BiographyGeorg Eichholz was born on April 6, 1909 in Essen-Kupferdreh. His father Hermann Georg Eichholz was pastor in Essen-Kupferdreh from 1891 until his retirement in 1933 and from 1921 to 1933 Superintendent in the church district An der Ruhr, his mother Klara, née Schulze, pharmacist's daughter. In 1928 Eichholz graduated from the State Grammar School in Essen and, following the example of his father and older brother, began studying theology in Tübingen and Bonn, where Karl Barth was one of his most important teachers and motivated him to further theological studies.At the beginning of 1934 he began his vicariate in Honnef, continued it from 1935 in Barmen-Gemarke with Karl Immer, after he had joined the Confessing Church, and finished his education with the second examination before the examination board of the Confessing Church on 21.9.1935 in Koblenz. He was ordained by Johannes Schlingensiepen in Unterbarmen on 8.12.1935. Already during the time of the vicariate Eichholz fell ill with diabetes, with which he had to arrange himself throughout his life. Already before the ordination, more precisely: from 1.11.1935, Eichholz had been called as a teacher to the seminar of the Rhenish Mission Society in Barmen, where he taught not only theological subjects during the war but also subjects of general education. During the war years he continued teaching with a few remaining students. His health was so bad at times that he reckoned with his untimely death. In addition to his teaching activities, he published interpretations of texts with a New Testament orientation in the journals Evangelical Theology and Theological Existence Today published by Karl Barth, which are attributed to the Confessing Church. Between 1939 and 1964, Eichholz was commissioned by the Brother Council of the Confessing Church to organize the publication of a series of sermon aids, which appeared in five volumes entitled Herr, tue meine Lippen. The staff of this series also included pastors who taught at the ecclesiastical university in Wuppertal (hereinafter KiHo) banned by the Gestapo, e.g. Peter Brunner (Harmannus Obendieck and Heinrich Schlier) When the KiHo resumed its official teaching activities on October 31, 1945, Eichholz received teaching assignments for systematic theology and the New Testament. In 1946 he was appointed mission inspector and took over the management of the mission seminar, but he also continued his part-time teaching activities at the KiHo, marrying Ehrentraut Berner, whose father was also a mission inspector in Wuppertal. Shortly thereafter he additionally took over the editorship of the New Set of Theological Existence Today alongside his former fellow student Karl Gerhard Steck and also the continuation of the reading sermon series Predige das Wort. In addition, he was a member of the Committee for the Development of an Evangelical Catechism established in 1955 and participated in a three-month study tour of the Palestine Institute through the Middle East in 1955. 1951 Eichholz became a professor on the occasion of a restructuring of the KiHo, but it was not until 1961 that he transferred the title to the KiHo on a full-time basis and handed over the management of the mission seminar to Arnold Falkenroth. His state of health no longer allowed for the permanent double burden. The concentration on the scientific work made several New Testament publications possible, especially in the field of Gospel and Paulus research. But he also continued his work on sermon aids: together with Arnold Falkenroth he founded the new meditation series Listening and Questions, which he continued together with his wife even after Eichholz's death. Eichholz did not follow a call to the University of Bern in 1965, but was also interested in art in private. As early as the 1940s he had published two small works with theological reviews of Rembrandt's works. One of his particular passions was photography. In 1963 he published an illustrated book with photos from his study trip under the title Landscapes of the Bible. On May 1, 1970 Eichholz retired prematurely due to the consequences of his many years of diabetes. Eichholz died in Wuppertal on December 22, 1973.1978 His wife Ehrentraut marries former colleague Prof. Dr. Rudolf Bohren.1984 another illustrated book was published in memory of Georg Eichholz with the title Das Gesicht des Theologen mit den von Eichholz fotografierten Portraits. On the occasion of the 50th birthday of Eichholz, two of his lectures from 1945 and 1968 entitled Das Rätsel des historischen Jesus und die Gegenwart Jesu Christi, edited by Gerhard Sauter.Ehrentraut Bohr died in Interlaken on June 21, 1997.It contained 2.5 running metres of material, partly in standing files, tied bundles, staplers, cartons or also as loose collections of sheets, and was arranged and recorded in