Wilhelm Dirksen

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Wilhelm Dirksen (born February 11, 1894 in Seddin (Groß Pankow) , † August 22, 1967 in Neu-Isenburg ) was a Protestant pastor and retired superintendent. D.

Life

Dirksen was born as the third child of the pastor Paul Robert Dirksen (* 1862, † 1918), son of a Potsdam police commissioner, and his wife Martha, née Fincke, in the village of Seddin in what was then the parish of Perleberg. After his parents moved to the capital of Berlin in 1897, he attended the Humboldt Gymnasium from 1903, when his father was one of the three clergymen at the Church of Reconciliation . Dirksen passed his Abitur at a grammar school in Switzerland, the Fridericianum Davos . He took part in the First World War and was promoted to officer. He was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class and the Wound Badge . From 1920 Dirksen studied theology in Berlin and Halle / Saale. He was ordained on July 13, 1924 in Berlin. He took up the position of assistant preacher in the same year in Woldenberg in the Neumark . In 1925 he became a pastor in Regenthin . From there in 1929 he moved to the parish in Letschin .

Dirksen was superintendent in Meseritz from 1934 to 1945 , appointed hospital chaplain of the state hospital Meseritz-Obrawalde until 1942, part-time pastor of the Wehrmacht in the former German garrison town until January 1945 and after the end of the war a decision of the state denazification commission of the state of Brandenburg , which is located in the Soviet occupation zone yourself u. a. dealt with the denazification or dismissal of "pastors charged with Nazi". He also had to face an ecclesiastical panel procedure. When he retired early for health reasons, Dirksen worked as a pastor in what was then Sprengel Pfaffendorf .

Wilhelm Dirksen, also called Willi by his first name, had been superintendent in Meseritz since 1934. He was one of the invited guests when Woldenberg celebrated the 600th anniversary of the town church in Neumark at the end of June 1935. Dirksen also looked after the Wehrmacht soldiers stationed in Meseritz, including the summoned theologians of the Confessing Church and assistant preacher of the ecclesiastical province of Mark Brandenburg, Rudi Schulz (1913 - 1987). Dirksen carried out the consecration in his Meseritzer tenure according to the definition on Palm Sunday, which was widespread in the evangelical provincial and regional churches at the time . The confirmation test usually took place two weeks before the consecration and the first supper on Confirmation Sunday. For example, on Sunday, March 15, 1942 at 2 p.m., the confirmation test took place, who were consecrated on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1942, in the Protestant church, a Schinkel building in Meseritz. In the last year of the war in 1945, Superintendent Dirksen understandably deviated from this rule. One of the confirmands, whom Dirksen  had given emergency confirmation on January 28, 1945 - three days before the Red Army marched in - described the consecration as follows from his memory: “After the sermon we receive Holy Communion and the confirmation saying. After a common prayer, the service is over. I can see the tears running down our superintendent's cheeks. We're leaving the church. Outside, to the right and left of the portal, there are Hitler Youths and two SS soldiers with steel helmets. The newly confirmed boys from the city are immediately separated from their relatives. They are ordered to report to the Jungbannes building immediately in uniform. Since we live in the earthworm camp, we can go home. "

Meseritzer Mission Assistance Association

On March 9, 1935, Dirksen sought to re-establish a parochial missionary aid association by organizing all of the existing missionary institutions in the parish. He worked on the statutes of the new Missions-Hilfsverein of the Protestant parish of Meseritz-Kainscht, which were recognized with a seal on October 25, 1935 by the committee of the Berlin Mission Society after reservations had been cleared. The Missionswerk estimated that Dirksen, whose German-Christian attitude was known as a superintendent appointed by the provost of Grenzmark in Schneidemühl , Johannes Grell (born July 10, 1877) in the summer of 1934, “gained the trust of the Community ”and wanted to use the“ fabulous will to work ”of the teacher Hildegard Menzel (born November 23, 1898). The board now consisted of Superintendent Dirksen, chairman, Professor Martin Neuhaus (senior teacher of the grammar school for Hebrew, religion, Latin, German; from 1937 high school for boys) deputy and two other board members, the cashier of the Kreissparkasse Meseritz, Hölzermann, and the Teacher Menzel, secretary. The Meseritzer Aid Association supported the Berlin Mission Society primarily by transferring the donations it had collected. Dirksen invited speakers to give lectures at the Mission Aid Society's events, including a ministerial brother who was once active in the work of the Outer Mission in East Africa .

