Walter Grundmann (21 October 1906, in
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
– 30 August 1976, in
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
) was a German Protestant theologian and antisemitic
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
and
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...
collaborateur during the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and
GDR
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. Grundmann served both German
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
s. He was a member of the
Nazi party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
from 1930 onwards, and from 1933 onwards an active member of the
German Christians
Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from t ...
and prospered as a state-
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
supporting theologian and professor for ''ethnic theology''. In 1939, he was made head of the newly founded
Instituts zur Erforschung jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben in
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
, which was meant to serve state antisemitism by the "
Entjudung" (dejudifying) of the Bible and giving antisemitic theological training and arguments for Nazi propaganda. Despite his past Nazi activities, Grundmann regained some prestige as an
evangelic
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experi ...
theologian in East Germany; in 1959 he published his comments on the Gospels, which by the 1980s had become standard popular literature. However, Grundmann also prospered as a "
Secret Informer" ("Geheimer Informator") to the
Ministry for State Security ("Stasi"). He spied on (high ranking) theologians in Eastern and Western Germany. His cover name was ''GM Berg'' ("GM Mountain") after the
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is ...
("Bergrede") to which he referred in his inaugural speech
[''Frage der ältesten Gestalt und des ursprünglichen Sinnes der Bergrede Jesu'', 1939, Jena, Germany.] 1939 at the
, set up under him in Jena.
Life
Training and theological development to 1939
Head of the Institute (1939-1945)
Post-war life
References
Sources
* Susannah Heschel: ''The theological Faculty at the university of Jena as a Stronghold of national Socialism''. In: Feingold, Mordechai: ''History of Universities,'' Oxford 2003, S. 143–169.
*
Susannah Heschel
Susannah Heschel (born 15 May 1956) is an American scholar and the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. The author and editor of numerous books and articles, she is a Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of ...
: ''The Aryan Jesus. Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany.''
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
Press, 2008,
Online-Informationen.
* Susannah Heschel: ''Deutsche Theologen für Hitler. Walter Grundmann und das Eisenacher "Institut zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben“. In: ''Jahrbuch 1998/99 zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust,'' Darmstadt 1999, S. 147–167.
*
Matthias Wolfes
Matthias Wolfes (born August 28, 1961, Buchholz in der Nordheide, West Germany) is a German Protestant theologian.
Biography and activities
In 1998 he earned a PhD in systematic theology from the University of Heidelberg (Dr. theol.), Prof. Wol ...
: ''Protestantische Theologie und moderne Welt – Studien zur Geschichte der liberalen Theologie nach 1918,'' Berlin/New York 1999 (Theologische Bibliothek Töpelmann, Band 102), S. 366–380.
* Roland Deines, Volker Leppin, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr (Hrsg.): ''Walter Grundmann – ein Neutestamentler im Dritten Reich.'' Leipzig 2007
* Max Weinreich: ''Hitler's Professors: The Part of Scholarship in Germany's Crimes against the Jewish People.'' 1. Auflage, New York 1946
* Kurt Meier: ''Kreuz und Hakenkreuz: Die evangelische Kirche im Dritten Reich.'' DTB, München 1992
* Birgit Jerke: ''Wie wurde das Neue Testament zu einem sogenannten Volkstestament "entjudet“? – Aus der Arbeit des Eisenacher "Instituts zur Erforschung und Beseitung des jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben“.'' In: Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz (Hg.): ''Christlicher Antijudaismus und Antisemitismus. Theologische und kirchliche Programme Deutscher Christen,'' Frankfurt am Main 1994, S. 201–234
*
Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz
Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz (27 June 1944, Belgard/Pommern – 17 December 1999, Frankfurt am Main) was a German church historian and director of the Evangelische Akademie Arnoldshain. She was co-editor of the journal ''Kirche und Israel'' (duri ...
(Hrsg.): ''Christlicher Antijudaismus und Antisemitismus. Theologische und kirchliche Programme Deutscher Christen.'' Arnoldshainer Texte, Band 85, Haag + Herchen Verlag,
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grundmann, Walter
1906 births
1976 deaths
Christian fascists
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union
20th-century German Protestant theologians
People from Chemnitz
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
German male non-fiction writers
People of the Stasi