Benedikt Schmittmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benedikt Schmittmann, around 1905

Benedikt Schmittmann (born August 4, 1872 in Düsseldorf ; † September 13, 1939 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German social scientist and politician.

Life

Statue on the Cologne town hall tower. Sculptor: Toni Zenz

Schmittmann was born in a merchant family in Düsseldorf. After graduating from high school, he studied cultural studies in Rome , then until 1896 law at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg im Breisgau , at the University of Leipzig and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn . He joined the Catholic student associations Brisgovia Freiburg (1893), K.St.V. Teutonia-Leipzig (1894) and later also the K.St.V. Arminia Bonn . In 1897 he received his doctorate from the University of Erlangen . In 1903 he married Helene ("Ella") Wahlen from Cologne , a cousin of Emma Weyer , Konrad Adenauer's first wife .

In keeping with his nature, Schmittmann soon became involved in social work: As a state councilor and head of the welfare system of the Rhineland provincial administration (a forerunner of the Rhineland Regional Council LVR), he dedicated himself to disability insurance and organized rural health and accident care for the rural areas of the Rhineland. Among other things, with the construction of TBC stations in the country to combat the common disease tuberculosis, he recorded practical socio-political successes.

In 1919 he became a professor of social sciences at the University of Cologne . His numerous publications are still of great interest today. He was considered one of the first representatives of a Catholic social teaching .

Only a few weeks after the change of power in 1933, Schmittmann was abducted from his apartment by the SA and taken into protective custody. Schmittmann was banned from teaching . He was - for files in Düsseldorf Hauptstaatsarchiv held by the Nazis that he secretly in - Ruhr region and Cologne conventicle talked to spread the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. The National Socialists advised him to emigrate; his friend Konrad Adenauer also advised him to do so. Schmittmann, however, stayed in Germany and lived secluded in his house in Düsseldorf-Flehe . When the war began on September 1, 1939, he was arrested and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on September 8, 1939 . Schmittmann died on September 13, 1939 as a result of abuse by the SS - he was kicked to death. His widow managed to have his body transported in a coffin to Düsseldorf, where he was buried in the north cemetery.

Honors and afterlife

Stumbling stone in front of the main building of the University of Cologne
Stumbling stone in front of the Sachsenring residential building 26

1953 was born by his dedicated widow Helene ("Ella") Schmittmann. Wahlen (1880–1970) founded the private student residence Schmittmann-Kolleg and its sponsoring association Kreuz-Kolleg Benedikt-Schmittmann-Haus eV based on his will from 1935 on the war-torn property of her former villa in Cologne's Südstadt . The student dormitory and club exist to this day. Roommates included Rudolf Hartung and Thomas Zuleger.

In 1969 the non-profit "Benedikt and Helene Schmittmann-Wahlen-Stiftung" was founded, which awards scholarships to students according to social and performance-related criteria, among other things. The board of directors is Alfred Kuhlmann. Since the winter semester 2000/2001 it has also been awarding a publicly advertised two-year doctoral scholarship at the University of Cologne every year.

The Catholic Church has Dr. Benedikt Schmittmann included in the German martyrology of the 20th century as a witness of faith . The Archdiocese of Cologne honors him as one of its martyrs at the memorial site in the Church of St. Ursula . His Cologne parish honors him with a plaque and statue in the parish church of St. Severin (Cologne) .

The city of Cologne honors him with a figure on their town hall tower (No. 89) . His hometown Düsseldorf, like Cologne, named a street after him.

The artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block at his place of residence (Sachsenring 26) and at his place of work, in front of the main building of the University of Cologne .

Works

  • The social resources of the state and the current tasks of Catholic Caritas. Caritas Association, Freiburg 1916.
  • Basic forces for the redesign of Europe. GA Gloeckner, Leipzig 1928.
  • Economic and social order as a task. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1932.

literature

  • Alfred Kuhlmann: The life's work of Benedikt Schmittmann. Aschendorff, Münster 1971, 2nd edition. LIT Verlag, Berlin 2008.
  • Alfred Kuhlmann, Helmut Moll : Professor Dr. Benedikt Schmittmann (1872–1939). A Christian social politician in the machinery of National Socialism. Annals of the historical association for the Lower Rhine , issue 202 1999, Rheinland Verlag Pulheim.
  • Albert Lotz: Benedikt Schmittmann. Economic and social order as a task. Alber Verlag 1948, DNB 454411995 .
  • Albert Lotz: Benedikt Schmittmann. His life and his work. Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1949, DNB 453086586 .
  • Hugo Maier :  Schmittmann, Benedikt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 249 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hugo Maier: Schmittmann, Benedikt. In: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work. Lambertus, Freiburg 1998, ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , pp. 525ff.
  • Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 407-410.
  • Martin Strickmann: Benedikt Schmittmann (1872–1939) as a Rhenish federalist between anti-hegemonial regrouping initiatives and socio-ethical democracy ideals. (= History in the West . Issue 1). 2002, Rheinland Verlag Cologne.

Web links

Commons : Benedikt Schmittmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Schlemmer: Rhineland State Movements in the Prussian Rhine Province after the First World War: Groups, Motives, Mentalities. Böhlau, Cologne 2007, p. 263.
  2. ^ Peter Mensing: Adenauer, Volume 10. Siedler, 2009, p. 574.
  3. ^ Strickmann: Benedikt Schmittmann. P. 49.
  4. ^ Edmund Spohr in: Zeitzeugen, Confessions to Düsseldorf. Ed. Alla Pfeffer, Grupello-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-933749-52-2 , p. 245.
  5. ↑ Kuhlmann, minor in Schmittmann
  6. ^ Website of the Schmittmann-Wahlen-Stiftung
  7. ↑ Schmittmann as a Cologne martyr
  8. ^ Commemoration in St. Severin
  9. ↑ Street on Google with picture
  10. ^ Konrad Adenauer, Volker Gröbe: Streets and squares in Lindenthal. JP Bachem, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7616-1018-1 , p. 147f.
personal data
SURNAME Schmittmann, Benedikt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German social scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1939
Place of death Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin