Wolfgang Sucker

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Wolfgang Sucker (born August 21, 1905 in Liegnitz ; † December 30, 1968 in Darmstadt ) was a Protestant theologian , founder of the denominational institute in Bensheim and from 1964 to 1968 church president of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau . Sucker was married to Anna Dorothea geb. Schaffer and has four children.

family

Sucker's wife Anna gave birth to five children: Elisabeth Sucker vh. Spalt, Gertrud Sucker, Gotfried Sucker, Reinhard Sucker and Christiane Sucker, who however died shortly after the birth. He also has several grandsons and a granddaughter (Beate Spalt-Barczyk). His wife died in Darmstadt in 1997.

Career

Sucker grew up in Beuthen and Berlin , where he graduated from high school in Berlin-Friedenau . He then studied Protestant theology in Berlin , Greifswald and Gießen . He completed his studies in 1929 with the first theological exam, then he attended the preachers' seminary in Friedberg .

After the ordination on June 14, 1931 in the Friedenskirche in Offenbach am Main , he took over the parish assistance in two parishes in Offenbach. From 1933 he was a student pastor in Giessen. From 1934 he taught Protestant religion and methodology of religious instruction at the state college for teacher training in Lauenburg in Pomerania . In 1936 Sucker was active on the central board of the Evangelical Federation and later in the Evangelical Press Association. His employees there included Jochen Klepper and Kurt Ihlenfeld . In 1940 Sucker was drafted into the military, where he rose from sergeant to sergeant and was dismissed in 1945.

After the war Sucker was pastor in Weiterstadt and from 1946 head of the catechetical office for Starkenburg and in 1947 chairman of the Evangelical Federation of Hesse and Nassau. For the Evangelical Union he founded the denominational institute in Bensheim in 1947, of which he was director from the beginning. From 1949 he was released full-time for this service.

In 1950 Sucker was appointed to the church leadership by the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, and in 1957 he was elected as the successor to Bernhard Knell as Deputy Church President. From 1960 Sucker was honorary professor for church studies in Mainz and in 1963 he became president of the Evangelical Union.

In 1964, Martin Niemöller resigned from his position as church president of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. Thereupon the Synod elected Sucker on November 3, 1964 as his successor. His deputy was Karl Herbert (1907-1995). When Sucker died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1968, Helmut Hild succeeded him as Church President in 1969. Wolfgang Sucker was buried in the old cemetery in Darmstadt (grave site: IG 112).

Honors

In 1955 Sucker received an honorary theological doctorate from the Philipps University of Marburg .

On the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2005, the office building of the denominational institute at Ernst-Ludwig-Strasse 7 was posthumously named "Wolfgang-Sucker-Haus", in which this institute has been housed from 1947 to 1967 and since 2007.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Bogs, Walter Fleischmann-Bisten (ed.): Education for dialogue. Way and effect of Wolfgang Sucker; Bensheim booklets 105 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-525-87196-1 , p. 21 ( full text in Google Book Search).
personal data
SURNAME Sucker, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Liegnitz
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1968
Place of death Darmstadt