Hans Ehrenberg
Encyclopedia
Hans Philipp Ehrenberg was a German theologian. One of the co-founders of the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...

, he was forced to emigrate to England because of his Jewish ancestry and his opposition to National Socialism.

1883-1914

Hans Ehrenberg was born into a liberal Jewish family, the eldest of three children. His parents were Emilie (née Fischel) and Otto Ehrenberg, brother of Victor Ehrenberg
Victor Ehrenberg (jurist)
Victor Gabriel Ehrenberg was a German jurist.He is the uncle of historian Victor Ehrenberg, Geoffrey & Lewis Elton's great uncle and great-great uncle to Ben Elton....

, the German jurist. His younger brother was the historian Victor Ehrenberg
Victor Ehrenberg (historian)
Victor Ehrenberg was a German historian. He was the younger brother of Hans Ehrenberg and the nephew of the jurist Victor Ehrenberg.He was married to Eva Dorothea Ehrenberg, née Sommer ....

, father of British historian Geoffrey and physicist Lewis Elton
Lewis Elton
Ludwig Richard Benjamin Elton is a German-born British physicist and researcher into education, specialising in higher education....

. From 1898 to 1900, he attended the Christianeum
Christianeum Hamburg
The Christianeum in Hamburg is a famous former "Latin school" in Hamburg, northern Germany. Founded in 1738 by King Christian VI of Denmark, it is now housed in a building planned by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen.-History:...

 in Altona. After his graduation exam at the Wilhelm Gymnasium in Hamburg in 1902, he studied law and political studies (Rechtswissenschaften und Staatswissenschaften) in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Heidelberg and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. His attitude towards workers was already clear by 1906, when he wrote his dissertation on the situation of steel workers
Steel mill
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. It is produced in a two-stage process. First, iron ore is reduced or smelted with coke and limestone in a blast furnace, producing molten iron which is either cast into pig iron or...

 (Hüttenarbeiter) in the Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...

 Valley. After his military service in 1907–1908, he continued his studies in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and completed his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1909 and habilitation
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...

 in 1910. He first became a private docent
Privatdozent
Privatdozent or Private lecturer is a title conferred in some European university systems, especially in German-speaking countries, for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor...

, then a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. Ehrenberg was baptised as a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 Christian in Berlin in 1911. Around this time, he developed a close friendship with his cousin Franz Rosenzweig
Franz Rosenzweig
Franz Rosenzweig was an influential Jewish theologian and philosopher.-Early life:Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany to a middle-class, minimally observant Jewish family...

, and with Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond...

 Viktor von Weizsäcker
Viktor von Weizsäcker
Viktor Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physician and physiologist. He was the brother of Ernst von Weizsäcker, and uncle to Richard von Weizsäcker and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. .He studied at Tübingen, Freiburg, Berlin, and Heidelberg, where he earned his medical degree in 1910...

, and Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....

.Rosenzweig later claimed that "Ehrenberg was my real teacher in philosophy". In 1913, he married Else Anna Zimmermann (1890–1970), a teacher. They had two children, Juliane and Andreas. One of his uncles was Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt
Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt
----Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt was a German mineralogist, natural philosopher, and art collector.- Life :...

.

1914-1933

Ehrenberg volunteered for the First World War and served as a non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...

, then a lieutenant after late 1914. He won the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

, 2nd Class as well as the Badische Offiziersorden (Zähringer Löwe 2.Klasse).

Ehrenburg had seen the war as a legitimate defensive war, but afterward, his view changed radically. He spoke of war crimes and German guilt. He joined the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 (SPD) in 1918, and for 18 months, was a city councilman in Heidelberg, as well as a member of workers' and soldiers' committees. In the same year, he received an associate professorship in Heidelberg. At this time, working with Christian socialists, he began to think about becoming a Protestant minister.
Ehrenberg began his theological studies in Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

, in 1922, completing his second theological exam in 1924. In 1923 and 1925, he and Nikolai Bubnov published two volumes of German translations of Russian theological writings which were acquired and read by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...

 and twice quoted from an essay that was in the second volume.

