August call

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Memorial plaque for August Ruf at the St. Peter and Paul Church in Singen / Hohentwiel

August Ruf (born November 5, 1869 in Ettenheim , † April 8, 1944 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German Catholic clergyman, long-time pastor in Singen (Hohentwiel) and a victim of National Socialism.

Life

Origin and studies

August Ruf was born as one of five children of the cooper and farmer Kaspar Ruf and his wife Magdalena, nee. Vögele, born. He attended the Ettenheim elementary school, then the secondary school there and, from 1887, the grammar school in Freiburg. After graduating from high school in Freiburg in 1889 and then studying theology, August Ruf was ordained a priest on July 5, 1893 at the age of 23.

Pastor in Radolfzell and Singen

He was a pastor in Radolfzell for twelve years , first as vicar , then as chaplain attendant . There he founded u. a. a savings bank for the members of the Catholic workers' association .

In 1905 he became the parish priest in Singen; he held this office for 36 years, until his retirement on October 29, 1941. In the difficult times before, during and after the First World War , August Ruf proved to be a skilful and tireless organizer in a wide variety of areas: new construction and renovation of Churches and parish offices, nursing, youth work, kindergartens, associations, soup feeding for the poor, reading room, etc. a. m. He founded a vegetable growing cooperative, acquired land at the foot of the Hohentwiel and handed the garden land over to more than 100 families in need. 1926 judged to be dean of him. "Reputation merit is that the church life with the rapid development and rapid population growth has kept pace in singing" Politically, he was the Center Party near and campaigned openly for them, giving him sharp 1910 Attacks by the Liberals and even an anonymous death threat in 1913. August Ruf was personally friends with Matthias Erzberger .

Adversary of the National Socialists

August Ruf was targeted by the National Socialists early on. From 1936 he was spied on and warned by the Gestapo . He was insulted by the Nazis as "public enemy in priestly garb", "unteachable", "black burglar" and "pest of the people" who not only refused the German greeting , but also described this National Socialist gesture in his "inflammatory speeches" as "neo-paganism" . After he made no secret of his convictions in a parish letter, his typewriter and copier were confiscated and he was threatened with "further measures". In a letter dated March 14, 1941, the Baden Minister of Culture and Education revoked his authority to give religious instruction.

August Ruf and two other parish priests from Singen are buried in the forest cemetery. The inscription reads: "Remember your shepherds who preached God's word to you"

The "Lasker case" was fatal to August Ruf. Katharina (Käthe) Meier, b. Lasker, a Jewish doctor widow, approached him after a May service in 1942 and asked him to show her the way across the Swiss border. Pastor Ruf then turned to his friend and former vicar, Eugen Weiler (1900–1992), who had become pastor of Wiechs am Randen , a border town. Pastor Ruf asked Pastor Weiler to bring Ms. Lasker-Meyer across the border, which was successful on May 21, 1942. The Swiss border officials asked Ms. Lasker-Meyer how she made it across the border - and unfortunately passed their answer on to the German colleagues. August Ruf was sentenced to six months in prison for his “aiding and abetting illegal border crossing”. When he left singing in order to entering prison after Rottenburg to go, he said. "I see it as a special day that I can still in my old days in jail for an act of love" The already ill elderly prelate was the brutal imprisonment so weakened that he - almost blind and close to dying - was released from prison after a request from the Archbishopric of Freiburg. He died on Holy Saturday 1944, five days after his release from prison, in the Vinzentiushaus Freiburg.

The burial took place after the intervention of Archbishop Conrad Gröber, contrary to the wishes of the party and the local council at the time, in the Singen forest cemetery, "with a large participation of the population and under the eyes of the Secret State Police ."

Appreciations

Stumbling block for August Ruf

During his lifetime, August Ruf was made an honorary citizen in Singen in 1930 after 25 years of activity as a Catholic pastor. This honorary citizenship was withdrawn from him by the Nazis, but was granted again posthumously after the war.

Archbishop Karl Fritz appointed August Ruf to "Archbishop's Spiritual Council" in 1920. Pope Pius XII distinguished him in 1941 with the honorary title of Papal Secret Chamberlain , so that August Ruf was addressed as " Monsignore ".

After the end of the Second World War, the street leading north from Singener Bahnhof (today the main shopping street and pedestrian zone), which was called “Adolf-Hitler-Straße” during the Third Reich , was renamed “August-Ruf-Straße”. The August Ruf training center in his hometown of Ettenheim is named after August Ruf .

In 1981, a memorial stone for August Ruf was unveiled in Israel near Zippori .

