Ulrich Sporleder

Ulrich Sporleder (around 1940)

Ulrich Sporleder (born July 7, 1911 in Schwerte ; † July 23/24, 1944 in Ostrów Lubelski near Lublin , Poland ) was a German Protestant clergyman , pastor of the Confessing Church in Marienburg and Marienwerder , an officer in the German armed forces and resistance fighter against the National Socialism .

Live and act

Family and childhood

Ulrich Sporleder was born as the second of three children into a family of landowners originally in Mecklenburg ( Schloss / Rittergut Steinbeck near Bellin ) and Silesia (Rittergut Reinshain ), partly monarchist-national-conservative, partly Christian-social and social-democratic landowners. Friedrich Wilhelm Sporleder (1787–1875), natural scientist and consistorial councilor at the Graflich-Stolberg consistory in Wernigerode , is one of his ancestors, the former mayor of Herne Georg Sporleder and the administrative lawyer Werner Sporleder , former mayor or mayor of Aschersleben , Havelberg and Berlin - Adlershof his uncles, the writer, philologist and psychologist Gerd Schimansky are his brother-in-law and the opera singer Kurt Manfred Sporleder (1915–1976) his brother. He spent most of his youth in Frankfurt am Main and at Schloss Braunfels / Lahn . Through his mother Marie Anna Katharina Sporleder, who was also the managing director of the monarchist Queen Luise Federation under Baroness von Hadeln , he came into contact with the Christian youth movements at an early stage, in particular with the Marburg Michaelsbruderschaft as part of the Berneuchen movement .

His close companions, teachers and friends included Martin Niemöller , who became the godfather of his first son Martin in 1939, Gerhard Ritter , Karl Bernhard Ritter , Hans Joachim Iwand , Horst Symanowski , Rudolf Bultmann and Hans Freiherr von Soden, among others, high-ranking officers of the Reichswehr and later German Wehrmacht.

Studies and political activity

After graduating from high school in Wetzlar, Sporleder began studying theology at the University of Königsberg in the 1930 semester , where he also joined the German Academic Guild. In the winter semester of 1931/32, Sporleder wanted to join Karl Barth at the University of Bonn, but then continued his studies at the University of Marburg with Hans Freiherr von Soden , Rudolf Bultmann and Wilhelm Maurer , among others . After initial skepticism, he believed that he had understood Bultmann's intention with regard to his “decision-making concept” and approached his positions. When the members of the Königsberg guild Skuld wanted to elect him as guild master in 1932, Sporleder had doubts about his relationship to the guild body, which was increasingly coming under ethnic influence. In the summer semester of 1932 he returned to the University of Königsberg , where he a. a. continued his theology studies with professors Hans Joachim Iwand and Martin Noth . In the summer semester of 1933 he went from there to the Herder Institute in Riga and returned to Königsberg after two semesters. At the side of Iwand he was now one of the main fighters against the Gestapo closing the Luther home there.

Resistance, work for the Confessing Church and imprisonment

Elected in the summer of 1934 as head of the student council, Sporleder took part in the science camp of the theological student council in Wormditt and then wrote the foreword to the lectures by Julius Schniewind and Herbert Girgensohn published in the series Confessing Church . Sporleder was of the opinion that it was not the theology students who had placed themselves outside the state, but that the Nazi state itself, through its totalitarian claim, would provoke exclusion and resistance. In fact, many theology students, including those who were close to the masterminds of the Barmer Theological Declaration, tried to demonstrate national convictions and even their willingness to participate in the construction of a National Socialist Germany through membership in the SA, but quickly discovered that National Socialism was incompatible and Christianity. Because of this situation, Sporleather's foreword was quickly understood across the empire as the “manifesto of the theology students” of that generation. For November 9, 1934, Sporleder announced a discussion with Professor Hans Michael Müller about his book Vom Staatsfeind in the auditorium of the university. Fellow students such as Manfred Koschorke and Horst Symanowski later described these discussions, which were shaped by Sporleder, as a last place of freedom in the midst of bondage and terrorism. On November 26, 1934, under the leadership of Sporleders, the “Brotherhood of Vicars and Assistant Preachers of the East Prussian BK” was founded as part of the “Second East Prussian Church Congress”. Among the founding members, Sporleder belonged to the so-called “radical wing” of the “young brothers”, who refused any concessions or compromises to the Nazi state. Consequently, at a meeting of the East Prussian Brotherhood Council on April 12, 1935, he demanded an uncompromising stance and consistent action against the so-called Rust Decree . In particular, the influence on the professorship appointments in the theological faculties should be disclosed through clear statements. In addition, Sporleder wanted to extend the intercessions held in the religious services of the denominational parishes to all prisoners in the concentration camps. Usually, until then, these were directed at the persecuted “brothers” and less so to the Catholic, Jewish, Communist, Social Democratic or other fellow prisoners. Sporleder was also instrumental in inviting Martin Niemoeller to East Prussia and in organizing his related lecture tours and guest sermons. From then on, Niemöller became his father's friend and was also close to the family.

