Suzanne de Dietrich

Suzanne Anne de Dietrich (29 January 1891, in Niederbronn-les-Bains – 24 January 1981) was a French Protestant theologian known for her work in the ecumenical movement.

Youth and education

Family background Suzanne de Dietrich is the daughter of Charles de Dietrich and Anne von Türcke, and the granddaughter of Albert de Dietrich. The de Dietrich family is an emblematic family of Alsatian industrialists, several of whose members were ammestres or mayors of Strasbourg, notably Philippe-Frédéric, who commissioned the Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin, composed by Claude Rouget de Lisle on April 25, 1792, while Suzanne's maternal family belonged to the nobility of Saxe-Meiningen.

Her Alsatian family was Lutheran, rooted in the faith tradition of the Ban de la Roche, marked by the pastors Jean-Frédéric Oberlin and Tommy Fallot.

Scientific studies and biblical training in Lausanne She lost her parents when she was young, and her uncle, Eugène de Dietrich, became her guardian. Suzanne was destined by her family to become an engineer, "to take her place in the family business" and, with this in mind, she was sent to the French-speaking city of Lausanne, where she obtained a scientific baccalauréat in 1909, then entered the engineering school attached to the University of Lausanne and graduated as an electrical engineer in 1913. During her studies in Lausanne, she took an active part in the programs of the Christian Students' Association (ACE). In 1914, she took part in the congress of the French Federation of Christian Student Associations (Fédé);

From 1939-1940, faced with the distress of evacuees from Alsace and Lorraine, Suzanne de Dietrich became involved with the displaced populations of south-west France. She co-founded CIMADE (Comité inter-mouvements auprès des évacués), which worked with refugees.

She also wrote Le Dessein de Dieu (God’s Will) which was published in 1945.