Martin Dibelius

Martin Franz Dibelius ( born September 14, 1883 in Dresden, † November 11, 1947 in Heidelberg ) was a German Protestant theologian and professor of New Testament at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg.

Family and career

Dibelius is the son of the pastor and the last Saxon Oberhof preacher Franz Wilhelm Dibelius and a cousin of Otto Dibelius. Martin Dibelius was married to Dorothea, born Wittich. He studied Protestant theology and philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Leipzig University and the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he received his first teaching position in 1910. In 1915 he accepted an appointment as professor of New Testament at the Theological Faculty of the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg.

Work and significance

Dibelius ' most significant scientific achievement was the reasoning of the form-critical method in the Synoptikerforschung by his monograph The shape of the gospel story, Tübingen 1919 ( coinciding with Karl Ludwig Schmidt). In addition, he wrote, inter alia, monographs in New Testament ethics and comments about smaller letters of Paul and the Epistle of James.

In the so -called " case Dehn " he sided with Günther Dehn, a follower of dialectical theology, social democrats and pacifists. During this time ( 1931-32 ) that was a very bold move, the only three (sometimes four ) colleagues dared to join. Many other professors of theology sympathized with the demands of the National Socialist Student Union, Dehn am expelled from the university.

The tomb of Martin Dibelius and his wife Dorothea is located in consecutive single graves in the " professors - way " so-called cemetery on the Mount (Heidelberg ) in the Department D.