Walter Bredendiek

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Walter Bredendiek

Walter Otto Wilhelm Bredendiek (born April 7, 1926 in Swinoujscie ; † July 26, 1984 in Berlin ) was a German theologian , university professor for church history and an official of the GDR CDU .

Life

The son of a teacher couple grew up after the early death of his parents in Gramzow near Prenzlau in Uckermark . He attended elementary school in Swinoujscie, the secondary schools in Swinoujscie, Cammin in Pomerania and Angermünde , where he passed his matriculation examination in 1943. After studying history and German language and literature for a semester at Berlin University , he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service in 1943 and the Wehrmacht in 1944. After his release from American captivity in autumn 1945, he studied Protestant theology for one semester in Hamburg . For personal reasons, he returned to Gramzow in 1946, where he first became a new teacher and later became the deputy headmaster. He passed his first teacher examination in 1947 with very good marks. He then studied pedagogy , history and German at the Berlin Humboldt University and graduated in 1950 with excellent results.

In 1947, Bredendiek, who had previously been a member of the LDP , joined the Eastern CDU . In the summer of 1948 he became a university advisor and youth representative in the East Berlin state board of the CDU, which had spun off as a working group from the entire Berlin state association, as well as CDU representative in the democratic block of the Berlin university. In mid-July 1948 he became chairman of the sub-committee for university questions in the cultural policy committee of the main board of the CDU. During this time he developed a comprehensive journalistic activity for the central organ Neue Zeit of the East CDU, progress , organ of the regional association of the East Berlin CDU, and through the press office of the main board of the CDU for the regional newspapers of the party in the Soviet Zone. From 1951 he was a research associate, most recently senior consultant at the German Central Pedagogical Institute in Berlin. From 1952 he was an employee of the CDU party leadership and as the main speaker, one after the other, responsible for the training, culture and church issues. In 1954 there were disputes with Secretary General Gerald Götting and Bredendiek was dismissed without notice for political reasons. After a year in the school service, he became a staff member in 1955 and secretary in 1956 of the GDR Peace Council , in whose presidium he remained until 1967. During his activity he came into contact with, among others, Martin Niemöller , Renate Riemeck , Helmut Gollwitzer and Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt . During this time he examined the structure and mode of action of German Protestantism of the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular its effects on the non-proletarian, democratic and Christian peace movements. The World Peace Council and the Christian Peace Conference adopted the results of these investigations for their study work. In 1963 the International Institute for Peace in Vienna commissioned him to research and portray the life and work of Bertha von Suttner . For the World Peace Council, the results of this work became a basis for honoring this pacifist on the 50th anniversary of her death.

Emil Fuchs advised and supported Bredendiek in his work. Emil Fuchs and Erich Hertzsch suggested that he be accepted for a scientific traineeship at the Humboldt University's theological faculty , which he began in 1967. In May 1971, he became the doctor of theology with the predicate magna cum laude doctorate . Since 1972 he had been qualified to teach modern and contemporary church history and was immediately appointed to a lectureship in church history, first at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald and in the same year at the theological faculty of the Martin Luther University in Halle . In 1983 he was reassigned to the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he worked until his death in 1984.

Bredendiek was a member of the FDGB , the DSF , the FDJ , the Kulturbund and the CDU of the GDR, whose main board he was a member from 1958 to 1968. Since it was founded in 1958, he was a member of the Christian Peace Conference, became a member of its GDR regional committee and the CFK International Commission for European Security. Since it was founded, he has been a member of the editorial team of the Protestant magazine Standpunkt . While traveling abroad , he gave lectures at scientific conferences and colloquia . Walter Bredendiek was closely associated with the church organization of the Evangelical Academy. In addition, he received invitations to theological faculties, parish conventions, parish seminars, etc., to give lectures there.

Bredendiek was married to a teacher and father of three sons and a daughter.

After his death, his private library with around 4,000 volumes on history, church history, theology and ecumenism was given to the Berlin Mission as a deposit . The written estate is in the Central and State Library Berlin, Department of Historical Collections.

Honors

Fonts

literature

  • Hans-Otto Bredendiek: Great traces of Gramzow in the world. The life of Walter Bredendiek . In: Verein für Heimatkunde Angermünde eV (Ed.): Angermünder Heimatkalender 2018 , Angermünde, pp. 181–189.
  • Heinrich Fink (Ed.): In Memoriam Walter Bredendiek (1926–1984). Berlin 1986.
  • Käte Gaede : In the church against and for the churches - on the 80th birthday of the Berlin professor of theology Walter Bredendiek (1926 to 1984). In: Die Kirche (April 2, 2006) p. 6.
  • Friedemann Stengel : The theological faculties in the GDR as a problem of church and university policy of the SED state up to their transformation into sections in 1970/71. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 1998. pp. 633–635 (section: The promotion of Walter Bredendiek ).
  • Herbert Trebs : Tradition and Task - Historian of the Peace Movement: Walter Bredendiek. In: Neue Zeit (April 12, 1986) p. 5.
  • Günter Wirth : Mediator between the two fronts - Walter Bredendiek would have turned 65 in April. In: Die Märkische (May 2, 1991) p. 4.
  • Günter Wirth: The other transformation process - Christian option for socialism: Walter Bredendiek. In: UTOPIEkreativ (2006) No. 189/190, pp. 674-680.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Order: Afterword In: Hans-Joachim Beeskow and Hans-Otto Bredendiek (eds.): Walter Bredendiek: Church history from left and from below. Studies on church history in the 19th and 20th centuries from a socio-historical perspective. Leonhard-Thurneysser-Verlag 2011, p. 354, ISBN 978-3-939176-83-1 .
  2. ↑ http://www.berliner-missionswerk.de/bibliothek/unsere-bestaende/sonderbestaende.html
  3. ↑ Bredendiek Collection in the ZLB Berlin
personal data
SURNAME Bredendiek, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bredendiek, Walter Otto Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and functionary of the GDR CDU
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Swinoujscie
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1984
Place of death Berlin