Wilhelm Weirich

Wilhelm Weirich (born May 20, 1879 in Schalke near Gelsenkirchen , † June 18, 1954 in Ummeln near Bielefeld ) was a German Protestant theologian and, as general superintendent, leading clergyman of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia .

Life

Born as the son of the main teacher Gustav Weirich and Emma Hoffmann, Wilhelm Weirich attended the secondary school in Schalke and the grammar school in Lichterfelde near Berlin . After passing high school at Easter 1898, he began studying theology at the universities of Berlin and Bonn .

After the two theological exams he passed in Munster , Weirich was ordained synodal vicar in Dortmund and on March 6, 1904 in Brechte near Dortmund . Here he also became the second pastor based in Brambauer near Lünen and in 1907 took over the pastor's position directly in Brambauer.

In 1911 Weirich moved to the pastorate in Wupperfeld near Barmen , where he also became superintendent of the Barmen Synod in 1925 .

In 1931 Wilhelm Weirich was appointed general superintendent of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia and was its chief clergyman. On July 1, 1934, Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller , who was then a member of the Nazi-friendly German Christians, put him into temporary retirement because of his opposition to the Nazi state. The legal validity of this step was disputed, but Weirich lost his office and then "officially" retired on September 1, 1944 when he reached the age limit. From 1936 onwards, President Karl Koch took over the "direction" of the church in his place, before he was entrusted with the leadership of the church himself in 1948, from now on under the name "President of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia".

Weirich worked from 1945 to 1951 as archdeacon of the Westphalian Church in Ummeln, where he died at the age of 78.

Wilhelm Weirich had been married to the Koblenz teacher's daughter Lina Fröhlich since 1905. The marriage resulted in four children, including the later history professor Hans Weirich.

Honor

On December 25, 1932, the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster awarded Wilhelm Weirich an honorary doctorate.

Works

• The Christian's Prayer Life in the Light of the Our Father , Barmen, 1937
• The Peace Offer , Barmen, 1937
• A house full of sun , Barmen, 1938
• Trutz Tod , Barmen, 1938
• How should I wear it? , Barmen, undated

literature

• The Evangelical Rhineland. A Rhenish parish and pastor's book , ed. by Albert Rosenkranz , Volume II: The Pastors , Düsseldorf 1958
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bauks : The Protestant Pastors in Westphalia from the Reformation Period to 1945 (= Contributions to the Westphalian Church History, Volume 4), Bielefeld 1980, No. 6753 ( full text )
• Ernst Brinkmann: The last Westphalian general superintendent. On the 20th anniversary of the death of Wilhelm Weirich , in: Yearbook for Westphalian Church History 67, 1974