Ulrich Trinks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ulrich Trinks, June 2007

Ulrich Trinks (born February 26, 1930 in Braunschweig ; † May 29, 2008 in Vienna ) was an Austrian historian , adult educator and long-time director of the Evangelical Academy in Vienna .

Live and act

Ulrich Trinks grew up in a North German Protestant family in Braunschweig. He studied ancient history in Göttingen , Tübingen and finally also in Graz . He spent a semester in England in 1949/50 , where he met his future wife, with whom he then moved to Graz in 1953. In the Styrian capital he also worked as a university assistant . 1956 to 1966 Trinks was Secretary General of the Protestant Student Congregations in Austria, which he also represented in the Christian World Student Union . In 1962 the Trinks moved to Vienna, where Ulrich Trinks worked at the Evangelical Academy, which he was in charge of from 1966 until his retirement in 1993. He was a determined representative of the “ reform wing ” of the Evangelical Church in Austria and was particularly involved in ecumenism and in Christian-Jewish dialogue . I.a. Because of his support for the anti-racism program of the World Council of Churches , he came into conflict with the then Evangelical Lutheran church leadership (under Bishop Oskar Sakrausky ) in the 1970s . Trinks was a member of the international committee from 1968 to 1993 and, from 1977, of the working group Jews and Christians of the German Evangelical Church Congress . He also worked with the International Christian Peace Conference and participated in the 1st and 5th All-Christian Peace Assemblies in Prague (1961 and 1978, respectively).

After moving to Austria, Trinks tried to expose conservative, reactionary conditions. The Viennese canon lawyer Karl W. Schwarz writes a. a .:

" When he [, Trinks,] came to Austria in 1953, the old anti-Semitism, fed by German national sources, was still widespread and noticeable in academic circles. As an example, Trinks mentions the practical theologian Gustav Entz (1884–1957), whose unbroken anti-Semitic attitude was still expressed in lectures in 1954. "

Ulrich Trinks, who became a symbol of the " lay - Protestantism " was in Austria, was also in secular engaged socio-political area - especially against neo-Nazism , racism and anti-Semitism and against the discrimination of social groups: among others as Chairman of the Solidarity Committee for the Rights of Carinthian Slovenes in the 1970s and the “ Austrian Information Service for Development Policy ” (1979–1984). For many years (from 1973) Trinks was general secretary of the Action against Anti-Semitism and a member of the board of the “Coordinating Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation” (until 1999). He belonged u. a. also on the advisory board of the anti-apartheid movement in Austria. For many years Trinks was chairman of the Ring Österreichischer Bildungswerke as well as the conference of adult education in Austria and represented this area on the supervisory board of the public Austrian broadcaster ORF from 1970 to 1974 .

The Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Michael Bünker said at the funeral of Ulrich Trinks in the Vienna Central Cemetery :

“ Especially as an outraged Christian and contemporary, Ulrich Trinks was involved in building, indeed a role model for the constructive. He built on relationships, on friendships, for a lifetime, preferably across borders that others still considered insurmountable; he built on schools, education, Christian-Jewish dialogue, justice on the global horizon, and again and again on his own Church he must have loved dearly, as hot as his anger sometimes burned. "

Works

  • Promised. Personal experiences of being a Christian in the 20th century. Ulrich Trinks in conversation with Melitta Berdenich and Horst Gaisrucker (= Evangelical Academy Vienna. Vol. 11). Evangelical Academy, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-9501732-5-3 .
  • Dechurchification as a task of the church: future memories for Johannes Dantine. In: Michael Bünker , Thomas Krobath (Hrsg.): Church: capable of learning in the future? Festschrift for Johannes Dantine for his 60th birthday. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck et al. 1998, ISBN 3-7022-2178-6 , p. 388 ff.
  • The Swedish Mission in Seegasse. In: Dialog. Christian-Jewish information. No. 43/2001, ISSN  1816-6431 , p. 12 ff. (Reprinted in: Amt und Gemeinde. Vol. 52, 2001, ISSN  1680-4015 , p. 286 f.)
  • Talk to Jews, not about them! The importance of the Christian-Jewish conversation in my life. In: Dialog. Christian-Jewish information. No. 38/2000, p. 6 ff.
  • Thoughts on Cultivating Political Action. In: Robert Kauer (ed.): Balance for the future. 20 years EAK (= Standpunkte series of publications. Vol. 19, ZDB ID 1190125-1 ). Politische Akad. Der ÖVP, Vienna 1989, p. 65 ff.
  • Religious socialism in Protestantism. Paul Tillich on his 100th birthday. A conference report (= publications of the Evangelical Academy Vienna. Vol. 4, ZDB -ID 1132365-6 ). Organized together with the Working Group on Christianity and Socialism (ACUS) and the Dr. Karl Renner Institute Vienna from May 30th to June 1st 1986. Evangelical Academy, Vienna 1987.
  • Reactions in the Protestant Church in Austria to Barmen in 1934 and the church struggle in the German Reich. In: Michael Bünker (Ed.): Resist. The church in the political field of tension. Barmen 1934–1984 (= publications of the Evangelical Academy Vienna. Vol. 3). Evangelical Academy, Vienna 1985, p. 27 ff.
  • Christians and Jews in conversation. Evangelical statements (= IDCV lectures. No. 18, ZDB -ID 2292010-9 ). Information Center in the Service of Christian-Jewish Understanding (IDCIV), Vienna 1984.
  • The Protestant Church in Austria and February 1934. In: Information service of the Salzburg group. 1984/4, ZDB -ID 2307019-5 , p. 14 ff.
  • For the rights of minorities. U. Trinks (self-published), Vienna 1976.
  • Protestantism in Austria. In: Karl Heinrich Rengstorf, Siegfried von Kortzfleisch (ed.): Church and synagogue. Handbook on the history of Christians and Jews. Representation with sources. Volume 2. Klett, Stuttgart 1970, p. 532 ff.

As editor

  • with Horst Gaisrucker: Socio-cultural experiences with housing in the city of Vienna. History, practice, future. A report on the Berlin-Vienna study conference in Vienna 1983 (= publications of the Evangelical Academy Vienna. Vol. 8, ZDB -ID 1132365-6 ). Evangelical Academy, Vienna 1990.
  • Robert Kissinger, Johannes Dantine , Ulrich Trinks: Education explosion. A challenge for the church (= publications of the Evangelical Academy Vienna. Vol. 1). Evangelical Academy, Vienna 1984.

Honors

  • 1984 Austrian State Prize for Adult Education
  • 1988 professional title professor
  • 1990 Dr. Karl Renner Prize of the City of Vienna
  • 1990 Honorary doctorate in theology from the Comenius Faculty in Prague for his decades of advocacy for ecumenical East-West dialogue
  • 2002 Silver Medal of Honor from the Federal Association of Jewish Religious Communities in Austria

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl W. Schwarz: Insights of a visionary. ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2016 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. Review of: Ulrich Trinks: Outspoken. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.christenundjuden.org
  2. ↑ Critical Christianity. No. 320/321, September / October 2008, ZDB -ID 896027-6 , p. 25.
personal data
SURNAME Trinks, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian historian and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 2008
Place of death Vienna