Werner Leich

Werner Leich is a Protestant clergyman. From 1978 to 1992 he was the bishop of the Evangelical Church in Thuringia, for the greater part during the era of the German Democratic Republic.[1]

Peace prayer in the Johanniskirche in Gera; left priest Joachim Urbig, right Werner Leich

Life

Leich was born in Mühlhausen on January 31, 1927. In 1939, his family relocated to Gotha, where he joined the Ernestine Gymnasium, Gotha, and was educated there until 1942.[2] Leich left the school early to volunteer for the German Luftwaffe, and by 1945 had risen to the rank of Fahnenjunker, fighting "for the salvation of Germany". However, after the end of the Second World War, he returned to his school to gain the Abitur and in 1947 started studying theology at the University of Marburg and later at Heidelberg University.[1]

In 1951 Leich was ordained as a clergyman. A year later, he married Trautel, with whom he has a son and daughter.[3] In 1960 he became a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church. He was vice-president of the synod from 1967 to 1978 and bishop of the state of Thuringia from 1978 to 1992.[1] In that year he retired.[4]

For much of his career, Leich had to deal with defending worshipping God in an environment of the anti-religious doctrine of communism. He has said of this "a lot of times we did hide being Christians.[4]

Awards and honors

In 1984 he received the Four Freedom Award for the Freedom of Worship[5]

Autobiography
  • 1992: Wechselnde Horizonte. Mein Leben in vier politischen Systemen. (in German)

References
  1. Pietzsch, Henning Die Evangelische „Kirche im Sozialismus“ (in German)
  2. Hagen Findeis, Das Licht des Evangeliums und das Zwielicht der Politik (Campus Verlag, 2002), p. 159
  3. Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland
  4. Chronik der Wende, biography
  5. http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/four-freedoms-awards
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