Nieden, Ernst zur

Protestant pastor

Born: 30.04.1903 in Viernheim

Died: 18.04.1974 in Biebrich

Nieden studied Protestant theology in Giessen, Tübingen and Rostock and attended the preacher's seminary in Friedberg. From 1926, he was an assistant pastor in Bessungen, Darmstadt and Bad Nauheim. In 1929, Nieden received his Lic. theol. doctorate (changed to Dr. theol. in 1951).

After working in Giessen and Offenbach am Main, he was appointed by the regional church committee as regional superintendent for the Nassau-Hessen Evangelical Church on January 7, 1937. In the same year, Nieden was appointed head of the German Protestant Men's Organization. After the Second World War, as Chairman of the Men's Association and the Protestant Community Day, he was a member of the provisional church government of the Protestant Church in Hesse, which met for the first time in April 1945. From 1945-64, he was the theological director of the men's work of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). From 1945, he also played a leading role in setting up the Protestant Academy in Hesse and Nassau (Echzell, Arnoldshain). From 1950-69, Nieden was a member of the "Leitendes Geistliches Amt", a unique position in the EKD with the title of "Propst für Süd-Nassau" (Provost for South Nassau), which was endowed with an excessive "right of consultation" and could intervene in all pastoral and personnel matters. From 1960, he was president of the Action Group for Workers' Issues.

The University of Marburg awarded him an honorary doctorate in theology in the same year. Nieden's goal was to activate lay work in the Protestant church, particularly men's work, whose concerns he represented with commitment.