Erwin Fahlbusch

Erwin Fahlbusch was born on 26 May 1926, the only child of Friedrich and Helma Fahlbusch in Frankfurt am Main. He was baptized Catholic there, went to the first holy communion and was also confirmed there. On 25 March 1940 he was confirmed by the Protestant parish priest because he also attended Protestant religious education.

From 1932 to 1942, he attended primary school in Frankfurt am Main and then middle school, which he graduated with a secondary school leaving certificate. He then began training as an engineer, but was unable to finish it since he was drafted into military service in May 1944. In September 1944, he was captured by the United States in Normandy, from which he returned to Frankfurt am Main in July 1946.

Fahlbusch says he experienced his inner calling as a theologian before he was called up for military service, but especially after his experiences in war and captivity. He began studying theology in the summer semester of 1947 as a guest student at the seminar of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and then took his matriculation examination in Frankfurt am Main before being able to study at the theological faculties of the universities of Mainz, Erlangen and Göttingen. He passed the first theological exam in September 1952 with the dissertation Die Lehre von der Revolution bei Friedrich Julius Stahl followed by his studies. The rapporteurs were professors Hans Joachim Iwand and Otto Weber. In addition to writing the dissertation, Fahlbusch worked as a repentant at the Göttingen Theological Abbey and later at the Faculty of Theology.

From 1953 to 1959, Fahlbusch also worked as editorial secretary for the first edition of the Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, for which he also wrote several of his own contributions.

In May 1959 Fahlbusch went to Bocholt as a full-time religion teacher at primary, secondary and vocational schools and from March 1960 to the Westphalian diaspora community of Mesum as a synodal vicar. He passed his second theological exam on 25 March 1960 in Bielefeld and was ordained in Mesum in September 1960. On 29 April 1962 he took office as pastor in Bochum-Weitmar. In April 1964 he moved to the Denomination Institute in Bensheim, where he was responsible for the Catholica department until his retirement in 1991.

In addition to this work at the Denominational Institute, Erwin Fahlbusch was a lecturer at the Comenius Faculty in Prague, the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, at the University of Basel and at the Theological Faculties in Budapest and Debrecen (Hungary). From 1984 he was an honorary professor (at times also a C-4 professor) for systematic theology at the University of Frankfurt am Main.

Erwin Fahlbusch retired in May 1991; he held lectures at the University of Frankfurt am Main until the winter semester 1992/1993. He died on August 10, 2007, in Montouliers, Herault, France.