Hans Ehrenberg’s Request for Retirement


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On May 5, 1937, Ehrenberg requested retirement from his job from the Evangelical High Consistory in Berlin. Prior to this, the NSDAP had vehemently urged the consistory in Münster to remove the pastor from office. Among other things, his political past as an SPD politician was brought against him.


Ehrenberg had consulted intensively with representatives of the Confessing Church beforehand. When even his president Karl Koch put it to him that he should resign for the church’s sake, Ehrenberg reluctantly decided to take this step. He is considered the last pastor of Jewish descent to do so.


He took his leave from his congregation demonstratively in farewell sermons on Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Thousands of congregational members came to these worship services. Ehrenberg was sent into retirement definitively at his request on July 1, 1937.


Source / title


  • © Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen, Bestand 3.17 II. 6.11

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