Pastor in the state of Brandenburg after 1945

After fleeing and being expelled, Dirksen was temporarily appointed pastor in Babelsberg in February 1945 . The following year he received a pastor's position in Perleberg in Prignitz. This was followed by the pastor's office in Werbig near Belzig from 1948 to 1950. Thereafter, Dirksen had pastoral care through church officials in the Sprengel in Pfaffendorf, which, in addition to Pfaffendorf, included the parishes of Neu Golm and Langwahl near Fürstenwalde (Spree).

The former Meseritz teacher Hildegard Menzel campaigned for Dirksen from her new place of residence in Kyritz with the church leadership of the church province of Mark Brandenburg after she learned that the denazification commission in Potsdam had decided on December 2, 1947 that the responsible church authority was Dirksen from his position as pastor in Perleberg on January 1, 1948. As a relief, the Kyritz teacher stated that “Dirksen had proclaimed the Word of God in Scripture in his congregation in Meseritz, in contrast to many other German-Christian pastors”, according to the Bible. This would have spared the Meseritz parish the church fight. He would have helped Meseritz missionary life “to its earlier bloom” and that “the work of the Berlin Mission actively supported.” She also commented on his attitude as a pastor in his new home: “After fleeing Meseritz, Superintendent Dirksen repeated his scattered congregation collected in Kyritz and most recently in Perleberg and strengthened them by God's Word. ”Even the head of the Oberlinhaus in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Pastor Reinhold Kleinau (born December 3, 1888) testified to the church leadership after the decision of the denazification commission that Dirksen was after his Arriving in Babelsberg in 1945, he proclaimed the Word of God "according to Scripture in Reformation understanding" both in the local and in the Oberlinhaus congregation while he was in office as pastor in Babelsberg. The church leadership then decided in 1948 to let Dirksen act provisionally as pastor in Werbig .

Dirksen was a member of the trust council of the Berliner Missionswerk and after his war-related departure from Meseritz in February 1945 fulfilled the tasks of an honorary district pastor and provincial mission secretary for external missions.

As a retired pastor, Dirksen was still active as a clergyman for the sisterhood of the St. Elisabethstift in Berlin. The sisterhood, which he had to take care of, included 22 deaconesses under the superior Else Hagenstein.

Family and personal

When Dirksen, after the death of his first wife Lena (* 1896, † 1933), née Kornrumpf, with whom he had married on May 5, 1925, married a second time on March 9, 1943, the pastor's daughter Olga, née Hochbaum ( * August 12, 1903 in Berlin), through the care of his then minor children Adelheid (* May 8, 1926 in Regenthin), Ingeborg (* May 17, 1930) and Harald (* December 25, 1932; † 1997), the was a Protestant pastor in Prenzlau when his father died in 1967 , according to existing documents in the State Archives in Gorzów Wielkopolski in 1943. There are also archives in Poland about his position as pastor (superintendent) in what was then Neumark. After his retirement on December 15, 1958, Dirksen moved with his wife to Berlin and they both lived in the Prenzlauer Berg district, initially at St. Elisabethstift in Eberswalder Strasse, where the pastor occasionally held services in the Heim chapel, and later until they left in Lychener Strasse.

