Albrecht Goes

Albrecht Goes (22 March 1908 – 23 February 2000) was a German writer and Protestant theologian.

Life Albrecht Goes was born in 1908 in the Protestant rectory in Langenbeutingen. He spent his childhood there, but his mother died in 1911 and in 1915 he went to live with his grandmother in Berlin-Steglitz. He went to school there until 1919, when he moved to a school in Göppingen. In 1922, he entered the theological seminary in Urach, and from 1922 to 1923 he attended the seminary in Schöntal. His room-mate there was Gerd Gaiser. He passed his university exams and in 1924 entered the advanced seminary in Urach.

In 1926, he read German studies and history in Tübingen, then switched to theology. In 1928, he went to Berlin to continue his theology studies, and there he met and was influenced by Romano Guardini. In 1930 Goes was ordained for the Evangelical Church in Württemberg as a parson in Tuttlingen's main church, and in 1931 became a vicar at the Martinskirche in Stuttgart. In 1933, he began his first rectorate in Unterbalzheim in Illertissen. In the same year he married Elisabeth Schneider, with whom he had three daughters: Christin, Brigitte and Rose. In 1938, he took up a rectorate in Gebersheim (which today is a part of the city of Leonberg).

His involvement with the German army during the Second World War began when he was conscripted in 1940. He was trained as a radio operator and sent to Romania. From 1942 to 1945 he was a clergyman in hospitals and prisons in Russia, Poland, Hungary and Austria. At the same time, his wife was sheltering several Jews from the military.

Goes's first volumes of poetry were Verse in 1932 and (The Herdsman) in 1934. 1937 1938 Berlin, 1940 Nachtwache, Fleckfieberlazarett, Frühling, 1943 . Begegnungen; 1942 (Privatdruck), 1944 1946 Berlin, 1947 1950 , 1954 Berlin (Ost), 1958 1959 Frankfurt a.M., 1961 Berlin (Ost), 1962 Frankfurt a.M., 1963 1965 Frankfurt a.M., 1976 Frankfurt a.M., 1978 Frankfurt a.M., 1986 Berlin (Ost), 1988 1991 1997 1998 Präsenz Kunst & Buch, 2007

Honours 1958: Willibald Tirkheimer-Medaille for services to culture and literature 1983: Citizen's Medal for special services to the city of Stuttgart 1991: Otto-Hirsch Medal from the city of Stuttgart 1994: Literature Prize from the city of Stuttgart 1998: Honours from the cities of Stuttgart and Leonberg, the Protestant Academy of Bad Boll, and the monastery in Schöntal to mark his 90th birthday 2000: Albrecht-Goes-Platz was named after him in Stuttgart, and there were celebrations of his life and work in Marbach and Leonberg 2001: A memorial stone was placed in front of the house in which he was born in Langenbeutingen, inscribed with lines from his poem (The Steps) 2004: Albrecht-Goes-Stube (The Albrecht Goes Room), a small museum, was opened in Langenbeutingen Bas-relief of Goes by Hermann Koziol is unveiled in the Place of Remembrance for the Fallen at Bretzfeld cemetery 2008: A series of events take place at around twenty locations in Baden-Württemberg and Leipzig to mark Goes's one hundredth birthday 2008: Commemorative plaque unveiled in the Protestant diocese of Tübingen