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GEOFFREY WAINWRIGHT
DIBELIUS, FRIEDRICH KARL OTTO (1880–1967)
German Lutheran bishop. Dibelius was born in Berlin on May 15, 1880, the second of three sons of a high-ranking postal administrator. He died on January 31, 1967, also in Berlin where he had become an honorary citizen in 1958. He studied theology in Berlin with the church historian ADOLF VON HARNACK being the primary influence on him. After the presentation of his philological dissertation at the University of Gießen and completion of the first theological exam, Dibelius attended the seminary in Wittenberg (1904–1906), the place where the future leaders of the Prussian state church were educated. He received his Ph.D. there and a licentiate (doctor) of theology in 1906. This stage of his studies took him to SCOTLAND on a church-financed month-long trip, where he was especially impressed by the devoutness practiced in the CHURCH there.
After brief stints in several provinces (in Crossen/ Brandenburg, Danzig, Lauenburg/Pommerania, 1907–1915) Dibelius became a pastor in the German capital Berlin. He understood World War I to be a just and defensive war for GERMANY; the abolition of the monarchy at the end of the war upset him, but initially it did not threaten his nationalist mentality. His position at the Evangelical Consistory in Berlin hung in the balance with the dissolution of the royal church regiment, but the representatives of an advisory council set up to lead the church under these new conditions named him chairman. At the same time Dibelius published prolifically both on the church policy pursued by the political left and against those in the church who sought to reform a governmentally organized Evangelical Church in Prussia.
Subsequently Dibelius’s career advanced quickly. In 1921 he was put in charge of the Evangelical Consistory concerned with social issues and the evangelical schools, but also with evangelical minorities abroad. In 1925 he became superintendent of the church in the Kurmark, roughly the area near Berlin. He tackled work issues with fervent energy. He bought a car to be able to visit all the pastors in his district, held regional church meetings, supported the church press, and intensely debated public issues. He developed his broader program in a book, Das Jahrhundert der Kirche (The Century of the Church, 1926, 1928). In this best-seller, he called on German Christians to use the separation of CHURCH AND STATE that had been forcibly introduced in 1919, to hold on to an evangelical-Christian and nationalist-conservative culture and morality vis-à-vis a secular Weimar Republic, and to expand and defend that culture comprehensively and forcefully. The ecumenical conference on “Life and Work” in Stockholm (1925) had influenced this concept. Two additional books by Dibelius showed the extension of his historical compass and the degradation of his nationalism: Kirche und Völker-bund (Church and the League of Nations, 1927) as well as Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth, 1930), the former a book that examined the subject of militarism prevalent in the church, the latter advocating the individual’s right to refuse military service for reasons of conscience.
Initially Dibelius was not at all critical of National Socialism, but sought to fend off its intervention in church matters. Subsequently, in June 1933 he was dismissed from his post of superintendent. He joined the CONFESSING CHURCH, where he participated loyally and consistently, although in a secondary position. In the sometimes divisive battles of the Confessing Church, he opted neither for the direction advocated by MARTIN NIEMÖLLER, nor for the Lutheran confessionalists who gathered around Bishop Hanns Meiser of Bavaria. Rather, Dibelius strongly supported the “Church Unity Project” of Bishop Theophil Wurm in Württemberg, who after 1941 sought to build a coalition of those with a neutral position and those who had taken a specific position within the Confessing Church. In 1945 this “Unity Project” provided the foundation for the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).
In 1945 he was elected bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg—a position he held until 1966—where he contributed substantially to the integration of the evangelical churches within the EKD. His sober and pragmatic style, always geared toward the essential, never lost sight of the goal to integrate the divergent personalities and groups. It characterized his tenure as EKD council chairman; this was not a time without tension, but he was always sustained by the majority. He drew the wrath of the powers in the German Democratic Republic, however, because he refused to recognize that state and because he often drew comparisons between their policies, especially vis-à-vis the church, and the Nazi policy toward the church. Dibelius was fervent and uncompromising in this regard. Over the years, however, his position met opposition among those church groups that sought a more flexible policy in the interest of a coherence of churches and congregations in East and West; until 1968 the EKD was an all-German entity. The disagreement escalated in 1959 when Dibelius claimed in a publication entitled “Obrigkeit?” (“Authorities?”) that the government of the GDR should not be recognized as an authority ordained by God. Hence, in the eyes of many evangelical Christians in both parts of Germany, he came to be seen as a reactionary personality. Yet within the ecumenical movement, the attitude toward him was partly different. Dibelius, who was consistently active in that movement, was elected one of the six presidents of the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES during the plenary at the 1954 Evanston meeting—against the forceful resistance of some German delegates. He held that office until 1961.
Along with sometimes vociferous antagonism, Dibelius also met with worldwide approval and recognition during his lifetime. The concept he advocated, that of a church and society modeled after a national church that reflects morally religious grandeur toward society, but is also partially inflected by an antisecular, antisocialist, and, partially, anti-Semitic sense, was seen in the outlook of ADOLF STOECKER, a man Dibelius admired. It was also combined with other traits, however, especially in connection with his experiences with ECUMENISM. The evangelical theologian and bishop is one of the most important representatives of the evangelical church in Germany in the twentieth century.
See also German Christians
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