Bruno Rothschild
Bruno Rothschild (born January 24, 1900 in Lohr am Main , † December 24, 1932 in Nuremberg ) was a German priest . He was a convert from Judaism to Catholicism . He had personal friendships with the canonized Edith Stein and the stigmatized Therese Neumann von Konnersreuth .
Life
Origin and early time
Bruno Rothschild was the oldest of three children of businessmen Hermann and Helene Rothschild from Lohr am Main. The parents lived in the small town as devout Jews and respected citizens.
The boy attended high school in Lohr, had to enlist as a soldier in 1918, shortly before the end of the First World War , and went to the front. He then joined the Würzburg Freikorps , in whose ranks he took part in the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic . At the end of 1919 he returned to Lohr and graduated from high school. After that, Bruno Rothschild first studied medicine for one semester and then switched to pharmacy in Würzburg and Jena .
On March 23, 1924, he took part in a national political meeting in Lohr. When there was agitation against the Jews there, the former front soldier Rothschild defended his fellow believers, but was then lured into the field of religion and provoked to say that Jesus was an illegitimate child of Maria and a Roman occupation soldier. Then there was a commotion; some of the congregation pounced on the student and beat him up. The two pastors Joseph Abel (Catholic) and Friedrich Fuchs (Protestant) rejected Rothschild’s statements with a joint statement in the Lohrer Zeitung as “ancient and unproven anti-Christian abuse”. The Israelite religious community also distanced itself from him, whereupon he indignantly declared that he was leaving the Jewish religious community. Bruno Rothschild was convicted of blasphemy in a court hearing in Aschaffenburg , which, however, was not initiated by the two clergymen. Rather, Pastor Abel showed forbearance and understanding when Rothschild tried to talk to him and showed his interest in the Christian faith.
In Lichtenfels (Upper Franconia) , where the pharmacist was employed at the city pharmacy in 1926/1927, he first heard of the stigmatized Therese Neumann (1898–1962) in Konnersreuth in a lecture and rode there by bike. The encounter with her strengthened Bruno Rothschild on his way to Christianity. In Konnersreuth he also made friends with Fritz Gerlich , editor-in-chief of Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten . The Calvinist journalist Fritz Gerlich originally wanted to expose the "hoax" there, but turned to the Catholic faith in 1931 and was murdered as a well-known fighter against National Socialism in 1934 in the Dachau concentration camp .
In 1927 Bruno Rothschild went to work in what was then the Bavarian Palatinate , to Germersheim and Speyer . In addition to his work, he was constantly looking for religious education and security. Rothschild got to know the Speyer resident and later canonized teacher Edith Stein , who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism. From now on he remained in contact with her for life.
Convert and priest
Bruno Rothschild spent his vacation in Konnersreuth in 1928. There he took Catholic religious instruction, was baptized on August 10, 1928 in the Konnersreuth parish church and took the middle name Paul. Therese Neumann was one of his godparents.
As a result of the conversion and the resulting popularity of the young pharmacist, there were violent arguments with the parents. While the father rigorously broke off all contact, the mother maintained the connection. Bruno Paul Rothschild decided to study theology beyond his change of faith and to become a Catholic priest.
On 29 June 1932 Rothschild received in Eichstaett the ordination , from August 13, 1932 he took up a position as chaplain to Arberg in Ansbach on. Because of a noticeable heart condition, the priest decided to take a cure in Bad Wörishofen . After the end he wanted to relax a little in Konnersreuth. Here he received the surprising news on December 22, 1932 that his father had died the day before, whereupon he immediately drove to Lohr. The funeral took place on December 23rd at the Jewish district cemetery in Laudenbach (Karlstadt) , before there was a funeral service in front of the deceased's house.
The priest stayed in Lohr overnight. Early on Christmas Eve he celebrated the first and last Holy Mass in his hometown in the Capuchin Church there . Then he started the return journey to Konnersreuth, because he was expected for Christmas mass that evening . At 2.30 p.m. Kaplan Rothschild suffered a severe heart attack at Nuremberg Central Station , where he had arrived from the direction of Würzburg and wanted to change to the train to Waldsassen . According to eyewitnesses, he could only whisper the word “Savior” and then collapsed dead.
The convert, who was very popular at the time, was buried in Konnersreuth; Therese Neumann also took part in the funeral service, which was attended by a large number of people from near and far. The anti-Jewish propaganda paper Der Stürmer , which had commented on his conversion to Christianity in the most hateful way, now used his death to suspect the relatives of having poisoned the “apostate”.
The mother and siblings later managed to escape to America on adventurous routes via Russia and Japan. Bruno Rothschild's mother Helene died in Chicago in 1951 .
literature
- Erika Becker: Beloved, Wanted, Found - Truth Seeker, accompanied by Therese Neumann , Naumann Verlag, Würzburg 1996, ISBN 3-88567-068-2
- Frank Leimkugel: From Provisional to Priest - The Short Life of Bruno Paul Rothschild . In: Geschichte der Pharmazie 45 (1993), pp. 28-30
- Edith Stein Yearbook , Volume 14, 2008, Echter Verlag GmbH, Würzburg, ISBN 978-3-429-02992-0
- Karl Anderlohr: Death at the train station - Chaplain Bruno Rothschild died 75 years ago today ; Main-Post, local part Lohr am Main, dated December 24, 2007
- Karl Heinz Bartels: 350 years Marien-Apotheke Lohr am Main ; History and Museum Association Lohr, 2000; Text excerpt
- Hans Schlumberger / Cornelia Berger-Dittscheid: Lohr with Steinbach. In: Wolfgang Kraus / Hans-Christoph Dittscheid / Gury Schneider-Ludorff in connection with Meier Schwarz (eds.) More than stones ... Synagogue commemorative volume Bavaria Volume III / 1 Lower Franconia. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2015. ISBN 978-3-898-70449-6 . Pp. 263-264.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Jewish district cemetery Laudenbach )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rothschild, Bruno |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rothschild, Bruno Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Catholic priest, Jewish convert |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 24, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lohr am Main |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 24, 1932 |
| Place of death | Nuremberg |