From December 1935 to April 1936 Sporleder was invited by Albrecht Graf zu Stolberg-Wernigerode on Castle Dönhoff Städt worked as a private tutor. There he was protected from persecution and at the same time was given the opportunity to take his first exam before the illegal examination board of the East Prussian Confessing Synod. At Dönhoffstädt Castle he also wrote his thesis on the subject of justification and sanctification according to the apology . From March 16 to 19, 1936, he was one of 19 candidates who took his first theological exam at the Confessing Church in East Prussia. On April 25, 1936, he was a member of the funding committee for the science camp of the Theological Student Council in Tilsit and on June 15, 1936, he traveled to Posen for Student Day . During this time he wrote a sermon on Heb 12 : 1-6  LUT , in which, as a reaction to the Nuremberg Race Laws, he wrote under the word “Today we (Christians and Jews) are more than ever one generation (ie from the generation of David ) “Called for struggle and resistance.

From May 1, 1936, until his leave of absence from the Reichsheer on October 17, 1936, he worked as vicar in Heilsberg / East Prussia . He received his training as an officer candidate with one of the traditional hussar regiments in East Prussia . He then worked as vicar for Pastor Werner Lehmbruch in Rehhof and as a preacher in Marienwerder , where he succeeded in building up a new denominational congregation. On November 14, 1937, Sporleder preached together with Lehmbruch and other pastors, auxiliary preachers and preachers in various churches in Elbe as part of a so-called Kirchentag of the Confessing Church. He was then arrested for the first time by the Gestapo together with Werner Lehmbruch and six other brothers and sisters and was imprisoned until November 21, 1937, initially in the Gestapo and finally in the Elbing court prison. His sermons, telephone calls and correspondence had been monitored for some time and were now used to justify his pre-trial detention and the bringing of charges. On December 7th and 14th, 1937 he was named as the last "protective and remand prisoner" ("No. 87") on the nationwide list of intercessions of the Confessing Church, that of Pastor Martin Niemöller ("No. 1") as a "personal prisoner Hitler's ”was cited.

Assistant preacher of the Confessing Church in Marienburg and Marienwerder (West Pr.)

After his release from prison, Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten, as a member of the East Prussian Brother Council, campaigned for Sporleder to be appointed as the successor to Helmut Passauer as assistant preacher of the Confessing Church in Marienburg on May 1, 1938 . There, like his predecessor, he was the only confessional cleric to face four “ German-Christian ” pastors. During this time, the first more intensive contacts with later members of the military resistance took place. His services were regularly attended by Gestapo informers and he was also denounced several times by parishioners because of the content of his sermons and his confirmation classes. On 7./8. In July 1938 he married Annemarie Weissenborn, a daughter of the former mayor of Halberstadt, in Lauenburg / Pomerania . Through his brother-in-law Gerd Schimansky and his friend Willy Kramp , Sporleder got in touch with the opposition writer Ernst Wiechert , who was Schimansky’s teacher at the Hufengymnasium in Königsberg. Because of the collection of collections for the Confessing Church and requests for sermons for pastors who had been disciplined and imprisoned, he stood in two trials as a defendant before the Reich Court in the autumn of 1938 . After being in St. Mary's Church in New Year's Mass in 1938, the November pogroms had sharply denounced against the Jewish people and prayed for the persecuted, he was on joint operation of the consistory , the Reich Church Ministry and the Gestapo early 1939 retroactively removed from office as at 31 December 1938 and with gag order occupied. In response to the impeachment, the consistory in Königsberg and the state authorities received more than 200 letters of protest from members of the Marienburg confessional community. He was then allowed to continue teaching the confirmands taken over from Passauer until their confirmation in spring 1939. However, he was banned from preaching and from St. George's Church in Marienburg, and their use for denominational services was now generally prohibited. The congregation then held its services under the direction of Sporleather in the private apartments of the Marienburg congregation members in secret.