autumn 2011. In contrast to pastor's estates, there are only a relatively small number of sermons in the collection, mainly from the time of the Vicariate, with a focus on the scientific and teaching activities of Eichholz, which are reflected in lecture, essay and book manuscripts, reviews, reports on research trips and collected writings, etc. There was great disorder in this area. In addition, Eichholz held lectures and events several times or on similar topics, so that it was not possible to assign individual manuscript parts to a special event and thus a year on the basis of the topic. Only very occasionally do the manuscripts contain a note on the date. Where it was possible, however, attempts were made to combine individual parts of the manuscript into a coherent whole, primarily with the help of paginations, and to assign this to an approximate period of time, above all with the help of the university course catalogues (2LR 045, 4447). Since the dating was rather difficult overall, however, the manuscripts were arranged along the corresponding passages from the Bible. They were sorted alphabetically. A significant part of the collection also consists of correspondence, and through his editorship and collaboration in theological publication series, as well as in scientific discourse and collaborations, Eichholz came into contact with numerous important personalities of recent church history and theological research. This is reflected in the correspondence series. A large number of great names can be found here, including Karl Barth, Joachim Beckmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Helmut Gollwitzer, Hans Joachim Iwand and Alfred de Quervain. In addition, Eichholz was in contact with numerous high-ranking colleagues at home and abroad Furthermore, there are numerous interesting correspondences with missionaries all over the world, some of them with quite detailed descriptions of everyday missionary life.after the death of Georg Eichholz, his wife continued some of the correspondences, especially with regard to the sermon series Listening and Questions. A special attraction of the collection is probably also the extensive material on Karl Barth, with whom Eichholz obviously had a long-standing friendship and who appreciated his scientific abilities. In addition to the correspondence, there are photos, sermons, interviews and newspaper articles.additional holdingsThe personnel file of the candidate of the Protestant Church in Rhineland Georg Eichholz is available under the signature 1OB 016, E 84.2LR 045, 318 is the signature of the personnel file which was kept at the KiHo about Eichholz. Further correspondence between Georg Eichholz and Hermann Schlingensiepen can be found in 7NL 016, 25. various publications by and about Eichholz are available in the library of the archive LiteratureLiterature by Georg Eichholz (in selection)Drilling, Rudolf/ Eichholz, Ehrentraut (Hrsg.), Das Gesicht des Theologen. In portraits photographed by Georg Eichholz, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1984Georg Eichholz, Das Rätsel des historischen Jesus und die Gegenwart Jesu Christi. Published on his 75th birthday on 6 April 1984 by Gerhard Sauter, Munich, 1984ders. Biblical Reflections, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1973ders., Tradition and Interpretation. Studies on the New Testament and Hermeneutics, Munich, 1965 ders., Landscapes of the Bible, Leinen, 1963ders. Introduction to the Parables, Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1963ders. (Ed.), Preach the Word, interpretation of the Holy Scriptures in Sermons: 5th volume, 2nd volume) Lucas Gospel, Siegen, 1954ders., Georg (ed.), Predige das Wort, interpretation of the Holy Scriptures in Sermons: 4th volume, 1st volume: Lucas Gospel, Siegen, 1947ders. An introduction to Rembrandt's etching of 1642 for the resurrection of Lazarus, Siegen, 1942ders. An introduction to Rembrandt's etching of 1636 to the parable of the prodigal son, Siegen, 1940ders, Die Geschichte als theologisches Problem bei Lessing, in: Theologische Studien und Kritiken, vol. 1936, 107 Neue Folge II, 6th issue, pp. 377-421Literatur zu Georg EichholzKlappert, Berthold, Hören und Fragen. Georg Eichholz as theological teacher, in: Evangelical Theology, vol. 36 (1976), p.101-121Evangelical Catechism. New edition, edited by the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, 1962 Seim, Jürgen, Georg Eichholz. Teachers of the Protestant Rhineland, in: Monatshefte für Evangelische Kirchengeschichte des Rheinlandes, vol. 59 (2010), p.179-194Seim, Jürgen, Iwand-Studien. Essays and correspondence by Hans Joachim Iwand with Georg Eichholz and Heinrich Held, Cologne, 1999
