Bernhard Lichtenberg

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Bernhard Lichtenberg bust by Klaus Backmund, St. Marien Hof church
signature
Lichtenberg's former grave in the lower church of St. Hedwig's Cathedral , Berlin (2013)
Memorial plaque for Bernhard Lichtenberg at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Berlin
Memorial plaque for Bernhard Lichtenberg in Berlin-Karlshorst
Reliquary with the bones of Bernhard Lichtenberg before the burial in Maria Regina Martyrum, November 5, 2018

Bernhard Lichtenberg (born December 3, 1875 in Ohlau in Lower Silesia , † November 5, 1943 in Hof ) was a German priest and Provost of Berlin Cathedral , who publicly advocated the persecuted during the National Socialist dictatorship. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as a martyr and blessed . Bernhard Lichtenberg is one of the Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem .

Life

Bernhard Lichtenberg was born as the second eldest son of the merchant August Lichtenberg in the Silesian city of Ohlau (today's Polish city ​​of Oława ). From 1895 to 1898 he studied Catholic theology in Innsbruck and later in Breslau , where he was finally ordained a priest in 1899. Lichtenberg worked as a new priest in Neisse, from 1900 as a chaplain , curate and finally as a pastor in Berlin .

From 1910 to 1913 Bernhard Lichtenberg was curate in the Church of St. Georg in Pankow . From 1913 to 1930 Lichtenberg was pastor of the Sacred Heart Congregation in Charlottenburg . During the First World War he was a chaplain of the Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 3 stationed in Charlottenburg . He received the Red Cross Medal of Merit . The diocese of Berlin was founded in 1930, and Lichtenberg advised the newly appointed bishop Christian Schreiber as cathedral chapter . In 1932 Lichtenberg was appointed cathedral priest at St. Hedwig's Cathedral and in 1938 appointed provost of the cathedral.

Lichtenberg always represented the teaching of the church in politics. From 1913 to 1920, when Charlottenburg was incorporated into Berlin , he sat for the Center Party in the Charlottenburg city parliament, from 1920 to 1930 he was a district member of Wedding. As early as 1931 Joseph Goebbels , since 1926 Gauleiter of the NSDAP for Greater Berlin and since 1930 Reich Propaganda Leader, agitated against Lichtenberg, because Lichtenberg had called for nothing new to visit the anti-war film In the West based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque . In 1933, the Secret State Police searched Lichtenberg's apartment for the first time.

Memorial plaque for Bernhard Lichtenberg at the church of St. Mauritius in the Lichtenberg district

Provost Lichtenberg, however, was not intimidated. When Jürgen Juergensen , the former member of the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament, sent him a report in 1935 on the conditions in the Esterwegen concentration camp and on the severe abuse of prisoners - such as Heinrich Hirtsiefer (from 1921 to 1932 Prussian minister for public welfare and deputy prime minister ) or Ernst Heilmann (leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament until 1933) - protested Bernhard Lichtenberg in a complaint. Only after two reminders did Lichtenberg receive a letter reply from Werner Best as deputy head of the Gestapo and a statement from the head of the Esterwegen concentration camp, Theodor Eicke . These letters blatantly revealed the end of the rule of law. As a result, Lichtenberg was interrogated and mistreated in the Gestapo building for “spreading atrocity propaganda” in order to find out the source of his information. However, he did not reveal them.

After the state-directed public riots against Jews and Christians of Jewish descent in the November 1938 pogroms , Lichtenberg prayed publicly every Sunday for those persecuted, regardless of their faith. In 1941, Lichtenberg also protested in a letter to Reich Health Leader Leonardo Conti against the systematic murder of terminally ill and mentally or physically handicapped people (" euthanasia program "), which the Münster Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen had announced to the public.

