Friedrich Smend
Friedrich Smend was a German Protestant theologian and librarian at the Preußische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, publishing a catalogue of the writings of Adolf von Harnack. He was a liturgist, teaching as professor at the Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin. His publications focus on the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Life
Born in Strasbourg, Smend belonged to a family of jurists and theologians. Members of three generations had served as pastors of the Reformed parish of Lengerich in the 18th and 19th centuries. His father Julius Smend was professor, first in Strasbourg, and then from 1918 first dean of the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Münster. His uncle was the theologian Rudolf Smend.Smend studierd Protestant theology in Münster, promoted to the doctorate. He worked as librarian of the Preußische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin from 1923, where he published a catalogue of the writings of Adolf von Harnack. During the Nazi regime, he was a member of the of the Bekennende Kirche and took part in the Kirchenkampf. After World War II, Smend was appointed prefessor of hymnology, liturgics and church music at the Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin, where he remained until retirement in 1958.
He was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Heidelberg and Mainz. In 1961, he received the Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Smend focused on studies of the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, specifically Bach's Mass in B minor, St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, as well as number symbolism in Bach's works.
He died in Berlin at age 86.