Bernhard Hanssler

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Portrait of Hanssler in Schwäbisch Hall

Bernhard Hanssler (born March 23, 1907 in Tafern near Wilhelmsdorf (Württemberg) ; † August 11, 2005 in Stuttgart ) was the founder of the Cusanuswerk and academic pastor of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese . Prelate Hanssler was one of the most outstanding figures of German Catholicism of the 20th century.

Life

Bernhard Hanssler was born in 1907 on a farm in Tafern, Upper Swabia, in the municipality of Pfrungen . After graduating from the St. Josef College in Ehingen , he studied philosophy and theology in Tübingen. He was ordained a priest on March 19, 1932 in Rottenburg . This was followed by the first position as vicar in the parish of St. Michael zu den Wengen in Ulm.

In 1934 he became a youth pastor and, at the age of 29, from 1936 a Catholic student pastor in the university town of Tübingen . During his time in Tübingen, he was also banned from speaking and , since 1942, from writing, imposed by the Gestapo on account of his criticism of the regime. In spite of this, Hanssler continued to work in the “underground” and founded the “Hügelei” in order to maintain the dialogue of Catholic social teaching . Every two weeks there was a circle at Hanssler's home in the Hügelei. In addition to Hanssler, this also included Professor Paul Ohlmeyer from Tübingen as the scientific initiator of this group. This also included professors Otto Michel (New Testament exegete), Joseph Vogt (ancient historian) and Carlo Schmid (international lawyer), as well as the Social Democrats Fritz Erler and Oskar Kalbfell , who later became mayor of Reutlingen, and who later became Ministerialrat Rupp. In this group, however, the literary figure Reinhold Schneider was also present, who appeared one day accompanied by Anna-Maria Baumgarten and read from his poems. Many of these people, who met in the hills, formed a solid base in the reconstruction of political and cultural life in Germany in the post-war period.

After the end of the war in 1945, Hanssler worked as a pastor in Schwäbisch Hall until 1951 and as a pastor in the Baden-Württemberg state capital Stuttgart from 1952 to 1955 . In the post-war years, Hanssler campaigned in particular for the establishment of Catholic social institutes as an active form of the church in the reconstruction of the community.

Bernhard Hanssler was a co-founder of the Cusanuswerk, the German Bishops' scholarship scheme, which he was the first managing director from 1956 on. From 1957 to 1970, in the important years before and after the Second Vatican Council , Hanssler was the spiritual director of the Central Committee of German Catholics in Bad Godesberg and later its bishop's assistant. He followed a new assignment in Rome in 1970 and was rector of the German priestly college Collegio Teutonico di Santa Maria in Campo Santo until 1974 . In 1981, at the age of 74, he returned to the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and worked as an academic pastor in Stuttgart until he was 84.

Hanssler was also the initiator and spiritus rector of the “ Catholic Medical Work in Germany ” and a member of the German Education Council. In addition to many awards, he was awarded the title of “ Papal Honorary Prelate ” in 1961 . In 1995 he received an honorary professorship from the state of Baden-Württemberg for his extraordinary services in education .

In 1971 he was appointed Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher by Cardinal Grand Master Eugène Cardinal Tisserant and invested on May 13, 1972 by Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy . He was involved in numerous social projects in the Holy Land .

Hanssler wrote numerous publications on future questions of the relationship between church, society and modern culture. In doing so, he significantly influenced the theological dialogue of the 20th century. He was characterized by his contemporaries, full of ideas, forward-looking, astute, wide awake, steadfast, also headstrong and sometimes harsh. Prelate Hanssler was even in The Clown by Heinrich Böll described - in the novel he is called Summer wild.

Publications

  • The Church in Society. German Catholicism and its Organizations in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Publishing house Bonifacius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1961
  • Faith from the power of the Spirit. Unconventional ways of re-encountering Augustine, Benedict of Nursia, Francis of Assisi, Dante, Nikolaus von Kues, Thomas More, Blaise Pascal, Johann Adam Möhler, Theodor Haecker. Herder, Freiburg 1981, ISBN 3-451-07912-7

literature

  • Rainer Hank : The clergyman and the power - Bernhard Hanssler. Knecht, Frankfurt 1997, ISBN 3-7820-0758-1
  • Dominik Burkard: Character - Biography - Politics. The theologians Bernhard Hanssler, Karl Hermann Schelkle and Josef Schuster in letters from the years 1932-1935 , Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2016, ISBN 3-7954-3171-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Der Geistliche und die Macht , Schwäbische Zeitung , March 20, 2002
personal data
SURNAME Hanssler, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest, papal honorary prelate and education politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Tafern, municipality of Prungen (now part of Wilhelmsdorf (Württemberg))
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 2005
Place of death Stuttgart