Wilhelm Zoellner

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Christian Heinrich Wilhelm Zoellner (born January 30, 1860 in Minden ; † July 16, 1937 in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian, Westphalian general superintendent and chairman of the Reich Church Committee (RKA) of the German Evangelical Church .

Life

He grew up as the oldest of three children in Gütersloh , where he attended the Evangelisch Stiftische Gymnasium from 1871 to 1879 . He belonged to the Christian student union Wingolf in Leipzig (1879), Halle (1880), Bonn (1881) and Münster (1929). The theological teachers who shaped him the most were Delitzsch , Kahnis , Luthardt , Christlieb and Kähler .

In 1883 and 1885 he passed the two church exams in Münster , first as a vicarage vacancy representative and then as an assistant preacher in Gütersloh and Friedrichsdorf . In 1889 he married Marie Klasing, became pastor in the Lutheran parish of Barmen- Wupperfeld and from 1897 head of the deaconess mother house of the deaconess institution Kaiserswerth .

In 1905 he was appointed general superintendent of the ecclesiastical province of Westphalia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union in Munster, he devoted himself to the systematic development of women's aid and took care of its diaconal orientation. His commitment to the diaspora and diakonia abroad led to a long trip to Brazil in 1910 . In 1914 he was instrumental in founding the Diakonissenhaus in Münster.

In a thanksgiving service in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1916 he thanked God for the conquest of Bucharest by German troops and in 1918 felt the defeat of the war and the end of the monarchy as a catastrophe. In 1931 he retired and from 1931 to 1935 was the first chairman of the Reichsfrauenhilfe in Potsdam. In April 1933, he effectively called for the "Lutheran Collection". In August 1934 he was involved in the constitution of the Lutheran Council of the German Evangelical Church and in July 1935 took part in the "Lutheran Day" in Hanover . After Adolf Hitler had appointed Hanns Kerrl as Reich Church Minister in the summer of 1935 , he appointed Hanns Kerrl as chairman of the newly created Reich Church Committee in October 1935 at the suggestion of the Hanoverian regional bishop August Marahrens Zoellner and thus as the highest representative of German Protestantism. Since he had declared since April 1933 that he would help shape church politics, he tried to reorganize the church with the help of the moderate representatives of the German Christians (DC) , the Confessing Church (BK) and the neutrals. When he wanted to work in Lübeck as a result of the dispute between the DC church leadership and BK pastors in February 1937, the state police forbade him to travel there at the instigation of the Reich Church Ministry. He then resigned on February 12, 1937.

Works

  • Amos and Hosea . Gütersloh 1897
  • Grace and truth . Ten sermons . Barmen 1897
  • The minorities in the Prussian regional church . A fact and a problem . Witten 1917
  • Our father . An interpretation . Potsdam 1930
  • State and Church . A word from what is becoming. Potsdam 1931
  • In the service of the Church . Speeches and essays from four decades . Witten 1931
  • The Church of History and the Church of Faith . Contributions to the rebuilding of the church . Berlin 1933
  • The first letter of Peter laid out for the church . Potsdam 1935
  • About the reorganization of the church . Three speeches . Witten 1936
  • as ed. with Wilhelm Stählin : The Church of Jesus Christ and the Word of God . A study book on the word of God as the basis and way of life of the church . Berlin 1937

literature

  • Hans Ehrenberg (Ed.): Credo Ecclesiam. Commemoration for Wilhelm Zoellner's 70th birthday on January 30th, 1930 . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1930.
  • Kurt Dietrich Schmidt (Ed.): Documents of the Church Struggle II. The time of the Reich Church Committee 1935–1937 , 2 volumes; Göttingen, 1964/1965 (works on the history of the church struggle, vols. 13-14)
  • Kurt Meier : The Protestant Church Fight , Vol. 2: Failed attempts to reorganize under the sign of state “legal aid” , Halle / Saale, Göttingen: 1984 ISBN 3-525-55551-2
  • Bernd Hey / Ingrun Osterfinke: "Three coachmen on one goat": the holders of the church leadership positions in Protestant Westphalia (1815–1996) . Bielefeld: Regional Church Archives of the EKvW, 1996 (writings of the Regional Church Archives of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia; Vol. 3) ( partial digitization )
  • Thomas Martin Schneider:  ZOELLNER, Wilhelm (Christian Heinrich Wilhelm). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 567-572.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Thomas Martin Schneider: Wilhelm Zoellner (1860-1937). Westphalian general superintendent and chairman of the Reich Church Committee - church leader with state legitimation . In: Jürgen Kampmann (Ed.): Protestantism in Prussia. Life pictures from his history , Vol. 4: From the First World War to the division of Germany . Hansisches Druck- und Verlagshaus, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-86921-036-0 , pp. 49-62.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herbert Brass, Peter Riegelmeyer, Achim Becker: 100 years of Münsterscher Wingolf 1903 - 2003. Verband Alter Münsterscher Wingolfer (ed.), Edition Piccolo, Hanover 2005, ISBN 3-931892-05-0 , p. 368.
  2. ^ Otto Imgart: Directory of members of the Wingolfs . Wolfratshausen 1930. p. 73

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zoellner, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zoellner, Christian Heinrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Westphalian general superintendent and chairman of the Reich Church Committee of the German Evangelical Church
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Minden
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1937
Place of death Düsseldorf-Oberkassel