Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann

Wilhelm Franz Alois Freiherr von Pechmann (born June 10, 1859 in Memmingen , † February 10, 1948 in Munich ) was director of Bayerische Handelsbank in Munich and, in addition to his job, took on numerous important offices within the Evangelical Lutheran Church .

Life

Pechmann worked as a legal assistant at Bayerische Handelsbank in Munich from 1886. In the same year he married Emma von Feilitzsch . The marriage had three children. In 1898 he became director of the bank.

In 1901 he was appointed to the Bavarian General Synod . In 1909, von Pechmann was almost appointed to the highest office of the Bavarian regional church, president of the senior consistory; the only reason the vocation failed because he was a lawyer and not a theologian. In 1913, the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Erlangen awarded him an honorary doctorate in theology. From 1919 to 1922 Pechmann was the first elected president of the regional synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria . Further memberships followed in the Standing Committee of the Lutheran World Convention and the German Evangelical Church Committee . He was president of the constituent German Evangelical Church Days in Stuttgart (1921), Bethel (1924) and Königsberg (1927).

Pechmann was still helpful to the National Socialists in their early days as director of the Handelsbank, but soon developed into a staunch opponent of National Socialism and the German Christians who were close to the National Socialists . He became a member of the Confessing Church in 1933 and maintained relationships with the theologians Karl Barth and Martin Niemöller . On Easter Monday 1934 Wilhelm von Pechmann protested “against the rape of the church, against its lack of resistance, against its silence too much injustice and against all the misery and heartache that one ... in countless“ non-Aryan ”hearts and houses , Christian and Jewish, ”(the farewell letter was published in the magazine Junge Kirche in the same year ) from the German Evangelical Church . On June 17, 1936, at his request, he received the membership card of the Confessing Church.

But he was also in a dispute with the then Bavarian regional bishop Hans Meiser , because from his point of view he proved to be too compliant and willing to compromise with the National Socialists. He also repeatedly called on Meiser to break the silence and to work with the Catholic Church against the persecution and extermination of the Jews . Furthermore, he dealt with the theologians Paul Althaus , Hermann Sasse and Friedrich Ulmer , because von Pechmann was of the opinion that the fight to preserve the Lutheran creed was more important to them than the fight against the German Christians and the ideology of National Socialism.

His life took an unexpected turn in recent years: Although he had worked in numerous high-ranking offices within the Protestant Church throughout his life, Pechmann converted to Catholicism a few years before his death. On April 15, 1946, Pechmann officially joined the Catholic Church after he had declared his resignation from the Evangelical Trinity Church in Munich-Bogenhausen the day before, and was confirmed by Cardinal Michael Faulhaber on June 12, 1946 .

Pechmann died on February 10, 1948 in Munich and was buried there in the Nordfriedhof.

In the recent past, Pechmann was honored for his critical stance on National Socialism in various places. In 1998 the Augustana University in Neuendettelsau named its lecture hall building after von Pechmann. On January 29, 2000, a Freiherr-von-Pechmann-Weg was inaugurated in the English Garden in Munich. At the beginning of 2008 the city of Memmingen decided to name a street after Pechmann.

Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann Prize

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria has been awarding the “Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann Prize” “at irregular intervals since 2008” in memory of von Pechmann.

The reason for the award states: “The award is a reminder of his special services to humanity, Christianity and churchliness in the years before, during and after the“ Third Reich ”. Freiherr von Pechmann fought for a more courageous behavior by the church towards the barbarism of National Socialism and its 'policy' of persecuting and exterminating Jews. The prize is awarded for outstanding achievements that are dedicated to the subject of moral courage in historical-scientific research or in educational work. In addition, convincing examples of public spirit and moral courage can be recognized today ”.

