Albert Stohr

Bishop Albert Stohr 1959

Albert Stohr (born November 13, 1890 in Friedberg ; † June 3, 1961 in Seligenstadt ) was Bishop of Mainz .

Live and act

Training and activity as a priest

Albert Stohr was the son of the railway chief secretary Emil Stohr and his wife Eva Elisabeth from Friedberg ; Albert graduated from the Augustinian School in Friedberg in 1909 . He then attended the seminary in Mainz , where he made friends with Romano Guardini . Stohr received on 19 October 1913 in the Mainz Cathedral , the ordination . As a priest he was first sub-rector of the Mainz Konvikt in 1914 , chaplain at St. Emmeran in Mainz in 1915 , sub-rector of the Bensheim Konvikt in 1916 , chaplain in Viernheim in 1918 and substitute at the Bensheim teachers' college in 1919/20 . From 1920 he studied at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and received his doctorate there in 1921 . After further studies in Münster , Rome and Giessen , he completed his habilitation in dogmatics with Martin Grabmann in Munich in 1924 with a thesis on the doctrine of the Trinity of the Dominican Ulrich von Strasbourg . In 1925 he received a call to a professorship in church history and homiletics at the seminary in Mainz and was there 1926-1935 professor of dogmatic theology. At the same time he taught from 1925 to 1932 at the Pedagogical Institute in Mainz. Among other things, he was involved in the Görres Society .

From 1931 to 1933 he was a member of the German Center Party in the Hessian state parliament .

Published in 1932 Stohr in Mainz Journal an article titled "Why Hitler did not want to" about the outlook of the Nazis and the "new Blutmythus" the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg and came to the conclusion that Catholics and convinced Protestants Hitler should not choose .

Term of office as bishop in the time of National Socialism

After the death of his predecessor Ludwig Maria Hugo , he was elected bishop by the Mainz cathedral chapter on June 10, 1935 , and on July 17, 1935 by Pius XI. confirmed as bishop of the diocese of Mainz . At the age of 44 he was Germany's youngest bishop. He was ordained bishop on August 24, 1935 by the Archbishop of Freiburg, Conrad Gröber ; Co- consecrators were Ludwig Sebastian , Bishop of Speyer , and Joannes Baptista Sproll , Bishop of Rottenburg . Albert Stohr chose the episcopal motto: Dominus fortitudo - The Lord is (my) strength . The National Socialist Reich Governor Jakob Sprenger delayed the taking of the oath on the constitution by Stohr, so that Stohr could not take over the administration of the diocese until September 21, 1935. The first ten years of Stohr's term of office were marked by the conflict with the National Socialist regime.

In 1937 Stohr himself read the papal encyclical With Burning Concern against National Socialism and its consequences and took responsibility for its reproduction, which in the diocese of Mainz had been carried out by its own resources, without commissioning professional printing companies. In the same year Stohr was appointed speaker for church youth work by the Fulda Bishops' Conference . This was particularly tricky, as youth work outside the church walls was forbidden in the harmonized system of National Socialism.

House sign at Villa Rosengarten 2; former residence of the Mainz bishops Albert Stohr and Hermann Cardinal Volk ; Coat of arms of Bishop Albert Stohr

Stohr was repeatedly the target of National Socialist smear campaigns; Pilgrimages were banned because Stohr criticized the National Socialists. Since church work to the outside world became increasingly impossible, he convened a diocesan synod on Pentecost 1937 in order to at least protect the existing structures and services against even worse attacks and to maintain the resistance in the diocese.

After the apartment of the Rottenburg bishop Joannes Baptista Sproll was stormed by the National Socialists in July 1938 and Sproll was forcibly abducted from his episcopal city by the Gestapo in August, Stohr protested in a circular to the bishops against the acceptance of the assaults against Sproll. At the same time, Stohr turned against Cardinal Innitzer's church policy .

In 1940, the Bishops' Conference gave Stohr not only the youth department but also the management of the permanent “Liturgical Commission”, in which he worked out important preliminary stages to the Second Vatican Council for the German-speaking dioceses .

Although in Stohr's time it was “a stylistic element of the Catholic episcopate that one expresses oneself more fundamentally and takes less position on current political statements” and despite the harassment by the National Socialists, Stohr turned very clearly against the inhumanity of the in his sermons National Socialists. In 1937 he dealt critically with “people and race” in a pastoral letter, in his 1941 Christ the King sermon he castigated the destruction of so-called “life unworthy of life” and demanded compliance with human rights. Stohr spoke out publicly against the Nazi feature film Ich klage an (1941) , which widely propagated the murders of the sick during the Nazi era .

In August 1943 he planned to intervene by letter to the Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick in favor of the persecuted Jews, which he did not carry out.

In the emergency that prevailed during the Second World War , he found shelter for several people, although the Bishop's Palace in Mainz had already been badly damaged during the bombing of 1942 . Since there was a danger of being abducted by the National Socialists in 1945, Stohr had to go into hiding in the evangelical Engelstadt and hide until the American army advanced. Three days after the Americans took the city of Mainz, Stohr returned to his episcopal city on March 24, 1945 and began rebuilding the church and the country.

Post-war activity

In March 1945 he announced the restoration and deepening of religious life as the goals of the rebuilding and demanded a clear commitment to a social and Christian constitutional state.

