Karlheinz Deschner
Encyclopedia
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
), is a German researcher and writer who has achieved public attention in Europe for his thorough and fiercely critical treatment of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in general and the Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in particular, as expressed in several articles and books, culminating in his opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
The Criminal History of Christianity (Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, Reinbek) which is planned in 10 volumes, of which 9 volumes have been published so far.
Biography
Deschner's father Karl was a Roman Catholic forest ranger in BambergBamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, while his mother, Margareta Karoline, née Reischböck, was a Protestant, who grew up on the estates of her father in Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
and Lower Bavaria
Lower Bavaria
Lower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.- Geography :Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions - Landshut and Donau-Wald. Recent election results mark it as the most conservative part of Germany, generally giving huge...
. She converted later to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
.
Karlheinz, the eldest of three children, attended elementary school in Trossenfurt (close to Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
) from 1929 to 1933. Afterwards he attended the Franciscan Seminary in Dettelbach
Dettelbach
Dettelbach is a town in the district of Kitzingen in the Regierungsbezirk Unterfranken in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Main, 17 km east of Würzburg, and 7 km north of Kitzingen....
. There he first lived with the family of his godfather and sponsor, the clerical councilor Leopold Baumann, afterward in the Franciscan monastery. From 1934 to 1942 he attended the Alte, Neue and Deutsche Gymnasium as a boarding school student with the Carmelite
Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
and English Sisters. In 1942 he passed his final exams. Like the rest of his entire class he reported immediately as a military volunteer and was wounded several times. He served as a soldier until Germany's capitulation, in the final stages as a paratrooper.
Initially matriculating as a major in Forestry in the University of Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Deschner attended lectures on Law, Theology, Philosophy and Psychology during 1946/47 at the Philosophical-Theological College in Bamberg. From 1947 to 1951 at the University of Würzburg he studied Contemporary German Literature, Philosophy and History and graduated in 1951 with a doctoral dissertation entitled Lenau's Lyrics As an Expression of Metaphysical Despair. In the same year he married Elfi Tuch. They had three children: Katja (1951), Bärbel (1958) and Thomas (1959 to 1984).
From 1924 to 1964 Deschner resided in a former hunting lodge of the prince-bishops of Tretzendorf (Steigerwald), then for two years in the country house of a friend in Fischbrunn (Hersbrucker Schweiz). Since then he has resided in Hassfurt am Main
Haßfurt
Haßfurt is a town in Bavaria, Germany, capital of the Haßberge district. It is situated on the river Main, 20 km east of Schweinfurt and 30 km northwest of Bamberg. In 1852, Ludwig's Western Railway reached the town and between 1892 and 1995 it also had a branch line to Hofheim...
.
Karlheinz Deschner has published novels, literary criticism, essays, aphorisms, and history critical of religion and the Church. Over the years he has given more than 2,000 public lectures.
In 1971 he was called before a court in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, charged with "insulting the Church". He was acquitted, but his works remained largely unpublished until the eighties, when they were translated and published in Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Poland. (The fourth part of The Cock Crowed Once Again was translated into Norwegian and published in 1972).
Deschner has been working on his ambitious The Criminal History of Christianity since 1970. He has no official research grants, honoraria, stipends, emoluments or official positions, but has been financially supported by a few friends and readers. His friend and patron Alfred Schwarz was able to celebrate the appearance of Volume 1 in September, 1986, but did not live to see Volume 2 reach publication. The German industrialist Herbert Steffen has continued to support Deschner's work.
During the summer semester of 1987 Deschner taught a course entitled Criminal History of Christianity at the University of Münster.
He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most prominent academic institution in Serbia today...
in Department of Historical Sciences.
Prizes
In a foreword of his The Criminal History of Christianity an overview of awards and prizes is presented:Deschner was awarded the Arno Schmidt
Arno Schmidt
Arno Schmidt was a German author and translator.-Biography:Born in Hamburg, son of a police constable, Schmidt moved with his widowed mother to Lauban and attended the secondary school in Görlitz. He then worked as a clerk in a textile company in Greiffenberg...
Prize in 1988, succeeding Wolfgang Koeppen, Hans Wollschläger and Peter Rühmkorf. In June 1993 he followed Walter Jens, Dieter Hildebrandt, Gerhard Zwerenz and Robert Jungk in winning the Alternative Büchner Prize and in July 1993, following Andrei Sacharow and Alexander Dubcek, he was the first German to be recognized with the International Humanist Award. In September 2001 he received the Erwin Fischer Prize, to be followed in November 2001 by the Ludwig Feuerbach Prize.
Works
As of November 2006, none of Karlheinz Deschner's books has been translated into English. This translation of the titles is taken from the English version of his official website.Novels
- Night Surrounds My House (1956)
- Florence Without Sun (1958)
Critique of Religion and the Church
- What Do You Think of Christianity? (1957)
- The Cock Crowed Once Again (1962)
- With God and the Fascists (1965)
- Images of Jesus from a Theological Perspective (1966)
- The Century of Barbarism (1966)
- Church and Fascism (1968)
- Christianity in the View of Its Opponents, Volume 1 (1969)
- Why I Left the Church (1970)
- Church and War (1970)
- The Manipulated Faith (1971)
- Christianity in the View of Its Opponents (1971)
- On the Cross of the Church (1974)
- Church of the Unholy (1974)
- Why I Am a Christian/Atheist/Agnostic (1977)
- A Pope Travels to the Scene of the Crime (1981)
- A Century of Sacred History, Vol. 1 (1982)
- A Century of Sacred History, Vol. 2 (1983)
- The Offended Church (1986)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 1 (1986)
- Opus Diaboli (1987)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 2 (1988)
- What I Believe In (1990)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 3 1990)
- The Politics of the Papacy in the 20th Century (1991)
- The Anti-Catechism (1991)
- God's Representatives (1994)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 4 (1994)
- World War of the Religions: the Eternal Crusade in the Balkans (1995)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 5 (1997)
- Nobody on Top (1997)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 6 (1999)
- Between Subjection and Damnation. Robert Mächler (1999)
- Memento (1999)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 7 (2002)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 8 (2004)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 9 (2008)
- The Criminal History of Christianity, Vol. 10 (?)
Literary Criticism
- Kitsch, Convention and Art (1957)
- Talents, Poets, Dilettantes (1964)
Social Criticism
- Who Is Teaching in German Universities? (1968)
- The Moloch: A Critical History of the U.S.A. (1992)
- What I Think (1994)
- For a Bite of Meat (1998)
Aphorisms
- Only the Living Swims Against the Current (1985)
- Offences (1994)
Miscellaneous
- Dreams of Sleeping Beauty and Stench from the Stall (1989)
- The Rhoen Region (1998)