Dr. Ulrich Andreas Wien: A Bridge Builder between Cultures and Continents

“I grew up in a traditional “borderland†, the Palatinate, in the rectory. Of course I eat steamed dumplings or Grumbeersupp with Quetschekuche or Saumagen, but I also like Palukes, Hanklich or Baumstriezel. I am always interested in what culture and lifestyle people have in other countries and peoples. When in 1991 the then 83-year-old Heidelberg religious expert Prof. Dr. When Friedrich Heyer intended to undertake an excursion to Jassy (IaÈ™i) and the Moldavian monasteries, I was immediately interested. This is how we passed through Klausenburg, Hermannstadt and Kronstadt. This culture and the people fascinated me very much.†This is how the internationally recognized church historian Dr. Ulrich Andreas Vienna asked in 2005 who or what had sparked his interest in Transylvania. As people often joke, he became a “prey Transylvanian,” but always remained connected to his homeland in the Palatinate, where he lives and works.

Dr. Ulrich Andreas Vienna. Photo studio Lorsch, Landau, 2021.The scientist and science organizer has not only overcome geographical boundaries and built bridges. He also did and does as a researcher by making old paths accessible again, while at the same time breaking down and marking new paths on which other scientists could follow him and continue to follow him.

Ulrich Andreas Wien was born on December 13, 1963 in Speyer as the son of the pastor couple Isolde and Karl-Gerhard Wien, graduated from high school at the humanistic high school at the Kaiserdom in 1983 and then studied in Mannheim (1983-1984) and Freiburg/Br. (1984-1985) Ancient, Middle and Modern History, Political Science and English Studies. Between 1986 and 1992 he studied Protestant theology in Heidelberg and Tübingen. This was followed by doctoral studies at the Chair of Church History at the Ruprecht Karls University in Heidelberg (with Prof. Dr. AM Ritter). The topic of his dissertation was “Church leadership over the abyss. Bishop Friedrich Müller facing the challenges of the existence of minorities, National Socialism and Communism“; It was published in 1998 in the book series “Studia Transylvanica” by Böhlau Verlag and had a second edition in Sibiu in 2002. As part of his doctoral studies, Vienna undertook research stays in Romania that lasted several months in 1992-1994 and 1997, and then continued for several weeks. He joined the “Studium Transylvanicum”, a group of young Transylvanian academics, met his future wife Christa, née Rieger, a native of Großpolder, at an event in Erfurt, and became the proud father of two daughters.

After the vicariate in the Palatinate Regional Church (1994-1997) and a special vicariate at the Evangelical Central Office for World View Questions in Berlin (1996), he was ordained pastor of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate in 1997. Vienna has been working as an academic councilor since 1998, as academic director at the Institute for Evangelical Theology at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau Campus since 2015, and at the same institute at the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau since the beginning of this year.

On their homepage you can also find a list of writings by Ulrich Andreas Wien (https://ksw.rptu.de/institut-fuer-evangelische-theologie/wir-ueber-uns/wissenschaftliches-personal/wissenschaftliche-mitarbeiterinnen/akad-dir-dr-ulrich-wien/publikationen). It includes no fewer than 159 titles in German, English and Romanian, including six monographs. The numerous popular science articles, including in the Siebenbürgischen Zeitung, are not included in the publication list, although they are very important for knowledge of the past and for understanding the present of the Transylvanian Saxons.

Ulrich Wien’s works have appeared in nationally and internationally highly rated publishers, anthologies and magazines. This is not a given and is a testament to their high quality. But it also testifies to his ambition to make culture and history, especially the church history of Transylvania, not only known to the inner circle of those affected, but also attractive for international research, because “Transylvania is a very interesting, multi-ethnic region in which Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, Armenians, people of Jewish faith and other minorities have lived together peacefully for centuries and which can historically be described as a pioneer region of religious freedom. That’s why this region is definitely a noteworthy model for a Europe that is growing together, if you want to use the modern term, of pluralistic social forms,” ​​said Ulrich Wien in a 2005 paper Siebenbürgischen Zeitung granted interview.

