Alfons Erb

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Alfons Erb (born November 4, 1907 in Essen , † December 24, 1983 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was the founder of the Maximilian Kolbe factory .

background

The parents were the architect Paulus Erb and Maria Helene Carolin, geb. Mehring. Alfons Erb studied economics in Bonn and Berlin . He finished his studies in 1932 with a degree in economics, but the National Socialists refused to give him a doctorate . Erb had been editor of Vom Frohen Leben since 1929, a monthly published by Ernst Thrasolt . This was banned by the Nazis in 1933. Erb then switched to the “Berliner Kirchenblatt”. In 1936 he was imprisoned by the Gestapo for a few months . In 1938, after the church gazette was banned, he became press officer for the Berlin bishop and later Cardinal Konrad Graf von Preysing , a staunch opponent of National Socialism. In 1940 Erb was called up for military service, which he served as a medic until the end of the war in 1945 .

In 1946, Alfons Erb became chief editor of the German edition of the Franco-German magazine "Documents / Documents" in Offenburg . In 1949 he moved to Bonn as head of the press office of the German Council of the European Movement. From 1955 to 1973 he headed the press department at the German Caritas Association in Freiburg. He was the editor and publisher of the “Freiburg Article and Editorial Service”.

Foundation of the Maximilian Kolbe factory

From 1957 to 1971 Alfons Erb was Vice President of the German branch of the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi . With Pax Christi he went on a penitential pilgrimage to Poland in 1964 and saw the misery of the Polish concentration camp victims. Since no help was coming from the Federal Republic at that time, the idea of ​​an aid organization for the victims of the concentration camps and ghettos matured.

The Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk was founded in 1973 by a resolution of the Central Committee of German Catholics and 13 other associations. The founding was largely driven by Alfons Erb, he was also the first managing director of the plant until 1982 . During his term of office, among other things, the recovery and encounter stays of concentration camp victims from Poland in the Federal Republic of Germany (1978) began.

In 1982 his daughter Elisabeth († 2000) replaced him in the management of the plant.

Fonts (selection)

  • Witnesses of God. A series of Heiligenleben. Herder Verlag , Freiburg 1935.
  • Don Bosco . Christkönigsverlag vom Weißen Kreuz, Meitingen 1935.
  • Thomas More . John Fisher . Caritasverlag, Freiburg 1935.
  • Decision for Christ. Pustet , Regensburg 1937.
  • Lived Christianity. Character images from 19th century German Catholicism. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1938.
  • Francis Xaverius . Ambassador of Christ in the Far East. Salvator-Verlag, Berlin 1940.
  • Bernhard Lichtenberg . Provost of St. Hedwig in Berlin. More Verlag, Berlin 1946.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Erb, Alfons
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German editor and founder of the Catholic foundation
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1983
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau