HEINRICH MUND (1878 – 1945)

Heinrich Mund came from Göttingen. He was married to Margarete Mund (née Biester). The couple had four children: Heinrich (who became a pastor in Neetze), Kurt (who died of polio), Adolf (who became a pastor in Uelzen) and Marie-Luise. During the pogrom night of 9 to 10 November 1938, Pastor Adolf Mund took care of the Jews from Uelzen who had been taken into protective custody. From then on, he was under observation by the Gestapo. Heinrich took over the parish of St. Nikolai in Lüneburg. From 1907 onwards, this also involved institutional pastoral care. He regularly celebrated services at the Lüneburg institution and nursing home. During the Nazi era, Harro Kügler, a pastor a generation younger than him, openly criticised the creation of a »people’s church« and the subordination of the church to the »Führer«. Mund’s criticism of the regime was based on his concern that Germany’s resurgence would lead to its downfall. He continued his pastoral care work at the institution even after his retirement in 1938. The family moved into an apartment at Stöteroggestraße 4. When Mund’s successor, Pastor Hohenstein, was drafted into the Wehrmacht in August 1939 and shortly thereafter went missing »in the East,« his colleague Kügler and Pastor Dreves from St. Michaelis were also drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1941 because of the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. Mund was called out of retirement to keep the church running. His duties only ended four years later, on 31 July 1943.

By 1930, Heinrich Mund had already had one leg amputated, meaning that he had been performing his duties »under physical hardship« ever since. When he fell ill again in 1943 and Pastor Dreves returned from the front, he handed over the institutional chaplaincy to his colleague on 1 August 1943.

Until then, Pastor Mund had performed numerous funerals. These were the victims of euthanasia, including many children. He noted this in his diary entries.

Heinrich Mund took his own life in May 1945. The British had confiscated his apartment and assigned them only a small room in the attic of the rectory. Because of his walking disability, he was virtually confined there. He saw no other way out than to throw himself out of the window.