Aloys Pichler

Epitaph on the church with Aloys Pichler's grave

Aloys Pichler , occasionally Alois Pichler , (born November 7, 1833 in Burgkirchen am Wald in Upper Bavaria, today in Tüßling ; † June 3, 1874 in Siegsdorf near Traunstein ) was a German Catholic church writer and librarian.

Life

After completing his studies, Aloys Pichler was ordained a priest in 1859 at the age of 26 and worked as a pastor and librarian . In 1861 he received his doctorate in theology in Munich .

As a supporter of the Catholic theologian Ignaz von Döllinger , Pichler quickly came into conflict with the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Munich. The Archbishop of Munich and Freising Gregor von Scherr threatened Pichler with excommunication .

That is why Pichler accepted a position as librarian at the imperial court in Saint Petersburg in 1868 . He followed this without having officially left the Roman Catholic Church. His journey to the Tsarist Empire was almost like an escape. At the czar's court, Pichler quickly became moody at his new job. This depression escalated to a mental illness in which he began to compulsively steal books ( bibliomania ).

In 1870 Pichler was accused of this and sentenced by a court to banishment to Siberia for “theft committed by a foreigner” . Through the intercession of Prince Leopold of Bavaria , Tsar Alexander II became aware of Pichler and pardoned him. Since 1871 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Pichler returned to Germany during the Franco-German War and settled in Siegsdorf near Traunstein. There he died on June 3, 1874 at the age of 40.

Fonts (selection)

• History of the ecclesiastical separation between the Orient and Occident from the earliest beginnings to the recent present. 2 volumes. Rieger, Munich 1864-1865;
  • Volume 1: Byzantine Church. 1864, digitized ;
  • Volume 2: The Russian, Hellenic, and the rest of the Eastern Churches with a dogmatic part. 1865, digitized .
• Leibniz's theology from all the printed and many unprinted sources. With special regard to the current ecclesiastical situation. For the first time shown in full. 2 volumes. Cotta, Munich 1869–1870.
• The real obstacles and the basic conditions of a radical reform of the Catholic Church first in Germany. Fues, Munich 1870, digitized .

literature

• Franz Heinrich Reusch:  Pichler, Aloys . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 103 f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Aloys Pichler in the catalog of the German National Library