Wilhelm Mensching (theologian)

Wilhelm Mensching (born October 5, 1887 in Lauenhagen , † August 25, 1964 in Stadthagen ) was an Evangelical Lutheran pastor , missionary and peace activist.

Live and act

Mensching passed his Abitur on March 20, 1906 in Bückeburg and then studied Protestant theology in Berlin, Halle, Göttingen and Hamburg . After completing his second theological exam, Wilhelm Mensching went to Africa as a missionary for the Evangelical Church. In 1912 he took over a Bethel ward in the German East Africa colony . In 1913 he married Anna Tielking. Mensching, who campaigned for the oppressed Africans, was arrested by Belgian soldiers during the First World War in 1916 and remained with his wife until 1920, first in African and then in Indian captivity. In September 1920, Mensching was released from captivity.

Getting to know the Gandhi movement and its non-violent methods shaped his life. After his return to Germany he took up a pastor's position in Petzen , which he held for 32 years until 1952. From 1922 he was a member of the International Union of Reconciliation , from 1932 managing director of the German branch. In 1927, Mensching was the only European to attend the Pan-African Congress in Harlem , New York City . After the National Socialists came to power , he rejected the pledge formula with the Hitler salute and also expressed his opinion in his sermons. His foreign passport was then withdrawn, and his mail and sermons were monitored; but he was not impressed by it. From mid-October 1943 to the end of March 1944 he and his family hid the Berlin Jew Ruth Lilienthal in his Petz parsonage and, shortly before the end of the war, also hid an escaped Soviet prisoner of war.

After the war the construction of a peace school began in Germany. In 1948 the Bückeburg Friendship Home Association was founded. The friendship home quickly developed into a meeting place for people from all over the world.

In 1950, together with the French pastor André Trocmé , Mensching was proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the award did not materialize. In 1962 the Friedrich Schiller University Jena Mensching awarded the theological doctorate . Wilhelm Mensching died on August 25, 1964 at the age of 77 in Stadthagen.

On May 16, 2001, Wilhelm Mensching was posthumously honored by Yad Vashem with the title “ Righteous Among the Nations ” at the request of the Bückeburg Herderschule . A permanent exhibition has been set up in Lauenhagen, the birthplace of Wilhelm Mensching.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Mensching. In: geschichtsatlas.de. Retrieved October 26, 2018 . 
2. ↑ A Life for Peace. In: Schaumburger Nachrichten. August 14, 2014, accessed October 26, 2018 .