On July 7, 1965, Dirksen and his wife moved to live with their eldest daughter Adelheid in West Germany and lived in Neu-Isenburg for around two years. He found his final resting place in the Neu-Isenburg cemetery.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg . Evangelisches Konsistorium Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1956, p. 129 under 9.
  2. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province Mark Brandenburg . Evangelical Consistory of the Mark Brandenburg. Berlin 1927, see under Regenthin near Woldenberg (Neumark).
  3. ^ Dirksen, Adolf Jakob Karl Wilhelm . In: Evangelical pastor's book for the Mark Brandenburg since the Reformation . Published by the Brandenburg Provincial Synodal Association. Second volume / first part. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1941, p. 157
  4. ↑ Christian Halbrock: Evangelical Pastor of the Berlin-Brandenburg Church 1945–1961. Official autonomy in the guardian state? Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-936872-18-X , p. 160.
  5. ↑ Church Archives Center Berlin: ELAB105 / 1481 Dirksen, Wilhelm (Spruchkammer proceedings files) (1947–1949)
  6. ^ Woldenberg - 600 years of the church in 1935; report
  7. ^ Stay in Meseritz: Soldier and clergyman
  8. ^ Rudi Schulz: Information in letters from the field post from March 1942 to his future wife. - Schudi 45 private archive
  9. ↑ : Ulrich Radomski In Schinkel's footsteps in the Meseritz and Birnbaum districts . Heimatkreis Meseritz e. V.
  10. ↑ military training area near Meseritz; Explanation
  11. ^ Report by Hans Wandtke († 2003), published in Description of the Noteinsegnung on January 28, 1945 by Superintendent Dirksen. Meseritz home district
  12. ^ Church Archives Center - Regional Church Archives of the EKBO - Inventory name: Berliner Missionsgesellschaft. Signature BMW bmw 1/7196. In 1935 the teacher H. Menzel lived in Meseritz, Wichertsruh 32. Menzel; Hildegard;
  13. ↑ Von Neuhaus taught these subjects as early as the Imperial Era; Kgl. Meseritz high school
  14. ↑ Feldpostbrief Rudi Schulz from Meseritz from June 1942 - private archive Schudi 45
  15. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg . Evangelical Consistory Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1956, p. 129
  16. ^ Letter from the teacher Menzel from Kyritz dated December 13, 1947; Archivale in the Church Archive Center Berlin - Evangelical State Church Archive Berlin. ELAB105 / 1481 Dirksen, Wilhelm (Spruchkammer proceedings) (1947–1949)
  17. ^ Church Archives Center Berlin - Evangelical Regional Church Archives Berlin. ELAB105 / 1481 Dirksen, Wilhelm (Spruchkammer proceedings) (1947–1949)
  18. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg . Evangelical Consistory Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1956, p. 129
  19. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg . Evangelical Consistory Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 1956, p. 129
  20. ^ Letter of condolence from September 4, 1967 from the Meckel Consistorial Council. (Copy in the archive of the Berliner Missionswerk kab.scopearchiv.ch (PDF) [PDF]), p. 17
  21. ↑ parish almanac for the ecclesiastical province of Berlin-Brandenburg , Berlin. Im Selbstverlag (1960), p. 592 Section B. Sororities under 4.
  22. ↑ Home address of the parents in Berlin until 1911: Bernauer Strasse 115/116
  23. ^ Pastor Wilhelm Hochbaum was a member of the Berlin Ev. Lazarus and Deaconess mother house according to hospital lexicon for the German Reich ; P. 59  - Internet Archive
  24. ^ Neumärkische Zeitung of May 12, 1926
  25. ↑ Document / File 2093 Period of origin 1943 Language: German File number 2 VIII-D 193 Old signature 2141 Number of pages 26 Format B 4; Microfilming
  26. ↑ archive collections on the Internet; Wilhelm Dirksen
  27. ↑ Dirksen, Wilhelm . In: Telephone book for the capital of the GDR , 1965, p. 78.
personal data
SURNAME Dirksen, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dirksen, Adolf Karl Jakob Wilhelm (Willi)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Seddin (Gross Pankow)
DATE OF DEATH 22nd August 1967
Place of death Neu-Isenburg