Walter Schulz (theologian)

Walter Schulz (born February 14, 1925 in Stargard (Mecklenburg) ; † June 12, 2009 in Schwerin ) was a German Lutheran theologian and hymn poet.

Life

During the Second World War , Walter Schulz was an officer candidate in the Navy and was taken prisoner by the US as a senior ensign at sea when the manned torpedo negro led by him was sunk by USS PC-558 in 1944 during a sea ​​combat mission off Anzio north of Palermo . After his return from captivity in the USA and Great Britain, Schulz studied philology and English at the University of Hamburg from 1948 . In 1949 he switched to studying Protestant theology at the newly founded Church University in Hamburg . At the same time he worked in the Alsterdorfer Anstalten . After further semesters in Erlangen and Zurich as well as at the University of Kiel , he passed the first theological examination in Kiel in 1953.

After a vicariate in Lübeck , he received his first pastor position in 1954 in Neddemin near Neubrandenburg . In 1956 he succeeded Friedrich-Franz Wellingerhof as the state youth pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg and held this office for nine years. During this time he also emerged as a poet of sacred songs. Of his over 30 songs and adaptations, the most famous is God Loves This World , which was also included in the Evangelical Hymnbook . There is also the peace and hope song from 1963, It will be in the last days .

From 1965 he worked as pastor in Rerik , and from 1970 as rector of the ecclesiastical college in Potsdam-Hermannswerder (today: Evangelisches Gymnasium Hermannswerder ). In 1975 he was appointed to the upper church council of the Mecklenburg regional church in Schwerin, where he was responsible for the areas of worship, church music and education. He was part of the joint hymn book commission of the German Protestant regional churches, which in the years before 1994 prepared the publication of the 1994 Protestant hymn book. Even if he was seen as the upper church councilor who “made the least political appearance”, the Stasi considered him to be a “politically negative” member of the church leadership who needed to be “worked on”.

After his retirement in 1990 he lived in Schwerin with his wife, the catechist Gisela, née Beyersdorf, with whom he had been married since 1953 and had four children.

Hymns

• God loves this world ( EG 409, GL 464), text and melody.
• It will be in the last few days (EG 426, GL 549), lyrics.
• Christ is King, cheers loudly (EG 269), translation from English.
• God, our origin, master of space (EG 431), joint translation with Jürgen Henkys from English.

literature

• Rahel Frank: More real, more exact, more precise? The GDR church policy towards the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg from 1971 to 1989. The state commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the records of the State Security Service of the former GDR, 2nd revised edition, Schwerin 2008, ISBN 978-3-933255-28-0 .
• Dietrich Schuberth: Schulz, Walter , in: Who is who in the hymn book? Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2001, ISBN 3-525-50323-7 , pp. 289-290

Web links

• Literature about Walter Schulz (theologian) in the state bibliography MV
• Obituary ( memento from June 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In this respect, the Stasi representation that Schulz was in command of a submarine (according to Frank (Lit.), p. 129) is a little too high.
2. ↑ It will be in the last days ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 23, 2015 
3. ^ After Frank (Lit), p. 130.