Hildegard Schaeder

Hildegard Schaeder (13 April 1902 – 11 April 1984) was a German theologian and church historian. In her research, she focused on the history and theology of Eastern orthodox churches, with studies not only in Breslau and Hamburg but also in Prague and the Soviet Union where she lived when the Nazis came to power.

In 1934, she returned to Germany, where she worked for the Prussian Privy State Archives, became a member of the Confessing Church and worked in Martin Niemöller parish in Dahlem, caring for persecuted Jews. She was imprisoned from 1943. After the liberation of Ravensbrück concentration camp, she moved to Göttingen, working at the university, and then to Frankfurt where she worked for the Protestant church in Germany (EKD) responsible for Eastern churches, and taught at the university from 1962 to 1978. In 2000, she was posthumously honoured as Righteous Among the Nations.

Life Born in Kiel, Schaeder was the fourth child of the professor of systematic theology Erich Schaeder and his wife Anna née Sellschopp (1867–1948).

Honours In 1978 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany A street in the Oberrad district of Frankfurt is named after Schaeder

Publications Moskau, das dritte Rom – Studien zur Geschichte der politischen Theorien in der slavischen Welt; Hamburg; 1929 Die dritte Koalition und die Heilige Allianz – Nach neuen Quellen; Königsberg, Berlin; 1934 Ostern im KZ; Berlin; 1947 Russische Kirche und östl. Christentum. Edited by . With contributions from Hildegard Schaeder, Ludolf Müller, Robert Schneider. Tübingen 1949 Autokratie und Heilige Allianz; Darmstadt, 1963 Impulse für die evangelisch-orthodoxe Begegnung. Ausgewählte Schriften von 1949 bis 1972, edited by Karl Pinggéra, Jennifer Wasmuth and Christian Weise. Mit einer biographischen Hinführung von Gisa Bauer; Münster 2016 (Forum Orthodoxe Theologie; 17)