Due to a denunciation , Lichtenberg was arrested on October 23, 1941 by the Secret State Police . During the arrest, a prepared pulpit report was found in which the congregation was asked not to believe an anonymously distributed leaflet to the Berliners, which described any support of Jews as “betrayal of one's own people” and to act according to the commandments of Jesus Christ . In it, Lichtenberg called the leaflet "Hetzblatt". With regard to earlier prayers for the persecuted, this was enough for the special court Berlin I to convict Lichtenberg on May 22, 1942 of “pulpit abuse” and offenses against the treachery law, to a two-year prison sentence, taking into account pre-trial detention. He served this first in the Tegel prison and later in the Berlin- Wuhlheide transit camp . After being served, Lichtenberg was not released in the late autumn of 1943, but immediately taken into " protective custody ". The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) ordered the admission to a concentration camp.

On the journey to the Dachau concentration camp , the train made a stopover in the city ​​of Hof on November 3rd . 200 prisoners, including Bernhard Lichtenberg, were taken to a prison by truck. The prison director was aware of Bernhard Lichtenberg and made sure that the hard heart and kidney disease priest was transferred to the city hospital in Hof on November 4, where he on the same day by the Hofer parish priest Monsignor Michael Gehringer the anointing of the sick received. Lichtenberg died on November 5, 1943 at around 6 p.m. The Hof police released the body before the Gestapo could intervene. The remains were brought to Berlin on November 11th and on November 16th, with great public participation, they were carried in a procession from St. Sebastian's Church to the old cathedral cemetery of St. Hedwig's parish in Liesenstrasse and buried there. Later, Bernhard Lichtenberg's bones were to be reburied in a sarcophagus in the crypt of the Maria Regina Martyrum memorial church in Berlin-Charlottenburg North , consecrated in 1963 . However, the GDR authorities refused the transfer to West Berlin . Lichtenberg's bones were then buried in the lower church of St. Hedwig's Cathedral in East Berlin in 1965 . On November 5, 2018, the 75th anniversary of the death and liturgical commemoration of the priest, who was beatified in 1996, the relics were temporarily transferred to Maria Regina Martyrum as part of a pilgrimage service while St. Hedwig's Cathedral was being rebuilt.

Afterlife and tributes

Memorial plaque for Bernhard Lichtenberg in the Esterwegen memorial

A television movie that bears his name, broadcast in 1965, told his story.

On November 5, 1991, a bust created by Klaus Backmund was set up in the foyer of the Bernhard Lichtenberg House next to the Hedwig Cathedral. At the suggestion of the parish priest of Hof, Edmund Kräck, a copy of this bust was inaugurated in 1992 by Otto Riedel, the provost of Hedwig's Cathedral, in Hof's Marienkirche . The bust symbolizes the bond between Lichtenberg's place of work and place of death.

The Archdiocese of Berlin straightened end of the 1990s a Bernhard Lichtenberg fund one, are supported from the funds migrants who have no fault in need.

Pope John Paul II. Said Bernhard Lichtenberg during his visit to Germany on June 23, 1996, together with Karl Leisner in Berlin blessed . The memorial Bernhard Lichtenberg is November 5th.

The Catholic Church accepted cathedral provost Bernhard Lichtenberg in 1999 as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

In Berlin-Tegel, the Catholic Church of St. Bernhard , which bears the patronage of St. Bernard of Clairvaux , is also dedicated to the memory of Bernhard Lichtenberg. A relief in the church shows Bernhard Lichtenberg in a doctrinal conversation with Bernhard von Clairvaux.

Because Lichtenberg began his pastoral work in the community Zum Guten Hirten in Berlin-Lichtenberg, the "Mother Church" St. Mauritius , the rectory in the Karlshorster Marienkirche , in the entrance area of ​​the church Zum Guten Hirten and the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Charlottenburg has a memorial plaque attached to each. Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Strasse was laid out in 1962 near the Berlin-Plötzensee execution site in Charlottenburg. Another Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg was dedicated in East Berlin in 1974 . The square in front of the Tegel JVA also bears his name. A Catholic primary school is named after him in Berlin-Spandau. In the memorial of the former Esterwegen concentration camp, a memorial was set up for Bernhard Lichtenberg because of his commitment to the prisoners of the camp. The square in Hof's old town in front of the St. Marien town church has been called Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Platz since 2013, and on the initiative of Pastor Hans-Jürgen Wiedow, a new parish center Bernhard-Lichtenberg was built next to the St. Konrad Church in 2016/17 . In other places in Germany, including Leverkusen , streets were named after him.

