Hans Philipp Ehrenberg (; 4 June 1883 – 21 March 1958) was a German Jewish philosopher and theologian. One of the co-founders 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 ...

, he was forced to emigrate to England because of his

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

ancestry and his opposition to

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

Life

1883–1914

Hans Ehrenberg was born into a liberal

family,Suzanne Schatz
''Hans Ehrenberg – Ein judenchristlicher Pfarrer in Dortmund''
(PDF) Retrieved November 27, 2010 the eldest of three children.G.V.R. Born, F.R.S.
"The Wide-Ranging Family History of Max Born"
(PDF) The Royal Society. (2002) pages 224 and 240. Retrieved November 28, 2010 His parents were Emilie (née Fischel) and Otto Ehrenberg, brother of Victor Ehrenberg, a German jurist, and

Richard Ehrenberg Richard Ehrenberg (5 February 1857 – 17 December 1921) was a German economist. He taught at Rostock University from 1899 to 1921. Literary works * ''Hamburg und Antwerpen seit 300 Jahren'', 1889 * ''Hamburg und England im Zeitalter der Kön ...

, a German economist. His younger brothers were Paul Ehrenberg and the historian Victor Ehrenberg, father of British historian Geoffrey and physicist Lewis Elton. From 1898 to 1900, he attended the

Christianeum The Gymnasium Christianeum is a famous former Latin school (German: ''Lateinschule'') 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. His ...

in Altona. After his graduation exam at the Wilhelm Gymnasium in Hamburg in 1902, he studied economics, law and political studies (''Rechtswissenschaften'' und ''Staatswissenschaften'') in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

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 ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

.Peter Noss
Hans Ehrenberg biography
''

Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon The ''Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon'' (''BBKL'') is a German biographical encyclopedia covering persons related to the history of the church, philosophy and literature, founded 1975 by Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz Friedrich Wilhelm B ...

'', Vol. 19, pp. 201–219. Nordhausen (2001) . Retrieved March 10, 2010 His attitude towards workers was already clear by 1906, when he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the situation of steel workers (''Hüttenarbeiter'') in the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

Valley. After his military service in 1907–1908, he continued his studies in philosophy and completed his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1909 and

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

in 1910. He first became a private docent, then a professor of philosophy at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. His philosophical interests included the landscape of peace, truth, goodness and liberation. Ehrenberg was baptised as a Protestant Christian in Berlin in 1911. Around this time, he developed a close friendship with his cousin

Franz Rosenzweig Franz Rosenzweig (, ; 25 December 1886 – 10 December 1929) was a German theologian, philosopher, and translator. Early life and education Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany, to an affluent, minimally observant Jewish family. His f ...

, and with

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (July 6, 1888 – February 24, 1973) was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond. Born in Berlin, Germany into a non-observant Jewish ...

,Arnold Betz
"Franz Rosenzweig Essay and Exhibit"
Divinity Library of

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, official website. Retrieved November 28, 2010

Viktor von Weizsäcker Viktor Freiherr von Weizsäcker (21 April 1886, in Stuttgart – 9 January 1957, in Heidelberg) was a German physician and physiologist. He was the brother of Ernst von Weizsäcker, and uncle to Richard von Weizsäcker and Carl Friedrich von We ...

, and

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...

. Rosenzweig later claimed that "Ehrenberg was my real teacher in philosophy". In 1913, he married Else Anna Zimmermann (1890–1970), a linguist, teacher and descendant of

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 ...

. They had two children, Juliane and

Andreas Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The ...

."Respons Dr. Günter Brackelmann"
Hans Ehrenberg Society, official website. Retrieved November 30, 2010 One of his uncles was

Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt (10 February 1853 in Mainz – 8 May 1933 in Salzburg) was a German mineralogist, natural philosopher, and art collector. Life Born 1853 in Mainz, Goldschmidt attended the Bergakademie Freiberg in Saxony and ...

. One of his cousins, Hedwig Ehrenberg, studied physics and mathematics at the University of Goettingen, where she met and later married

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a ...

. Hans Ehrenberg, with Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstock, was in regular correspondence with Louis D Brandeis through the friendship of their maternal families. In view of Hans Ehrenberg's father's and uncles' relatives, friends and acquaintances, and their travels over the lands and voyages across the seas and oceans, the reach of his communications extended to a world-wide network in many countries in all continents.

1914–1933

Ehrenberg volunteered for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and served as a

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

, then a lieutenant after late 1914. He won the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...

, 2nd Class as well as the ''Badische Offiziersorden'' ('' Zähringer Löwe 2.Klasse''). He left the war and army early due to reasons of health, as did many philosophers, thinkers, musicians and writers, in all armies and on all fronts. He devoted more time to his philosophical and literary interests. Ehrenberg had seen the war as a legitimate defensive war, but during this time and afterwards, his views changed completely. He spoke of war crimes and German guilt."Die Namensgebung"
Official website, Hans-Ehrenberg-Schule. History of the school. (2006) He joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD) in 1918, and for 18 months, was a city councilman in Heidelberg, as well as a member of workers' and soldiers' committees. He began making Christian pacifist statements in 1919. 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-Hochzeit1913F

Ehrenberg began his theological studies in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, in 1922, completing his second theological exam in 1924. In 1923 and 1925, he and Nicolai von Bubnov published two volumes of German translations of Russian theological writings which were acquired and read by

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have ...

and twice quoted from an essay that was in the second volume. He attended the World Conference of Life and Work in Stockholm, in 1925, and became friends with

Nathan Soderblom Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible *Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David and ...

and the English ecumenist George Bell. With Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy he was a co-founder, and also a prolific member of the philosophical discussion group and journal, "Die Kreatur", during the time 1925 to 1930. Abandoning a promising academic career, in 1925, he became the minister of ''Pauluskirche'' in

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous German federal state of N ...

