Albanus chess director

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Albanus Schachleiter OSB (also Alban Schachleiter ; * January 20, 1861 in Mainz as Jakob Schachleiter ; † June 20, 1937 in Feilnbach , Upper Bavaria ) was a German Benedictine and abbot of the Emaus monastery in Prague . He was one of the few Catholic clergymen who maintained contact with the National Socialist movement even before Hitler came to power in 1933 .

Life

After studying philosophy, art history and music at the University of Leipzig joined Chess Head 1881 in the Benedictine - Abbey Emaus in Prague, which by the Beuron Congregation was settled. In 1883 he took his religious vows , in 1886 he was ordained a priest . From the beginning he was a supporter of the monastic musical life. On his initiative, a large organ was built and concerts with well-known musicians were held. His main activity, however, was the fight against the anti-Catholic Los-von-Rom movement . That is why he initiated the founding of the Bonifatius Association , with which the religious education of broad sections of the population should be promoted. As a defender of the Catholic faith, together with the later Leitmeritz bishop Josef Gross , he appeared primarily against freethinkers and freemasons . In 1906 Pope Pius X awarded him a silver medal.

After the death of Abbot Benedikt Sauter in 1908, Alban Schachleiter was elected as his successor. Subsequently, the monastery developed into a spiritual as well as a political center. Chess leaders had a trusting relationship with the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand d'Este , who also strongly opposed the Los-von-Rom movement. Both strove to have more influence for Catholicism and considered Germanness to be a unifying element of Austria. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Schachleiter set up a soup and poor kitchen as well as a hospital in the monastery rooms. In addition, younger members of the order were deployed as paramedics on the Austro-Hungarian PK 45 patient train, which consisted of sixteen ambulances that led to all theaters of war.

After the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the German Beuron Benedictines had to leave Prague in 1919. Alban Schachleiter was expelled because of his German nationality. He then stayed at St. Florian Monastery in Upper Austria and St. Bonifaz in Munich, where he became director of the Schola Gregoriana for Catholic church music . He was also the editor of the monthly church music Musica Divina , which was published by the Schola Austriaca . It was not until 1924 that he resigned himself to the office of abbot of the Emmaus monastery, but received the dignity of titular abbot of Spanheim .

On June 10, 1923, chess leaders gave the address on the occasion of the National Socialist memorial service for Albert Leo Schlageter on Munich's Königsplatz . In the same year he met Adolf Hitler in the apartment of the historian Karl Alexander von Müller . The church leadership confirmed the chess leader's militant nationalist attitude and his commitment to National Socialism in 1926 with a ban on public political statements and the instruction to move into a monastery apartment. He ignored both. When he finally welcomed Adolf Hitler's seizure of power in the Völkischer Beobachter on February 1, 1933, he was suspended in March 1933 and expelled from all diocesan honorary posts. The NSDAP then supported him with a monthly pension ; Hitler himself visited him on May 13, 1933. After chess leader's apparent submission, the Vatican lifted the suspension in September 1933. Nevertheless, in 1934 and 1935 he was guest of honor at the Nuremberg NSDAP party congresses - despite Roman protests against his political position. On his 75th birthday in 1936, he received a congratulatory telegram from the Führer, and the University of Munich awarded him an honorary doctorate for “Choral Care and Germanness”.

Chess leader died on June 20, 1937 in Feilnbach. He was buried at the forest cemetery in Munich with a state ceremony in which Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess took part. On the coffin lay a Nazi flag with the swastika. Those present were forced to give a Hitler salute. Although eight Benedictine abbots were present, no speeches were given. The abbot praeses of the Beuron congregation Raphael Molitor held the pontifical request . Chess leader's successor, Abbot Arnošt Vykoukal, had a requiem celebrated in Prague's Emaus Monastery . The grave in the Munich forest cemetery was leveled in 1987. The honorary doctorate was not withdrawn after 1945.

literature

  • Karl Rehberger : The pens of Upper Austria under the swastika. In: Rudolf Zinnhobler , The Diocese of Linz in the Third Reich , Linz 1979, pp. 245–247.
  • Roman Pencil : Abbot Alban Chess Manager OSB. Between loyalty to the church and the Hitler cult. in: Historisches Jahrbuch 115 (1995), pp. 170-187.
  • Alfred Läpple : Adolf Hitler - Psychogram of a Catholic childhood . Christiana Verlag, Stein am Rhein 2001, ISBN 3-717-11094-2 , pp. 173-178.
  • Jaroslav Šebek: Abbots Alban Chess Manager OSB and Ernst Vykoukal OSB . In: The Benedictines and the Third Reich , (Laacher Hefte No. 7), Maria Laach 2002, pp. 29–48.
  • Willi Eisele: Abbot Alban Chess Manager OSB (1861–1937) and his environment: Approaching a colorful personality - a workshop report. Part I: 1861 to 1921 . In: Beuroner Forum , Vol. 7 (2015), pp. 95-109.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inge Steinstrasse: Wanderer between the political powers. Father Nikolaus von Lutterotti OSB (1892–1955) and the Grüssau Abbey in Lower Silesia . Böhlau Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20429-7 , pp. 81-83
  2. ^ Inge Steinsträßer: Father Nikolaus von Lutterotti (1892–1955) Benedictines in Prague and Grüssau - wanderers between the political powers . In: Beuroner Forum 2011, p. 80
  3. ^ Historical archive of the NSDAP
  4. ↑ Entry in Benedictine Lexicon, but without any indication of where the pontifical request was held.
  5. ↑ Ekkart Sauser :  Albanus chess director. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1301-1303.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  6. ↑ Collective review: revocation of doctoral degrees
personal data
SURNAME Chess Director, Albanus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chess director, Alban; Chess leader, Jakob (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German abbot of the Prague Emauskloster and supporter of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1937
Place of death Feilnbach