Bernhard Magel
Bernhard Magel , (born August 31, 1795 in Ixheim ; † March 7, 1863 in Darmstadt ) was an important priestly figure of the 19th century in the diocese of Speyer ; Member of the district administrator of the Palatinate, with connections to high-ranking politicians and clergy, including King Ludwig I , whom he knew personally. With him he suggested the establishment of the poor school sisters in the Palatinate. The construction of the mighty Marienkirche in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse is considered to be his real life's work.
Life
Bernhard Magel was born in Ixheim near Zweibrücken and lost both parents at an early age. First he practiced the masonry and stone carving trade, then he began studying and attended the seminary in Mainz, under Regens Liebermann . In Speyer, Bishop Matthäus Georg von Chandelle ordained him to the priesthood on May 23, 1823. From his seminar stay, Magel belonged to the Mainz district and was friends with the later Speyer bishops Johann Jakob Geissel and Nikolaus von Weis, who were also staying there at the time .
Bernhard Magel took up his first pastoral care position on May 26, 1823, as a chaplain in Neustadt under the parish priest Bruno Würschmitt . At that time the Catholics only owned the choir of the medieval collegiate church of St. Aegidius, which was separated from the Protestant nave by a wall . Years later, Bernhard Magel was to return here as a pastor and fundamentally change these conditions. On December 29, 1823 he took over the parish of Dackenheim near Grünstadt as administrator , and on October 26, 1824 he received his first independent pastor in Feilbingert on the northern border of the diocese. He stayed here until 1827; on October 29th of this year he was entrusted with the parish of Rheinzabern in the south of the Palatinate , which was already well known for its Roman past and rich archaeological finds (the Roman tabernae ). Today there is a Roman museum there . Pastor Magel was very interested in history. a. a very interesting report from July 17, 1858, about the Roman excavations during his time as pastor of Rheinzabern (full scan of the long text can be found at the end under the point "Web Links"):
“ During the 12 years of my stay in Rheinzabern, no excavations of both Roman and German origin have been made that I would not have personally inspected; I also bought a lot myself, but did not start a collection, because it gave me more pleasure to make my friends and acquaintances happy by giving them these items than to keep them for myself. The late cathedral capitular Würschmitt in Speier has many silver and bronze coins, urns, crockery, molds, tears made of earth and glass, and the current Ministerialrat Mr. Heintz in Munich received a gold coin from Trajan through my mediation ... In a north-easterly direction next to the Roman road near the current churchyard is the Roman burial ground, where many graves, urns, jugs of tears, lamps, hairpins, bracelets, brooches, etc. have been found . Opposite, on the right bank, by the gardens at Scheuergasse, was the German burial place with many stone coffins, in which the deceased's face was turned to the east. I myself opened many of them, the skeletons all fell to dust when the air entered ... "
Here in Rheinzabern, because of the appalling lack of school education, especially among the female youth, Pastor Magel first had the idea of settling the poor school sisters , who had already worked so beneficially in Bavaria on the right bank of the Rhine, in the diocese of Speyer. The commemorative publication “100 Years of the Institute of the Poor School Sisters of St. Dominic, Speyer am Rhein” states in 1952: “In Bavaria on the left bank of the Rhine, Bernhard Magel, pastor and district school inspector of Rheinzabern, an eager and far-sighted priest of God, was seriously concerned about the fragile school system currently. He was downright dismayed by the moral depression of the poorer classes of the people, especially the female youth. ”In the summer of 1838, Pastor Magel visited King Ludwig I in Aschaffenburg and presented the matter to him personally. He wanted to have the Bavarian school sisters come to Rheinzabern or to found a similar, independent institute in his home diocese of Speyer. The king agreed, but since both plans failed because of the lack of money, Magel tried - advised by cathedral dean Nikolaus Weis - to incorporate the planned school monastery into the Dominican convent of St. Magdalena in Speyer. Bishop Geissel refused and the founding of the school sisters - then after the plan of Magels and Weis' - finally dragged on until 1852.
Apparently out of disappointment about the failure of his plans, Bernhard Magel was transferred to Neustadt as pastor on October 24, 1839. Since his chaplaincy, the Catholic population there had grown enormously and the simultaneous collegiate church had become too small as a parish church. Again the priest took the initiative. In the Neustadt parish memorial book it is formulated as follows: “Magel grabbed the reins like an experienced carter.” He immediately suggested the construction of a new parish church and pulled out all the stops to implement the plan. Again, through intervention with King Ludwig I, he was able to receive the high sum of 24,000 guilders for the new building as a donation; that was the largest single donation that the king ever made in the Palatinate. The St. Mary's Church, a magnificent, neo-Gothic sacred building, was finally built between 1860 and 1862; the design goes back to the architect Vincenz Statz , since 1845 second foreman of the Cologne Cathedral ; The master builder was Bernhard Herbst from Speyer. On July 17, 1860, King Ludwig I and Bishop Nikolaus von Weis personally laid the foundation stone. On August 26, 1862, Bishop Weis made the consecration; King Ludwig I insisted on appearing himself and giving Pastor Magel the honor of his presence. He was accompanied by the Grand Duke of Hesse and his daughter, Archduchess Hildegard . The well-known pastor Aloys Weisenburger from Hambach gave the festive sermon to the bishop and monarch ( Remling , Nikolaus von Weis, volume 1, page 99).
