Biography of Dorothee Sölle

Dorothee Sölle, born Dorothee Nipperdey (30 September 1929 in Cologne; died 27 April 2003 in Göppingen), was a German Protestant theologian, writer, poet and university teacher. She connected theology, literature, mysticism, peace work and social criticism in a language that understood faith as public responsibility.

Studies and literature

Sölle grew up in an educated Cologne family. Her father Hans Carl Nipperdey was a labour-law scholar, and her brother Thomas Nipperdey became a historian. She studied classical philology, philosophy, theology and German literature in Cologne, Freiburg and Göttingen. In 1954 she passed the state examination and received her doctorate with a literary study of the Nachtwachen von Bonaventura.

Cologne and political night prayer

In the 1960s, Sölle worked as a teacher, research assistant, author and lecturer. From 1968 onward, she became one of the formative voices of the ecumenical Politisches Nachtgebet in Cologne. Prayer, biblical language, analysis and protest were brought together there; topics included the Vietnam War, poverty, racism, authoritarian structures and the responsibility of churches.

Theology

Sölle's thought asked about God after Auschwitz, about Christian responsibility and about a mysticism that does not withdraw from the world. Books such as Stellvertretung, Suffering, Die Hinreise, Thinking About God and Mysticism and Resistance made her theology internationally known. She wrote scholarly texts, essays, poems, prayers and reflective prose.

New York and Hamburg

From 1975 to 1987, Sölle taught regularly at Union Theological Seminary in New York. In Germany she did not receive a full professorship despite her habilitation; in 1994 she was made honorary professor at the University of Hamburg. She was married to the theologian Fulbert Steffensky, with whom she also worked publicly and in print.

Peace and memory

Sölle was active in peace, women's, environmental and solidarity movements. Her texts remained religious, political and poetic at the same time, often resisting simple separations between piety and social action. Dorothee Sölle died on 27 April 2003 during a conference in Göppingen.