, 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. One lecture he gave in

Hattingen Hattingen is a town in the northern part of the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. 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 1 ...

, entitled "The Church and Anti-semitism" prompted a letter of complaint against him to the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church * Consistor ...

"We cannot believe that a governing body of our Church approves of a race-conscious Jew who, as a Protestant clergyman, lectures German Protestant Christians about political anti-semitism based on racial attitudes.

1933–1945

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, more attacks followed and Ehrenberg's moral and pedagogical integrity were put in question. Ehrenberg became one of the founders of the

. He and four other

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

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 Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and calling on the Protestant church to do the same.Wolfgang Gerlach. Translated by Victoria Barnett
''And the Witnesses Were Silent: The Confessing Church and the Persecution of the Jews''
(2000) page 129. After he was the target of attacks in ''

Der Stürmer ''Der Stürmer'' (, literally "The Stormer / Attacker / Striker") was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of the Second World War by Julius Streicher, the '' Gauleiter'' of Franconia, with brief suspensions ...

'', and facing pressure from the German Christian 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 A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...

s of

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...

and a few days later, he was taken to

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

. In 1939, he was able to emigrate to England, thanks to the intervention and pledges of George Bell,

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

bishop of

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

. He had had a correspondence with Bell and was perhaps more significant than Franz Hildebrandt or Bonhoeffer in convincing Bell of the growing crisis in German churches under the Nazi state.John S. Conway
Book review of ''Die Kirchen und das Dritte Reich. Spaltungen und Abwehrkampfe 1934 bis 1937'' by Gerhard Besier. Propylaen, Munich (2001)
Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 2 (February 2002) Retrieved November 27, 2010 His family joined him shortly afterward.

Ecumenism Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

, religious unity, became increasingly important to him here. Even though Ehrenberg was strictly anti-

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

, his life was saved on several occasions by a communist trade union leader,Günter Brakelmann, [''Hans Ehrenberg. Ein judenchristliches Schicksal in Deutschland'' Part 2: ''Widerstand, Verfolgung und Emigration 1933–1939''. Hans–Ehrenberg–Gesellschaft, Vols. 3 and 4. Waltrop (1997/1999) 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.Keith Clements
"Barmen and the Ecumenical Movement"
(PDF)

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

(2009) Retrieved December 10, 2010 Ehrenberg and George Bell were of the same view that civilians and civilian infrastructure should not be affected by the ongoing war in central Europe. His close friends included Pastor Dr. Werner Koch, a surviving member of the German resistance and the youngest brother of

Hans Koch Hans Koch (16 August 1893 – 24 April 1945) was a German lawyer, a member of the Confessional Church and a member of the German resistance against Nazism. Koch was born in Bartenstein, East Prussia (modern Bartoszyce, Poland), he graduate ...

1945–1958

Ehrenberg returned to Germany in 1947, after the war, working as a minister at the

Bethel Institution The Bethel Foundation, officially the Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel (german: von Bodelschwinghsche Stiftungen Bethel as of 2009, previously ''v. Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten Bethel'') is a diaconal (i.e. Protestant charitable) psychiatric ho ...

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

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

Hermann Maas Hermann Ludwig Maas (; 5 August 1877 – 27 September 1970) was a Protestant minister, a doctor of theology and named one of the ''Righteous Among the Nations'',Yad Vashem: "Hermann Maas"' a title given by the Israeli organization for study an ...

, he was unable to travel for personal health reasons to Israel after 1950 to visit friends and colleagues there, namely

, Raphael Rosenzweig, among others.

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 and rights of workers' (since 1905), and world peace (since 1903, also with

and

) was in advance of universities, municipal councils, judiciary, governments, parliaments, international organizations and churches of his times, "World Peace without Weapons" (

swords to plowshares Swords to ploughshares (or plowshares) is a concept in which military weapons or technologies are converted for peaceful civilian applications. The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah chapter 2: The ''ploughshare'' ( ''’êṯ'', al ...

). In addition to his practical theological work, he wrote a number of philosophical and theological articles and treatises. One of his favorite quotes from the bible is taken from the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century B ...

60, vs 19 & 20, which was mentioned on their epitaph. In Ehrenberg's honor and memory, the

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

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 The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction beg ...

(retired) * 2002:

Praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...

Manfred Kock and Cardinal

Karl Lehmann Karl Lehmann (16 May 1936 – 11 March 2018) was a German Cardinal prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to Cardinal in 2001. He also served as Chairman of the Conference of the Germ ...

* 2004: Prof. Dr. hc. Robert Leicht,

University of Erfurt The University of Erfurt (german: Universität Erfurt) is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after Germ ...

* 2006:

Action Reconciliation Service for Peace The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German peace organization founded to confront the legacy of Nazism. The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (German: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, or ASF) was founded in 1958 by the sy ...

* 2009: Dr. Edna Brocke, teacher of Jewish studies, Ruhr University Bochum *2011: Antje Vollmer, former vice president of the Bundestag (Green Party) * 2013: Manfred Sorg and Eduard Wörmann, leaders in the Evangelical Church of Westphalia * 2015: Heinrich Bedford-Strohm * 2017:

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docu ...

References

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, The Elton/Ehrenberg Papers, German-Jewish Archive, Special Collections of The Library,

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, Brighton, England {{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenberg, Hans 1883 births 1958 deaths Converts to Protestantism from Judaism Protestants in the German Resistance Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom German Lutheran theologians 20th-century German Lutheran clergy Lutheran pacifists People from Altona, Hamburg Heidelberg University faculty German male non-fiction writers Ehrenberg family