Abandoning a promising academic career, in 1925, he became the minister of Pauluskirche in Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...

, in a heavily working-class area. He got involved in the Kampfbund christlicher Arbeiter (The Fighting Christian Workers), though he left the SPD, feeling that parish work was incompatible with political party activism. In 1927, he made speeches on church and anti-semitism in opposition to riots organised by Nazi brownshirts
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...

. One lecture he gave in Hattingen
Hattingen
Hattingen is a German town located in northern part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia.-History:Hattingen is located on the south bank of the River Ruhr in the south of the Ruhr region. The town was first mentioned in 1396, when the Duke of Mark granted permission to build...

, entitled "Church and Anti-semitism" prompted a letter of complaint against him to the consistory
Consistory
-Antiquity:Originally, the Latin word consistorium meant simply 'sitting together', just as the Greek synedrion ....

 in Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

.
"We cannot believe that the upper consistorial councilor of our church approves of a race-conscious Jew as Protestant clergyman, from a racist attitude, should lecture German protestant Christians about political anti-semitism.

1933-1945

After the Nazis seized power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...

 in 1933, more attacks followed and Ehrenberg's moral and pedagogical
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....

 integrity were put in question.

Ehrenberg became one of the founders of the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...

. He and four other Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

n ministers had already formulated the "Bochum Confession" in May 1933. The first of its kind, it contained a denial of Nazi ideology and a confession of Christianity's Jewish origins. In July 1933, he published 72 Leitsätze zur judenchristlichen Frage (Seventy-Two Theses to the Jewish-Christian Question), clearly stating his own opposition to anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 and calling on the Protestant church
Protestant Reich Church
The Protestant Reich Church, officially German Evangelical Church and colloquially Reichskirche, was formed in 1936 to merge the 28 regional churches into a unified state church that espoused a single doctrine compatible with National Socialism...

 to do the same. After he was the target of attacks in Der Stürmer
Der Stürmer
Der Stürmer was a weekly tabloid-format Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of the Nazi propaganda machinery and was vehemently anti-Semitic...

, and facing pressure from the German Christian
German Christians
The Deutsche Christen were a pressure group and movement within German Protestantism aligned towards the antisemitic and Führerprinzip ideological principles of Nazism with the goal to align German Protestantism as a whole towards those principles...

 church authorities, Ehrenberg asked for early retirement in 1937. He continued, however, to work for the Confessing Church, whose ministers in Bochum openly showed solidarity with him.

In September 1938, he was barred from delivering any speech or sermon. His home was destroyed in the pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

s of Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

 and a few days later, he was taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...

. In 1939, he was able to emigrate to England, thanks to the intervention and pledges of George Bell
George Bell (bishop)
George Kennedy Allen Bell was an Anglican theologian, Dean of Canterbury, Bishop of Chichester, member of the House of Lords and a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement.-Early career:...

, Anglican bishop of Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

. He had had a correspondence with Bell and was perhaps more significant than Franz Hildebrandt
Franz Hildebrandt
Franz Hildebrandt was a German-born Lutheran, and later Methodist, pastor and theologian, forced into exile during World War II, and subsequently active in the United Kingdom and the USA.- Life :...

 or Bonhoeffer in convincing Bell of the growing crisis in German churches under the Nazi state. His family joined him shortly afterward. Ecumenism
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...

, religious unity, became increasingly important to him here.

Even though Ehrenberg was strictly anti-communist, his life was saved on several occasions by a communist trade union leader, in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Ehrenberg spoke openly about the German confessional church in England in an effort to prevent the growing disaster in Germany. George Bell also spoke out about Nazi interference in the church.

His close friends included Pastor Dr. Werner Koch, a member of the German resistance
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...

 and the youngest brother of Hans Koch
Hans Koch
Hans Koch was a German lawyer, a member of the Confessional Church and a member of the German resistance against Nazism.- Biography :...

..

