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Wilhelm Stählin

German Lutheran theologian (1883-1975)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ49713
Source-derived summary

Wilhelm Stählin (24 September 1883, Gunzenhausen, Bavaria – 16 December 1975, Prien am Chiemsee, Bavaria) was a German Lutheran theologian, bishop and preacher. He was one of the major initiators of the Liturgical Movement in German Protestantism in the 20th Century.

Life

Early life

After completing his school education in Augsburg Stählin began studying theology in 1901 in Erlangen, Rostock and Berlin. In 1905 he completed this theological examinations and served afterwards as a vicar in Bavaria. After a trip to England in 1908 Stählin became a parish pastor in Egloffstein and married. In 1913 he received his doctorate at the University of Marburg. His dissertation dealt with the problem of biblical metaphors. In 1914 he founded the "Gesellschaft für Religionspsychologie" (The Society for Religious Psychology) and published the "Archive for Religious Psychology". At the same time he established contact with the German Youth Movement of that time.

WWI and WWII

He was a voluntary military chaplain in the German army from 1914 until 1916.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Wilhelm Stählin” is german Lutheran theologian (1883-1975). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Wilhelm, Stählin and German, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1883, 1975, 1901, 1905—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1883-09-24. For this dossier, Wilhelm, Stählin and German is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “german Lutheran theologian (1883-1975)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q49713. VIAF identifies the subject as 36924850. The Library of Congress control number is n92122143. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1883, 1975, 1901 and 1905.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Wilhelm Stählin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.