Eric W. Gritsch

Gritsch was raised in a Lutheran pastor's family in Bernstein im Burgenland in Austria.

His father died on a death march as a Russian prisoner of war, but Gritsch himself, who had been drafted into a Werwolf group, escaped capture by posing as a gypsy boy.

After going back to Austria to complete his ministerial training, he immigrated to the United States in 1957, initially for doctoral studies with Roland H. Bainton.

In 1961, he was called to Gettysburg Seminary, where he taught Church History and Reformation Studies until his retirement in 1994.

At the Melanchthon Institute in Houston, Texas he held an endowed chair named in his honor in 2000.