Adam Schäfer (priest)

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Adam Schäfer (born September 23, 1877 in Urmitz ; † December 19, 1941 there ) was a German diocesan priest of the Diocese of Trier .

Life

Schäfer was a son of the married couple Jakob Schäfer and Anna Maria geb. Preusser. After completing his school education, which he began with the elementary school in Urmitz and finished with attending the grammar school in Koblenz , he switched to the Episcopal Seminary in Trier . After he had received his ordination in the High Cathedral of St. Peter in Trier , he took his first two posts as chaplain , first in Zell and then in Quiigart in Saarland . His next places of activity as pastor were 5 years in Thalfang and another 25 years in Buch im Hunsrück , before he took over the parish in Pomerania on the Moselle from 1936 . However, due to the relatively high approval of the local winegrowers for National Socialism , this pastor's position turned out to be the beginning of an unfortunate time for him. After only one year, Schäfer was warned by the district education office that he had to abstain from working in the Catholic Young Men Association outside of class . On December 28, 1939, Schäfer was arrested for the first time and on March 8, 1940, a second time for serious violations of the treachery law . He was then taken to the GeStaPo prison in Koblenz. During his second 8-month protective custody , he was beaten and banned from working after his release. As a result of the torture, Schäfer had to be admitted to the Marienhof Hospital in Koblenz for treatment on August 22, 1940 , without failing to impose an order that he had to leave the Rhineland by August 24, 1940. Furthermore, by decree of the district president in the period from April 1, 1940 to November 1, 1941, the state salary subsidy was canceled. A procedure initiated against him by the Cologne special court was discontinued on October 18, 1940 due to a lack of evidence.

Schäfer initially found shelter with his sister in Bornhofen (another source mentions Urmitz), until he was finally able to move into his parents' house in Urmitz on September 1, 1941 with his housekeeper Anna Schneider. From this time on, Schäfer received a weekly check-up at home to check its shelf life. On December 19, 1941, however, Schäfer was visited at home by an unknown doctor in uniform, after whose departure only the priest's lifeless body was found. Another doctor, who later came into the house, issued a death certificate in which it was noted that Schäfer had died of heart muscle damage.

Commemoration

In 2004, in honor and memory of Schäfer, the old school building next to the parish church in Urmitz was renamed "Adam-Schäfer-Haus". A plate attached to the wall of the house bears the following inscription:

“The Urmitzer priest Adam Schäfer (1877–1941) fought against the Nazi regime until the end out of his faith! He should be a role model for us. "

In 1999, the Catholic Church accepted Pastor Adam Schäfer into the German martyrology of the 20th century .

Furthermore, on August 23, 2014 , the artist Gunter Demnig set a “ stumbling block ” in his last place of work, Pomerania on the Moselle, as a sign against forgetting .

literature

  • Ulrich von Hehl (Ed.): "Adam Schäfer" contained in "Priest under Hitler's Terror" , Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh (1998), ISBN 978-3506798398 , page 1493
  • Alfons Friderichs (Ed.): Schäfer, Adam . In: Personalities of the Cochem-Zell District, Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 302.
  • Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , 674–677.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Priests under Hitler's terror in the German National Library , accessed on January 3, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Shepherd, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Urmitz
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1941
Place of death Urmitz