Officer of a tank destroyer unit, meeting with Bonhoeffer, “Rescue Resistance” and Military Resistance

On August 26, 1939, Sporleder was drafted into the Wehrmacht and took part in the attack on Poland as an officer of a tank destroyer unit set up in Wehrkreis I , which belonged to the "Gruppe Brandt", 3rd Army . The early conscription was promoted by influential friends in order to protect him from the threat of re-imprisonment and transfer to a concentration camp. However, two political proceedings against him were still pending in Berlin. During his Christmas vacation in January 1940, Sporleder took his second exam, which was interrupted by the conscription, and was then ordained in Königsberg. As before, he continued to reject the “ leadership oath ” demanded by the consistory . Since May 10, 1940, Sporleather was deployed as a lieutenant in a heavy tank destroyer unit during the French campaign as part of the so-called von Kleist tank group . On May 1, 1940, he was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class, and in June 1940 he was seriously wounded. Following a stay in a hospital in Augsburg, he wanted to travel to Marienburg in mid-July. There he had an appointment with Dietrich Bonhoeffer , who, after completing his visitation trip through East Prussia, planned a stay with Ulrich Sporleder in Marienburg and Marienwerder according to a personal calendar entry from July 25th to 26th, 1940, changing his original travel route from Danzig to Berlin. At that time, Sporleder corresponded with contacts in Switzerland via official letters that were attached and coded, including from the Swiss radio newspaper .

During the war against the Soviet Union he was most recently as captain in command of a heavy tank destroyer company or division (521./ ) equipped with the tank types " Sturer Emil ", " Dicker Max ", " Elefant " and "Hornisse" or "Nashorn" . 655.). From the front he repeatedly sent texts to his Marienburg confessional congregation that were written by congregation members or family members, such as his sister-in-law Eva Schimansky, née. Weissenborn, were read out. In the rectory of his brother-in-law in Lauenburg, an oppositional group of listeners also formed, which also included Army General Staff officers. Due to a sermon and speech given on the Eastern Front at Christmas 1941, Sporleders was threatened with renewed arrest in 1942 and a charge before the Reich Court Martial . Sporleder was probably able to avoid a conviction by the Reich Court Martial through protection from high officers and influential lawyers. On April 1st to lieutenant d. R. promoted, at the beginning of October 1942 he stood with his tank destroyer detachment outside Stalingrad and was seriously wounded in the fighting there.

To recover, he was able to return to Marienburg, where he immediately resumed service in the community and, together with his wife, Werner Lehmbruch and Horst Symanowski, and other helpers, participated in the organization of an East Prussian “ parsonage chain ” to save the Berlin Jews threatened by deportation . The Berlin office of the Gossner Mission under Hans Lokies (1895–1982) and Eberhard Bethge served as a contact point and the Marienburg apartment of the Sporleder family in Mühlengraben 5, as well as various parsonages and the Lehmbruch house in Rehhof, were among those named by Horst Symanowski "Secret dwellings". A Jewish woman from Berlin was hidden in Sporleather's apartment for longer than planned due to the lack of alternative quarters, survived the Holocaust and later lived first in Sweden and then in the USA.

By March 1943 Sporleder completed an officer training course at the Wehrmacht site administration in Danzig, and then took on as a company commander of the 521st / 1 schw. Panzerjäger department took part in " Operation Citadel ". In the defensive battles that followed the Red Army's counteroffensive, Sporleder was seriously wounded again on July 14, 1943. After treatment in the field hospitals in Minsk and Warsaw, he stayed in Marienburg to recover from August to November 1943 and continued his resistance activities there, as well as in Lauenburg and Berlin. On December 1, 1943, Sporleder was promoted to captain and assigned to the eastern front near Smolensk to lead his heavy tank destroyer division. On July 13, 1944, under Major Karl Max Freiherr von Hofenfels (1908–1944), he was deputy commander of a combat group set up east of Lublin. At that time his wife was told to leave Marienburg and take the children to a safe place in the Harz Mountains.

