Kurt Scharf
Kurt Scharf (born 21 October 1902 in Landsberg / Warta; † 28 March 1990 in Berlin) was a Protestant Bishop of Berlin and of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
Curriculum vitae
After high school, Kurt Scharf studied from 1920 to 1928 in Tübingen, Jena, Halle and Berlin Protestant theology and became a member of VDSt Berlin and age when Mr. VDSt to Tübingen. In the thirties he was a pastor in Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg and as such had rare opportunities for service to inmates of the concentration camp there. 1933 Sharp was the parish church councils of Sachsenhausen and Friedrichsthal member of the Confessing Church. Because of this commitment, he has received numerous speaking and writing ban. On 2 August 1934 he was arrested by the Gestapo for a few days and then received residence ban for his churches Sachsenhausen and Friedrich valley, which was only lifted after two months. In 1935, he was as president of the Confessing Synod of Brandenburg Chairman of the Conference of Regional Councils brother.
In 1937 he was among those who " The explanation of the 96 Protestant church leaders against Alfred Rosenberg because of its journal" Protestant Rome Pilgrims " signed.
1945, he was appointed in the wake of an ecclesiastical new and rearrangement provost and head of the Department of Brandenburg in Berlin Protestant Consistory. 1952 awarded him the Theological Faculty of the Humboldt University honorary doctorate.
In the aftermath Kurt Scharf took several leadership positions within the evangelical church. From 1957 to 1960 Kurt Scharf was Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church of the Union ( EKU ), the successor organization of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union, which had been dissolved.
In the spring of 1961, Scharf was surprising to the highest leadership position within the German Protestantism, as he was from 1961 to 1967 Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD ), succeeding Otto Dibelius. Scharf was at that time came as a compromise candidate for the course, as the GDR blocked a profiled West German bishop ( all-German ) presidency ends. But Sharp fell in the GDR rulers almost immediately after the Wall was built in August 1961, also in disgrace, though he was a very thoughtful character and any provocation avoided.
From 1966 to 1976 he was also elected as the successor of Otto Dibelius bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin -Brandenburg, however, was limited in his duties and sphere of influence in West Berlin since the wall was built in 1961.
Scharf was 1980-1984 Chairman of the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace and held in that capacity on 24 June 1982 speech to the special session of the UN. In addition, focus was critical to the success of the construction of the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oswiecim / Auschwitz involved.
On 28 March 1990 Sharp died in a bus of the Berlin Transport Authority ( BVG) on the way to a hospital visit. His grave, now a grave of honor of the city of Berlin, located in Berlin- Dahlem at the St. Anne Cemetery.
Sharp was one of the masterminds of the Ostdenkschrift the EKD and for his advocacy of reconciliation with Poland in 1973 with the Copernicus Medal of the Polish People's Republic and in 1985 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Evangelical Theological Academy in Warsaw. In 1971 he received the Buber -Rosenzweig Medal, 1976, the Ernst- Reuter- badge, 1977 Gustav- Heinemann- Citizenship Award, 1978 Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize and in 1998 the Moses Mendelssohn Award.
Sharp, temporarily also a member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, was an advocate of the ecumenical idea. As Vice President of the United Bible Societies world he fought for the world-wide distribution of the Bible. Kurt Scharf took on difficult cases of prison ministry to, for example, for war crimes imprisoned Germans and imprisoned Baader -Meinhof group.
On the initiative of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, the Treitschkestraße (→ Heinrich von Treitschke ) is to be renamed Kurt Sharp Street in Berlin.
Works
- Kurt Scharf ( eds.): From Mr. Mystery of the truth. Festschrift for Henry Vogel. In 1962.
- Kurt Scharf: For a political conscience of the Church. Edition W. Erk, 1972.
- W. D. Zimmermann, Kurt Scharf: Bridges and breaches. In 1977.
- Kurt Scharf: Armed with the power. In 1983.
- Kurt Scharf: Resisting and Reconciling. Recaps and views. Edition Jo Krummenacher, 1987.