Walther Schultz

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Walther Schultz (born August 20, 1900 at Tressow farm near Grevesmühlen ; † June 26, 1957 in Schnackenburg ) was a German Lutheran theologian and regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg in Schwerin .

Life

After studying Protestant theology a . a. at the University of Rostock and the ordination , Schultz became parish pastor in Badendiek near Güstrow in Mecklenburg. After he joined the NSDAP , the German Christians pursued the goal of protecting him in leadership positions in the regional church.

In 1933 Schultz became leader of the Association of National Socialist Pastors and was given the newly created office of regional church leader of Mecklenburg. On November 12, 1933, as spokesman for the Mecklenburg Church, he confessed to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist state : "We Protestant Mecklenburgers want ... to stand by our Chancellor and Fuehrer wholeheartedly". In the following year he was able to become  regional bishop of the Mecklenburg regional church after ousting the previous incumbent Heinrich Rendtorff ; at the age of less than 33, he was probably the youngest bishop in the history of the Protestant churches.

His administration during the Nazi era was controversial, but he was able to assert himself in his office. In 1939 he declared his collaboration with the Institute for Research and Elimination of the Jewish Influence on German Church Life . The church chancellery of the German Evangelical Church asked with the consent of the Spiritual Trust Council established on August 31, 1939 , which in addition to Schultz Friedrich Werner (church chancellery), Regional Bishop August Marahrens ( Hanover ), Oberkonsistorialrat Johannes Hymmen ( Old Prussian Union ) and Otto Weber ( Reformed Churches , Göttingen ) belonged to the regional churches to ensure that community members of Jewish origin stay away from community life.

After the end of the war, Schultz was arrested and interned by the British occupying forces on June 25, 1945, together with Consistorial President Schmidt zur Nedden. Two days later he resigned from office. In 1948 he was dismissed from the service of the Mecklenburg regional church.

In 1950 Schultz was given the task of providing parish help in the St. Dionysius parish Fallingbostel in the Lüneburg Heath . When a new pastor's office was set up there for this task, Schultz had to leave the community and took over a parish office in Schnackenburg on the Elbe, which he held until his death.

literature

  • Wilhelm Niesel : Church under the Word. The fight of the Confessing Church of the Old Prussian Union 1933-1945 (= work on the history of the church fight . Supplementary series, volume 11). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978; ISBN 3-525-55556-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the entry of Walther Schultz's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 567.
  3. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich . Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 567, with reference to the source Junge Kirche , issue 18.
  4. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer: We went astray , Cologne 1987, p. 151
  5. ↑ Church Yearbook No. 482; printed in: Martin Greschat , Hans-Walter Krumwiede (eds.): The age of world wars and revolutions ; Church and theological history in sources 5; Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1999; ISBN 3-7887-1553-7 ; P. 163. Christian Gerlach , Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and Raul Hilberg call the process less euphemistically "exclusion" of the Jewish Christians; Gerlach sees a close connection with Hitler's demand before 50 high functionaries on December 12th, 1941, now finally and as quickly as possible to annihilate all Jews of Europe , WerkstattGeschichte # 18, 1997, p. 31. Schultz was deputy head of the "National Church Unification" (sic) within the German Christians, the particularly Nazi-friendly wing
personal data
SURNAME Schultz, Walther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH 20th August 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Tressow farm near Grevesmühlen
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1957
Place of death Schnackenburg