Pastor Magel died soon after the completion and consecration of his life's work, on March 7th, 1863. Shortly after the consecration of the church, the concerned king had the already ailing priest transferred to the somewhat calmer and wealthy parish of Oberlustadt . But there was no change. Bernhard Magel died while visiting a friend in Darmstadt . He was buried in the chapel of the old Catholic cemetery in Neustadt. When it was dissolved, his beautiful epitaph was moved to the outer, north-eastern choir wall of the Marienkirche; the tombstone is still there today (2014). The interior decoration of the new church was done by Magel's successor (and former pupil), Pastor Philipp von Pfeiffer . A plaque with the Latin inscription was placed in the sacristy: "Remember Bernhard Magel, pastor there, through whose zeal this church was built."
Pastor Bernhard Magel belonged to the district administrator of the Palatinate for a long time . Bishop Johann Jakob Geissel wanted to separate the simultaneous school teacher seminar into two denominationally independent seminars, as there were repeated controversies in the area of history. On August 8, 1838, the Palatinate District Administrator voted on the episcopal proposal and all MPs - including the Catholic - voted against it. There was, however, a single opposition vote against the majority, that of Pastor Bernhard Magel. He stood up alone and vehemently for the proposal of Bishop Geissel and King Ludwig I, demonstratively joined him. From 1839 the teacher training institute was divided into two denominationally separated institutes in order to settle the disputes that flared up again and again.
When the district administrator of the Palatinate in January 1844 spoke out against an appointment of the merciful sisters to the "district poor and insane asylum" in Frankenthal and accused the religious slanderous of "proselytizing, immorality (immorality) and waste", acted Deputy Bernhard Magel immediately. He independently obtained a "report" from the management of the general municipal hospital in Munich, which the hospital director Dr. Franz Xaver von Gietl wrote. Here the head of the renowned institution vehemently protests against the absurd accusations of the district administrator and pays the highest praise to the sisters who have been working there for a long time. The case and the letter to Pastor Magel are recorded in the book: "History of the emergence, expansion and effectiveness of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy" by Michael Sintzel , Manz Verlag Regensburg, 1880, pages 137-141.
Cardinal Geissel of Cologne, the former bishop of Speyer, said of the priest he knew well: "Magel can be counted among the first clergy in the diocese."
An entry from Pastor Magel in the Landesarchiv Speyer, where in February 2009 it was named “Archive of the Month” because of its originality, has a more amusing character. The priest - he was also the school supervisor in his district - wrote to the district government in Speyer and complained about the disrespectful behavior towards teachers during the planned Mardi Gras parade in Kaiserslautern. Magel writes in the original:
“ Rheinzabern, February 6th, 1839. Honorable Mr. Hofrath! Dear Director! The rumor spreads that the top of the jester's program in the city of Kaiserslautern is that the procession on the coming days of Shrovetide will be opened with the hunter-rascals shaving off the whiskers of the school teachers. I consider this most devoted report to be a special duty, so that either preventive measures can be taken at times, or the wrongdoers can be brought to punishment; And please this my concern that royal measures of government should not be mocked, that the most venerable officials of the Palatinate should not be scorned and that some school teachers subordinate to the royal government should not be induced to disobedience and, for their own disadvantage, incited into punishable resistance, should not be resented at the same time the request to want to approve the expression of my most exquisite respect, with which the honor has to wait, your most honorable and loyal Magel, pastor. "
literature
- Michael Sintzel: "History of the origin, expansion and effectiveness of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy" , Manz Verlag, Regensburg, 1880, pages 137-141.
- "100 Years Institute of the Poor School Sisters of St. Dominic in Speyer" , self-published, Speyer, 1952, pages 19/20
- "100 years of the Institute of the Poor School Sisters" , Der Pilger , Speyer, No. 27, from July 6, 1952, pages 440/441 of the year.
- Ludwig Stamer : "Church history of the Palatinate, Volume IV." , Pilger-Verlag Speyer, 1964, various pages
- Ludwig Stamer : "The construction of the catholic parish church St. Marien in Neustadt an der Haardt" , Festschrift by Pirmin Stoltz, 100 years Marienkirche Neustadt, 1962,
Web links
- Scan from the "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins", 1859, report by Pastor Magel about the Roman excavations in Rheinzabern at the time.
- Pastor Magel on "Carnival drives" in Kaiserslautern (PDF file; 1.54 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ On Michael Sintzel see Heinrich Reusch: Sintzel, Johann Michael . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 408.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Magel, Bernhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Catholic priest of the Diocese of Speyer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 31, 1795 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ixheim |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 7, 1863 |
| Place of death | Darmstadt |