IntroductionWilhelm Gustav Goeters was born in Rheydt on January 9, 1878, son of the cloth manufacturer August Goeters After studying theology in Halle, Greifswald, Erlangen, Utrecht and Bonn, he became an inspector at the Reformed student restaurant in Halle in 1902. After the Hablitation on the topic "The Preparation of Pietism in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands up to the Labadist Crisis of 1670" he was appointed professor of church history at the University of Bonn in 1913.1914-1918 he served as field preacher and divisional pastor. An honorary professor since 1919, Goeters was finally appointed to a full chair in 1931. The publication of 1913 remained his only monograph. He remained painfully aware of his real writer's block. In the church-political conflicts of 1933, the former DNVP member Goeters soon oriented himself towards the moderate BK circles. In 1934 Goeters was the only Bonn professor to attend Karl Barth's last lecture. In 1935 he was therefore transferred to the University of Münster as part of state coercive measures against the Faculty of Theology in Bonn. 1944-1945 he worked as a parish administrator in Brake in Lippe. 1946-1950 Goeters taught again in Bonn, where he died on April 17, 1953. From the 1920 marriage with Elisabeth Schrenk come five children: August Heinrich Cornelius (born 1921), Wilhelm Jakob Christian (born 1922), Bertha Susanna Mathilde (born 1923), Johann Friedrich Gerhard (born 1926) and Hermann Huldreich Albrecht (nee. 1928) Focus of the holdingsA first partial list of the estate parts stored by Hermann Schürhoff-Goeters, the youngest son of Wilhelm Goeters, was compiled by PD Dr. Ferdinand Magen in 1999 (see No. 11 and 12). Further detailed listings come from Schürhoff-Goeters himself, who evaluated the stock for his biography of his father published in 2007. Further documents, especially correspondence, were in the estate of Prof. Johann Friedrich Gerhard Goeter, who died in 1996, and thus already in the archive of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland. These were made available to Schürhoff-Goeters on loan for the work on his book. In 2007 he transferred the entire estate to the archive. The portfolio was processed by the undersigned in 2010/2011. The now 302 listing units give a good overview of all of Wilhelm Goeters' professional places of work and of his work for the German Reformed Church. For the intensive occupation of Wilhelm Goeters with Jakob Böhme and his apologists in the 18th-19th century (no. 177-185), the holdings 7NL 015 (Gerhard Goeters) with no. 683-799 are also of particular historical value.7 Among the foreign provenances (holdings group 12), the estate of Peter Bockmühl is to be emphasized (no. 280-290). Born in 1852, he served as pastor of Odenkirchen from 1892 until his death in 1923. Bockmühl published numerous essays, especially on the Reformed history of the Lower Rhine, including the memorial book on the occasion of the 300th anniversary celebrations of the first Reformed General Synod in Duisburg in 1610.
BestandsgeschichteThe 2668 indexing units recorded in this repertory form only a fragment of the original registry of the Consistory, albeit a very considerable one, as it was before the authority moved to Düsseldorf in 1934. With the help of the surviving handwritten and typewritten file indexes, the losses and relocations that occurred can be reconstructed exactly. The chronology spans more than forty years:I) As early as 1931, extensive file holdings were catalysed within the consistory. The basis for this decision, which was made due to an acute shortage of space in the Koblenz office building, was a list drawn up in 1929 by Consistorial Chief Inspector Mähler ('Sale of files for destruction'). Fascicle A II 1 a 9 (no. 28) provides summarised information on the file groups concerned:- Travel expenses (A II 1 b 2 and 5) until 1920- Office requirements (A II 1 b 3) until 1920- Forms (A II 2 31) until 1920- Publication of the official gazette (A II 2 35) until 1920- Accounting for the official gazette (A II 2 37) until 1915- Invoices incl. receipts for the church gazette (A II 1 b 2 and 5) until 1920- Invoices for the church gazette (A II 2 37) until 1915. Invoices incl. receipts for the church's ancillary funds until 1910- Collections until 1910- Collection receipts until 1920- Collections relating to applications for parish positions until 1925 Applications for parish positions up to 1925- Business diaries up to 1900- Budget files up to 1905- Property files up to 1905- Supplementary files up to 1905- Religious orders for clergy (B V a 14) up to 1910- Support for clergy and parish widows (B V b 29 u. 86) until 1910- Grants of leave for clergymen (B V b 64) until 1910- Contributions to the parish widows' and pension fund (B V b 89f.) until 1910- Pension fund accounts (B V b 93f.) until 1910- Remarks on pensions and widows' and orphans' allowances for clergymen (B V b 91 and 95) until 1910- Allowances from the