Bishop and Nun: Münster and Wrocław as Remembrance Places

Abstract

The article presents a “virtual” letter encounter between two persons, who have particular backgrounds and purposes in common, although they are contrary personalities: the former Jewish girl and later Carmelitan nun Edith Stein, and the pastor and later bishop Otto Zänker. Both have relations with Breslau as the birth place (Stein) or Bishop place (Zänker) and with Münster, where both, separated only by a few years, lived and taught for several years. Both personalities stand for the common challenge of intercultural and ecumenical dialogue, and of German coping with the Nazi era, and, therefore, for the purpose to combine past experiences, current life and future challenges by remembrance sharing and mutual learning, particular for the young generation. Therefore, only one letter (of Edith Stein) is presented as invitation to formulate Zänker’s answer, and, thus, considering the complex situation in the 1930s and today between cultures and attitudes.