Walter Hildmann

Walter Hildmann (born December 19, 1910 in Herrnsheim / Lower Franconia; † May 28, 1940 near Abbeville / Picardy , France ) was a German theologian and vicar .

Life

Walter Hildmann was the son of the Evangelical Lutheran pastor Otto Hildmann and his wife Johanna, geb. Weger, and the fourth of nine children. After studying theology and serving as a vicariate in the St. Ulrichs parish in Augsburg , he came to the Christ Church in Munich-Neuhausen as a catechist and, after his ordination, via Starnberg to Gauting , where he worked as a pastor from 1936 to 1939. Walter Hildmann is one of the clergymen of the Bavarian regional church who raised their voices against the injustice regime of the National Socialists and who undeterred stood up for their beliefs. In 1938 he was targeted by the Gestapo , in 1939 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and died the following year.

designation

The parish hall of the Evangelical Christ Church in Gauting, built in the 1990s, was named after him, as a symbol of sincerity, determination and courage and as a message to never allow national extremism to begin again and to stand up for freedom, democracy and justice.

literature

• Dieter Amman: Responsibility and Mission. Walter Hildmann, his life and work in the Gautingen community 1936–1939.
• Robert Geipel: Walter Hildmann and the Evang.-Luth. Gauting parish.
• Björn Mensing: Walter Hildmann's "Kirchenkampf" in Gauting 1936-1939. In: And beyond Barmen. Studies on contemporary church history by Joachim Mehlhausen. 1995.
• Hermann Niemöller: Walter Hildmann. Memory as an incentive.
• Philipp W. Hildmann:  Hildmann, Walter. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 763-765.