Bernus, Sigmund Adolf Franz von

Protestant pastor

Born: 17.11.1882 in Frankfurt am Main

Died: 27.03.1959 in Wiesbaden

Bernus came from a Frankfurt merchant family. After studying theology, including in Tübingen under Adolf Schlatter and Martin Kähler in Halle, he was ordained in Moers on the Lower Rhine in 1909. In 1911, he married Madeleine, née Correvon, daughter of the pastor of the French Reformed congregation in Frankfurt. The marriage produced four daughters and a son.

In 1911, Bernus took up a pastorate in Oberdreis in the Westerwald; during the First World War, he was deployed as a field chaplain. In 1921, he moved to Dillenburg and took up his post as pastor at the Wiesbaden Bergkirche on December 1, 1925.

Bernus gained particular importance through his courageous commitment to the church resistance against the National Socialist rulers. He became a leading member of the State Brotherhood Council of the Confessing Church and head of the Wiesbaden District Brotherhood Council. Theological examinations took place in the Bergkirchen parsonage as part of the Confessing Church's vicar training program, during which Bernus himself examined.

The NSDAP district leadership described him as the "most dangerous pastor in Wiesbaden in terms of church politics". He publicly described the destruction of the Wiesbaden synagogue in November 1938 as "blasphemy" during a church service. His commitment earned him several summonses to the public prosecutor's office, but his great popularity among the Wiesbaden population saved him from the worst.

Bernus was on friendly terms with Martin Niemöller, and Niemöller's first path to freedom led him to the Bergkirchen parsonage of the von Bernus family in May 1945.

Due to his integrity, Bernus was appointed to the provisional church leadership of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau. From 1951 until his retirement in 1953, Bernus held the office of dean of Wiesbaden-Stadt. In 1954, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

He was buried in the North Cemetery, Martin Niemöller gave a short speech. The large hall in the parish hall of the Bergkirche is named after Bernus.