Athanasius Wolff

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Athanasius Wolff OSB , born as Hermann Michael Wolff , (* July 17, 1931 in Kiel ; † August 5, 2013 in Maria Laach ) was a German Benedictine .

family

Hermann Michael Wolff was born the son of Michael Wolff, a bank director. He worked in Kiel before he moved to Berlin with his family . His mother Margarete, née Heise, who came from the area around Bremen , was classified by the National Socialists as half- Jewish or a Jewish mixed race during the time of the Third Reich (1933–1945) . In Berlin, the father separated from his wife, who then moved to Bremen with Hermann and his younger brother. Wolff was temporarily sent to a children's camp because of his Jewish origins. During the Second World War in Würzburgfound shelter, the mother and her two sons narrowly escaped death during an Allied bombing raid. These traumatic experiences had a massive influence on Hermann's youth and further development.

education

The school days were thus characterized by interruptions and frequent changes of school. On January 25, 1952, he joined the Catholic Church in an evangelical environment before he graduated from high school in Bremen . From the beginning of the 1950s he studied philosophy , history , German literature and theology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Georg August University in Göttingen .

In 1954, while still a student, he asked for admission to the Abbey of St. Boniface in Munich. However, due to his Prussian origins, he received a rejection from the strongly Bavarian convent. In 1955, the year before its 800th anniversary, it was accepted instead by the Maria Laach Abbey . There he received the religious name Athanasius and was able to continue and complete his studies after the novitiate both there and in the Archabbey of Beuron and at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg . In 1960 he was ordained a priest .

Act

Until the closure of the Laacher Hochschule in 1965, he worked there as a lecturer in philosophy. From 1969 he was co-founder and co-organizer of the “Autumn School for High Energy Physics in Maria Laach”, gave lectures on spiritual and social topics and led discussions with young scientists. Due to his origins from the Protestant church, he cultivated the ecumenical movement .

Until 2005 he worked as a guest father, looking after guests of the abbey, and in the 1970s also the former Reich Minister Albert Speer (1905–1981), who regularly withdrew to the monastery. From this Father Athanasius was repeatedly invited to the family estate Speers in Heidelberg . He became Speer's pastor and, in contrast to many historians, recognized Speer's ambivalence in statements and actions. Only after Speer's death were his biographical manipulations and lies uncovered by new finds from the historian Matthias Schmidt's files .

watch TV

  • Secrets of the "Third Reich" . 6th, Speer's Deception . ZDF, TV documentary, Germany, 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary notice of Father Athanasius Hermann Wolff OSB ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: maria-laach.de, accessed on July 26, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / maria-laach.de
  2. ↑ Klosterzeitung No. 37, December 13, 2013, pp. 3–5  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: maria-laach.de, accessed on July 26, 2015@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.maria-laach.de  
  3. ↑ 45th Autumn School for High Energy Physics Maria Laach ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 3rd – 13th September 2013, p. 5, on: uni-siegen.de, accessed on July 26, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / maria-laach.physik.uni-siegen.de
  4. ↑ ZDF television documentary Secrets of the “Third Reich”, 6th, Speer's deception , from 24:39 min. On: youtube.de, accessed on July 26, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Athanasius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolff, Hermann Michael (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German father of the Catholic Benedictine order
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH 5th August 2013
Place of death Maria Laach