Walter Elliger

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Walter Elliger (born December 8, 1903 in Heppens , † May 25, 1985 in Unna ) was a German Protestant theologian and church historian .

Life

After graduation in 1923 in Soest studied Elliger Protestant Theology in Tübingen , Halle (Saale) and Munster and vicar was Kreypau and Halle, where he in 1930 to Dr. theol. received his doctorate and in the same year for the Church History habilitated . At the time the Nazis seized power, he became a member of the SA .

In 1934 he was appointed to a full professorship at Kiel University. As early as 1935 he criticized the National Socialist Schleswig-Holstein University Gazette for "anti-Christian polemics" and defended colleagues. Since almost half of the teaching staff had already been dismissed, consideration was given to closing the theological faculty. Elliger also toyed with the idea of accepting a position at the University of Bonn . At the request of the regional bishop and rector, Elliger stayed in Kiel to help rebuild the faculty as dean. After he could no longer find support, he resigned as dean in 1936. In the same year he was instructed to accept a chair at the University of Greifswald .

Drafted into the Wehrmacht from 1939 to 1945, he was able to return to his chair in Greifswald in 1947 (after an interlude in the Philosophical Faculty). In 1950 he was offered a position at the Humboldt University in Berlin , where, as dean, he opposed the political appropriation of the faculty operated by the SED regime and again got into violent conflicts. In 1964 he accepted a position at the University of Bochum , where he became the founding dean of the Evangelical Theological Faculty.

In 1976 he retired and completed his main work, the extensive biography of Thomas Müntzer .

His brother was the Old Testament scholar Karl Elliger (1901–1977).

Fonts

Gravestone for Walter Elliger at the Kleinmachnow forest cemetery
  • The position of the ancient Christians to the pictures in the first four centuries according to the information of contemporary church writers , Leipzig 1934 (Theol. Diss. Halle 1930).
  • (Ed.): Research on church history and Christian art [Festgabe Johannes Ficker ]. Leipzig 1931
  • On the origin and early development of early Christian visual art . Leipzig 1934.
  • Belief in God and fate in early German Christianity . Hamburg 1935.
  • Luther's political thought and action . Berlin 1952.
  • 150 years of the Berlin Faculty of Theology. A presentation of their history from 1810 to 1960 as a contribution to their anniversary . Berlin 1960
  • Thomas Müntzer (Knowledge and Faith, Vol. 16). Berlin 1960.
  • (Ed.): Philipp Melanchthon. Research contributions on the 400th anniversary of his death . Berlin 1961.
  • (with Walter Delius and Oskar Söhngen ): The Evangelical Church of the Union . Witten 1967.
  • Outsider of the Reformation: Thomas Müntzer - a servant of God . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck 1975. ISBN 3-525-33375-7 .
  • Thomas Müntzer: Life and Work . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck 1975 (3rd edition 1976). ISBN 3-525-55318-8

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 79.
  2. ↑ a b Professor Dr. Walter Elliger. uni-kiel.de , accessed on August 23, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Elliger, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and church historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Heppens
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1985
Place of death Unna