subsidy fund (B V b 104) until 1910- Instructions on retirement allowances for clergymen (B V b 105) until 1910- Insurance contributions to the retirement allowance fund (B V b 106) until 1910- Employment of vicars from the vicariate fund (B VII b 19) until 1905- Teaching vicariate of the candidates (B VII b 17) until 1910- Cash matters of the vicariate fund (B VII b 20) until 1910II) In September 1934 - immediately before the move to Düsseldorf - the following files were destroyed for reasons of space according to a note by Mähler: - old diaries up to 1914- old budget files up to 1915- old files on pensions, widow's benefits etc. up to 1920- old files on support payments up to 1920 until 1920- old files on support for clergy and parish widows- old files on the awarding of commemorative marriage coins- old files on the house collection delivery fund until 1910- old files on 'Miscellaneous'- old files on the publication of the church gazette until 1920- old files on the assignment of teaching vicars up to 1925- old collections on collection proceeds up to 1920- old files on church taxes up to 1905- old annual reports of the superintendents up to 1932The files of the Cologne Consistory, which was dissolved in 1825, were also transferred to the Düsseldorf State Archives in 1934 and survived the war. In today's Main State Archives, this collection with a total of 512 volumes (duration 1786-1838, mainly 1815-1826) is assigned to Department 2 (Rheinisches Behördenarchiv). (4) A parallel transfer of 525 files from the period 1816-1827 was made to the Koblenz State Archives, where they formed fonds 551. Unfortunately, this was completely burnt during the air raids on Koblenz in 1944. The same fate befell fonds 443 (Fürstlich Wiedische Regierung in Neuwied), into which some consistorial files were integrated under nos. 143-161. Only the finding aids of these two fonds are still available in the Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz. Further consistorial files were assigned to the following fonds:Fonds 309, 1 (French General Consistory Mainz) No. 1-17Fonds 381 (St. Wendel State Commission) No. 17-33Fonds 382 (St. Wendel Government) No. 420-502Fonds 387 (Landgravial Hessian Government Homburg) No. 187-295The fonds 309, 1 and 387 are still in the LHA Koblenz, the other two are now on permanent loan to the Landesarchiv Saarbrücken.III) In 1936-1937, after lengthy negotiations with the Staatsarchiv Koblenz, the consistorial files in the narrower sense, which began in 1826ff. and had initially also been handed over, were returned to the Provinzialkirchenarchiv. The latter had been located in Bonn since 1928 and had had its own premises at Hofgarten 13 since 1936. There is a 46-page compilation of these extensive holdings by Lic. Rodewald from 1938. (5) These are predominantly the older files from the 19th century, but also, for example, the documents from the 1914-1918 war period; in any case, these were files that were still considered to be of purely historical value and were deemed to be dispensable for business operations.IV) On 14 November 1939, the consistory issued a circular to the superintendents about the possibility of handing over the examination papers of deceased pastors to family members. The background to this was a request from the now provincial church archivist Lic. Rosenkranz, who sought to alleviate the acute shortage of space in the Hofgarten. It initially lists 31 pastors whose documents had already been sought out by Rosenkranz. (6) The examination papers that had not been requested were then to be destroyed in February 1940. The action was continued eight more times until February 1943, when it fell victim to the war-related restrictions in the consistory's operations. (7) The only condition for requesting files was to send in 50 pfennigs return postage. A total of 908 pastors were listed. It is not possible to ascertain which documents were actually requested back by the families and thus saved from later destruction.V) On 12 November 1943, the Koblenz State Archive Director Dr Hirschfeld, in his capacity as air raid warden, asked the Consistory to remove the files stored in Düsseldorf (8). This was rejected on the grounds that the (current) personnel files were already located in an air-raid shelter recognised as bomb-proof; structural safety measures would now be carried out immediately for the remaining files. These are documented in a cost estimate from architect Otto Schönhagen, the head of the provincial church building office, dated 10 December 1943: The registry facing Freiligrathstraße is to be fitted with protective walls for a modest 720 Reichsmarks. It can be assumed that these alterations were realised at the beginning of 1944. In any case, the files remaining at the consistory itself survived the war without any recognisable losses.VI) On