On July 15, 1944, at 1 p.m., Sporleather's unit was given the order to “Operation Marbach”. A little later the order was given to move the company. On July 20, the day of the Hitler assassination , the division with its heavy tank destroyers set a course for the center of Lublin via the Majdanek concentration camp , which was called “Fester Platz” at that time under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Hilmar Moser stood. In the city, the SS catering camps and the Oberfeldkommandantur were occupied by Sporleather's unit. From there the order was issued to release the last prisoners from the Majdanek concentration camp. It is unknown what role Sporleder played in this, since the entries in the war diary recorded under the date July 19-25 were destroyed, probably in the aftermath of July 20. After v. Hofenfels and Sporleder had led large parts of their unit out of the almost enclosed city in a southwesterly direction on the night of July 23rd to 24th, they stayed between the fronts and, according to an eyewitness, killed themselves together with four other officers with headshots self.

Sporleder was one of the few members of the Confessing Church who belonged to the “Rescue Resistance” and who also had personal contacts with members of the Military Resistance and other resistance groups such as the Kreisau Circle . In the last letter to his mother dated July 3, 1944, Sporleder wrote: “From the outside it really looks as if God has ceded his rule to the dark forces of this earth [...]. But in truth his path only leads through the cross to the resurrection. "

Quotes

"Today we (Christians and Jews) are more than ever one gender [...]" (from a sermon by Sporleather from the years 1935/36, which refers to the Nuremberg race laws and the decrees of Reich Minister Bernhard Rust )

“[ … ] May God hold his protective hand over us all and not leave us so that we can experience his closeness and love everywhere. That is the greatest thing that can be given to us, that in the midst of all the suffering and death that surround us, we feel how a peace is given to those who look to the crucified and risen Lord, which can be satisfied that we may see something of the hidden rulership of God in this world. Outwardly it truly looks as if God has ceded his rulership to the dark forces of this earth and surrendered us to the wrath of these forces. But in truth his path only leads through the cross to the resurrection. Whoever believes in him will live, whether he dies immediately and whoever lives and believes in him will never die again. "

(Word of Sporleders from a letter of July 3, 1944)

literature

• Ernst Burdach: Hans Joachim Iwand. Theologian between the ages. A fragment 1899-1937 . Beienrode 1982.
• Walter Hubatsch : History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia . 3 volumes, Göttingen 1968.
• Oliver Kessler: Sporleder, Ulrich, pastor of the confessing Church of Eastern Pr., Resistance fighter, captain d. German Wehrmacht . In: Old Prussian Biography, published on behalf of the Historical Commission for East and West Prussian State Research by Klaus Bürger (+). Finished in collaboration with Joachim Artz from Bernhard Jähnig. Volume V, 3rd delivery. Marburg / Lahn 2015, pp. 2243–2245.
• Manfred Koschorke (ed.): History of the Confessing Church in East Prussia 1933–1945 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976.
• Manfred Koschorke: Material collection from the church fight in East Prussia September 1934–1939 . OO u. J.
• Hans Graf von Lehndorff : The Insterburger Years. My way to the Confessing Church . Munich 1969.
• Hugo Linck: The church struggle in East Prussia 1933 to 1945. History and documentation . Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 1968.
• Kurt Meier : The theological faculties in the Third Reich . Berlin / New York 1996, p. 271.
• Wolfgang Scherffig: Young theologians in the “Third Reich” . 3 volumes, Neukirchen 1989–1994.
• Gerd Schimansky: I lie to the truth. Story from the time of the church struggle. Moers 1983.
• Ulrich Schoenborn: Like sheep among the wolves: The Confessing Church in East Prussia and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's visitation trips 1940, excursus: Ulrich Sporleder . Munich 2012, pp. 197–201.
• Jürgen Seim: Hans Joachim Iwand. A biography . Gütersloh 1999.

Web links

• The »Kristallnacht« was denounced from the pulpit Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung / Episode 52-09 of December 26, 2009