On 11 November 2004 August reputation was Eugen hamlet in the list of "together Righteous Among the Nations " by the Israeli Holocaust -Gedenkstätte Yad Vashem added.

In 1999, the Catholic Church accepted Pastor August Ruf as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

  • Fridolin Dutzi: Prelate August Ruf remembered in Israel , in Singener Jahrbuch 1981 , pp. 38–45.
  • Thomas Dees: Monsignor August Ruf - Martyr for Faith and Humanity . In: Fate and History of the Jewish Communities, 1938–1988. Ettenheim, Altdorf, Kippenheim, Schmieheim, Rust, Orschweier . Historischer Verein für Mittelbaden, Ettenheim member group, Ettenheim 1988, pp. 58–67.
  • Franz Götz: August Ruf, rk., Clergyman, victim of the Nazi regime . In: Badische Biographien , on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg ed. by Bernd Ottnad, NF Vol. 3, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-17-009958-2 , pp. 228-230, online (accessed November 8, 2012).
  • August Ruf, From my life - written down on request , with comments by Reinhild Kappes, in Singener Jahrbuch 1994/95 , pp. 145–155, ISSN  0933-1107 , ISBN 3-927414-07-7 .
  • Richard Paid: The Murdered. The memorial plaque of the Archdiocese of Freiburg for the persecuted priests (1933-1945) in Maria Lindenberg, near St. Peter / Black Forest , Vöhrenbach 1998, ISBN 3-927677-18-3 , pp. 154-163.
  • Reinhild Kappes: Honor for a kind and indomitable man , in Singener Jahrbuch 2006 , pp. 76-77, ISSN  0933-1107 , ISBN 3-933356-37-7
  • Thomas Dees: Pastor August Ruf - "Righteous Among the Nations" . In: Singen Jahrbuch , vol. 2006. Markorplan Verlag, Singen 2006. ISSN  0933-1107 / ISBN 3-933356-37-7 . Pp. 78–83 (with photos of August Ruf's life and work).
  • Christoph Schmider : August Ruf and Eugen Weiler - Righteous Among the Nations . In: Freiburg Diocesan Archive . ISSN  0342-0213 . Vol. 126. 3rd episode, Vol. 58 (2006), pp. 195-200.
  • Ewald Beha, Mechthild Dietrich: Prelate August Ruf and Pastor Eugen Weiler - Israeli appreciation of their generous attitude in the time of National Socialism , in Singener Jahrbuch 2007 , pp. 127–128, ISSN  0933-1107 , ISBN 978-3-933356-44- 4th
  • Daniel Wilhelm: The estate of the Singen pastor and clergyman August Ruf , in Singener Jahrbuch 2007 , pp. 129-131, ISSN  0933-1107 , ISBN 978-3-933356-44-4
  • Sibylle Probst-Lunitz: "An extremely detrimental to the state" - Pastors persecuted from Hegau under National Socialism , in: Edwin Ernst Weber, Victims of Injustice - Stigmatization, persecution and destruction of opponents by the Nazi tyranny using case studies from Upper Swabia , Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-1070-7 , pp. 124-126.
  • Christoph Schmider : City Pastor Msgr. GR August Ruf . In: Helmut Moll (ed. 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 , pp. 278–281.

Web links

Commons : August Ruf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Christoph Schmider: City Pastor Msgr. GR August Ruf . In: Helmut Moll (ed.): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . Schöningh, Paderborn, 2nd reviewed edition 2001. Vol. 1, pp. 216-219.
  2. ^ Franz Götz: August Ruf , p. 229.
  3. ↑ Franz Götz: August Ruf , pp. 228-229.
  4. ↑ Thomas Dees: Monsignor August Ruf , p. 62.
  5. ↑ Thomas Dees: Monsignor August Ruf , p. 62.
  6. ↑ Thomas Dees: Monsignor August Ruf , pp. 62–63.
  7. ↑ The letter is in the Singen City Archives. The entry stamp of the " Langemarck-Gymnasium " bears the date March 29, 1941.
  8. ↑ The Righteous Among The Nations: Ruf, August (accessed March 14, 2014).
  9. ↑ Thomas Dees: Monsignor August Ruf , pp. 63-64.
  10. ↑ Thomas Dees: Monsignor August Ruf , p. 64.
  11. ^ Franz Götz: August Ruf , p. 230.
  12. ↑ The Righteous Among The Nations: Ruf, August (accessed March 14, 2014).
personal data
SURNAME Call, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Long-standing Catholic pastor in Singen (Hohentwiel) and victim of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Ettenheim
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1944
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau