Werner Schmauch

Portrait of Werner Schmauch

Werner Schmauch (born March 12, 1905 in Herischdorf , district of Hirschberg in the Riesengebirge , † May 24, 1964 in Greifswald ) was a German Protestant theologian , university professor for the New Testament and dean .

Life

Schmauch was the son of a Prussian senior postal secretary and the daughter of a landowner , who led a tense marriage, because his son Werner remembered that he was the only child who had to mediate between the parents at an early age. His life was also made difficult by a curvature of the spine . After graduating from elementary school , he attended secondary school in Hirschberg , where he passed his Abitur examination in 1924 . Werner was led by his mother, who was actively involved in her church community. Likewise, his confirmator obviously had a great influence on his further orientation. He began studying Protestant theology in Breslau and continued it in Bethel , Tübingen , Halle and Rostock . In these times of need, which were marked by the consequences of the First World War and inflation , the student sometimes suffered so much hunger that he collapsed as a result of emaciation. Even catching up on the old languages ​​that he had not learned at school sometimes took him to the limit of a nervous breakdown .

After seven years of engagement , he married Charlotte Koeppe in 1932, who was an essential support for him. She outlived her husband by 34 years.

As early as 1931, Schmauch had received his doctorate from Ernst Lohmeyer , a New Testament scholar , and was ordained pastor on July 5, 1932 in Breslau . There was not only a teacher-student relationship with Ernst Lohmeyer, but also a friendly and almost family-like relationship, because Lohmeyer also became the godfather of son Werner-Christoph, one of her children.

After his vicariate , Schmauch was pastor in Groß Weigelsdorf near Breslau from 1933 to 1945 . He belonged to the Confessing Church , namely to its "Dahlemite" branch, which was based on the so-called Naumburg Synod . On their behalf, he lectured on the New Testament from 1935 to 1938. As early as March 1935, the Gestapo were arrested , which led to a major blow against the Nazi clergy. He was retired from military service because of his physical disability. He was on friendly terms with Katharina Staritz , who was his fellow student during his studies. She had also become a Lohmeyer student and, because of her loyalty to the faith, had hidden Jewish Christians or helped them to emigrate in the Grüber office . That is why she was interned in Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942 . From 1938 to 1945 Schmauch worked as a department head for theological training in Silesia .

During the Second World War , when the three pastor's children had already grown up to be schoolchildren, they experienced first hand the tensions with the Nazi authorities to which a pastor who was fighting against the German Christians in the church was exposed. Son Christoph proudly remembered his parents' refusal to give the so-called Hitler salute. During the roll call, the students were therefore forced to practice this greeting several times in front of the students and teachers who had started.

After the end of the war from 1946 to 1947, Schmauch was dean of the now Polish-administered Lower Silesia under the most difficult of conditions, initially in Bad Warmbrunn , later in Wroclaw. In 1948 the family moved to Görlitz ( SBZ ). Schmauch was a member of the church leadership until 1950, from which, however, he resigned due to differences of opinion about the future path of the Silesian church. From 1950 to 1951 he was the director of studies at the Berlin Language Convict . After his habilitation in 1952, he was lecturer for the New Testament at the Humboldt University in Berlin until 1954 and then until 1964 professor for the New Testament in Greifswald. From 1957 to 1959 he was the dean of the theological faculty at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in that city.

Werner Schmauch has been involved in the Christian Peace Conference since 1958 and was elected one of its vice-presidents in 1961.

Schmauch was married and the father of his children Isa, Werner-Christoph , Werner-Friedmann and Werner-Traugott.

Grave of Werner Schmauch (2014)

His grave is in the cemetery of the Bugenhagenkirche (Greifswald-Wieck) .

Works

• In Christ (New Testament Research I / 9), Gütersloh 1935.
• Reaction or Confessing Church? (Series of publications of the Confessing Church 3), Stuttgart 1949.
• Places of revelation and the place of revelation in the NT. Berlin 1956 / Göttingen 1956.
• Supplement to Ernst Lohmeyer: The letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Goettingen 1964.
• Coexistence? Proexistence! (Evangelical Zeitstimmen 20), Hamburg 1964.
• ... to pay attention to the word. Selected works. Edited in connection with Christa Grengel and Manfred Punge by Werner-Christoph Schmauch, Berlin 1966 / Göttingen 1967 (therein pp. 137–143: Bibliography Werner Schmauch).
• Edited by: In memoriam Ernst Lohmeyer. Stuttgart 1951.
• Edited by: Ernst Lohmeyer: The Gospel of Matthew. Göttingen 1956, 2nd edition 1958.

