Willibald Jacob

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Willibald Arno Georg Jacob (born January 26, 1932 in Berlin ; † July 3, 2019 there ) was a German Protestant pastor and German politician .

Life

After finishing school , Willibald Jacob began a theological training at the seminary for church service in Berlin-Weißensee , which he later continued at the Paulinum , a church classroom on the second educational path. On June 17, 1953 , he was arrested during a demonstration; he was then detained for three weeks. From 1955 to 1959 Jacob studied at the church college in Zehlendorf as well as at the Sprachenkonvikt Borsigstraße as an external student. At the same time he worked in the visiting service of the church district Berlin-Friedrichshain in the Stalinallee . In 1954 he married the cantor Elfriede Berndt; with her he had four children.

From 1959 to 1966 Jacob was parish pastor in Treuenbrietzen . There he built up a service group of theologians in congregations and companies in the tradition of the Confessing Church and the French worker priests . In 1965 he refused military service. From 1966 to 1968 he headed the Cottbus City Mission ( Gossner Mission ) and was a cooperation partner of the service groups in Niederlausitz. During this time he also founded a working group of the Christian Peace Conference (CFK) on the subject of ecumenism and economics.

In 1968 Jacob left the church service. Until 1982 he worked in the road system of the GDR . He qualified as a skilled worker and engineer in the VEB District Directorate for Roads (BDS) Cottbus and Berlin. From 1974 to 1976 he was chairman of the works union management (BGL) in the VEB BDS Berlin and in 1978 he became head of the road repairs department in the Berlin-Weißensee district (road master), u. a. responsible for removing barriers for disabled people in public transport. He held this position until 1982. From 1970 to 1990 he was a member of the GDR CDU .

From 1970 to 1980 Jacob was honorary chairman of the church leadership of the Dutch Ecumenical Congregation (NÖG) in the GDR. In this function he was contacted in 1976 by the Ministry for State Security of the GDR (MfS) about the activity of an employee of the community. He informed the person concerned and the pastor of the NÖG of this incident. Jacob was listed as an unofficial employee (IM) for several years and had contacts with the State Security from 1977 to 1984 . On August 27, 1997, the Hamburg Regional Court issued a resolution prohibiting any claim or dissemination that “Jacob [...] spied on behalf of the MfS”.

In 1982 Jacob was appointed provincial pastor by the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (EKiBB) - Region East in order to prepare for a stay in India. At the same time he worked as a parish priest in Berlin-Oberschöneweide and studied Hindi and regional sciences at the Humboldt University . Jacob spent his first stay in India together with his wife in October 1983 at the Pracharak Training School in Govindpur ( Bihar , District Ranchi ). There they participated in the conception of a new curriculum for the training of Pracharaks and Pracharikas (village pastors, deacons , parish helpers ) in the sense of a dual occupation : pastor / farmer / craftsman etc.

In 1984 Jacob received his doctorate from the Reformed Theological Academy in Debrecen with Elemer Kocsis on the basis of a doctoral thesis entitled “Property and work as topics of theological ethics” . Between 1985 and 1988 he was a lecturer in Protestant social ethics, economics and business organization in Govindpur on behalf of the Gossner Mission in Chotanagpur and Assam (GELC) and the EKiBB. After his return from India in 1989 he became parish priest in the Reformed parish Hohenbruch near Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen and at the same time the commissioner for the GELC - EKiBB partnership.

In 1990 Jacob co-founded the Development Society ( EpoG ) Berlin. In 1992 he retired early due to a tropical disease, but he continued to work for EpoG as India consultant. From 1992 to 1994 he was a supporter of the East German Works and Personnel Councils initiative against the deindustrialization of East Germany.

Brokered by Jakob Moneta , the chairman of the trade unions commission at the PDS, Jacob became a member of the German Bundestag (MdB) from 1994 to 1998 as a non-party on the open list of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) on the state list of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (13. Parliamentary term). He was a member of the Bundestag Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development (chairman and spokesman for the PDS) as well as a deputy member in the Defense Policy Committee and in the Subcommittee for United Nations (UN) affairs .

From 1996 Jacob was involved in setting up a work in India with exchange programs for vocational training within the framework of the EpoG and, from 2009, at the Solidarity Service International eV and the Wassermühle Ziddorf eV, district of Güstrow. He has reported on his experiences in India in several publications. Further writings discuss ethical-theological, religious-political and political issues. Towards the end of his life he published an unfinished autobiography (two volumes have been published: Am Rand die Mitte sucht and Die Volksseigene Experience , Ludwigsfelde 2013 and 2015).

