Adolf Kindermann

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Adolf Kindermann on the monument in Königstein im Taunus

Adolf Kindermann (born August 8, 1899 in Neugrafenwalde , Bohemia , † October 23, 1974 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German Catholic theologian and titular bishop .

Life

Adolf Kindermann was the son of the weaver and farmer Anton Kindermann (1865–1932) and Maria (1868–1937), born Sonntag, in Neugrafenwalde (Czech: Nové Hraběcí , now part of Šluknov ) in Northern Bohemia . After completing the Jesuit high school in Mariaschein , Kindermann took philosophical and theological studies in Rome . After his ordination in 1924, a pastoral work in the coal mining area Dux he studied from 1928 to 1931 canon law in Rome and reached the admission to the legal profession at the Roman Rota and the Apostolic Signature .

Kindermann was strongly influenced by his experiences in Rome. After his return he became a religion teacher at the secondary school in Aussig on the Elbe . He then received a teaching position for canon law at the seminary in Leitmeritz and completed his habilitation for canon law at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague, since 1937 as an associate professor . At the beginning of 1939 he founded and directed the Sudeten German Theologian Convict , a de facto general seminar for the next generation of German priests in the dioceses of Bohemia and Moravia .

During the Second World War , Kindermann was monitored by the Gestapo and hindered in his priestly work. In 1945 he worked as a pastor in the internment camps in Prague until he came to Königstein im Taunus in 1946 . There he founded - first at the side of the expelled Bishop of Warmia Maximilian Kaller and the prelate Albert Büttner, but later alone - the " Königsteiner Anstalt ", in which a philosophical-theological college, a grammar school with boarding school , a " house of encounter ", an Institutum Balticum, a Catholic Institute for Social Research and Refugee Issues and an Institute for Church History of the Bohemian Lands were integrated. Kindermann created a center for church care for the Catholic expellees, which was mainly supported by private donations. To this end, he encouraged the emigrants from East Central Europe to meet the locals.

The Church in Need congresses, which have taken place since 1952, served to provide information about the situation of the Church in the communist countries . Kindermann's good international relations provided the impetus for the later international aid campaign “ Aid to the Eastern Priests ” by the premonstratensian Werenfried van Straaten . In addition, he suggested material help in the form of sponsorships for theology students from India and Yugoslavia .

Adolf Kindermann promoted the theoretical discussion of the problems caused by the expulsion, for example the right to a home or group rights. For the Sudeten German clergy he created bases in Königstein and Degerndorf , namely the Sudetendeutsche Priesterwerk e. V. In 1959 Kindermann was appointed spokesman for Sudeten German church affairs. In 1962 he was appointed Apostolic Protonotary and on July 11, 1966, Titular Bishop of Utimmira and Auxiliary Bishop in Hildesheim , based in Königstein. On September 8th of the same year he received the episcopal ordination by Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen ; Co- consecrators were the Limburg bishop Wilhelm Kempf and the Lithuanian bishop in exile Franz Brazys .

Adolf Kindermann died in Frankfurt am Main in 1974.

Adolf Kindermann is one of the three figures on the monument to the Königstein church fathers in Königstein im Taunus. The monument was designed by Christoph Loch and inaugurated on September 1, 2011.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • The princely right of appointment. 1933.
  • Religious changes and problems in the Catholic area. In: Eugen Lemberg and others (ed.): The expellees in West Germany and their influence on society, economy, politics and intellectual life. III. 1959, pp. 92-156.

literature

Web links

Commons : Adolf Kindermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kindermann, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian and auxiliary bishop
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Neugrafenwalde
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1974
Place of death Frankfurt am Main