Anton Gmelch

Anton Gmelch, around 1850

Anton Gmelch (born June 4, 1821 in Emsing , Bavaria ; † March 26, 1905 in Regensburg ) was a Catholic priest , teacher and member of the state parliament in Liechtenstein .

biography

In the diocese of Eichstätt

Gmelch was the (adoptive) son of Katharina geb. Bimer from Emsing and Kaspar Gmelch. He received his education from 1832 at the Latin school in Eichstätt (Bavaria) and at the grammar school in Neuburg an der Donau . From 1840 he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich . On August 10, 1845, he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Eichstätt in Eichstätt and 14 days later he celebrated the primacy in his home town of Emsing in the Anlautertal . He then worked as a pastoral worker in Stöckelsberg near Neumarkt in Upper Palatinate until 1847 .

In 1847 he was appointed as a teacher at the teachers' college in Eichstätt. Here he worked as a prefect until 1853 , that is, as a supervisor for the pupils, and under the headmaster Inspector Raymund Schlecht as his deputy.

In the diocese of Chur

After Gmelch made a trip to Switzerland in 1852, he moved to the canton school in Chur in Graubünden as Konviktdirektor and teacher for religion and German in 1853 . In 1861 he gave up teaching there after the parish of Balzers , located in the south of the Principality of Liechtenstein and, like all of Liechtenstein, part of the diocese of Chur , had elected him pastor. In 1862 he also became secretary of the Liechtenstein chapter of priests; In the same year his “Style and Reading Book” for schools and for self-teaching was published, with which he called himself back to mind as a teacher. But it took another five years before he returned to school: in 1867 he gave up the parsonage of Balzers and became rector of the Catholic canton school in St. Gallen .

In the diocese of Regensburg

After only a year he gave up this post and returned to Germany, where he was director of the teachers' college and the deaf-mute institution in Straubing (Bavaria) from 1868 to 1874.

In 1874 he was appointed canon by King Ludwig II of Bavaria at the collegiate monastery “Our Lady of the Old Chapel” in Regensburg, where he served as monastery dean from 1879 to 1889.

In the Liechtenstein Parliament

Even as pastor of Balzers, Gmelch had been given the school commissioner for the Principality of Liechtenstein in 1862. In the same year he was elected to the Liechtenstein Landtag and was one of three foreigners there; The lawyer Markus Kessler from Sigmaringen and the realteacher Gregor Fischer from Würzburg sat on the committee with him . At the opening of the Landtag, Gmelch pointed out that he was honored to be “allowed to sit in the Liechtenstein Landtag as a Bavarian”. He later wrote: "... I admire a constitution that is so generous that it gives non-residents the right to have an opinion on the country's immediate affairs". On December 10, 1862, the state parliament elected him as the second state secretary. From December 29, 1862 he was a member of the commission for the formation of rules of procedure, and from February 25, 1863 of the commission to replace the toe. On May 30, 1863, he was re-elected as state secretary and on July 17, 1865, he joined the commission for the amendment to the School Act. He was elected a third time on April 15, 1867 as Secretary of the State Parliament. With the regret of the state parliament, he announced a few weeks later, on May 31, 1867, that he was leaving the state parliament to go to St. Gallen as school rector.

Honors

• Knight of the Bavarian Order of Merit of St. Michael , 1st class (1887)

Own publication

• Style and reading book for middle classes (for middle classes of high schools, for junior high schools, school teacher seminars and daughter schools) and for self-teaching. Grubenmann, Chur 1862.

literature

• Helmut Hawlata (editor): From the Royal Teachers' College to the Musisches Gymnasium 1835–1985. Festschrift and annual report 1984/85. Gabrieli-Gymnasium, Eichstätt 1985.
• Camila Weber: The deans, canons and vicars of the old chapel. In: Contributions to the history of the diocese of Regensburg. Volume 34, 2000.
• History of the city of Regensburg. Pustet, Regensburg 2000.

Web links

• Franz Näscher: Gmelch, Anton. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein .