Gustav Mensching (6 May 1901 – 30 September 1978) was a German theologian who was Professor of Comparative Religious Studies at the University of Bonn from 1936 to 1972.

Biography

Gustav Mensching was born in Hanover, Germany on 6 May 1901, the son of farmer and businessman Gustav Mensching (1869-1906) and Anna Vogler. Mensching studied philosophy, Protestant theology and religious studies at the universities of Göttingen, Marburg and Berlin. He gained his Dr. Theol. at Maburg under the supervision of Rudolf Otto.

Mensching completed his habilitation in religious history at the University of Braunschweig in 1927. The same year he married Erika Dombrowski, with whom he had two sons, the Germanist Gerhard Mensching [de] and philosopher Günther Mensching [de]. From 1927 to 1936, Mensching was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Riga. In 1936 he was appointed Professor of Comparative Religious Studies at the University of Bonn. Due to his membership in the National Socialist German Lecturers League, Mensching was from 1946 to 1948 prohibited from teaching. Hamid Reza Yousefi [de] has since demonstrated was Mensching was not a supporter of Nazism. Mensching published a number of works on religion. Among his best known students were Hans-Joachim Klimkeit [de], Karl Hoheisel [de] and Udo Tworuschka [de].

Mensching retired from the University of Bonn in 1972. He died in Düren, Germany on 30 September 1978.