Welcome to the Institute of Protestant Theology!

The Institute of Protestant Theology at the University of Kassel mourns the loss of Christian Gremmels, who died on February 2, 2026 at the age of 84 after a long illness.

After studying and lecturing in Marburg, he was Professor of Systematic Theology at what later became the Institute of Protestant Theology at the University of Kassel (formerly Gesamthochschule) for 25 years, from 1981 until his retirement in 2006. He helped to establish this institute and gave it a critical Lutheran profile. He influenced generations of students with his thoughtful, critical approach to theology.

In addition to his contributions to Luther and Lutheranism, he has advanced Bonhoeffer research in particular through numerous publications and editions. He was co-editor of the complete edition of Bonhoeffer's works. In 1992, he accompanied the merger of the Bonhoeffer Committee in the GDR and the International Bonhoeffer Society in Eisenach. For 22 years, from 1986-2008, he was Chairman of the West German section and then, after the unification of the two German societies, of the International Bonhoeffer Society, Federal Republic of Germany section. The commemorative publication published in 2011 on his 70th birthday, edited by Florian Schmitz and Christiane Tietz, was entitled "Bonhoeffer's Christianity". Bonhoeffer's Christianity was the theme of his life.

Like Bonhoeffer, Christian Gremmels was probably also an earthy person who sought to understand faith in the midst of life. This connection to the earth is expressed in one of Friedrich Nietzsche's words, which Bonhoeffer interpreted in his very own way in his "Ethics", which remains a fragment: "Remain faithful to the earth!" In a sentence from the volume "Resistance and Surrender", edited by Christian Gremmels together with Eberhard Bethge, the addressee of the "Letters from Prison": "Only if one loves life and the earth so much that everything seems to be lost and over with it, may one believe in the resurrection of the dead and in a new world" (DBW 8, 226).

In memory of these words, we wrote in our obituary: "With Bonhoeffer, loyalty to the earth was a prerequisite for hope in heaven. In this hope, we entrust him to the merciful God." The Institute will honor Christian Gremmels' memory.

On behalf of the Institute for Protestant Theology, University of Kassel,

Prof. Dr. Martin Bauspieß