Karlheinz Deschner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Karlheinz Deschner
Karlheinz Deschner (right) talking with Hans Albert
Born	Karl Heinrich Leopold Deschner 23 May 1924 Bamberg, Germany
Died	8 April 2014 (aged 89) Haßfurt, Germany
Nationality	German
Education	University of Würzburg
Occupation	Writer Critic of the church and of religion
Spouse(s)	Elfi Tuch
Children	3

Karl Heinrich Leopold Deschner (born May 23, 1924 – died April 8, 2014) was a German writer and researcher. He became well-known in Europe for his strong and critical writings about Christianity and the Catholic Church. He wrote many articles and books, including his famous 10-volume series called Christianity's Criminal History.

Life of Karlheinz Deschner

Karlheinz Deschner was born in Bamberg, Germany. His father, Karl, was a forester. His mother, Margareta Karoline, grew up in different parts of Bavaria. Both his parents were Catholic.

Karlheinz was the oldest of three children. He went to elementary school in Trossenfurt from 1929 to 1933. Later, he attended a Franciscan Seminary in Dettelbach. He also went to other schools as a boarding student. In 1942, he finished his final exams.

After school, he volunteered for the military during World War II. He served as a soldier until the war ended and was wounded several times. In the last part of the war, he was a paratrooper.

After the war, in 1946 and 1947, Deschner studied different subjects. These included Law, Theology, Philosophy, and Psychology at a college in Bamberg. From 1947 to 1951, he studied German Literature, Philosophy, and History at the University of Würzburg. He earned his doctorate degree in 1951. His main project was about the poet Lenau.

In the same year, he married Elfi Tuch. They had three children: Katja (born 1951), Bärbel (born 1958), and Thomas (born 1959, died 1984).

Deschner lived in different places in Germany. From 1924 to 1964, he lived in an old hunting lodge. Later, he moved to Haßfurt where he lived until he passed away.

Karlheinz Deschner wrote many types of books. These included novels, literary criticism, essays, and historical books that were critical of religion and the Church. He also gave more than 2,000 public talks.

In 1971, he went to court in Nuremberg. He was accused of "Insults against the Church," but the court found him not guilty. For a long time, his books were not published much outside of Germany. But in the 1980s, his works were translated and published in countries like Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland.

Deschner worked on his big project, Christianity's Criminal History, for a very long time, from 1970 to 2013. He did not receive any official grants or payments for his research. Instead, he was supported financially by a few friends and readers. One of his main supporters was Alfred Schwarz. After Schwarz passed away, another supporter, Herbert Steffen, who founded the Giordano Bruno Foundation, continued to help Deschner.

In 1989, a German news magazine called Der Spiegel wrote about the first two volumes of his Criminal History. The article was written by Horst Herrmann, a former professor who had left the Catholic Church.

In 1987, Deschner taught a course at the University of Münster. The course was also called Criminal History of Christianity. Karlheinz Deschner was also a member of the Yugoslavian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Awards and Recognition

Karlheinz Deschner received several important awards for his work:

• In 1988, he was given the Arno Schmidt Prize.
• In June 1993, he won the Alternative Büchner Prize.
• In July 1993, he was the first German to receive the International Humanist Award. This award had previously been given to famous people like Andrei Sakharov.
• In September 2001, he received the Erwin Fischer Prize, which is given for work related to secularism (the idea that religion should not be involved in government).
• In November 2001, he was awarded the Ludwig Feuerbach Prize.

Books by Karlheinz Deschner

One of Deschner's books that has been translated into English is God and the Fascists: the Vatican Alliance with Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, and Pavelic.

Here are some of his other books, grouped by type:

Novels

• Night Surrounds My House (1956)
• Florence Without Sun (1958)

Books About Religion and the Church

• What Do You Think of Christianity? (1957)
• The Cock Crowed Once Again (1962)
• With God and the Fascists (1965)
• Images of Jesus from a Theological Perspective (1966)
• The Century of Barbarism (1966)
• Church and Fascism (1968)
• Christianity in the View of Its Opponents, Volume 1 (1969)
• Why I Left the Church (1970)
• Church and War (1970)
• The Manipulated Faith (1971)
• Christianity in the View of Its Opponents (1971)
• On the Cross of the Church (1974)
• Church of the Unholy (1974)
• Why I Am a Christian/Atheist/Agnostic (1977)
• A Pope Travels to the Scene of the Crime (1981)
• A Century of Sacred History, Vol. 1 (1982)
• A Century of Sacred History, Vol. 2 (1983)
• The Offended Church (1986)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 1 (1986)
• Opus Diaboli (1987)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 2 (1988)
• What I Believe In (1990)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 3 1990)
• The Politics of the Papacy in the 20th Century (1991)
• The Anti-Catechism (1991)
• God's Representatives (1994)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 4 (1994)
• World War of the Religions: the Eternal Crusade in the Balkans (1995)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 5 (1997)
• Nobody on Top (1997)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 6 (1999)
• Between Subjection and Damnation. Robert Mächler (1999)
• Memento (1999)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 7 (2002)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 8 (2004)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 9 (2008)
• Christianity's Criminal History, Vol. 10 (2013)

Literary Criticism

• Kitsch, Convention and Art (1957)
• Talents, Poets, Dilettantes (1964)

Social Criticism

• Who Is Teaching in German Universities? (1968)
• The Moloch: A Critical History of the U.S.A. (1992)
• What I Think (1994)
• For a Bite of Meat (1998)

Aphorisms (Short Sayings)

• Only the Living Swims Against the Current (1985)
• Offences (1994)

Other Works

• Dreams of Sleeping Beauty and Stench from the Stall (1989)
• The Rhoen Region (1998)

Images for kids

• 

  Karlheinz Deschner (right) in conversation with Hans Albert

See also

In Spanish: Karlheinz Deschner para niños