Dietrich, Ernst Ludwig

Protestant clergyman, regional bishop, orientalist

Born: 27.01.1897 in Groß-Umstadt

Died: 20.01.1974 in Wiesbaden

Dietrich studied Protestant theology and oriental studies in Giessen from 1915-20, attended the preacher's seminary in Friedberg and graduated with a Lic. theol. in Giessen in 1920 and a Dr. phil. in 1922. From 1929 he worked at the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden.

Dietrich joined the NSDAP in 1932, was promoted by the party as a beacon of hope in 1933, including a two-week stint in the Berlin Ministry of Culture during the drafting of the new Reich Church Constitution, and was appointed by the Nassau Regional Church Congress as a representative for the Nassau Regional Church - Regional Bishop August Kortheuer had previously been forced into retirement. Although he was the second candidate, the NSDAP helped him into the office of regional bishop of the new, united Evangelical Regional Church of Nassau-Hesse. His strict style of church leadership based on the "Führer principle" with many punitive measures against pastors caused outrage.

As part of a new state church policy, the NSDAP dropped Dietrich at the end of 1935. He was stripped of his powers as regional bishop, but retained the title until his resignation in May 1945. Inwardly, he alienated himself from National Socialism until the end of 1937, resumed his pastoral duties in his former parish in Wiesbaden and made a decisive contribution to the emergence of the Nassau-Hessen Unification Work with his public confession ("My church path today is no longer my path from 1934/35 ...").

After his political denazification (1946-48), his ecclesiastical rehabilitation lasted until the fall of 1949. From then on, Dietrich returned to the Marktkirche and lectured on post-biblical Jewish literature at the University of Frankfurt am Main.