the other hand, the building at Hofgarten 13 was completely destroyed in the air raid on Bonn on 18 October 1944. The fire had reached the cellar so quickly that both the older personnel files of the pastors and the consistorial files brought back from Koblenz in 1937 were completely lost. In contrast to the old pertinent holdings of the provincial church archives and the church records, these holdings were not removed from storage. This is by far the greatest loss that the original consistorial records have suffered, especially in the 19th century. It can be quantified as around 400-600 volumes of subject files (generalia and specialia) and an even higher number of personal files. In this repertory, the previous volumes that were burnt are listed under the heading 'Remarks'; the frequently occurring skip numbers in the inventory signatures indicate the complete loss of a file. A detailed reconstruction of the holdings destroyed in Bonn - which is entirely possible - would require a comparison of Rodewald's list with the available handwritten indexes of files. Fortunately, to a certain extent there is a replacement in the form of the files of the Oberpräsidium der Rheinprovinz in the LHA Koblenz. (9) Important material that is otherwise not available in Düsseldorf is also contained in the Rhine Province section of fonds 7 (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat) in the EZA Berlin. (10)VI) On 24 February 1972, the regional church office decided to transfer the files of the former consistory to the regional church archives, which was long overdue. (11) Until then, they had been regarded as registry property - despite the fact that some of them dated back to 1826 - and were also administered by the registry. As a general pruning of the registry also took place in 1971 in connection with the move to the new LKA office building in Hans-Böckler-Straße, the special files of the church districts and parishes were subsequently removed from the consistorial files and combined into separate holdings (31 church districts and 41 local files). Unfortunately, the separation was not complete, so that a considerable number of files still remained in the consistorial holdings. In this repertory it is always noted when the subsequent volumes are in fonds 31 or 41. Conversely, in the typewritten finding aids for these two fonds, it is noted which previous volumes can be found in the consistorial files.Usage informationThe following printed file plan of the Consistorial Chancellery dates back to the 19th century and was updated until the 1940s. The indication 'n.a.' (no files available) for individual subgroups may indicate complete loss due to the effects of war. As a rule, however, the files in question have been removed as outlined above and added to newly formed fonds. This also applies to all personnel files. In addition to the indexing units listed here, there are also the 90 surviving business diaries for the period 1928-1948, for which no archival cataloguing aids have existed to date. A typewritten alphabetical subject index of the existing files, compiled in 1931 by the registrar's office at the time, was available, albeit without any duration information. Two further large handwritten indexes of files were initially written in one hand around 1850 and then updated over a period of almost 100 years. (12) Many of the files listed there have since been lost. Nevertheless, the two indexes continue to be of great significance, as they indicate the file transfers and resignations within the consistorial registry and only with them is it possible to reconstruct the lost holdings. The undersigned has compared the contents of these records. It was not possible to completely standardise their extremely different levels of indexing intensity. The present repertory is therefore not 'from a single mould'. The index of this printed version only includes the names of places and persons as well as a few selected subject headings. A complete keyword search is possible via the database of the EKiR archive. the files of the consistory cover almost all facets of church life in the Rhine Province. The records for the period of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime up to 1945 are almost completely preserved. In contrast, the files from the First World War, for example, are largely lost, not to mention the often rudimentary records from the 19th century. From the scholarly use to date, one cannot help but get the impression that the latent mistrust of wide ecclesiastical circles in the Rhineland towards this authority has been reflected in research since its foundation. In addition, there may have been an understandable aversion towards individual consistory employees who were involved in the church struggle. In many recent works, at any rate, reference is still made to contemporary