In 2001 he succeeded the unforgettable Dr. Günther H. Tontsch as chairman of the working group for Transylvanian regional studies and shaped the development of this association into a globally valued scientific institution with energy, prudence and countless initiatives until 2020. He meticulously prepared many annual meetings of the regional studies association and often inspired their topics. Further international conferences, which benefited from his excellent contacts with renowned researchers and scientific institutions at home and abroad, and larger and smaller events in Germany and Transylvania followed. He stood for the continuation and online statement of the â € customer book on the history of the Germans in Siebenbürgenâ €, a project of a century of the association founded in 1842 for Siebenburgische Landeskunde, as well as for the edition of the Synod Protocols of the Evangelical Superintendur Birthälm (1618-1753) , the state consistory meeting minutes of the Evangelical Church AB in Romania (1919-1944) or the sermons of the Transylvanian Melanchthon student Damasus Dürr.

As chairman of the Regional Studies Association, Vienna was also co-editor of the three publication series “Transylvanian Archives”, “Studia Transylvanica” and “Writings on the Regional Studies of Transylvania” (in the almost two decades of his board of directors, a total number that now sounds unbelievable appeared). of 46 volumes!). It is thanks to the lively conference and publication activity of the regional studies association under its chairman Ulrich Wien that Transylvania is quite well researched compared to other regions of Eastern, East Central and Southeastern Europe and encourages further research. Vienna has also succeeded in motivating the members of the regional studies association and not allowing their numbers to shrink dramatically, which is particularly noteworthy in times of generally declining commitment in clubs. In October 2006, the “Societatea de Studii Transilvane” (Working Group for Transylvanian Regional Studies) was founded in Sibiu, which emerged from the Romanian section of the Regional Studies Association founded in 1991. Since then he has been its chairman, also in this capacity performing an important bridging function between Germany and Romania.

Vienna has worked and continues to participate in institutions that deal with East-Central and Southeast European history and culture on a supra-regional basis, such as the Commission for the History and Culture of Germans in Southeastern Europe or the Institute for the Culture and History of Germans in Southeastern Europe. Since the founding of the “Transylvanian Cultural Center “Schloss Horneck” association, Ulrich Wien has been committed to this institution, from 2015 to 2020 and again since 2023 as a member of the board. For him, commitment meant active cooperation, helpful ideas, critical support, friendly, never resentful interaction. He would also like to be thanked very much for that.

My appreciation of his work to date in this newspaper has naturally focused on Ulrich Wien’s commitment to Transylvania and Transylvanian regional studies. But it should not go unmentioned that he was and is just as active in his homeland, as a member of the Association for Palatinate Church History (chairman since 2021), the Historical Association of the Palatinate (and chairman of its Landau district group), and the advisory board of the Gustav Adolf-Werks Pfalz, on the scientific advisory board of the Ebernburg Foundation, on the scientific board of trustees of the memorial site of the early Neustadt/W. concentration camp, in the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science, on the consultation council at the Ministry of Culture of the State of Rhineland -Palatinate for the Luther Decade or as a corresponding member of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. He is an active member of REFORC: In this context, he works as co-editor of the series Art and Confession in the Early Modern Period and also initiates international research conferences and publications.

He does all of this as a volunteer, in addition to his intensive and time-consuming teaching work at the Landau Institute for Evangelical Theology and at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. He carries out his service as a bridge builder in Sibiu not only as a guest lecturer at the local Protestant Theological Institute and the Orthodox Faculty, but also as the person responsible for the Erasmus partnership with these Transylvanian institutions at his Landau Institute.

You can only admire his overall performance and shout to him, “Keep it up, dear Uli!”

Konrad Gündisch

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2023-12-13 19:01:51
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