Adolf Fritzen

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Adolf Fritzen of Strasbourg
Adolf Fritzen of Strasbourg

Adolf Fritzen (also Adolph, born August 10, 1838 in Kleve , † September 7, 1919 in Strasbourg ) was the 99th  Bishop of Strasbourg .

Life

After graduating from the College Augustinianum Gaesdonck studied Fritzen Catholic Theology , Philology and History in Tübingen , Münster , Berlin and Bonn and received his doctorate for Dr. phil. et theol. In Tübingen he was a member of AV Guestfalia Tübingen in the CV . In Berlin he became an active member of the Catholic Reading Association (now KStV Askania-Burgundia ), in Münster of the KStV Germania , in Bonn of the K.St.V. Arminia Bonn , all in the KV , in which he was also very active later - also as bishop in Strasbourg. There he became a member of the KStV Frankonia-Strasbourg .

On August 16, 1862 he became the priest of his home diocese of Muenster ordained . From 1866 until its dissolution as part of Bismarck's so-called “ Kulturkampf ” in 1873, Fritzen worked as a teacher for Latin, Greek, German, history and geography at his former school in Gaesdonck. His fellow teachers there included the future Bishop of Münster Hermann Jakob Dingelstad . Then Fritzen worked in Dresden from 1874 to 1887 as court chaplain and educator of the sons of Prince Georg of Saxony . In 1887 he was appointed director of the episcopal boys' seminary in Montigny near Metz . In 1890 Fritzen accompanied Prince Friedrich August of Saxony on his journey to the Orient .

On January 24, 1891, Fritzen was called to be Bishop of Strasbourg and on July 21 of the same year he was appointed to his new office. By his predecessor stump Fritzen took over the oeuvre of églises mixtes , a Kirchenbaufonds to collect funds for the construction of Catholic churches of about 120 church buildings of the Catholic simultaneous use Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine and the Church of Alsace and Lorraine unnecessary should. Fritzen and the Lutheran Senior Consistorial President Friedrich Curtius tried to find a balance, but could not settle the many quarrels about simultaneous churches. Fritzen was very much committed to replacing the Simultaneous with new Catholic churches and was able to greatly increase the number of Catholic parish churches and, by 1914, reduce the simultaneous use of Protestant churches to 64 cases. In his diocese, Fritzen promoted church singing and the liturgy in particular; soon every parish in Alsace also had a church choir. Fritzen was also popular with the Alsatians who turned to France; they called him “un éveque en vitrail - a bishop like in a church window”.

As Bishop of Strasbourg, Adolf Fritzen was automatically a member of the first chamber of the Landtag of the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine from 1911 onwards .

After the defeat of the German Empire in World War I , as a result of which Alsace and thus also the diocese of Strasbourg fell back to France , Fritzen resigned from his office on July 21, 1919. Simultaneously with his resignation he was appointed titular archbishop of the no longer existing Archdiocese of Mocissus (presumably today's Kırşehir ). That same year, Fritzen died on September 7th in Strasbourg.

Epitaph in the Strasbourg cathedral

His successor, the new bishop Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch, remembered his predecessor Fritzen, who had recently died, in his 1st pastoral letter of October 9, 1919, with very warm and touching words. He mentions his voluntary resignation from office as a downright heroic act, given the new political situation:

"At an age where a change in life is difficult, where even the decline in strength suggested to him in his post as Bishop of Strasbourg to face imminent death, despite the love with which he showed you and although it should have seemed to him, that enough suffering had befallen him during the war, he immediately relinquished his office in the hands of the Holy Father when he was convinced that the good of his diocese required this renunciation. He did it without complaint, but with a broken heart, out of love for your souls. This was a great deed, it could only spring from a noble, strong-hearted heart and can only be explained in an unselfish devotion to the church and the general good. "

- Inaugural pastoral letter from Bishop Charles Ruch, October 9, 1919

His auxiliary bishop and general vicar in Strasbourg was the Alsatian Dr. Franz Freiherr Zorn von Bulach .

family

Adolf Fritzen was the first of four sons of the architect and city council to Kleve Bernhard Fritzen and Josephine Bernadine Ebben and an older brother of Aloys Fritzen and Karl Fritzen , who stood out as lawyers and central politicians.

Works

  • De Cassandri eiusque sociorum studiis irenicis. Commentatio hist. Phil. Diss. Münster 1865.
  • (Ed.): Collectio rituum in usum cleri dioecesis Argentinensis ex venia et approbatione sanctae apostolicae sedis ad instar appendicis ritualis romani reverendissimi domini domini Adolphi Fritzen. Strasbourg: Le Roux 1898.
  • (Ed.): Graduale romanum de tempore et de sanctis juxta usum dioecesis Argentinensis. Strasbourg: Le Roux 1899.
  • (Ed.): Officia propria sanctorum dioecesis Argentinensis. A sacra rituum congregatione jussu et auctoritate Adolphi Fritzen. Four volumes. Strasbourg: Le Roux 1900.
  • (Ed.): Synodus dioecesana Argentiniensis tertia. OO: n.v. 1900.

literature

  • Max Hottenrott: Lantern procession to celebrate the Consecration of the Most Revered Bishops Dr. Adolf Fritzen and Karl Marbach, Tuesday, July 21, 1891, 8 1/2 in the evening. E. Bauer, Strasbourg 1891.
  • Dr. Adolf Fritzen, Bishop of Strasbourg. A picture of life. In: German house treasure . XVII / 1891. No. 28.
  • Peter Bachmann: Dr. Adolf Fritzen, Bishop of Strasbourg, on the golden jubilee of the priesthood. 1862 August 16, 1912. Mainz: n.v. 1912.
  • Joseph Wendling: Adolf Fritzen, Bishop of Strasbourg. A picture of life. For the silver bishop's jubilee. 1891-1916. Strasbourg: Le Roux 1916.
  • On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the bishopric of Bishop Dr. Adolf Fritzen in Strasbourg. In: Kölnische Volkszeitung . 57. Vol. 584. July 20, 1916.
  • Paul Dyckmans: Adolf Fritzen, Bishop of Strasbourg. In: Calendar for the Klever Land , 41, 1991, pp. 110–112.
  • Government and Parliament of Alsace-Lorraine 1911–1916. Biographical-statistical manual. Mühlhausen 1911, p. 119.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
  2. ↑ By order of Louis XIV from 1684, all Lutheran and Reformed parishes must make the choir of their church buildings available for Catholic masses if there is no Catholic church in their parish but at least seven Catholic families are resident. In the 21st century, around 50 Protestant churches in Alsace and the Moselle department are still in use as simultaneous churches.
  3. ↑ a b c Cf. “Simultaneum” , on: Wiki-protestants.org , accessed on February 26, 2013.
  4. ↑ Enc. Britannica
  5. ↑ Zorn von Bulach, Hugo . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 20, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1909, p.  995 . - Side entry with the brother
  6. ^ Official Journal for the Düsseldorf administrative region: 1842
  7. ^ Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the German-speaking countries 1785/1803 to 1945. A biographical lexicon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-428-05447-4 .
predecessor Office successor
Peter Paul Stump Bishop of Strasbourg
1891-1919 		Charles Joseph Eugène Ruch
personal data
SURNAME Fritzen, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fitzen, Adolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Strasbourg
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleve
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1919
Place of death Strasbourg