Those responsible for the Israeli Yad Vashem memorial posthumously honored Lichtenberg with the distinction of “Righteous Among the Nations” for his commitment to persecuted Jews . Shimon Stein , Israel's ambassador to Germany, presented the certificate and medal for this award to the then Archbishop of Berlin, Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky , on May 18, 2005 in the St. Hedwig's Cathedral .

In March 2012, the Archdiocese of Berlin appointed the director of the Berlin Diocesan Archives, Gotthard Klein, as the diocesan postulator of the canonization process of Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg. On the 70th anniversary of Lichtenberg's death, Klein prepared an exhibition that could be visited at various locations in the archdiocese.

With the approval of the Archbishop of Bamberg and the Bavarian State Ministry, the two pastoral care areas of Hof, St. Marien and St. Konrad, have formed the Catholic parish of Bernhard Lichtenberg since July 1, 2017.

Effect in music

  • Helge Jung : Psalm 59. With two meditations by Bernhard Lichtenberg , motet for soprano solo, mixed choir, organ and string quintet, Berlin 1988. Prologue: The green seed , Psalm: Errette mich, my God, protect me , Epilog I: God is love , epilogue II: Whoever confesses me to people . WP: Choir of the Hedwig Cathedral Berlin, conductor: Michael Witt .
  • Florian Wilkes (text and melody): Your people, the dark times , Choral , Berlin 1995.
  • Josef Steiner (text): Let us praise the blessed Bernhard , Choral, Berlin 1996. Melody according to GL No. 262: Loys Bourgeois 1551. In: Diocesan annex to the praise of God of the Archdiocese of Berlin.
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer : Anyone who believes can resist . Bernhard Lichtenberg cantata . For speaker, solo voice, choir (SATB) and instruments, Hof 1999. World premiere: October 31, 1999 on ZDF , concert choir of the Hof Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Gottfried Hoffmann.
  • Alois Albrecht (text), Ludger Stühlmeyer (melody and movement): Praised are you, glorious God, for Bernhard, the blessed priest , chorale, court 2012.
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer: Righteous Among the Nations. Vespers in honor of the blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg. With a biography and quotes. Preface by Nuncio Eterovic . Verlag Sankt Michaelsbund , Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-943135-90-9 .

