Pastor Eitel-Friedrich von Rabenau (1884 - 1959) - english
Eitel-Friedrich von Rabenau was a nobleman who studied theology in Tübingen, Halle-Wittenberg and Berlin, received his doctorate on the history and work of the Templars and worked as a pastor in Jaffa, Israel, and as a hospital chaplain in Bethel, Palestine.
He spent three years as a prisoner in an Egyptian internment camp during World War I. Throughout his life, he remained linked to the Jerusalem Association with a variety of leading roles.
As pastor of the Apostel-Paulus parish from 1923 to 1954, he was passionate about church buildings, working with volunteers and social work.
Von Rabenau was convinced of a strict separation of church and state and was therefore an opponent of the movement of the ‘German Christians’. In his view, totalitarian National Socialism was a competing substitute religion, which made it necessary for the Church to oppose it. Also because of his willingness to take a clear clear, public position he was from an early stage an important personality of the ‘Confessing Church`, in various functions and gradually led his congregation into opposition against German Christians. The Confessing Church gathered Protestant Christians who were against attempts to adapt the church to National Socialism. The movement of German Christians stood for a church oriented towards National Socialism.
When churches began in 1941 to exclude recognizable Jews (those who were forced to wear the symbol of a star) from church services, von Rabenau continued to welcome them. He provided people who were considered Jewish with food, took them in (for a few nights) and provided them with hiding places. He promoted the teaching offered by the Confessing Church for "non-Aryan" children at a time when this was already forbidden elsewhere. He trained parishioners who were awaiting deportation to provide pastoral care for their journey and for life in the camps.
During his time, there were numerous confessional services and meetings in the Apostel-Paulus church, to which important speakers such as Martin Niemöller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Heinrich Vogel, Gerhard Jacobi, Hans-Joachim Iwand, Wolfgang Staemmler, Hans Asmussen, Hans Böhm and Kurt Scharf spoke.
Von Rabenau is also said to have been a conservative pietist with a patriarchal style of leadership and to have been an opponent of the full ordination of women priests. His positive attitude towards missionary work towards Jews also clashes with positions taken by churches today. Nevertheless, Rabenau's outstanding commitment remains is still impressive to this day. Someone who knew him describes him as a bright light in the darkness.
The grave of the von Rabenau couple is still located in the churchyard of the Protestant Parish of Alt-Schöneberg. The scripture on the tombstone reads: If the Son sets you free, you are truly free. (John 8:36) It reads like a reminder to posterity not to absolve oneself too quickly of the responsibility for complicity in the evil that happened in the world at that time.
Pfarrerin Dr. Stefanie Sippel