1945-1958

Ehrenberg returned to Germany in 1947, after the war, working as a minister at the Bethel Institution
Bethel Institution
The Bethel Institution is a diaconal hospital for the mentally ill in Bielefeld, Germany....

 in Bielefeld
Bielefeld
Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

. In 1953, he returned to Heidelberg, where he died in 1958. His papers are archived at the Westphalian Protestant church archives in Bielefeld.

Legacy

Hans Ehrenberg was one of the few German Protestant theologians, even within the Confessing Church, to publicly express his vehement opposition to the anti-semitism of the Nazis and publicly declare his support of the Jewish people. He strongly urged the Protestant church to take the same stand. He criticised Christian anti-semitism and emphasized the similarities between Judaism and Christianity. Also, his special attitude toward the problems of workers' put him in advance of the church of his times. In addition to his practical theological work, he wrote a number of philosophical and theological articles and treatises.

In Ehrenberg's honor and memory, the secondary school administered by the Protestant church in the Bielefeld neighborhood of Sennestadt was renamed the Hans-Ehrenberg-Schule in 1963. There is also a square in Bochum named after him.

Hans Ehrenberg Prize

The Protestant Church Parish of Bochum and the Hans Ehrenberg Society award a prize of €5000 every two years in Ehrenberg's honor. The Hans Ehrenberg Prize is awarded at the Protestant Christuskirche (Christ Church) in Bochum, where Ehrenberg had been pastor. Previous winners are:
  • 2000: Prof. Günter Brakelmann, theologian, Ruhr University Bochum (retired)
  • 2002: Praeses
    Praeses
    Praeses , is a Latin word meaning "Seated in front of, i.e. at the head ", has both ancient and modern uses.-Roman imperial use:...

     Manfred Kock and Cardinal Karl Lehmann
  • 2004: Prof. Dr. hc. Robert Leicht, University of Erfurt
    University of Erfurt
    The University of Erfurt is a public university located in Erfurt, Germany. Originally founded in 1379, the university was closed in 1816 for the next 177 years...

  • 2006: Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
    Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP)
    The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German peace organization founded to confront the legacy of Nazism.The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace was founded in 1958 by the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, driven by the efforts of Lothar Kreyssig...

  • 2009: Dr. Edna Brocke, teacher of Jewish studies, Ruhr University Bochum

Further reading

  • Werner Licharz. Franz Rosenzweig
    Franz Rosenzweig
    Franz Rosenzweig was an influential Jewish theologian and philosopher.-Early life:Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany to a middle-class, minimally observant Jewish family...

     und H.E.- Aspekte einer fast vergessenen Freundschaft
    in: W. Schmied-Kowarzik (Ed.): Der Philosoph Franz Rosenzweig 1886 - 1929 Freiburg (1988)
  • Günter Brakelmann. Hans Ehrenberg. Ein judenchristliches Schicksal in Deutschland. Part 1: Leben, Denken und Wirken 1883-1932. Hans–Ehrenberg–Gesellschaft, Vols. 3 and 4. Waltrop (1997/1999) ISBN 3-927718-86-6
  • Günter Brakelmann (Ed.) Hans Ehrenberg. Autobiographie eines deutschen Pfarrers und weitere Zeugnisse aus der NS-Zeit. Hans-Ehrenberg-Gesellschaft, Volume 5. Waltrop (1999) ISBN 3-933688-28-0
  • Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik. Rosenzweig im Gespräch mit Ehrenberg, Cohen und Buber. Freiburg 2006 ISBN 3-495-48244-X

External links

  • Hans Ehrenberg Society Official website. Retrieved March 10, 2010
  • Hans-Ehrenberg-Schule in Bielefeld-Sennestadt, official website. Retrieved March 10, 2010
  • Catalogue of correspondence and family photos Personal papers of Lewis Elton
    Lewis Elton
    Ludwig Richard Benjamin Elton is a German-born British physicist and researcher into education, specialising in higher education....

    , The Elton/Ehrenberg Papers, German-Jewish Archive, Special Collections of The Library, University of Sussex
    University of Sussex
    The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....

    , Brighton, England
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