Hans Iwand

Hans Joachim Iwand (; 11 July 1899 – 2 May 1960) was a German Lutheran theologian. Iwand's thought was considerably influenced by Karl Barth.

Early life After finishing high school in 1917 in Görlitz, Iwand studied Protestant theology at the University of Breslau (modern Wrocław, Poland). A year later, towards the end of World War I, he was drafted for military service. After the war, he was stationed for six months on the Silesian border before continuing his studies in Breslau and studying for two semesters at University of Halle-Wittenberg in Halle. His teachers were Erich Schaeder (1861–1936), Hans von Soden (1881–1945), and Rudolf Hermann (1887–1962). After graduating in 1923 he was superintendent of studies at the Lutherheim in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) in East Prussia. Iwand earned his doctorate in 1924 and his habilitation in 1927, and he took his second theological examination in 1928. From 1927 to 1934 he was a privatdozent (associate professor) at the University of Königsberg.

Family Iwand was born in Schreibendorf, Silesia, German Empire (modern Pisary, Lower Silesian Voivodeship), the son of pastor Otto Iwand and his wife Lydia née Herrmann. In 1927 Hans married Ilse Ehrhardt; the couple had five children. Hans Iwand is buried in the village of Beienrode, Königslutter.

Iwand's youngest daughter, the Veronika Geyer-Iwand (1943-1997), a popular religion teacher and the mayor of Beienrode, married pastor Klaus Geyer (1941-2003). The son-in-law was convicted in 1998 of manslaughter in her brutal murder (July 25, 1997); Geyer was the only German theologian ever to have been jailed after committing such a crime.

Nazi period In November 1934 Iwand became professor of New Testament studies at the Herder Institute in Riga, Latvia. Because of his participation in the Kirchenkampf struggle between the Nazi-backed so-called Deutsche Christen church and its oppositional Bekennende Kirche ("confessing church") he was forced out of his teaching position and from 1935 to 1937 headed illegal seminaries for training pastors in Blöstau, East Prussia (modern Vishniovka, Guryevsk, in the Kaliningrad enclave of Russia) and Jordan, Brandenburg (now in Poland). In 1936 a Reichsredeverbot (prohibition of speech, i.e. a gag order) was imposed on him. Following the closure of these eastern seminaries he opened another one in January 1938 in Dortmund, an act for which he was imprisoned for four months. Upon his release he took over the parish of the Marienkirche, Dortmund, where he remained until the war ended. Edited by Helmut Gollwitzer, Walter Kreck, Karl Gerhard Steck and Ernst Wolf, 6 volumes, Munich Vol. 1: Glauben und Wissen ("Knowledge and Belief", 1962), 315 pp. Vol. 2: Vorträge und Aufsätze ("Lectures and essays", 1966), 404 pp. Vol. 3: Ausgewählte Predigten ("Selected sermons", 1967), 309 pp. Vol. 4: Gesetz und Evangelium ("Law and gospel" [lecture], 1964), 456 pp. Vol. 5: Luthers Theologie ("Luther's theology [lecture], 1964), 320 pp. Vol. 6: Briefe an Rudolf Hermann ("Letters to Rudolf Hermann", edited by Karl Gerhard Steck, 1964), 356 pp.

Posthumous Works (New series, 1998 to 2004) Edited by Hans-Iwand-Stiftung, 4 volumes, Gütersloh: Kaiser, Gütersloher Verl.-Haus Vol. 1: Kirche und Gesellschaft ("Church and society", 1998), 349 pp. Vol. 2: Christologie. Die Umkehrung des Menschen zur Menschlichkeit ("Christology: the return of man to humanity", 1999), 539 pp. Vol. 3: Theologiegeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts: Väter und Söhne ("Theological history of the 19th and 20th centuries: Fathers and sons", 2001), 560 pp. Vol. 4 (not yet published; intended to contain Hans Iwand's letters) Vol. 5: Predigten und Predigtlehre ("Sermons and preaching doctrine", 2004), 567 pp.