historical collections and quite relevant bequests without taking the original official records into consideration, and it is to be hoped that a relaxed - and of course never uncritical - approach to this highly informative material will enrich our knowledge of the Protestant church history of the Rhineland. Düsseldorf, 31 October 2001(Dr. Stefan Flesch)1 Cf. on the following Max Bär: Die Behördenverfassung der Rheinprovinz seit 1815 (Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde 35), Bonn 1919 (ND Meisenheim 1965), pp. 153-164; Werner Heun: Art. Konsistorium, in: TRE vol. XIX, pp. 483-488; on the general ecclesiastical law and ecclesiastical politics, see Die Geschichte der Evangelischen Kirche der Union, ed. by J.F.Gerhard Goeters and Joachim Rogge, Leipzig 1992-1999, passim2. On this Bär, op. cit. p. 162: 'The governments were left only with the supervision of the church registers, the care for the establishment and maintenance of the churchyards, the ordering and enforcement of the police regulations necessary for the maintenance of external church order, the supervision of the administration of assets and the appointment or confirmation of the secular church servants to be employed for the administration of church assets and the supervision of them and, together with the consistory, the modification of existing and introduction of new stolgebührentaxes and the modification of existing and formation of new parish districts. '3 Today's address: Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 12 Cf. history of the city of Koblenz vol. 2, Stuttgart 1993, p. 426f.4 The holdings of the North Rhine-Westphalian Main State Archives. Brief overview, Düsseldorf 1994, p. 98. A 30-page compilation of the files handed over can be found in A II 1 a 9 vol. I.5. B I a 29 vol. IV6. Circular no. 11073 in B I a 29 vol. IV, in alphabetical order: Heinrich Wilhelm Achelis; Hugo Achenbach (+1908); Julius Achenbach (+1893); August Bergfried (+1922); Friedrich Wilhelm Rudolf Böhm (+1867); Emil Döring (+1925); Georg Doermer (+1888); Heinrich Doermer (+1839); August Ludwig Euler (+1911); Karl Furck (+1911); Gustav Adolf Haasen (+1841); Julius Haastert; Philipp Jakob Heep (+1899); Gustav Höfer; Paul Kind; Karl Margraf (+1919); Daniel Gottlieb Müller (+1892); Andreas Natrop (+1923); Christian Friedrich Nelson (+1891); August Penserot (+1866); Reinhard Potz (+1920); Eduard Schneegans (b. 1810); Philipp Jakob Stierle (+1887); Eduard Vieten (+1869); Josef August Voigt (+1869); Johann Gustav Volkmann (+1842); Reinhard Vowinkel (+1898); Friedrich Weinmann (+1860); Friedrich Wenzel (+1909); Gustav Wienands (+1929)7 Ibid. March 1940 (48 names), November 1940 (33 names), September 1941 (47 names), February 1942 (123 names), July 1942 (118 names), October 1942 (128 names), November 1942 (176 names), February 1943 (204 names)8 A II 1 a 9 vol. I (vol. no. 28). Cf. on the overall problem the article by Petra Weiß: Die Bergung von Kulturgütern auf der Festung Ehrenbreitstein, in: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte 26 (2000), pp. 421-4529. Cf. Inventar des Bestandes Oberpräsidium der Rheinprovinz, Teil 1 (Veröffentlichungen der Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz Bd. 71), Koblenz 1996, pp. 42-45 and 396-40910. Christa Stache: Das Evangelische Zentralarchiv in Berlin und seine Bestände, Berlin 1992, pp. 61-64 as well as a handwritten repertory especially of the Rhineland department (copy available in the AEKR Düsseldorf). The fonds comprise approx. 25 linear metres.11 LKA-Sachakten 23-2-3 Bd. 3 (Beschluss); cf. also the letter from Archivrat Schmidt dated 9 September 1971 in 22-28 Bd. 212. All the finding aids mentioned are kept in the repertory collection of the Landeskirchliches Archiv.
D. Walther (Friedrich Walther Paul) Wolff (1) (2), was born on 9 December 1870 in Neuwerk, later a district of Mönchengladbach, as the son of Friedrich Wolff, a teacher at the orphanage, and his wife Bertha. After attending Mönchengladbach grammar school, Wolff studied theology at the universities of Greifswald, Marburg and Halle from 1889 to 1893. He passed his theological examinations in Koblenz in April 1893 and October 1894. Wolff was vicar in Lobberich and did his auxiliary service in Mönchengladbach. In May 1895, he was ordained in Otzenrath and took up the pastorate in one of the oldest Reformed parishes on the Lower Rhine. In 1901, Wolff was elected to the 2nd pastorate of the Protestant parish of Aachen. This position, which he held until his death, gave him the opportunity to develop his theological and organisational skills and his literary ambitions. In 1901, Wolff founded the 'Evangelische Gemeindeblatt für Aachen und Burtscheid' (since 1916: 'Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt für Aachen und Umgebung') (3). Through his regular contributions, he