Award winner in 2008

• Jutta Neupert for the BR television production “God trust and civil courage. Evangelical Victims of the Nazi Regime ”, in the series“ Stations ”, from November 21, 2007
• the Sigena-Gymnasium, Nuremberg for the commemorative volume: “Persecuted, expelled, murdered. The 120 Jewish women from the girls' school “, developed by 9th grade students, 2007
• Axel Töllner for his book “A question of race? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Aryan Paragraph and the Bavarian parish families with Jewish ancestors in the 'Third Reich' ”, Stuttgart 2007

In 2008 the prize was endowed with 10,000 euros, donated in equal parts by the Evangelical Luth. Church in Bavaria and the Hypo Real Estate Bank.

Award winner in 2009

• Thomas Greif for his book “Frankens brown pilgrimage. The Hesselberg in the Third Reich ”, Ansbach 2007 ( ISBN 978-3-87707-698-9 ).
• Citizens' Forum Graefenberg for the "Initiative for Democracy and Against Right-Wing Extremism"
• Sabine Gerhardus and Björn Mensing for the book publication "Names instead of numbers - Dachau life pictures and memory work", Leipzig 2007 ( ISBN 978-3-374-02488-9 )

In 2010, no Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann Prize was awarded.

Award winner in 2011

• Emmi Hetzner and class M9 of the Stephanie-Mittelschule Gunzenhausen for the school project "The history of Jewish families and formerly Jewish houses in Gunzenhausen in the 20th century"
• Maximiliane Saalfrank and Thies Marsen for the radio audio picture “Blue line means life, red cross means death. Industrial assassination. The euthanasia of the Nazis began 70 years ago ”, Bayern 2, November 1, 2010
• Jörg Skriebeleit for the remembrance and educational work of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial, as well as Kerstin and Jörg Schröder (Evangelical Youth Upper Franconia) for the "International Youth Meeting Flossenbürg"
• Wolfgang Sommer received the (undoped) honorary award for his research studies

No Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann Prize was awarded in 2012.

Award winner in 2013

• Christiane Moll for her book Alexander Schmorell , Christoph Probst : Gesammelte Briefe (Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2011).
• Katarina Agathos, Michael Farin and Susanne Heim for the documentary audio edition produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk in cooperation with the Institute for Contemporary History “The sources speak. The persecution and murder of the European Jews by National Socialist Germany "
• High school students of the Caspar-Vischer-Gymnasium Kulmbach for the "Project Stolpersteine for Kulmbach"
• Gabriele Knetsch for her radio program broadcast by Bayerischer Rundfunk “Retterinnen ohne Ruhm. Civil courage in National Socialism "

literature

• Adalbert Freiherr von Pechmann:  Pechmann, Wilhelm Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 152 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach (Ed.): Resistance and Solidarity of Christians in Germany 1933-1945 - A documentation on the church struggle from the papers of Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann , Neustadt / Aisch 1971.
• R. Voderholzer: Voice of conscience in the fight against evil: Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann (1859-1948) , in: Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift 52 (2001) 3 , pp. 245-259.
• Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (Ed.): The Confessions and Basic Statements on the Church Question of 1933 , Göttingen 1934.
• Ekkard Sauser:  PECHMANN, Wilhelm, Freiherr von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 1147-1148.
• Wolfgang Sommer : Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann - A Conservative Lutheran , Göttingen 2010.
• The extensive estate of Pechmann is in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek [1]

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
• The argument between Bishop Meiser and Baron Pechmann
• Gottfried Mehnert: Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann: His advocacy for the Jews 1933-1945
• Press release on the presentation of the Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann Prize 2011 (PDF; 56 kB)
• Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann in the online exhibition Resistance !? Evangelical Christians under National Socialism
• The estate in the Bavarian State Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wolfgang Sommer: Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann: A Conservative Lutheran in the Weimar Republic and in National Socialist Germany . 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-55005-2 , p. 207-214 .
2. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria: Against Forgetting ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2013 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 November 12, 2013. 
3. ↑ Press release of the regional church office of April 10, 2008.
4. ↑ Press release of the Regional Church Office ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 12, 2013.