Fonds 31-007 - NL Arthur Bonus

In the beginning it was about overcoming the Wilhelmine, inner-church authoritarian Protestantism, which was otherwise rather declining. In this respect, Bonus endeavoured to outpace even his liberal teachers Julius Kaftan and Adolf von Harnack. Subsequently, from the supposedly decisive turning point in theology, he looked again at a distance, this time to his former confidante Friedrich Gogarten. Since 1896 the keyword has been declaredly the "Germanization of Christianity", its heroization or revival; the aim of a different piety; "religion as creation", Bonus titled his 1902 pamphlet. When - not without his help - in the Third Reich predominantly Thuringian German Christians took possession of such fundamental criticism on various occasions, Bonus's largely misunderstood, if not openly rejected work should reach its tragic climax. From now on, a life's work was retransferred and left to general oblivion for decades. Historically, this is another case of vagrant religiosity (Th. Nipperdey), without Bonus falling prey to the educational bourgeois temptations of a thoroughly life-giving art religion, for example, which he may have found more comfortable in retreating to aesthetic standards. In any case, institutional or personal ties were never an obstacle. If the interest in Old Norse literature as well as in Far Eastern religions is added to life philosophical and pedagogical efforts, concretized at the Odenwaldschule and afterwards at the Landerziehungsheim Bischofstein. For years, the only way to make a living was by writing. Bonus' decisive advocacy of a deeply German culture distanced itself from any nationalistic "bigmouth" and consequently also from all blind anti-Semitism, insofar as only its own weaknesses were to be concealed. After the First World War, his plea for a new society will be politically dominated by socialism, anti-Marxist and averse to any Bolshevization, but in grateful memory of Friedrich Naumann. The unusually high information density of this legacy alone guarantees many a valuable insight into Arthur Bonus's working methods. Besides much private, family, German province in the shape of the Protestant parsonage. Just as revealing are the writer's years near Florence, at one of the focal points of the cultural upheaval towards modernity. It is characteristic that Beate Bonus's painter friends belonged to the relatively informal, Bohemian life; their close personal relationship to Käthe Kollwitz goes back to the years of education. The more intensive Bonus worked on Martin Rade's "Christian World", at the Diederichs-Verlag and in the undertakings of the "Kunstwart", the more we learn about the world of the educated full of ambition and agonizing uncertainty. The strong political upheavals, and this applies to the outgoing empire up to the Nazi dictatorship, can be seen in the essays, glosses and aphorisms collected here. It's similar with Bonus's extensive correspondence. It shows a seeker in difficult times who, regardless of his own problems, tries to stand up to a historical situation of dissolution by showing all those who are insecure what he considers to be the only sensible, because ultimately religious way to do so. The safeguarding of the estate is probably due to Karl König, his comrade-in-arms and long-time friend, who otherwise also took care of the financial support of the Arthur Bonus, which in the end became lonely. In the spring of 1940, i.e. still during Bonus' lifetime, Kirchenrat König may have convinced a personnel officer of the Eisenach Regional Church Council, a friend of his, of the soon-to-be purchase. In the name of the Bund für Deutsches Christentum, Hugo Stüber then also ensured the final transfer of the estate to the archives of the Thuringian Regional Church Council, the forerunner of today's Eisenach Regional Church Archive. At that time, the young Herbert von Hintzenstern wanted to have been helpful. At the behest of Kirchenrat Stüber, he was to examine the theological part immediately in order to prepare one or the other edition, which of course in 1942 did not go beyond a commemorative article. According to Hintzenstern himself, after the war there won't be any time left to deal with the "rich world of Arthur Bonus's thoughts". See H. v. Hintzenstern, Tätigkeitsbericht vom 31.3.1942, Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach, personal file H. v. Hintzenstern, G 2023 I, pp. 67a-72a; H. v. Hintzenstern, estate of Arthur Bonus (1864-1941) in the archives of the Landeskirchenrat in Eisenach, statement of 6.10.1992, in: NL Hintzenstern, Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach The estate was rediscovered, as it were, by the narrower circle of Friedrich Gogarten, himself a pupil of Arthur Bonus, even a confidante and competitor at the same time. Matthias Kroeger, for example, contacted the local archive (Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach, 3711) on 15 January 1991 in preparation for his Gogarten monograph published in 1997. His reference was a letter from Rolf Barthel in 1965, who had already drawn his attention to the NL Beate Bonus-Jeep (Barthel, Zwischenspiel in Bischofstein). Relations between the human being Käthe Kollwitz and Eichsfeld [special edition of the "Eichsfelder Heimathefte"], 1964, p. 3 ff.). In the same year Kroeger asked Hintzenstern for help; his written information is dated 23.4. and 3.5.1991 (NL Hintzenstern, Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach). The archive director at the time, Father Heinz Koch, transcribed some bonus letters for Kroeger. Approximately 10 years later Marianne Bultmann, one of Gogarten's daughters and his estate administrator, added to this collection; in 1996 Hermann Götz Göckeritz, another Gogarten pupil, had created the corresponding directory for her; it is essentially a photocopy of original letters to Gogarten, written by Arthur and Beate Bonus. As the obituary for Beate Bonus in the NLGogarten once again shows, he knew about the fate of the couple Bonus and his family well beyond the second half of the last century. All disappointments and divisiveness since the early years of dialectical theology could not prevent this, quite the contrary: Ute Lampe and Ines Petrov, both of Eisenach's regional church archives, first tried a partial inclusion of the NL Bonus. Years later, between 2010 and 2013, Johannes-Michael Scholz will take care of a completely new, for the first time comprehensive indexing and corresponding archiving as part of his voluntary work. Among other things, care had to be taken to reconstruct the filing system, for example to take into account the original arrangement of correspondence in order to make Bonus' social and professional networking transparent. For the same reason, the number of participants in each correspondence is expressed in parentheses and the number of letters or letter concepts from Arthur Bonus, for example, is weighted accordingly. The abbreviations NL (estate), Ms (manuscript), Ts (typoscript) and D (print) are used. Finally, as far as the literature on Arthur Bonus and its publications are concerned, reference should be made to the usual reference works; for example, the various editions of "Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart" (Religion in History and the Present) are being considered, but nowadays primarily the relevant databases of the Internet.Arthur Bonus1864 born Rittergut Neu-Prussy (West Prussia)1871 Move to Berlin1874 Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium (Berlin)1885 Matriculation Theological Faculty (Berlin)1888 Exmatriculation Theological Faculty (Berlin)1888 Scholar of the August Twesten Foundation (2 years)1889 First Theological Examination1890 Second Theological Examination1890 Preacherseminar (Wittenberg)1892 Lessons at Luther School (Predigerseminar Wittenberg)1893 Assistant Preacher, Worker community Luckenwalde1895 Pastor and school inspector, Groß Muckrow (Lower Lusatia)1895 Marriage with painter Emma Beate Jeep (1865-1954)1897 Daughter Helga1897 Publication of "Deutscher Glaube "1901 Son Heinz Berthold1902 Retirement application1903 Arson accident1904 Retirement from the parish1904 Freelance writer (Dresden)1906 Move to San Domenico di Fiesole (Florence)1914 Return to Germany (Taufkirchen near Munich)1918 Co-editor of the "Kunstwart "1921 Latin and religious courses at Odenwaldschule (Heppenheim)1923 Religious supervision of Landerziehungsheim Bischofstein1941 died. Bischofstein Castle (Eichsfeld)Birx, 17.5.2013Johannes-Michael Scholz

Regional Church Archive Eisenach >> Personal holdings >> bequests, prelegacies, hand files, documentations, collections

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