August Naegle

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August Naegle as rector of the University of Prague

August Naegle (born July 28, 1869 in Annweiler am Trifels , Palatinate , † October 12, 1932 in Prague ) was a German Catholic theologian and church historian . As the "Iron Rector" of the German University in Prague in the years up to 1932, he managed to keep a German-speaking university in the ČSR , which was founded in 1918 .

Life

August Naegle was born as the son of the married couple Thomas Naegle (1838–1920), main teacher in Annweiler am Trifels, and Maria Josephine, née Schmitt (1842–1909), daughter of a winemaker and landowner in Edesheim. After graduating from the Episcopal Konvikt in Speyer, he studied theology at the University of Munich in the winter semester of 1887/88 ; In the winter semester of 1888/89 he matriculated at the University of Würzburg . During his studies he became a member of the Catholic student associations KDStV Aenania Munich and KDStV Markomannia Würzburg . On November 25, 1891, he was ordained a priest from Bishop Joseph Georg von Ehrler in Speyer .

In addition to further studies at the University of Würzburg, he worked as a chaplain in Retzbach , ( Lower Franconia ), in Annweiler and Weyher ( Diocese of Speyer ) and as a pastor (house chaplain) for a noble family in Bregenz .

He was on July 27, 1898. Doctor of the University of Würzburg theology doctorate . From January 1901 he worked as a royal court priest in Munich . When he took up his studies again, took place on 28 February 1903 the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Munich in the history of dogma and doctrine , the Habilitation . On October 1, 1903, he became associate professor for church history and patrology at the Theological University in Passau .

Working in Prague

Three years later, on November 1, 1906, August Naegle received a professorship for church history and patrology at the theological faculty of the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague . Four times he held the office of dean of this faculty, two years in a row the office of rector of the university (1918/19 and 1919/20) - which is unique in the history of Prague University - and a third time in the academic year 1929/30, where, despite poor health, he accepted the unanimous vote.

After 1918, (end of World War I ), the establishment of Czechoslovakia , the reorganization of the Charles University in Prague with the admission of women to study in Prague (see also: Women's studies in the German-speaking area ), Naegle emerged as a staunch advocate of the rights of the German University . It is thanks to him that the German University was preserved after the proclamation of Czechoslovakia; He was therefore given the honorary name "Iron Magnificence " as a memento . When Naegle was elected rector of the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague in 1918, the question of the continued existence of this university arose above all in the insignia dispute, and not just whether it was recognized by the state alongside the Czech-speaking University Univerzita Karlova . Naegle succeeded in laborious negotiations to secure the existence of the university and to soften the university law compared to its original version. He achieved that it was no longer carried out in his lifetime.

Since his arrival in Prague, Naegle has also devoted himself to intensive academic work in the field of church history in Bohemia as well as popular academic work in numerous organizations of the Germans of the First Czechoslovak Republic, among others. a. in the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia , member of the Society for the Promotion of German Science, Art and Literature . In 1926 he became a senator of the German Academy of Sciences in Munich .

Political life

August Naegle belonged to the German Christian Social Party and from 1920 to the German National Party in Czechoslovakia and was parliamentary group leader in the Senate from 1920 to 1925 . When it came to naming a German as a candidate against Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk for the office of President in 1920 , all German parties agreed on him. Naegle not only developed a rich teaching activity; In 1930 representatives of the Sudeten Germans elected him to represent them in the second presidential election.

With his death in Prague in 1932, the Catholic Sudeten Germans lost one of their spiritual leaders, the university a respected scholar, their "Iron Magnificence" and the Roman Catholic Church a good priest . His body was buried on October 14, 1932 in Prague - Smíchov at the Malvazinka cemetery, at the beginning of March 1936, according to his last wish, transferred to his birthplace Annweiler and buried there on March 4 in the mountain cemetery.

His successor at the chair was Eduard Winter .

Works

Naegle's works deal primarily with the church teacher Johannes Chrysostomus as well as with church history in Bohemia , which also included the national saint Wenceslaus of Bohemia and the time of the Hussites .

selection

  • The Eucharistic Doctrine of St John Chrysostom , 1900
  • The alleged baptism of the Bohemian Duke Borivoy , 1910
  • The establishment of the diocese of Prague , 1910
  • Germanic Christians in Bohemia before the immigration of the Slavs , 1913
  • Church history of Bohemia , 1915–1918
  • The solemn hair clip and hair consecration of St. Wenceslas , 1917
  • The Prague German University after the upheaval , 1921
  • August Naegle, Dominik Duka (foreword): St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia . 1st edition. Sabat publishing house, Kulmbach 2014, ISBN 978-3-943506-22-8 , p. 160 .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Naegle, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and rector
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Annweiler , Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 1932
Place of death Prague