Walter Grundmann (21 October 1906, in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

– 30 August 1976, in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...

) was a German Protestant theologian and antisemitic

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

and

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

collaborateur during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

and

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

. Grundmann served both German

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

s. He was a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

from 1930 onwards, and from 1933 onwards an active member of the

German Christians Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from ...

and prospered as a state-

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

supporting theologian and professor for ''ethnic theology''. In 1939, he was made head of the newly founded Instituts zur Erforschung jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

, which was meant to serve state antisemitism by the " Entjudung" (dejudifying) of the Bible and giving antisemitic theological training and arguments for Nazi propaganda. Despite his past Nazi activities, Grundmann regained some prestige as an evangelic theologian in East Germany; in 1959 he published his comments on the Gospels, which by the 1980s had become standard popular literature. However, Grundmann also prospered as a " Secret Informer" ("Geheimer Informator") to the Ministry for State Security ("Stasi"). He spied on (high ranking) theologians in Eastern and Western Germany. His cover name was ''GM Berg'' ("GM Mountain") after the

Sermon on the Mount The Sermon on the Mount ( anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: ) is a collection of sayings spoken by Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). that emphasizes his moral teachings. It is th ...

("Bergrede") to which he referred in his inaugural speech''Frage der ältesten Gestalt und des ursprünglichen Sinnes der Bergrede Jesu'', 1939, Jena, Germany. 1939 at the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, set up under him in Jena.

Life

Training and theological development to 1939

Head of the Institute (1939-1945)

Post-war life

References

Sources

* Susannah Heschel: ''The theological Faculty at the university of Jena as a Stronghold of national Socialism''. In: Feingold, Mordechai: ''History of Universities,'' Oxford 2003, S. 143–169. *

Susannah Heschel Susannah Heschel (born 15 May 1956) is an American scholar and professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College. The author and editor of numerous books and articles, she is a Guggenheim Fellow. Heschel's scholarship focuses on Jewish and Christi ...

: ''The Aryan Jesus. Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany.''

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Press, 2008,
Online-Informationen
. * Susannah Heschel: ''Deutsche Theologen für Hitler. Walter Grundmann und das Eisenacher "Institut zur Erforschung und Beseitigung des jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben“. In: ''Jahrbuch 1998/99 zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust,'' Darmstadt 1999, S. 147–167. *

Matthias Wolfes Matthias Wolfes (August 8, 1961 – March 27, 2023) was a German Protestant theologian. Biography and activities In 1998 he earned a PhD in systematic theology from the University of Heidelberg (Dr. theol.), Prof. Wolfgang Huber was his doctor ...

: ''Protestantische Theologie und moderne Welt – Studien zur Geschichte der liberalen Theologie nach 1918,'' Berlin/New York 1999 (Theologische Bibliothek Töpelmann, Band 102), S. 366–380. * Roland Deines, Volker Leppin, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr (Hrsg.): ''Walter Grundmann – ein Neutestamentler im Dritten Reich.'' Leipzig 2007 * Max Weinreich: ''Hitler's Professors: The Part of Scholarship in Germany's Crimes against the Jewish People.'' 1. Auflage, New York 1946 * Kurt Meier: ''Kreuz und Hakenkreuz: Die evangelische Kirche im Dritten Reich.'' DTB, München 1992 * Birgit Jerke: ''Wie wurde das Neue Testament zu einem sogenannten Volkstestament "entjudet“? – Aus der Arbeit des Eisenacher "Instituts zur Erforschung und Beseitung des jüdischen Einflusses auf das deutsche kirchliche Leben“.'' In: Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz (Hg.): ''Christlicher Antijudaismus und Antisemitismus. Theologische und kirchliche Programme Deutscher Christen,'' Frankfurt am Main 1994, S. 201–234 * Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz (Hrsg.): ''Christlicher Antijudaismus und Antisemitismus. Theologische und kirchliche Programme Deutscher Christen.'' Arnoldshainer Texte, Band 85, Haag + Herchen Verlag,

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grundmann, Walter 1906 births 1976 deaths Christian fascists German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union 20th-century German Protestant theologians People from Chemnitz People from the Kingdom of Saxony German male non-fiction writers Stasi informants