Wolfgang Gern

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Wolfgang Gern (* 1951 in Berlin ) is a Protestant theologian and pastor and was chairman of the board of the Diakonisches Werk Hessen und Nassau e. V. based in Frankfurt (from 2013 Diakonie Hessen) and speaker of the National Poverty Conference .

Life

Wolfgang Gern was born in West Berlin and grew up in the Lichterfelde district . After graduating from high school , Gern studied Protestant theology in Berlin and at the University of Heidelberg . During his student days, he worked as a refugee helper in Laos and Cambodia for Bread for the World . After the first theological exam, Gern was a scholarship holder of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1977 and 1978 and studied as a postgraduate in Bangalore , South India . From 1979 to 1984 he was an assistant at the University of Heidelberg , where he received his doctorate with magna cum laude . In 1985 he started his vicariate in Hirschhorn am Neckar . At the same time he worked as a university assistant at the chair for the history of religion and missiology in Heidelberg. In 1990 he took over a pastor's position in Reichelsheim in the Odenwald . In 1996 he moved to the center of the Gossner Mission in Mainz , where he led the seminar for church service in industrial society. He also worked as a lecturer for social ethics in Marburg . In 2000 he took over the management of the Diakonisches Werk in Hessen and Nassau . With the merger in 2013 of the Diakonisches Werk in Hessen and Nassau e. V. and the Diakonisches Werk in Kurhessen-Waldeck e. V. zur Diakonie Hessen - Diakonisches Werk in Hessen and Nassau and Kurhessen-Waldeck e. V. he took over the chairmanship of the board of the Diakonie Hessen and held this until his retirement in April 2016. In 2008 he ran for the office of church president in Hessen-Nassau, which is equivalent to the office of bishop, but was defeated by Volker Jung . In autumn 2010, Gern was named as one of two candidates to succeed Margot Käßmann in the office of regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover . After the first ballot on November 24, 2010, in which 36 of 76 votes were cast for Gern (47.4%), he withdrew his candidacy.

At the beginning of 2011, the Church and Diakonie were happy to call for a clearer demarcation against Islam as the enemy. He called it “irresponsible and dangerous” to try to make political capital out of fears about Islam .

In 2016 he was awarded the Hessian Order of Merit on ribbon by the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier for his services as a "reminder for social justice" .

Wolfgang Gern is married and has one grown son.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Change at the top of Diakonie Hessen , ekhn.de, message from April 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ Michael B. Berger: Two men want to inherit Käßmann , in: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 16, 2010, p. 5
  3. ↑ Election of the regional bishop: Wolfgang Gern withdraws his candidacy after the first ballot , press release of the Evangelical Lutheran. Regional Church of Hanover from November 24, 2010
  4. ↑ Diakonie boss warns of enemy image . At: dpa , February 4, 2011
  5. ↑ Hessian Order of Merit for the outgoing Diakonie boss , ekhn.de, message from April 14, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME With pleasure, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin