Anton Straub

Father Anton Straub SJ, Professor of Dogmatics. Photo of the obituary in the pilgrim calendar, Speyer, 1933

Anton Straub (born July 15, 1852 in Großbockenheim , now Bockenheim an der Weinstrasse , † December 5, 1931 in Vienna ) was a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Speyer , later a Jesuit, theologian and author.

Origin and youth

Anton Straub was born as the son of the school teacher Georg Straub and his wife Katharina Straub. Bescher was born in Großbockenheim . Together with his one year younger brother - the later privy councilor and surgeon Georg Straub - he first attended the Latin school in Grünstadt , then the grammar school in Speyer . There was also Franz Bettinger , the future cardinal, his classmate, with whom he was to become a lifelong friend.

Anton Straub felt called to be a priest and was accepted into the German college in Rome, the famous " Germanicum ", in 1869 because of his great talent . This is run by the Jesuits and is still open to priest candidates from all countries with the German tongue and from the old Hungarian half of Austria . Even in Straub's time, the alumni wore red gowns as a sign of their affiliation and were therefore popularly known as "the crabs". Basically, it is an elite of local seminarians who are sent there at the suggestion of their superiors. They were and are considered to be particularly loyal to Rome and one speaks of the so-called “Romanitas” of the Germanicists, which is why they were particularly hostile and marginalized during the time of the Kulturkampf, during the Nazi rule and in the communist sphere of influence of the Eastern Bloc. Quite a few of them nevertheless reached the highest church offices as prelates, theology professors, bishops and cardinals. As a Germanic scholar, Anton Straub, a theology student from Bockenheim, attended the First Vatican Council .

As a priest, Jesuit and scholar

Anton Straub had studied philosophy and theology in Rome for seven years, was ordained a priest on June 4, 1875 , and returned to his home diocese of Speyer in 1876 ​​with two doctoral degrees . There he was sent first as a chaplain to Weyher , then to Homburg . On his way home from Rome, he asked the general of the Jesuits for admission to the order and received permission to do so. However, since the Kulturkampf was raging in Germany and the Jesuits had just been expelled again, Anton Straub joined this order in 1878 - against the will of his parents - at St. Andrä in Carinthia . In the Habsburg Monarchy, the Society of Jesus was able to develop freely and there were no obstacles in its way. His obituary describes Father Straub as a "scholarly nature with a deep talent for speculation" , who accordingly found use in his order. After his novitiate he went to Innsbruck in 1879 to do his habilitation. In 1886 Father Straub became a lecturer, in 1894 an associate professor and in 1898 a full professor for dogmatics at the theological faculty of the University of Innsbruck . Here he taught as a professor until 1900. After he had to leave the university due to illness at the end of 1900, he was appointed honorary professor in 1901, but was never able to resume teaching.

The obituary says that his brother Georg Straub from Edenkoben , a well-known surgeon and general senior physician in the Bavarian Army , saved his life in Innsbruck at the time. In November 1902, Father Anton Straub withdrew and moved to the Jesuit College in Kalksburg near Vienna , where his most important publications were made. There he wrote the two-volume work “The Church” in Latin , which made him known among Catholic scholars all over the world. It was published in 1912 under the title “De Ecclesia Christi” and a recent appraisal stated: “In it he gathered a wealth of material - an extraordinary achievement for the time.” During his time in Kalksburg he was engaged in research and development. a. with the analysis of the personal act of faith, about which he published the book "De analysi fidei" in 1922 . A large number of shorter theological treatises from his pen can be found between 1887 and 1926 in the “Journal for Catholic Theology” (Vienna / Innsbruck, founded in 1877). For political reasons, his book on the still open “Roman Question”, which had preoccupied Father Straub since he had witnessed the occupation of the Papal States by Italian troops in 1870, was not published. At that time, however, a solution in the form of a papal dwarf state " Vatican City " was already being prepared , which finally became a reality in 1929 and which one did not want to endanger unnecessarily through such publications.

From 1902 until his death on December 5, 1931, Father Anton Straub worked quietly as a priest and theologian in the Jesuit college in Kalksburg near Vienna. He was buried in a community grave of the Jesuits at the Kalksburger Friedhof in today's 23rd district of Liesing in Vienna .

Post fame

" Der Pilger " (church newspaper of the Speyer diocese) published a detailed and honorable obituary for Father Anton Straub (No. 50 of December 13, 1931). The “Pilgrim Calendar” from 1933 contains a subsequent short obituary and probably the only surviving photo of him. In our day the Jesuit received a minor appreciation in the “Lexicon for Theology and Church” (Freiburg ² 1964) and in the “Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon ” by Traugott Bautz (Volume XI, 1996, also available on the Internet), as well as a note in the “Lexicon Palatinate personalities ” by Viktor Carl. “ Die Rheinpfalz ” (local edition Unterhaardter Rundschau) published a commemorative article to Father Anton Straub on February 15, 2008 with the title: “From Bockenheim to Rome, to the German Jesuit College” (author: Joachim Specht).

In Honolulu , Hawaii (USA), the newly founded medical research center "Straub Medical Research Institute" and the "Straub Clinic" have been located since 1961, after the extremely respected doctor Georg Francis Straub (1879–1966), the nephew of Father Anton, who emigrated there Named Straub.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 200th anniversary of the Progymnasium Grünstadt , list of still living students, Riedel Verlag, Grünstadt, 1929, p. 33
2. ^ Margit Ksoll-Marcon :  Straub, Anton. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 11, Bautz, Herzberg 1996, ISBN 3-88309-064-6 , Sp. 24.
3. ^ To the Straub Clinic in Honolulu ; Genealogical page for nephew Dr. Georg Francis Straub