literature

  • Albrecht Hartmann: Bernhard Lichtenberg. A Christian resistance fighter from Charlottenburg . Berlin-Charlottenburg 1984.
  • Wolfgang Knauft:  Lichtenberg, Bernhard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 449 ( digitized version ).
  • Otto Ogiermann SJ: Until the last breath. The life and rebellion of the priest Bernhard Lichtenberg . Leipzig 1985.
  • Otto Ogiermann SJ: Bernhard Lichtenberg . In: Gerd Heinrich (Ed.): Berlinische Lebensbilder. Volume 5: Theologians . Pp. 277-290. Berlin 1990.
  • Gotthard Klein: Berolinen. Canonizationis servi Dei Bernardi Lichtenberg sacerdotis saecularis in odium fidei, uti fertur, interfecti (1875–1943) [Positio super martyrio]. Vol. I Informatio, Vol. II Summarium: Documenta, Vol. III Summarium: Depositiones Testium . Congregatio de Causis Sanctorum, Prot. N. 1202, Romae 1992.
  • Martin Persch :  Lichtenberg, Bernhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 20-23.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Dieter Hanky: Bernhard Lichtenberg. Priests - Confessors - Martyrs . Berlin 1994.
  • Christian Feldmann : Those who believe must resist - Bernhard Lichtenberg - Karl Leisner . Herder, Freiburg 1996, ISBN 3-451-26052-2 .
  • Erich Kock : He resisted. Bernhard Lichtenberg, Provost near St. Hedwig . Berlin 1996.
  • Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . Paderborn u. a. 1999. 7th revised and updated edition 2019. ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 . Vol. IS 132-138.
  • Stefan Samerski: Bernhard Lichtenberg . In: Michael Hirschfeld, Johannes Gröger, Werner Marschall (Hrsg.): Silesian Church in Life Pictures . tape 7 . Münster 2006, p. 201-205 .
  • Barbara Stühlmeyer , Ludger Stühlmeyer : Bernhard Lichtenberg. I will follow my conscience . Topos plus Verlagsgemeinschaft, Kevelaer 2013, ISBN 978-3-8367-0835-7 .
  • Theresa E. Ryen: Praise to God in dark times. A new song by Ludger Stühlmeyer on the 70th anniversary of the death of the blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg . Heinrichsblatt No. 43, Bamberg October 2013, p. 13 .
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer: Bernhard Lichtenberg - with understanding and rosary , faith compass, Church in Need , worldwide aid agency of papal law, Munich 2015.
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer, Biographical splitter to the Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg , in: Holger Fiedler, Susanne high (ed.) My Marienkirche and I . Hof 2016, pp. 16–19.

Web links

Commons : Bernhard Lichtenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pastor - Sankt Georg Berlin. Retrieved on February 27, 2018 (German).
  2. ↑ Willi Baumann: "... to take the atrocity liar Lichtenberg into protective custody for insidious attacks on the state ...". The Berlin cathedral provost Bernhard Lichtenberg, a martyr in the “Third Reich” . In: Action Committee for a Documentation and Information Center Emslandlager eV (Ed.): DIZ-Nachrichten , Vol. 1997, No. 19, pp. 41–47.
  3. ^ Memorial Church of the German Catholics Maria Regina Martyrum in honor of the martyrs for freedom of belief and conscience in the years 1933–1945. More, Berlin 1963, pp. 72-76; Reiner Elwers: Berlin's unknown cultural monuments. L and H, Marburg 1998, ISBN 3-928119-47-8 , p. 77.
  4. ↑ Hitler's opponent Lichtenberg no longer rests in the Berlin cathedral. In: Katholisch.de , November 6, 2018, accessed on the same day.
  5. ↑ Entry on television adaptation Bernhard Lichtenberg (1965) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  6. ^ Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Strasse (Charlottenburg). In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  7. ^ Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Strasse (Prenzlauer Berg) near Luise
  8. ^ Bernhard-Lichtenberg-Platz with Luise
  9. ^ Parish center Bernhard Lichtenberg (courtyard)
  10. ^ Tiemo Rink: Der Heiligmacher von Berlin , Tagesspiegel, March 27, 2016.
  11. ^ Archdiocese of Berlin: Dr. Gotthard Klein appointed diocesan postulator for the canonization of Blessed Bernhard Lichtenberg
  12. ↑ Christian Soyke: Bernhard Lichtenberg - Probation as man, Christian and priest - exhibition on the 70th anniversary of death documents the life and testimony of the martyr , in: Unser Erzbistum V , number 44, Archdiocese of Berlin , November 2nd and 3rd, 2013, accessed on 29th March 2017.
  13. ^ Lichtenberg exhibition , Mater Dolorosa Foundation Berlin-Lankwitz , accessed on March 29, 2017.
  14. ↑ The Foundation , Past and Present - First Activities , Herz Jesu Berlin Foundation, Charlottenburg, accessed on March 29, 2017.
  15. ↑ Der Lichtenberg , Pfarrbrief Edition No. 1, Hof June 29, 2017
  16. ^ Website of the Stadtkirche Hof, publications ( Memento from March 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Lichtenberg, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic theologian, beatified in 1996
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Ohlau , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1943
Place of death court