Fonts

  • Thomas Müntzer's partisanship for the oppressed as a starting point for his reformatory efforts , in: Prophet einer neue Welt. Thomas Müntzer in his time, Berlin [GDR] 1975, pp. 87–97.
  • Property and labor. Evangelical social ethics between industrial society and socialism, Berlin [GDR] 1977.
  • Performance - what for? Reflections on the service of people in society, Berlin [GDR] 1980.
  • Justice in everyday life. Understanding property and work in socialist society, Berlin [GDR] 1984.
  • Paraclete today. From the integration of the theory of surplus value into theological ethics, in: Results and possibilities of the Christian-Marxist dialogue. Ed. Doctoral College of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Debrecen 1985.
  • Stepping stones in the river. From the Indian Gossner Church, Erlanger Verlag für Mission und Ökumene: Erlangen, 1992. [For an extended, second edition see below.]
  • The east wind blows where it wants. With a foreword by Jakob Moneta and an afterword by Horst Symanowski, Scheunen-Verlag: Kückenshagen, 1995.
  • The religion of capitalism. The social impact of the total market. Edited by Willibald Jacob, Jakob Moneta and Franz Segbers , Edition Exodus: Luzern, 1996.
  • Labor pastor. On site in the company and community in the GDR. Perspectives of the parish profession in view of a “people's church” as a discontinued model. Edited by Johannes Brückmann and Willibald Jacob, Alektor-Verlag: Berlin, 1996.
  • Worker pastor in the GDR. Community building and industrial society. Experiences in church and business 1950 - 1990. Edited by Johannes Brückmann and Willibald Jacob, Alektor: Berlin, 2004.
  • Between Müritzsee and Assam's tea gardens. Reports and comments on an Indo-German partnership. Edited by Willibald Jacob and Andreas Schröder, EpoG: Berlin, 2004.
  • Work - money - church. An outdated reflection, but in good time, Berlin [self-published], 2008.
  • Out and about in India. Exchange of experience. Edited by Willibald Jacob, Peter Leehr, Andreas Schröder and Beatrix Spreng, Berlin [self-published], 2009.
  • Elfriede and Willibald Jacob: Stepping stones in the river. From the Indian Gossner Church - About partnership and common interests. A chronicle. Second, expanded edition, Erlangen and Kückenshagen, 2010.
  • Look for the middle at the edge. Memories Part One. With Martin Niemöller's speech on the subject of Christ and War on July 26, 1961 in the St. Nikolaikirche in Treuenbrietzen, Ludwigsfelder Verlagshaus: Ludwigsfelde near Berlin, 2013.
  • The people's own experience. Memories Part Two, Ludwigsfelder Verlagshaus: Ludwigsfelde, 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Die LINKE Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Obituary for Willibald Jacob. July 6, 2019, accessed July 12, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of May 18, 1997: "The GDR State Security has listed the current PDS member of the Bundestag Willibald Jacob as an unofficial employee (IM). A spokesman for the Gauck authorities said yesterday that the files showed that the pastor and engineer economist from 1977 until 1984 had contacts with the MfS. The 65-year-old Jacob was involved in the Stasi. "
  3. ^ Order of the Hamburg Regional Court of August 27, 1997. Retrieved on July 12, 2019 .
  4. ^ W. Jacob: Paraklese heute - From the integration of the theory of surplus value into theological ethics, in: Results and possibilities of the Christian-Marxist dialogue. Ed. Doctoral College of the Reformed Church in Hungary. Debrecen 1985.
  5. ^ W. Jacob: Stepping stones in the river. From the Indian Gossner Church. Erlangen 1992. ISBN 3872145037
  6. ↑ W. Jacob: East wind blows where it wants. Kückenshagen 1995. ISBN 3929370344
  7. ↑ Biography at the German Bundestag
  8. ↑ Renate Gudat, Hans-Dieter Winkler, W. Jacob, Andreas Ciesielski (ed.): German-Indian inter Arkona and Govindpur, reviews and comments on a partnership. Kückenshagen 2000, ISBN 3934301061
  9. ^ W. Jacob, Andreas Schröder (Ed.): Between Müritzsee and Assam's tea gardens. Reports and comments on an Indo-German partnership, self-published by EpoG Berlin 2004, ISBN 3000150439
  10. ↑ W. Jacob, Peter Leehr, Andreas Schroeder, Beatrix explosive (ed.): Traveling in India - experience. Self-published Berlin 2009
  11. ↑ E. u. W. Jacob: Stepping stones in the river. From the Indian Gossner Church - About partnership and common interests. A chronicle. 2nd ext. Edition Erlangen and Kückenshagen 2010
  12. ↑ See: Das Historisch-Politische Buch, 64th year (2016). Book 2, p. 212
personal data
SURNAME Jacob, Willibald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jacob, Willibald Arno Georg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor and German politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 3rd July 2019
Place of death Berlin