Walter Freytag (theologian)

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Walter Freytag (born May 28, 1899 in Neudietendorf ; † October 24, 1959 in Heidelberg ) was a German Protestant theologian, missionary and university professor.

Life

Grave slab Walter Freytag , Ohlsdorf cemetery

Freytag studied Protestant theology in Tübingen , Marburg and Halle . After taking the two theological exams, he received his doctorate in Hamburg. phil. In 1926 he joined the mission. In 1928 he became director of the German Evangelical Missionary Aid in Berlin. Since 1929 he was appointed lecturer for missiology in Kiel and Hamburg as well as mission director of the churches in the Hanseatic cities. In November 1933 he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler .

In 1943 he was banned from teaching for political reasons, and in 1945 he was able to resume his work as an honorary professor in Hamburg. With the establishment of the Protestant theological faculty at the University of Hamburg in 1953, he became professor for missiology and ecumenical relations between the churches. He was chairman of the German Evangelical Mission Council (since 1946), vice- chairman of the International Mission Council and since 1954 chairman of the study department of the World Council of Churches .

Walter Freytag was buried in Hamburg at the Ohlsdorf cemetery in the area of ​​the "Bischofskuhle", grid square AA 7-8 (Norderstrasse, south of Chapel 8).

Fonts (selection)

  • Young Christianity in the upheaval in the East. On the obedience of faith among the peoples , 1938
  • Look beyond the borders. On the situation of world mission , 1946
  • The big order , 1948
  • Mission between yesterday and tomorrow. The Change in the Shape of Christianity's World Mission in the Light of the Conference of the International Mission Council , 1952
  • Christmas Faith and Customs Around the World , ed. with Hans Jürgen Schultz , 1956
  • The Enigma of Religions and the Biblical Answer , 1956
  • Churches in New Asia. Impressions from a study trip , 1958
  • Speeches and essays , ed. from the estate of Jan Hermelink , Hans Jochen Margull, 2 vols., 1961

literature

  • Theodor Ahrens: missiology as a time announcement. Carl Mirbt - Walter Freytag - Hans Jochen Margull in Hamburg . In: Johann Anselm Steiger : 500 years of theology in Hamburg. Hamburg as a center of Christian theology and culture between tradition and future. Works on Church History 95. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018529-6 , pp. 245-314
  • Ernst Dammann : Missionary efforts in Kiel during the twenties , in: Kurt Juergensen , Friedrich-Otto Scharbau , Werner H. Schmidt (ed.): Praise God that is our office. Contributions to a key word (memorial by Johann Schmidt ) , Kiel 1984, pp. 225–231.
  • Rainer Hering , Die Missionswissenschaft in Hamburg 1909–1959 , in: ders., Theologische Wissenschaft und “Third Reich” , Pfaffenweiler 1990, pp. 35–85.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tobias Eiselen: Mission makes politics. The missiologist Walter Freytag at the Center for German Protestant Mission Management at the Time of National Socialism , in: Ulrich van der Heyden and Holger Stoecker (eds.): Mission and power in the change of political orientations, pp. 663-674, Franz Steiner Verlag 2005, ISBN 978- 3-515084239 .
personal data
SURNAME Freytag, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, missionary and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Neudietendorf
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1959
Place of death Heidelberg