After the war, Stohr spoke out against collective blaming of all Germans and also warned that excessive denazification measures against those with low stress and fellow travelers could slow down reconstruction. He feared that this would push the Germans from the extreme right to the extreme left. In addition, Stohr worked with the occupying powers for a quick release of the prisoners of war and for better care for them.

He was also committed to the integration of the numerous expellees. In the Diocese of Mainz alone, the number of Catholics grew from around 439,000 at the beginning of his episcopate in 1935 to 741,000 at the end of 1961. During his tenure, he inaugurated over 100 new church buildings.

Stohr also organized the first German Catholic Day after the war, which took place in Mainz in 1948 with around 180,000 visitors.

Due to the high workload, an auxiliary bishop, Josef Maria Reuss, was appointed to the Mainz bishop for the first time since the fall of the old Archdiocese of Mainz in 1954 .

From 1955 the war damage to Mainz Cathedral was removed; In 1960 Stohr was able to consecrate the new high altar to celebrate his 25th anniversary as a bishop.

In 1959 Stohr was appointed to the Theological Commission in preparation for the Second Vatican Council , but died before it began on a company trip on June 3, 1961 at the age of 70.

Appreciation

Back wall of the west crypt of Mainz Cathedral, with grave slab of Bishop Albert Stohr

During his term of office, National Socialism , of which he was a staunch opponent, fell, the Second World War and the subsequent reconstruction of the cathedral , which, like the city, suffered great damage in the Second World War.

Together with Romano Guardini , he was instrumental in preparing the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council .

In order to maintain the regional church history, he worked together with other dioceses on the Rhine for the establishment of the Society for Middle Rhine Church History . He promoted the re-establishment of the University of Mainz and the Catholic educational institutions in his diocese.

Stohr was involved in numerous social projects in the Holy Land . He was Grand Commander of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem .

He was particularly attached to the students; He was a member of the Catholic student associations KDStV Hohenstaufen Freiburg im Breisgau, VKDSt Hasso-Rhenania Mainz and VKDSt Saxonia Münster in the CV .

Most recently, Stohr advocated the rehabilitation of Romano Guardini, whose “progressist” attitude was the subject of teaching objections in Rome.

literature

• Ludwig Lenhart : Bishop Dr. theol. Dr. iur. hc Albert Stohr of Mainz (died) [obituary]. In: AmrhKG 13 (1961), p. 477.
• Ludwig Falck: The successors of Willigis on the Mainz chair . In: Wilhelm Jung on behalf of the diocesan bishop and the cathedral chapter (ed.): 1000 years of Mainz Cathedral: (975–1975) . Will u. Change; Exhibition catalog u. Manual; Exhibition d. Bishop Cathedral u. Diocesan Museum from May 31st to May 31st August 1975 Publisher = Bischöfl. Cathedral u. Diocesan Museum. Mainz 1975, DNB  760445761 , Albert Stohr, p. 111 f .
• Karl Cardinal Lehmann: “Dominus fortitudo - The Lord is my strength.” Bishop Dr. Albert Stohr (1890–1961) - Shepherd in difficult times. In: Franz J. Felten (Hrsg.): Mainz (arch) bishops in their time (=  Mainz lectures ). tape 12 , 2008, p. 143-165 ( online [accessed November 19, 2011]).
• Werner Marzi: Albert Stohr, diocesan bishop 1935–1961 . In: Institute for Historical Regional Studies, Elmar Rettinger, Peter Eulberg (Hrsg.): 2000 years of Mainz. History of the city . digital. CD-ROM. 2009 ( regionalgeschichte.net [accessed November 19, 2011]).
• Dominus Fortitudo. Bishop Albert Stohr (1890–1961) . With contributions by Jürgen Bärsch , Hermann-Josef Braun, Leonhard Hell, Michael Kißener, Karl Lehmann , Barbara Nichtweiß, Eva Rödel, Leo Veith, Peter Walter and others. a. as well as a selection of writings and sermons by Albert Stohr 1928–1945. In: Karl Cardinal Lehmann in collaboration with Peter Reifenberg and Barbara Nichtweiß (eds.): New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz 2011 . Mainz / Würzburg 2012, p. 472 pages ( ISBN 978-3-429-03555-6 (Echter); ISBN 978-3-934450-55-4 (Diocese of Mainz); also as an e-book).
• Sigrid Duchhardt-Bösken :  Albert Stohr. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 1523-1526.
• Karl Cardinal Lehmann: Lecture on Albert Stohr. In: Mainzer Bistumsnachrichten , No. 5, February 8, 2006

Web links

• Literature by and about Albert Stohr in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Albert Stohr on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl Cardinal Lehmann: Dominus fortitudo - The Lord is my strength. Bishop Dr. Albert Stohr (1890–1961) - Shepherd in difficult times. In: Franz J. Felten (Hrsg.): Mainz (arch) bishops in their time (=  Mainz lectures ). tape 12 , 2008, p. 143-165 ( online [accessed November 19, 2011]).
2. ↑ Catholic protest against “euthanasia” and cinema propaganda for the murders, by Christian Kuchler . Misspelling of the first name.
3. ↑ Michael Kißener: Dominus Fortitudo. Bishop Albert Stohr (1890–1961) . Ed .: Karl Cardinal Lehmann in collaboration with Peter Reifenberg and Barbara Nichtweiß . Mainz / Würzburg 2012. pp. 148–150

predecessor	Office	successor
Ludwig Maria Hugo	Bishop of Mainz 1935–1961	Hermann Cardinal Volk