Augustin Floßdorf

Augustin Floßdorf (born November 1, 1901 in Cologne , † August 11, 1967 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ) was a Catholic pastor and opponent of the Nazi regime .

Life

Born in Cologne, he grew up in Mülheim an der Ruhr from the age of three. After leaving school he studied Catholic theology and was on 28 March 1936 in Friborg (Switzerland) for the Brazilian diocese of Ilheus for priests ordained. The German authorities then refused to allow him to travel to his diocese. During a priestly temporary job in Mülheim an der Ruhr, he was taken into protective custody by the Gestapo on November 17, 1936 for anti-Nazi activity and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from December 15, 1936 to December 7, 1936 . During the one-year imprisonment period, he looked after his fellow prisoners as a pastor, which in later years earned him the nickname of concentration camp pastor . Even after his release in 1937, he continued to face persecution, frequently changed his place of residence and finally found refuge in a position as parish administrator of the Seltsch and Michelob parishes in the occupied Sudetenland . He was mediated by the Bautzen Vicar General and later Bishop of Meissen Heinrich Wienken . In May 1945, Floßdorf was arrested again by the Gestapo and this time sentenced to death. The invasion of the Red Army prevented the implementation of the judgment.

He courageously opposed the arbitrariness and violence of the Soviet occupation forces and stood up for the rights of the persecuted German minority. Expelled by the Czech authorities, Floßdorf returned to Mülheim in 1946. There he participated in building the young democracy. He joined the Center Party , was committed to those persecuted by the Nazi regime and was considered a confidante of the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Rudolf Amelunxen .

His offer to the American occupation forces to hang him in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison instead of some convicted SS men caused an international stir . In addition, in letters to Josef Stalin , Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower, he campaigned for Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath, who was imprisoned in the Spandau war crimes prison .

Tomb in the Mülheim main cemetery

In 1967 Augustin Floßdorf died as a result of the abuse he suffered in prison and concentration camp . He was buried in the family crypt in the Mülheim main cemetery.

Honors

• Federal Cross of Merit, First Class (1963)

literature

• Ulrich von Hehl : priest under Hitler's terror. A biographical and statistical survey. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 3rd edition 1996, Bd. I, Sp. 720.
• Barbara Kaufhold: Faith under National Socialism in Mülheim an der Ruhr . Edited by the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History. Klartext Verlag Essen, 2006, pp. 269–270.

Other sources

• City Archives Mülheim an der Ruhr, 1550 No. 188
• City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1440
• City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, inventory 2001/3 No. 5