Leipzig 1997.
  • Thuringian ridge walks. Contributions to the seventy-five year history of the Evangelical Church of Thuringia, Leipzig 1998.
  • From the "Fall of the West" to the rise of the "Third Reich", Weimar 1999.
  • Godless years? Review of the Church in Socialism in the GDR, Leipzig 2002.
  • With Marie Hanusch (ed.), It's time that we live - A Rolf Hanusch reading book, Leipzig 2005.
  • With Justus Ulbricht (ed.), Ettersburg Castle. A laboratory of European culture, Jena 2006.
  • With Lothar Schmelz (ed.), The holy Elisabeth in Erfurt. A search for traces of history and sacred art. Erfurt 2007.
  • Luther Bevier. Words for every day / Luther's Beviary. A meditation for each day of the year . German / English, Weimar 2007.
  • With Heinz Stade, on the way to Luther . Weimar and Eisenach 2010.
  • With Heinz Stade, In the Footsteps of Martin Luther . Weimar and Eisenach 2010.
  • With Ulrich Schacht (ed.), Maria. Evangelical . Leipzig 2011.
  • With Christopher Spehr (ed.), Das Evangelische Pfarrhaus. Myth and Reality. Leipzig 2013.
  • With photographs by Jürgen M. Pietsch (ed.), EVANGELISCH? 95 answers - 95 portraits . Holzgerlingen 2015.
  • With Ulrich Schacht (ed.), "... if God makes history!" 1989 versus 1789 . GEORGIANA 1. Leipzig 2015.
  • Melanchthon, the Pope and ecumenism. Weimar 2016.
  • With Heinz Stade (ed.), On the way to Luther. The travel book. Weimar 2016.
  • With Wolfgang Ratzmann (ed.), An island in the red sea. Memories of the Theological Seminary in Leipzig . Leipzig 2017.
  • With Ulrich Schacht (ed.), Death, where is your sting? Fear of death and lust for life in Christianity. GEORGIANA 2nd Leipzig 2017.
  • Martin Luther. "For the love of truth ..." The 95 theses. Facsimile reprint of the original edition from 1517. Frankfurt a. M. 2017.
  • With Bernd Oberdorfer, Stefan Rhein (eds.), Reformation heute (5 volumes). Leipzig 2014–2018.
  • With Annette Seemann and Thomas Wurzel (eds.), The Reformation Decade "Luther 2017" in Thuringia. Documentation, reflection. Perspective, Leipzig 2018.
  • With Ulrich Schacht + (ed.), Dignity or Arbitrariness. Theological and philosophical prerequisites of the Basic Law. GEORGIANA 3rd Leipzig 2019.

reception

In her review of Dignity or Arbitrariness - Theological and Philosophical Requirements of the Basic Law (2019), Vera Lengsfeld recommends the volume as an “exciting read”. The anthology documents that Thomas A. Seidel "took up the baton worthily" after the death of co-editor Ulrich Schacht. Seidel's contribution In hoc signo vinces. Cultural-historical and theological notes on the meaning of the cross. emphasizes the reviewer as worthy of detailed consideration. The essay shows how much the West has distanced itself from Christian tradition. In the Deutsche Richterzeitung , Urban Sandherr, judge at the higher court , describes the volume as a “fraudulent label” because it only deals with the Basic Law to a limited extent . Rather, the individual contributions are linked by a common stance: the opposition to a “hyper-moral-secular zeitgeist”. It is a "politically yesterday's compendium". In his contribution In hoc signo vinces Seidel played up “a harmless episode” to the scandal and in the following left the “ground of any factual discussion”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foundation to come to terms with the SED dictatorship ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Portrait at the EKM Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekmd.de
  3. ↑ Thomas Seidel will train deacons in the future , thueringer-allgemeine.de, article from October 31, 2018.
  4. ↑ detailed biography ( PDF )
  5. ↑ https://www.welt.de/print/wams/article114898971/Gottverlassen.html
  6. ↑ Thomas A. Seidel becomes the new head of the Order of St. George , idea.de, notification of April 29, 2019.
  7. ↑ detailed biography at IMLS ( PDF )
  8. ↑ Publications ( PDF )
  9. ↑ a b c Author Vera Lengsfeld: Dignity or arbitrariness or what holds Europe together? In: Vera Lengsfeld. February 1, 2020, accessed April 25, 2020 .
  10. ^ Thomas A. Seidel: In hoc signo vinces. Cultural-historical and theological remarks on the meaning of the cross. ' In: Thomas A. Seidel, Ulrich Schacht (ed.): Georgiana. New theological perspectives . tape 3 . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2019, ISBN 978-3-374-05607-1 , pp. 130-182 .
  11. ↑ a b Urban Sandherr: Label fraud. In: Deutscher Richterbund eV, Berlin (Hrsg.): Deutsche Richterzeitung . tape 97 , no. 03 . CH Beck OHG, March 2020, ISSN  0340-8612 , p. 113 .
personal data
SURNAME Seidel, Thomas A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Neukirchen / Pleiße , GDR