Wilhelm Stahlin

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Memorial plaque on the house where he was born in Gunzenhausen

Ernst Wilhelm Stählin (born September 24, 1883 in Gunzenhausen , † December 16, 1975 in Prien am Chiemsee ) was a German Lutheran theologian, bishop , preacher and representative of the liturgical movement .

Life

Origin, education and early years

Stählin was born as the son of Pastor Wilhelm Stählin (1831–1886) and Sophie. Hauser (1838–1905) was born in 1883 in Gunzenhausen in what is now the Central Franconian district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the house at Kirchenplatz 1 . After attending high school near St. Anna in Augsburg , Stählin studied Protestant theology in Erlangen , Rostock and Berlin from 1901 . In the winter semester of 1901/02 he joined the student union Uttenruthia Erlangen in the Schwarzburgbund . In 1905 he passed the exam and served as assistant preacher in Steinbühl near Nuremberg , where he had contact with the Nuremberg preachers Christian Geyer and Friedrich Rittelmeyer . On March 29, 1906 he was in Ansbach ordained . After a trip to England in 1908 and a semester of psychology studies with Oswald Külpe at the University of Würzburg , Stählin became pastor in Egloffstein in 1910 and married Emmy Thäter (1886–1945), the daughter of Bavarian Major General Gottlieb von Thäter (1846–1912). In 1913 he received his doctorate in Würzburg under Karl Marbe on psychology and statistics of biblical metaphors . In 1914 he founded the Society for Religious Psychology and published the Archive for Religious Psychology until 1921. At the same time he had contacts with the Bundische movement. He participated as a volunteer (chaplain) from 1914 to 1916 in the First World War in France and the Baltic States. From 1917 Stählin was second pastor at St. Lorenz in Nuremberg. After the World War he cultivated more contacts with the Bundische movement . From 1918 to 1919 he acted as chairman of the Bavarian district of the Wandervogels . This tradition also determined Stählin's youth work in the community. In 1920 he got in touch with the Bund Deutscher Jugendvereine ( BDJ ), a liberal federation of Christian youth clubs. From 1922 to 1932 Stählin was one of the two federal leaders of the BDJ and also dealt with the youth movement in literary terms and in lectures. In 1923 he was a co-founder of the Berneuchener Kreis and in 1931 of the Michael Brotherhood belonging to it , which sought a liturgical renewal of Protestantism . In 1925 he took part in the Stockholm World Conference of Churches . In 1926, Stählin accepted a professorship for practical theology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . On this occasion, the Theological Faculty of the University of Kiel awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Activity in Münster

In Münster, Stählin taught the classic disciplines of homiletics , catechetics , liturgy and pastoral theology and also turned to the New Testament . Above all, he emphasized listening to the original Greek language and the appropriate German translation. As a representative of the faculty, he was a member of the Old Prussian General Synod in 1930 and established ecumenical relations, for example, at the British-German theologian conferences of 1927, 1931 and 1935. In autumn 1931, Stählin was one of the founders of the Evangelical Michael Brotherhood , its elders, which emerged from the Berneuchen movement he was from 1942 to 1946. In 1933 an Evangelical Young Brotherhood of St. Michael was established in Münster around Stählin.

At the time of National Socialism

Stählin was suspicious of the National Socialists from the start, but initially considered a collaboration with the German Christians to be inevitable to transform the church. On September 6, 1933, he was a participant in the general synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , where he already belonged to the Gospel and Church group around Karl Koch and Wilhelm Niemöller . As a result, he joined the Pastors' Emergency League , despite his criticism of the Barmer Declaration and the Confessing Church . As early as 1935, however, there was tension over the question of theological exams, so that in 1940 he withdrew again.

Activity in Oldenburg

When the German Christian regional bishop Johannes Volkers died in Oldenburg in July 1944 , Stählin was designated as his successor through the intercession of his friend Heinrich Kloppenburg , at the time President of the Oldenburg Confessing Synod and in fact head of the Confessing Church of Oldenburg. Stählin came to Oldenburg in September 1944 to initially take on a pastor's position in Easterburg and the associated responsibility for training clergy in the Free State . In the winter of 1944/45, however, his activity was mainly his community. After the collapse in 1945 he was finally appointed to the office of regional bishop and was elected bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg and chairman of the upper church council by a regional synod held in autumn 1945 . At that time, Hermann Ehlers , Heinz Kloppenburg and Edo Osterloh still belonged to the Oberkirchenrat . In 1946 Stählin was introduced to his office by Theophil Wurm , the first council chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany .

After his wife died in 1945, Stählin married Luise Charlotte (Liselotte) Künne (* 1900), the daughter of the factory owner Robert Hermann Künne and his wife Adele geb. Gunck.

After the end of the war, Stählin's main task was initially to integrate the many refugees who had also come to the almost entirely Catholic districts of Cloppenburg and Vechta . Here Stählin was responsible for the foundation of new parishes and churches. He also took an active part in the formation of the clergy through seminars and as the author of catechetical and sermon aids. He also worked directly in the community through masses, Christmas Eve celebrations, Bible studies, seminars and lectures.

Working in church politics and ecumenism

In 1945 Stählin was a participant in the Treysa Conference and thus participated in the rebuilding of the Evangelical Church in Germany. From 1946 Stählin worked in the Lutheran Liturgical Conference . In 1947 he was again present at the church assembly in Treysa and succeeded in preventing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg from becoming a member of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD). In 1948, as a representative of the EKD, he took part in the World Conference of Churches in Amsterdam , at which the World Council of Churches was formed.

Together with Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger , Stählin founded and led after the war an ecumenical working group of Catholic and Protestant theologians, the so-called " Jaeger-Stählin-Circle ". From 1946 to 1970 he was the Protestant chairman of this working group, which is still doing basic research for ecumenical discourse today.

In 1950 he was involved in the creation of the church ordinance of Oldenburg by Hermann Ehlers. In 1952 Stählin retired, mainly because of theological and political differences with his former friend Heinrich Kloppenburg, but continued to hold lectures in Münster for some time. Until 1954 he also remained a member of the theological examination commission in Oldenburg.

Stählin continued his ecumenical work by participating in the World Conference on Faith and Order in Lund in 1952 . In 1963, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, he received a private audience with Pope Paul VI. in Rome .

As an exponent of the liturgical movement and author of sermon aids, Stählin had a broad impact well into the 21st century.

family

Wilhelm Stählin came from a well-known family of theologians and scholars. His uncle was the Bavarian senior consistorial president Adolf von Stählin , his aunt the superior of Neuendettelsau Therese Stählin , his brother the classical philologist Otto Stählin . His sons Adolf and Gustav were also professors (for agricultural sciences and theology). Wilhelm Stählin's son from his first marriage, Rudolf Stählin , also became a professor of Protestant theology.

Honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Goebel (ed.): Directory of members of the Schwarzburgbund. 8th edition, Frankfurt am Main 1930, p. 136 No. 3086.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Stählin: Via vitae. Life memories . Johannes Stauda Verlag, Kassel 1968, p. 192.
  3. ↑ See Heinrich Gürsching: Ahnenprobe Stählin . In: Quatember 1953, pp. 222-224 ; Otto Stählin u. a .: The Stählin family from Memmingen (German Family Archives. Vol. 11). 1959.
personal data
SURNAME Stahlin, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian, bishop, preacher and representative of the liturgical movement
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Gunzenhausen
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1975
Place of death Prien am Chiemsee