August Benninghaus

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Father August Benninghaus

Father August Benninghaus SJ (born November 7, 1880 in Druchhorn , † July 20, 1942 in Dachau concentration camp ) was a German Jesuit and martyr .

Life

His parents were the farmer Georg Benninghaus (born in Brokstreek / Essen as Georg Große Beilage, called Korfhage) and his wife Caroline Benninghaus. August Benninghaus had several siblings: Julius, Agnes, Theodor, Gustav, Johanna, Georg and the politician Heinrich .

On April 26, 1900, he entered the novitiate of the Jesuits in Blijenbeek a / Netherlands, and received on 24 August 1913 by the Cologne archbishop and later cardinal Felix von Hartmann , the sacrament of Holy Orders . In 1914 he was sent to England by his superior. He returned to Germany in 1916 when exchanging prisoners of war. Here he volunteered for military service and was sent to the Macedonian front as a division pastor. There the division received a visit from Archbishop von Faulhaber , who later became a cardinal. After the end of the First World War he was entrusted with looking after the youth associations and with pastoral care at a hospital in Cologne-Deutz. In 1924 the Order gave him the office of a retreat master. As such he worked in Niederkassel am Rhein, Opladen , Münster and in the Bethlehem monastery near Bergheim / Erft. He then worked for two years as a people's missionary in Hanover . In 1928 he became diocesan president of the male communities in Münster. From 1929 he was known to the pastor of the St. Lamberti church, Clemens August Graf von Galen . Until 1941 he worked as a retreat master and people's missionary in the Kettelerheim in Münster.

In 1938 criminal proceedings were initiated against Father Benninghaus because of derogatory remarks about National Socialism (for offenses against the treachery law ). He said that the church had outlasted many empires. The proceedings brought before the special court in Dortmund ended for lack of evidence on October 25, 1939. On June 27, 1941 he was arrested again by the Secret State Police in Münster. He is said to have allegedly made anti-subversive statements during a retreat course for conscripts (military service) in the Katharinenstift in Ascheberg . He was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . There he was so ill-treated by two SS men that he fell and hit the edge of the table. He suffered a concussion , from the consequences of which he did not recover until his death.

  • Sign for the August Benninghaus School in Ankum

  • Stumbling block for Father August Benninghaus in Königsstrasse. 35 in Münster

On March 11, 1942, Father Benninghaus was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp , where the Catholic priests were gathered together in a so-called pastor's block . Father Benninghaus came into the block 24, room 1. This was added in 1942, lack disability block . This means that Father August was scheduled to be gassed in Hartheim Castle near Linz. As a result of hunger and weakness, his physical and mental condition deteriorated more and more until he was finally admitted to the infirmary. He starved to death on July 20, 1942. On August 31, 1942, an urn with ashes was sent to the parish office in Ankum . She was buried in the Ankum cemetery. The words "Märtyrertod Dachau" are written on the tomb.

Commemoration

  • The Ankum parish has named a street at the entrance to Ankum after Father Benninghaus as an honor and a warning.
  • In Artländer Dom a bronze plaque commemorates him.
  • The Ankumer Oberschule is named after August Benninghaus.
  • In Münster, a stumbling stone in front of the house at Königsstrasse 35 reminds of August Benninghaus.
  • The Catholic Church accepted August Benninghaus as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
  • The August Benninghaus Prize has been awarded annually since 2017.

literature

  • Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Ankum (Ed.): 800 years Druchhorn . Ankum 1988.
  • Vincent Lapomarda: The Jesuits and the Third Reich , Lewiston 1989 (Edwin Mellen Press), New York 14092, ISBN 0-7734-6265-1
  • Heinz von der Wall: Concentration camp prisoner number 29 373. Father August Benninghaus SJ from Druchhorn . In: Heimat-Jahrbuch "Osnabrücker Land 1990"
  • Joachim Kuropka (Ed.): Reports from Münster: 1924–1944. Secret and confidential reports from the police, Gestapo, NSDAP and their branches, state administration, jurisdiction and the Wehrmacht on the political and social situation in Münster , Münster 1992, ISBN 3-7923-0626-3 .
  • Hermann Scheipers: Gratwanderungen , Leipzig, 1997, ISBN 3-7462-1221-9 .
  • Helmut Moll (publisher on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume II, pp. 950–953.
  • Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus: P. August Benninghaus SJ - Martyrs from Druchhorn , Dinklage 2005², ISBN 3-938929-00-6 .
  • Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus: Witnesses for Faith , Verlag Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus, Dinklage 2005, ISBN 3-938929-06-5 .
  • Hans-Karl Seeger, Gabriele Latzel, Christa Bockholt (eds.): Otto Pies and Karl Leisner: Friendship in the Hell of the Dachau Concentration Camp , Pies Verlag, Sprockhövel 2007, ISBN 978-3-928441-66-7 .
  • Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus: August Benninghaus. Märtyrer , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2015, ISBN 978-3-7386-1093-2 .
  • Eduard Werner: Heroes and saints in dictatorships . Media Maria Verlag, Illertissen 2017, ISBN 978-3-9454013-0-9 , pp. 184-185.
  • Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus: August Benninghaus SJ , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2019, ISBN 978-3743141384 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus: Witnesses for Faith , Verlag Hermann Rieke-Benninghaus, Dinklage 2005, photo p. 20.
  2. ^ August Benninghaus Prize . Freundeskreis P.August Benninghaus SJ, accessed on July 21, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Benninghaus, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benninghaus, August SJ
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Druchhorn
DATE OF DEATH July 20, 1942
Place of death Dachau concentration camp