16 Facts About Joachim Beckmann

Joachim Beckmann was a German evangelical theologian.

Joachim Beckmann served between 1958 and 1971 as "Prases" of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland.

Joachim Wilhelm Beckmann was born into a conservative traditionalist family in Eickel, a small town in the heart of the rapidly industrialising Ruhr conurbation, within which Eickel is positioned between Essen and Dortmund.

Joachim Beckmann had been a huge admirer of the written work of Karl Barth since the start of the decade.

In January 1927 Joachim Beckmann married Hilde Hagemann: the marriage was followed in due course by the births of the couple's four children.

Between 1928 and 1933 Joachim Beckmann served as minister to the Westphalia Frauenhilfe association in Soest.

In 1933 Joachim Beckmann took over a pastoral post with the Lutheran church community in Dusseldorf, retaining this ministry, by some criteria, without a break till 1948.

In 1934 Joachim Beckmann attended the important inaugural synod of the Confessing Church at Wuppertal-Barmen and the second synod at Berlin-Dahlem, held respectively in May and October 1934.

On 15 May 1935 Joachim Beckmann was served with a banning order which forbad him from staying in the Dusseldorf district: this time the ban lasted for only two months, however.

In 1937,1938 or 1939 Joachim Beckmann was served with a government speaking ban which lasted till 1945.

Joachim Beckmann emerged as a member of the leadership team of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, serving as president of the Rhineland consistory between 1945 and 1949.

Sources suggest that behind the scenes Joachim Beckmann was a particularly influential, with respect to the church's decisions and pronouncements.

In 1945 or 1948 Joachim Beckmann took over responsibility for publishing the Evangelical Church Year Book, for which he continued to serve as editor-compiler till 1975.

Joachim Beckmann had taught at the Church College at Wuppertal-Barmen since it had re-opened in 1945; and in 1951 he accepted a professorship in Systematic theology at the college.

Joachim Beckmann remained in the post till his retirement on 31 July 1971.

Joachim Beckmann was a regular participant in television's regular religious programme, Das Wort zum Sonntag.