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Title
Date(s)
- 1907-1976 (Creation)
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Archival history
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Scope and content
Generalsuperintendent Ernst Stoltenhoff The office of Generalsuperintendent was created by Cabinet Order of 7 February 1828. It was attached to the consistory of the Protestant Church of the Rhine Province. As a representative of the state church government and in contrast to the synodically elected president of the provincial synod, the general superintendent exercised spiritual leadership as pastor pastorum.Ernst Stoltenhoff (1879-1953) was initially a parish priest in Mülheim/Ruhr and Essen. In 1923, he was appointed senior consistorial councillor at the Evangelical High Church Council in Berlin, where he acted as personnel officer and established numerous ecumenical contacts. In 1928, he succeeded D. Klingemann as General Superintendent of the Rhineland, then based in Koblenz. Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller, in his capacity as Prussian Bishop, ordered Stoltenhoff's dismissal on 1 April 1934, but he was recalled to office with the consent of the newly appointed Reich Minister Kerrl. His second term of office lasted from 25 May 1936 until his retirement on 1 February 1949, and the collection documents all areas of the General Superintendent's business activities from the final phase of the Wimar Republic, including material on the so-called Devaheim scandal. During the Nazi era, Stoltenhoff manoeuvred between the consistory, church committees and the various groups of the Confessing Church. His memoirs were published under the title The Good Hand of God in 1990.
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Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche im Rheinland (Archivtektonik) >> 6 6HA Handakten >> 6.1 6HA 001 Generalsuperintendent Dr. Ernst Stoltenhoff >> Stoltenhoff, Ernst Dr. Generalsuperintendent
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Language of material
- German