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Uwe Holmer
Uwe Holmer
	Holmer in 2000
Born	6 February 1929; Wismar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Weimar Germany
Died	25 September 2023 (aged 94); Serrahn, Germany
Occupation(s)	Christian pastor, theologian, author
Known for	Harbouring Erich and Margot Honecker
Spouses	Sigrid (died 1995); Christine Lander (m. 1996)
Children	15

Uwe Holmer (German pronunciation: [ˈuːvə ˈhɔlmɐ]; 6 February 1929 – 25 September 2023) was a German pastor, author, and theologian.^[2] Holmer was the head of Bibelschule Falkenberg from 1967 to 1983 and Hoffnungstaler Stiftung Lobetal, a clinic for the homeless and disabled, from 1983 until his retirement in the 1990s.^[1] He was best known for taking in the former East German dictator Erich Honecker and his wife Margot after the Volkskammer seized Honecker's property.^[3]

Early life

Holmer was born on 6 February 1929 in Wismar, Germany. He joined the Hitler Youth, seeing it as an opportunity to learn new things in an optimistic and comradely environment. As a teenager, Holmer suffered from health issues, sending him to a lung clinic for ten months, where he befriended an older boy who took care of him and told him about Jesus. This experience would shape his later ministry. After graduating secondary school in 1948, Holmer studied at the University of Jena to become a Lutheran minister. Even though Jena was located in Soviet East Germany, the university still offered theology classes taught by anti-Nazi Lutheran professors.^[3] Holmer was ordained and graduated in 1955,^[3] becoming a pastor in Leussow in the Ludwigslust district of Mecklenburg.^[4]

Ministry

When his family escaped to West Germany in 1953, Holmer stayed in East Germany because he believed that it would need more pastors.^[5] He was a pastor in Mecklenburg from 1955 to 1967 and head of Bibelschule Falkenberg near Berlin from 1967 to 1983.^[6] Holmer criticized the GDR, opposing forced collectivisation of agriculture by the government. As a result, he became a target of the Stasi.^[3] Holmer's political stances prevented his family from visiting him for a year, and none of his children were allowed to attend secondary school, despite earning good grades.^[7]^[3] Holmer nearly appealed to the European Commission for Human Rights in response, but his bishop advised him to restrain from doing so, fearing that the state would close his Bible school.^[8] In 1983, Holmer became head of Hoffnungstaler Stiftung Lobetal [de], a sanatorium set up in 1905 to help addicts, seniors, disabled people, and homeless people.^[9]^[10] Under his leadership, the Hoffnungstaler Siftung opened an addiction clinic and gained many Pietist employees in the face of staffing shortages.^[9] For his work there, Holmer received a medal of merit from the GDR.^[11]

Sheltering Erich Honecker

Due to increasing instability in East Germany, Chairman of the State Council Erich Honecker was ousted from the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and deposed three weeks before the fall of the Berlin Wall.^[12] On 5 December 1989, the chief public prosecutor opened a formal investigation, causing Honecker to be placed under house arrest for one month. After being released, Honecker was forced to move from his house in Wandlitz, with the Volkskammer converting it into a sanatorium for the disabled.^[13] Although Honecker spent most of January 1990 in the hospital to remove a tumor, he lacked a home.^[14] Honecker instructed his close friend and lawyer Wolfgang Vogel to ask the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg for asylum, as other places risked exposure to mob violence. After Honeckers' request for housing was denied by the state four times, Bishop Gottfried Forck agreed to send Erich and Margot to Lobetal.^[5]

From the end of January to April 1990, Uwe Holmer and his wife Sigrid housed Honecker and his wife, Margot. During this time, Holmer's house was inundated by journalists and protesters. However, Holmer believed that harboring the Honeckers was morally right and saw it as an act of forgiveness. After Honecker moved out of Holmer's house, Holmer maintained correspondence with Honecker, with Erich and Margot Honecker sending Christmas cards to Holmer each year until Margot died in 2016.^[3] Ten years after Erich Honecker's death, Holmer campaigned to transfer his remains from an urn on Margot Honecker's windowsill in Chile to a grave in Friedrichsfelde, Germany.^[15]

