Wilhelm Jannasch (8 April 1888, in Gnadenfrei – 6 June 1966, in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

) was a German Protestant theologian and clergyman. He studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the universities of Marburg,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. In 1913 he was ordained as a minister in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, and during the following year received his licentiate at Heidelberg. In 1921 he was named senior pastor at St. Giles Church in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

. In 1934 he was forced into early retirement by the Nazi government, and he subsequently became an active member of the

Confessing Church The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German E ...

. From 1939 onwards, he served as a pastor of the Confessing congregation in Berlin-Friedenau. From 1946 to 1956 he was a professor of

practical theology Practical theology is an academic discipline that examines and reflects on religious practices in order to understand the theology enacted in those practices and in order to consider how theological theory and theological practices can be more full ...

at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...

Selected works

* ''Erdmuthe Dorothea Gräfin von Zinzendorf, geborene Gräfin Reuß zu Plauen'' (1914) – Erdmuthe Dorothea Countess von Zinzendorf, born Countess Reuss of

Plauen Plauen (; Czech language, Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the larges ...

. * ''Geschichte des lutherischen Gottesdienstes in Lübeck : von den Anfängen der Reformation bis zum Ende des Niedersächsischen als gottesdienstliche Sprache (1522–1633)'', (1928), History of Lutheran worship in Lübeck: from the beginnings of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

to the end of

Low Saxon Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of th ...

as liturgical language, 1522–1633. * ''Der Kampf um das Wort : aus der Glaubensgeschichte einer deutschen Stadt'' (1931). * ''Deutsche Kirchendokumente : die Haltung der Bekennenden Kirche im Dritten Reich'' (1946), German church documents: the attitude of the Confessing Church in the Third Reich. * ''Reformationsgeschichte Lübecks vom Petersablass bis zum Augsburger Reichstag 1515–1530'' (1958); Reformation history of Lübeck from the Petersablass to the

Diet of Augsburg The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in the German city of Augsburg. Both an Imperial City and the residence of the Augsburg prince-bishops, the town had hosted the Estates in many such sess ...

, 1515–1530. * ''Das Zeitalter des Pietismus'' (with Martin Schmidt, 1965) – The Age of

Pietism Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life, including a social concern for the needy and ...

.Most widely held works by Wilhelm Jannasch
WorldCat Identities

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jannasch, Wilhelm 1888 births 1966 deaths People from Dzierżoniów County Heidelberg University alumni Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz 20th-century German Protestant theologians German Protestant clergy Historians of Christianity German historians of religion