Adolf Donders

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adolf Donders (born March 15, 1877 in Anholt , Borken district ; † August 9, 1944 in Langenhorst , Steinfurt district ) was professor of homiletics at the Westphalian Wilhelms University and from 1911 to 1944 cathedral preacher in Münster Cathedral . Adolf Donders is one of the founders of modern homiletics.

Life

The Baccalaureate put Adolf Donders in Emmerich off, after which he studied in Münster Catholic theology and received on 9 June 1900 in Münster ordination . He then worked for two years as a chaplain in Duisburg , then at St. Aegidii in Münster . With a dissertation on Gregory Nazianzen he received his doctorate in 1909 at Peter sleeve for Dr. theol.

He quickly made a name for himself as a preacher; at the Eucharistic Congress in Cologne in 1909 he became known to the (church) public with a sensational speech. From 1906 to 1921 he was General Secretary of the Central Committee of the German Catholic Days.

From 1911 he served as cathedral preacher in Münster. His sermons - kept close to the script as a familiar, homiletic conversation - were well known in Münster and the surrounding area. From 1919 he was also professor for homiletics and theological propaedeutics at the University of Münster.

In 1931 he was elected provost of the cathedral . He refused the election as Bishop of Münster for health reasons - Clemens August Graf von Galen , who later became the “Lion of Münster”, was elected in his place. In the meantime, sources have been found that suggest a close collaboration between von Galen and Donders in the preparation of important episcopal sermons.

Contemporary witnesses report that Adolf Donders could not cope with the destruction of the cathedral and his home and work place in World War II and that his health deteriorated. On February 14, 1944, he suffered a stroke in his emergency quarters in the Münster seminary . This was particularly tragic because he, the gifted preacher and speaker, was only able to make himself slurred in the aftermath of this stroke. He was looked after by his relatives in Langenhorst .

Adolf Donders died on August 9, 1944. He was buried on August 14, 1944 in the cathedral cemetery in Münster by Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen.

Honors

  • In 1900 he received the Faculty Prize of the Theological Faculty of Münster for a cycle of sermons.
  • Part of the inner city ​​ring of the city of Münster was called the "Donders-Ring".
  • In his place of birth, Anholt, there is the “Adolf-Donders-Allee”.
  • In Münster (Westphalia) the house of the Catholic student associations WKSt.V. Unitas-Winfridia to Münster and WKSt.V. Unitas Rolandia zu Munster named "Dondersheim". Originally it was to be the home of the Unitas Burgundia, of which Donders was co-founder.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. kirchensite.de: Cardinal von Galen: Sermons from the drawer?
  2. ^ Heinrich Portmann: Cardinal von Galen - A man of God of his time. Aschendorff, Münster 1948, pp. 225-231