Later life and death

After Holmer's first wife, Sigrid, died in 1995, he married Christine Lander in 1996. Holmer adopted Christine's five children from her first marriage, as her husband died early.^[16] After he retired, Holmer moved back to Serrahn to work in a rehabilitation clinic for addicts.^[1] He also joined the board of the German Evangelical Alliance.^[2] Holmer denounced the practice of abortion, declaring that aborted fetuses are "missing from every corner of society". He also criticized the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland for being guided by "extreme Bible criticism".^[6] Holmer regularly travelled to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to teach in Bible schools.^[3] In 2009, Holmer wrote an autobiography entitled Der Mann, bei dem Honecker wohnte.^[a] His story was also the subject of the 2022 documentary, Honecker und der Pastor,^[b] directed by Jan-Josef Liefers. Holmer praised the film, saying, "The concern from back then is well captured in the film."^[2] Holmer died on 25 September 2023 in his home in Serrahn.^[1]

Selected works

Holmer, Uwe; de Boor, Werner (1976). Die Briefe des Petrus und der Brief des Judas (Wuppertaler Studienbibel) [The Letters of Peter and the Letter of Judas (Wuppertal Study Bible)] (in German). Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus Verlag. ISBN 3-417-25063-3.
Holmer, Uwe; Hamm-Brücher, Hildegard; Hildebrandt, Regine (1993). Das geknickte Rohr aufrichten. Christen gegen Gewalt [Straightening the bent pipe. Christians against violence.] (in German). Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus Verlag. ISBN 3-417-24127-8.
Holmer, Uwe (2009). Der Mann, bei dem Honecker wohnte [The Man with whom Honecker Lived] (in German). Holzgerlingen: Hänssler Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7751-4582-4.
Holmer, Uwe (2021). Zuversicht. Weil Glaube trägt [Confidence. Because Faith Carries.] (in German). Dillenburg: Christliche Verlagsgesellschaft. ISBN 978-3-86353-730-2.

Notes

^ Translation: The Man with whom Honecker Lived
^ Translation: Honecker and the Pastor

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Er gab den Honeckers Asyl: Der Theologe Uwe Holmer ist tot" [He gave the Honeckers asylum: The theologian Uwe Holmer is dead]. Norddeutscher Rundfunk (in German). 26 September 2023. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Der Mann, der Erich Honecker bei sich zu Hause aufnahm, ist tot" [The man who took Erich Honecker into his home is dead]. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 26 September 2023. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Silliman, Daniel (2 October 2023). "Died: Uwe Holmer, Pastor Who Forgave a Communist Dictator". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
^ "Uwe Holmer". Chronik Der Wende (in German). Archived from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Der Feind in meinem Haus" [The Enemy in my House]. Der Tagesspiegel (in German). 18 October 2009. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Pfarrer Uwe Holmer gestorben" [Pastor Uwe Holmer Died]. Idea (in German). 27 September 2023. Archived from the original on 20 June 2024. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
^ "Der Pfarrer, der Honecker aufnahm" [The pastor who took in Honecker]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 26 September 2023. Archived from the original on 2 October 2023.
^ Nieswiodek-Martin, Von Ellen (2012). "Den Weg der Verständigung suchen" [Find the Path to Understanding] (PDF). Pro Christliches Medienmagazin (in German). p. 31. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 June 2024. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Würdigung der Geschäftsführung der Hoffnungstaler Stiftung Lobetal zum Heimgang von Pastor Uwe Holmer" [Appreciation of the management of the Hoffnungstaler Foundation Lobetal on the departure of Pastor Uwe Holmer]. Hoffnungstaler Siftung Lobetal (in German). Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
^ "Historie" [History]. Hoffnungstaler Siftung Lobetal (in German). Archived from the original on 3 December 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
^ Holmer, Uwe (2020). Der Mann, bei dem Honecker wohnte [The Man with whom Honecker Lived] (in German) (10th ed.). SCM Hänssler. p. 220. ISBN 978-3775145824.
^ "Entire East German leadership resigns". Los Angeles Times. 4 December 1989. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
^ "Honecker released from month-long house arrest". Los Angeles Times. 5 January 1990. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
^ "Honecker has tumor removed". Los Angeles Times. 10 January 1990. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
^ "Honeckers Heimkehr" [Honecker's Homecoming]. Spiegel Politik (in German). 29 May 2004. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
^ Nieswiodek-Martin, Ellen (2012). "Oma, Opa und 60 Enkel" [Grandma, Grandpa and 60 Grandchildren] (PDF). Pro Christliches Medienmagazin (in German). pp. 28–30. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 June 2024. Retrieved 15 October 2023.