provided his congregation with a wealth of spiritual inspiration and sharpened the Protestant conscience of the diaspora community through his many essays on the history and culture of Protestantism. On Wolff's initiative, a branch of the Evangelical Federation was founded in Aachen in 1904, which around 7% of the parishioners joined in 1906. From 1905 onwards, he endeavoured to found a Rhenish-Westphalian group of the Volkskirchliche Evangelische Vereinigung - the middle party - of which he became deputy chairman in 1906. He published the organ 'Die Evangelische Gemeinde' (4) from 1909 and edited it himself until issue 5 of vol. 11.1919/20. In each issue, he wrote the 'Chronicle' as a review of church life, and almost every issue contained a major article on a key issue of church work. At the 34th Rhenish Provincial Synod in Barmen, Wolff was elected President on 6 March 1919. Wolff initiated the election of a committee tasked with revising the Rhenish-Westphalian church constitution. In 1920, he was elected a member of the General Synodal Board at an extraordinary meeting of the Prussian General Synod. Wolff was particularly active in working on the draft constitution. He endeavoured to secure the presbyterial-synodal element the place and influence it deserved in the life of the constituted church. In 1921, the University of Bonn awarded him a doctorate (D. h.c.) on the occasion of the Worms anniversary celebrations. In 1922, Wolff was elected superintendent of the Aachen church district and inaugurated in 1923. Wolff had been a member of the Protestant Church Committee since 1922, and in 1925 the 1st Prussian General Synod of the new style elected him as its vice-president; as such he became deputy chairman of the Senate of the Protestant Church of the Old Prussian Union. In 1929, the General Synod confirmed Wolff in both offices. He had already been re-elected as President by the Rhenish Provincial Synod in 1925. Wolff was involved in all church congresses since 1919, most recently as Vice President. He had a particularly strong influence on the social message of the Bethel Church Congress of 1924. In 1924, he was the initiator of the first Rhenish Church Congress in Cologne, which was followed by others in Essen in 1926 and Saarbrücken in 1930. Shortly before his death, the Faculty of Law at the University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1931 for his services in bringing about the church treaty between the Protestant regional churches of Prussia and the Prussian state government, and President Wolff died in Aachen on 26 August 1931. His death also caused great consternation outside the Protestant Rhineland, which was reflected in obituaries in numerous newspapers (5). The estate was purchased in 1980 by Wolff's grandson, the pastor Paul-Gerhard van Spankeren, who worked in Westphalia. The documents were roughly pre-organised and placed in archive folders. The collection mainly contains an extensive collection of sermons, beginning during his studies in 1892 and ending in 1927. From Wolff's last years in office, only the sermons, devotions and sermons for special occasions have survived. The chronology of the sermons first had to be established. In the first few years, the sermons are written out in full, but from around 1900 onwards they are mostly written down as theses. Speeches on various occasions are documented; the imperial speeches and sermons show the national character of Wolff and his time. The second focus is on the lectures and manuscripts, which have been organised according to subject. Reference has already been made above to the collection of obituaries. The leather volume with Wolff's calligraphic sayings was given to the archive by Mr van Spankeren in 1994 (No. 49). Only fragments of Wolff's correspondence have survived (No. 46) The collection was catalogued in October 2006 and comprises 50 archive units. It covers the period from 1892 to 1931 as well as memorial contributions in 1941, 1956 and 1961. Only a few duplicates were collected. Some printed publications by and about Wolff are included in the holdings of the archive library, and reference should be made to fonds 8 SL 010 (Wolff Collection), which contains the collection of material relating to Hans Helmich's essay in the 'Monatsheften' 1987 (see References). Copies of Wolff's articles in the two church newspapers are also available here.Ulrich Dühr, 07.11.2006(1) The biographical outline in this introduction is a revised version of the text that Edgar Reitenbach prefixed to the Findbuch of fonds 8 SL 010 (Walther Wolff Collection) in 1987.(2) Walther Wolff's personal file is located in fonds 1 OB 009 (Personalakten der Pfarrer) W 062, 1892-1931(3) Vols. 1917 and 1919-1922 in the archive library under ZK 003(4) In the archive library under ZK 010(5) See nos. 47 and 48 of this fonds