August Pieper (theologian)

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August Pieper

August Pieper (born March 14, 1866 in Eversberg , today a district of Meschede ; † September 25, 1942 in Paderborn ) was a German theologian and chairman of the Volksverein for Catholic Germany .

Live and act

Pieper was born the first of thirteen children to an arable family. One of his brothers was the priest and early National Socialist Lorenz Pieper . After graduating, he did a double doctorate in theology and philosophy in Rome . Since 1890 he has dedicated himself as a chaplain to the pastoral care of the working class in Bochum . He became an employee of Franz Heat in his Volksverein for Catholic Germany . As its head, he expanded the organization at the association's headquarters in Mönchengladbach . Among other things, a printing company and a publishing house were established. Under his leadership, the Volksverein developed into the largest Catholic social organization in the world by 1914 with over 800,000 members.

Initially, the association operated mainly anti-social-democratic propaganda, but under the leadership of Pieper it increasingly advocated equal rights for workers and became a proponent of practical social work in the Catholic milieu . In this context he campaigned against violent opposition in the so-called trade union dispute for the Christian trade unions . The practical work of the organization included the dissemination of national science and other knowledge in brochures and courses. Numerous functionaries of the Christian trade unions such as Jakob Kaiser or Karl Arnold owed fundamental knowledge to the association.

Pieper represented the Cologne-Land constituency for the Center Party in the Prussian House of Representatives from 1907 to 1918 and the Krefeld constituency in the German Reichstag from 1907 to 1918 .

After the First World War , the cultivation of religious and moral forces became more important for Pieper as the pillars of a new state and economic order. For this and other reasons, he resigned as General Director of the People's Association as early as 1919. This was also reflected in the work of the people's association. This lost its importance as early as the 1920s and was destroyed by the National Socialists after 1933 . Pieper tried to work as the author of a Catholic weekly newspaper in Paderborn for social Catholicism, and died alone in 1942. Werner Neuhaus's analysis of the legacy, which until recently was only partially known, gives a new picture: Pieper, who began in 1932 to " Bridge building "shows, made his peace with National Socialism in 1933 and supported the Nazi regime in his writings until the end of his life.

Fonts (selection)

  • Popular Education Aspirations - Their Needs and Means . Mönchengladbach, 1899.
  • Social Conferences among the Clergy - Your Organization and Activities. With an appendix: Recommended writings for presides and social teaching courses in workers' and journeymen's associations . Mönchengladbach, 1902
  • Servants question and servants' associations . Mönchengladbach, 1908.
  • Democratic demands and German freedom . Mönchengladbach, 1918.
  • From the labor movement to the working class . Mönchengladbach, 1920.
  • The German people's state and democracy in form . Mönchengladbach, 1923
  • The state idea of ​​the German nation . Mönchengladbach, 1929

literature

Web links

Wikisource: August Pieper  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography in: Bureau des Reichstag (ed.): Reichstag manual. Twelfth legislative term. Completed April 3, 1907 . Norddeutsche Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1907, p. 340, picture on p. 479
  2. ↑ Bernhard Mann (edit.): Biographical manual for the Prussian House of Representatives. 1867-1918. With the collaboration of Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1988, p. 300 (handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties: vol. 3); for the election results see Thomas Kühne: Handbook of elections to the Prussian House of Representatives 1867–1918. Election results, election alliances and election candidates (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 6). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5182-3 , pp. 705-708.
  3. ↑ Imperial Statistical Office (Ed.): Statistics of the Reichstag elections of 1907. Verlag von Puttkammer & Mühlbrecht, Berlin 1907, p. 88 (special publication on the quarterly books on statistics of the German Empire) - Fritz Specht, Paul Schwabe: Die Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1907. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives. 2nd edition supplemented by an appendix. Addendum. The Reichstag election of 1907 (12th legislative period). Verlag Carl Heymann, Berlin 1908, p. 49 - Imperial Statistical Office (Ed.): The Reichstag elections of 1912 . Issue 2. Verlag von Puttkammer & Mühlbrecht, Berlin 1913, p. 94 (Statistics of the German Reich, Vol. 250)
  4. ↑ Cf. primary sources in: Werner Neuhaus, August Pieper and National Socialism. About the susceptibility of right-wing Catholicism to folk-nationalist thinking. Norderstedt 2017, pp. 73–170
personal data
SURNAME Pieper, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Eversberg
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1942
Place of death Paderborn