100th birthday of Martin Niemöller - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1992 - 100 Pfennig

Martin Niemöller, born as a pastor's son on January 14, 1892 in Lippstadt, Westphalia, and educated national conservative, became a professional officer and successful submarine commander. 1919 marriage and decision to theology. After graduating in 1924 unexpectedly appointed managing director of the Inner Mission of Westphalia, began an extensive presentation and coordination activities with institutions and authorities. It was only in 1931 that the goal of the parish pastorate, which was always intended for him, arose from an offer from Berlin-Dahlem. He initially put some hope for the "national elevation", soon followed the disillusionment with the seizure of power of the party-backed "German Christians", who thought they were implementing the Nazi goals in the Protestant church. In response to the introduction of the Aryan paragraph - removal of all "non-Aryans" from the parish office - Niemöller founded the pastor's office, which became the confessing church that resisted any falsification of the Christian message. Niemoller became her most pronounced and most-heard speaker. A personal clash with Hitler, who wanted to banish the church behind its walls ("Reich Chancellor, the concern for our people has given us another, they can no one, even you, take us off!"), Established an irreconcilable hostility: Am Arrested on 1 July 1937, Niemöller was not released after a favorable court ruling that confirmed his honorable motives, but was sent to the concentration camp as a "personal prisoner of the Fiihrer" and released only in 1945 - before the liquidation order was enforced. During the reconstruction, Niemöller was looking for a genuine new beginning: no longer the state-run public church church of the past, but mature communities that advocate for the people around them and are aware of their public responsibility. Understanding and confessing one's guilt was for him the decisive step towards a new path. As head of the ecclesiastical office of Ev. Church in Germany, his duties soon went beyond the borders. In 1946, as the first German to be appointed to the body of the Ecumenical Council, he was increasingly involved in the unification of world Christianity. In his election to the church president of Ev. Church in Hesse and Nassau on 1 October 1947, the continuation of these ecumenical commitments was explicitly recognized. His numerous contact and lecture tours made him the symbol of the other Germany. Since 1950, the political decision-making issues came to the fore. He was a determined opponent of German rearmament, which sealed the division and left the people over to their fate. His Christian conscience did not dissolve with the fronts of the Cold War. So he made the bridge to the east - without becoming his partisan, which was often assumed to him. His tireless dedication, often with spontaneous, startling words, heightened the grave seriousness of the issue of nuclear weapons of mass destruction, which for the first time made it possible to extinguish all life on earth: "Here one can only say" no "unconditionally!" The former career officer became Pacifist. Now peace was his first task: "A world or no world." He remained until his death on May 6, 1984, the uncomfortable and controversial caller, the "remorse of the nation." Especially young people have listened to him, Christians and non-Christians, when he asked, "What would Jesus say about that?" (Text: Dr. Theol Karl Herbert, Alsbach / Bergstrasse)