literature

• William Nagel: The Institute for Theology. In: Festschrift for the 500th anniversary of the University of Greifswald October 17, 1956. Volume II, Greifswald 1956, pp. 68-70.
• Walter Elliger : 150 years of the Berlin Faculty of Theology. Berlin 1960, p. 140.
• Josef Hromádka : On the death of Prof. Werner Schmauch . In: Christian Peace Conference. Volume 10, 1964, p. 219 f. (= Obituary for Prof. D. Werner Schmauch, in: Coexistence? P. 7 f.)
• Heinz Kloppenburg : Werner Schmauch † . In: Young Church. Volume 25, 1964, p. 335.
• Günter Michalke: From a letter on the death of D. Werner Schmauch. In: Young Church. Volume 25, 1964, p. 409.
• Josef B. Soucek: In memoriam Prof. D. Werner Schmauch (Greifswald University Speeches New Part 22), 1965.
• Ernst Hornig (Ed.): On the Silesian Church History 1945/46 . In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. New series 46, 1967, pp. 91-151.
• Ernst Hornig (Hrsg.): The Silesian Church soon after the 2nd World War, Part II. In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. Neue Episode 48, 1969, pp. 102-191.
• Ernst Hornig: The Silesian Church in the Post-War Period 1945–1951. In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. Neue Episode 51, 1972, pp. 108-135.
• Ernst Hornig (Ed.): The Protestant Church of Silesia 1945–1947. Düsseldorf 1968.
• Ernst Hornig: The Confessing Church in Silesia 1933–1945. History and documents. Göttingen 1977.
• Gerhard Ehrenforth: The Silesian Church in the Church Struggle 1932–1945. Göttingen 1968; - (on this Kurt Meier: Theologische Rundschau. New series 46, 1981, p. 104).
• Dorothea Neumärker: Josef L. Hromádka. Munich 1974, p. 144.
• Fritz Gleisberg: The parish Groß-Weigelsdorf Kreis Oels from 1926–1931. In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. New episode 55, 1976, pp. 161-167, especially p. 167.
• Hans-Georg Leder : Pro Pace and Proexistence. On the 15th anniversary of Prof. Werner Schmauch's death. In: The point of view. Volume 7, 1979, pp. 119-121.
• Wolfgang Wiefel : 30 years of work on the New Testament. In: The point of view. Volume 7, 1979, pp. 156-159.
• Manfred Punge: Werner Schmauch. Berlin 1981.
• University of Greifswald 525 years. Berlin 1982.
• Gerhard Besier (ed.): Old Prussian church areas on New Polish territory. Göttingen 1983.
• Gerhard Besier: The SED state and the church. Gütersloh 1993.
• Kurt Meier : The Protestant Church Struggle. Volume III, Göttingen 1984, pp. 310, 315, 657 f.
• Carl Order: What the Gospel can do with a person. On the 20th anniversary of Werner Schmauch's death. In: The point of view. Volume 12, 1984, pp. 130-132.
• Günter Haufe : Werner Schmauch. In: Signs of the Times. Volume 39, 1985, p. 78 f.
• Joachim Rohde: The history of the Berlin chair for the New Testament. In: WZ Berlin. Volume XXXIV, 1985, pp. 539-543.
• J. Jürgen Seidel : Church with great sacrifices. The Evangelical Church of Silesia. In: Church in Socialism. Volume 11, 1985, pp. 22-28, 64-73.
• Heinrich Treblin: Reversal and Proexistence. Overcoming religious and political selfishness. In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt. Volume 85, 1985, pp. 316-319.
• Heinrich Treblin: Outside the gate. In memory of Werner Schmauch (1905–1964). In: Young Church. Volume 46, 1985, pp. 666-669.
• Hans-Joachim Fränkel: The Protestant Church of Silesia after 1945. In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. Neue Episode 67, 1988, pp. 183-205.
• Thomas Friebel: Church and Political Responsibility in the Soviet Zone and the GDR 1945–1969. Gütersloh 1992.
• Wilfried Hilbrig: Experiences of a participant in the church struggle in the Protestant Church of Silesia. In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. New series 71, 1992, pp. 163-195, especially p. 169.
• Rudolf Mau : The "Language Convict". In: Berliner Theol. Zschr. Volume 9, 1992, pp. 107-118, especially p. 108.
• Werner Christoph Schmauch: From Görlitz to Conway. In: Christoph Kleßmann (Ed.): Children of the opposition. Gütersloh 1993, pp. 138-144.
• Albrecht Schönherr : ... but time was not lost. Berlin 1993, pp. 205-207.
• Dietmar Neß: Evangelical Church Life in Silesia after 1945. In: Yearbook for Silesian Church History. New episode 73, 1994.
• Religion Past and Present . 3rd edition, register, p. 214.
• Evangelical Church Lexicon. 1st edition, Volume IV, p. 782 f.
• Theol. Dictionary. 2nd edition 1981, pp. 188, 192, 376.
• Dietfried violence:  Schmauch, Werner. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 320-322.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner-Christoph Schmauch, Memories of the Father Werner Schmauch. Speech at the academic ceremony on April 12, 2005 in Greifswald
2. ↑ Registration of Werner Schmauch in the Rostock matriculation portal

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Schmauch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Werner Schmauch  in the German Digital Library
• Literature about Werner Schmauch in the state bibliography MV