Fritz Keller (priest)
Fritz Keller also Friedrich Keller (born December 27, 1891 in Cologne , † May 15, 1943 in Aachen ) was a German Roman Catholic priest , pastor , resistance fighter against National Socialism and a martyr .
Life
Keller was artillery soldier and officer with the " I. Class Iron Cross " in the First World War . After his discharge from military service in 1918, he studied theology and was ordained a priest in 1921. Keller was a Kolping Praeses for many years in Düren and a chaplain at the parish church of St. Anna in Düren. There were already clashes with the NSDAP in 1933 when he informed the Kolping family about the book Mein Kampf . Since the journeyman's association was banned, Keller initiated the night pilgrimage of men from Düren to Heimbach to the image of grace in the spring of 1933 , which continues to this day, 2014. On the 69th anniversary of his death, May 15, 2012, a memorial plaque was inaugurated at the Pope Johannes House, close to his former workplace .
In 1937 he was appointed pastor in the Stolberg district of Atsch .
Due to his Catholic convictions and his resistance to National Socialism , Fritz Keller was arrested several times by the Gestapo . From December 15, 1941 he was imprisoned in the pastors' block of the Dachau concentration camp . In the medical research station of the concentration camp doctor and tropical medicine specialist Claus Schilling , he was abused as a test subject for malaria infections . He was released from the concentration camp on October 9, 1942, but was kept in custody and acquitted on January 14, 1943 by the Aachen district court. On April 19 of that year he was again sentenced to a fine of 150 Reichsmarks by the regional court in Aachen and taken into " protective custody ". Pastor Keller died on May 15, 1943 in Aachen prison.
Effect and keepsake
In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Pastor Fritz Keller as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
In Atsch, a district of Stolberg since 1935, he is honored by Pastor-Keller-Straße , where the rectory is located.
In Düren, where he worked in the parish of St. Anna from 1927 to 1937, the Fritz-Keller-Weg next to the former Kolping House , today's Posthotel, has borne his name since 1950 .
literature
- August Brecher: History of the Catholic Parishes in Stolberg, Volume 4, Between Adjustment and Resistance: 1933–1945. Stolberg 1987.
- Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German Martyrology of the 20th Century , Paderborn a. a. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 16-18.
- Ekkart Sauser : Friedrich Keller. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 22, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-133-2 , Sp. 714-715.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dürener Zeitung of May 11, 2012, p. 20
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Keller, Fritz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Keller, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German clergyman and resistance fighter against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 27, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 15, 1943 |
| Place of death | Aachen prison |