Werner Reihlen lecture

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The Werner Reihlen Lecture is an annual interdisciplinary symposium on changing topics, organized by the Theological Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin . It is financed by the Werner Reihlen Foundation , a non-profit foundation set up in 1991 by the Reihlen family to commemorate Werner Reihlen, the eldest of five sons, who died in 1945 at the age of 18. The foundation statutes set the goal of “promoting the dialogue between Protestant theology and other sciences with an emphasis on the ethical point of view”.

Werner Reihlen

The lecture is named after Werner Reihlen, born on June 28, 1926 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf - the oldest of five sons of the engineer Otto Reihlen and his wife Irmgard (née Stolper). In 1944 he was assigned to the Reich Labor Service and then drafted into the military. Having just turned 18 and fascinated by the idea of National Socialism , he volunteered for work at the front. On April 16, 1945, not quite three weeks before the end of the war, Werner Reihlen fell in Obritzberg near St. Pölten. In his penultimate field post letter of March 26, 1945, he wrote: “I have seen and heard a lot from the party, and so many bad things came to light that I have to say to myself: 'No, you cannot fully commit yourself to this structure , otherwise you are jointly responsible for all the crap that is done there [...] '”. For Werner's family and especially for his four brothers Eberhard (1928–2007), Dieter (* 1930), Helmut (* 1934) and Roland (* 1938), the “memory of Werner [...], of his ideals, of abuse of his ideals, his youth, [...] as a reminder to work on creating more just social structures. "

Idea and initiative

The family's wish to promote social discourse on current issues, values ​​and norms with a view to their experiences, gave rise to the idea of ​​setting up a foundation to finance an interdisciplinary lecture on current issues in science and society. The decisive impetus for this was provided by the travel report by Christof Gestrich , Professor of Systematic Theology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, who recorded the impressions of a trip to the USA in 1990 in writing and was impressed by the special lectures financed by the foundation, which over several days gave a wide range Offering the audience the opportunity to listen to and discuss interdisciplinary lectures on a specific topic in addition to the usual series of university events. In 1991, for example, the Werner Reihlen Foundation was established under the leadership of Helmut Reihlen and Christof Gestrich; The first Werner Reihlen lecture takes place in 1992, initially organized by the Church University of Berlin , which merged with the theological faculty of Humboldt University in 1992. Torsten Meireis is currently responsible for the Werner Reihlen lecture .

In addition to financing the lecture, the purpose of the foundation also includes awarding a prize for outstanding dissertations and habilitation theses , "which are also dedicated to the exchange of Protestant theology with other sciences with an emphasis on the ethical point of view".

Profile and aim of the lecture

Based on the American model, the Werner Reihlen lecture has the character of a symposium; it usually takes place every year on the evening before the day of penance and prayer and on the morning of the day of penance and prayer as part of a dies academicus . The determination of the topic and the invitation of speakers from the various disciplines is carried out by a preparatory committee to which the dean of the theological faculty as well as the holder of the chair for systematic theology and another university professor from another faculty belong. In addition to the lectures, a major part of the event is the joint discussion, in which students and researchers are included, as well as laypeople and the interested public in general. "What is wanted is a socially effective forum that serves ethical orientation [...]." All the speakers' contributions are published in the annually published supplement of the Berlin Theological Journal in the Protestant publishing house.

Previous topics

  • 1992: Business ethics - an interdisciplinary interdenominational guide
  • 1993: Church, State, Society
  • 1994: Brain death and organ transplantation as a request for our image of man
  • 1995: ethics without religion?
  • 1996: Gender Relationship and Sexuality
  • 1997: World Food and Genetic Engineering - Practice and Ethical Assessment
  • 1998: God of Philosophers - God of Theologians, on the status of the discussion after the analytical turnaround
  • 1999: Morals and World Religions
  • 2000: The biological feasibility of humans
  • 2001: The Topicality of Antiquity - The Ethical Memory of the Occident
  • 2002: The Challenged Democracy - Law, Religion, Politics
  • 2003: God, Money and Gift - On the monetary nature of thinking in religion and society
  • 2004: Free or unfree will? - Capacity to act and responsibility in the dialogue between the sciences
  • 2005: God in Culture - Modern Transcendent Experiences and Theology
  • 2006: Healthy in body and soul - dimensions of healing
  • 2007: The Reason of Religion
  • 2008: Tolerance as a religious demand
  • 2009: The "invisible hand" (Adam Smith) and greed
  • 2010: What are legitimate foreign policy interests?
  • 2011: Unavailable requirements of the secular state
  • 2012: Dealing with guilt in public
  • 2013: 'Interpretation of the Word - Interpretation of the World' in a conversation between Christianity and Islam
  • 2014: The fascination and horror of war
  • 2015: Mission statement in transition - Mission statement in decline? Marriage and Family in Modern Society
  • 2017: "Freedom I mean" - 1517 - 1817 - 1917
  • 2018: Social ethics in dispute. Schleiermacher and Barth
  • 2019: On the cultural dimension of the sustainability debate

swell

  • Articles of Association of the Werner Reihlen Foundation (as of 2011).

literature

  • Dagmar Pöpping : Norms and new beginnings. Helmut and Erika Reihlen - life stories from the 45s generation. Berlin 2011.
  • Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Werner Reihlen lecture. Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Anne-Kathrin Finke, Joachim Zehner (Ed.), Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Berlin 2000, pp. 102-120.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, pp. 102–120.
  2. ^ Statutes of the Werner Reihlen Foundation (as of 2011), Art. 1.
  3. ↑ Dagmar Pöpping: Norms and Awakening. Helmut and Erika Reihlen - life stories from the 45s generation. Berlin 2011, pp. 21–54.
  4. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, p. 103.
  5. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen , Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, p. 105.
  6. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, p. 102f.
  7. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, p. 106.
  8. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, p. 111.
  9. ↑ Anne-Kathrin Finke (ed.), Joachim Zehner (ed.), Helmut Reihlen, Joachim Zehner: Ideas at the beginning - experiences - expectations. In: Confidence in Theology. Academic Theology and the Renewal of the Church. Werner Reihlen Lecture, Berlin 2000, p. 110.
  10. ↑ Dagmar Pöpping: Norms and Awakening. Helmut and Erika Reihlen - life stories from the 45s generation. Berlin 2011, p. 161, note 242.