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Helmut Gollwitzer (29 December 1908 – 17 October 1993) was a German Protestant (

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

) theologian and author. Gollwitzer-tomb

Born in

Pappenheim Pappenheim is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, 11 km south of Weißenburg in Bayern. History Historically, Pappenheim was a statelet within Holy Roman Empire. I ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

, Gollwitzer studied

Protestant theology Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

in Munich, Erlangen, Jena and Bonn (1928–1932); he later completed a doctorate under

Karl Barth Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Calvinist theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declar ...

in Basel (1937), writing on the understanding of the

eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

and

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

. During the period of the Nazi regime in Germany, Gollwitzer was a well-known 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 ...

movement, which resisted the regime's attempt to control the churches. He took over as the pastor of the congregation at Berlin-Dahlem after the arrest of

Martin Niemöller Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (; 14 January 18926 March 1984) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 poem " First they ca ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Gollwitzer served as a medic at the Eastern Front, and was a Prisoner of War in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

from 1945 to 1949. He wrote a book about his experience of being a POW which became a bestseller in Germany in 1950 (''Unwilling Journey: A Diary from Russia''); the then President of West Germany, Theodor Heuss, called it "a great historical document". Gollwitzer was appointed professor of systematic theology at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

(1950–1957), and then as professor of Protestant theology at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

; he retired in 1975. He had been

's first choice as his successor in Basel, but the university authorities turned him down due to what they called 'his unclear attitude to the Soviet Union'. Dr. W. Travis McMaken illustrates Gollwitzer's role in the theology and politics of the twentieth century in his latest book, ''Our God Loves Justice: An Introduction to Helmut Gollwitzer''. He explains Gollwitzer's close relationship with Barth, and the socialist political ideas Gollwitzer held throughout his life. Known as a close friend of

Rudi Dutschke Alfred Willi Rudolf "Rudi" Dutschke (; 7 March 1940 – 24 December 1979) was a German sociologist and political activist who, until severely injured by an assassin in 1968, was a leading charismatic figure within the West German Socialist Stu ...

, whose wife studied with Gollwitzer, and a pastor to

Ulrike Meinhof Ulrike Marie Meinhof (7 October 1934 – 9 May 1976) was a German left-wing journalist and founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany, commonly referred to in the press as the "Baader-Meinhof gang". She is the reputed author ...

, he was prominently involved in the political debates ensuing in the late 1960s and 1970s. Gollwitzer was a pacifist and well-known opponent of nuclear weapons,Gollwitzer holding th
keynote speech
at a ''Kampf dem Atomtod'' rally in 1955 the US engagement in Vietnam and the arms race, as well as a staunch critic of capitalism. Gollwitzer died in

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 constitu ...

on 17 October 1993.

Footnotes

External links

"Why am I a Christian Socialist?" (Better translation: Why am I, as a Christian, a Socialist?)
* (with detailed Bibliography).

Literature

* Gollwitzer, H 1953. ''Unwilling Journey: A Diary from Russia.'' Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press. * Gollwitzer, H 1956. ''Dying We Live: The Final Messages and Records of the Resistance.'' New York: Pantheon. * Gollwitzer, H 1965. ''The Demands of Freedom: Papers by a Christian in West Germany.'' New York: Harper & Row. * Gollwitzer, H 1965. ''The Existence of God as Confessed by Faith.'' London: SCM. * Gollwitzer, H 1970. ''The Christian Faith and the Marxist Criticism of Religion.'' New York: Scribner. * Gollwitzer, H 1970. ''The Rich Christians and Poor Lazarus.'' New York: Macmillan. * Gollwitzer, H 1982. ''An Introduction to Protestant Theology.'' Philadelphia: Westminster Press. * McMaken, W. Travis 2017. ''Our God Loves Justice: An Introduction to Helmut Gollwitzer.'' Minneapolis: Fortress Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gollwitzer, Helmut 1908 births 1993 deaths People from Pappenheim People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German Lutheran theologians Lutheran pacifists Christian Peace Conference members University of Bonn alumni University of Bonn faculty 20th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers 20th-century Lutherans