Carl Lampert

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Carl Lampert as new priest, 1918

Carl Lampert (born January 9, 1894 in Göfis ; † November 13, 1944 in the "Roter Ochse" penitentiary in Halle (Saale) ) was a Catholic priest who was executed by the National Socialists. He was provicer of the Tyrolean part of the Apostolic Administration Innsbruck-Feldkirch . On November 13, 2011, he was beatified by Cardinal Angelo Amato in the parish church of St. Martin in Dornbirn .

Life

Childhood and youth

Carl Lampert was born on January 9, 1894 as the youngest of seven children of the farmer Franz Xaver Lampert and his wife Maria Rosina Lampert. He was a student at the elementary school in Göfis and the state high school in Feldkirch . Although his father died early, Lampert was able to continue attending school thanks to an uncle's support. After stored in 1914 Matura Lampert came in the autumn of the same year in the Fürsterzbischöfliche Seminary in Bressanone , where he on May 12, 1918 by Bishop Franz Egger for priest was ordained. On 26 May 1918 he celebrated his first Mass .

He was a member of the Raetia Rankweil holiday group.

Career

Carl Lampert began his work as a chaplain in Dornbirn , where he primarily endeavored to work with young people. In 1930, with the financial support of Bishop Sigismund Waitz, he moved to Rome to study canon law . He moved to the Collegio Teutonico di Santa Maria dell'Anima , where he lived until 1935 and worked as a secretary at the Roman Rota . In 1935 he was raised to the rank of advocate and made monsignor .

On October 1, 1935, Lampert took up his position in the Apostolic Administration Innsbruck-Feldkirch . Here, at the behest of Auxiliary Bishop Waitz, he was to supervise the establishment of the ecclesiastical court, a more administrative task. He was also a clergyman in the Innsbruck seminary and from 1936 president of the Catholic publishing house Tyrolia . In the mid-1930s, Lampert was briefly discussed as a possible successor to Waitz, but Pope Pius XI. decided otherwise and on October 15, 1938 appointed the younger clergyman Paulus Rusch as apostolic administrator. Lampert was appointed on January 15, 1939 Pro-Vicar appointed and thus Rusch deputy.

In National Socialism

Gauleiter Franz Hofer pursued a rigorous policy against the churches in Tyrol-Vorarlberg . Lampert has repeatedly spoken out against this. The Führer order , according to which bishops were not to be prosecuted by the Nazi jurisdiction, did not protect Lampert, the bishop's deputy.

Hofer had monasteries closed and religious arrested, including the Canisianum in November 1938 and, in the first days of March 1940, the Monastery of Perpetual Adoration in Innsbruck . Since the nuns resisted the orders, Hofer made Provikar Lampert responsible and had him arrested on March 4, 1940. After ten days in prison in Innsbruck-Adamgasse , Lampert was released on March 14, 1940.

A report on Vatican Radio broadcast in German on March 23, 1940, in which the situation of the church and the reprisals of the Nazi regime against the clergy in the diocese of Innsbruck were discussed, brought Provikar Lampert back to prison. The district administration suspected a spy for the Vatican City in Lampert . However, he was released again after a relatively short time.

The next time, however, Lampert was less fortunate. In 1939 the pastor of Götzens , Otto Neururer , was deported to the Dachau concentration camp . Lampert had tried in vain to get Neururer released, especially since his colleague was in poor health. Neururer was murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp on May 30, 1940 . The regime sent Neururer's ashes to Götzens with the aim of burying them anonymously. However, when Lampert published an obituary notice in a church newspaper that also stated Neururer's place of death, he was arrested again on July 5, 1940 for violating Nazi secrecy regulations .

Carl Lampert was now also deported to Dachau on August 25, 1940. On September 1, 1940, they were transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin . Here he was assigned to the punishment company, a squad in which he had to do hard physical labor. Nevertheless, he stuck to his faith, as demonstrated by a meeting between Lampert and the Innsbruck Caritas director Josef Steinkelderer , who was also imprisoned in Sachsenhausen . The latter whispered to Lampert: Martyres sumus (we are martyrs), to which Lampert replied: In Christi nomine pro ecclesia (In the name of Christ for the church).

After three months in Sachsenhausen, Lampert was deported back to Dachau on December 15, 1940, where he remained imprisoned for another eight months. Although he was released on August 1, 1941, he was banned from entering the Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg .

Lampert then moved to Stettin on August 16, 1941 , where he again worked as a pastor in the Carolus monastery. He also worked as a clergyman in a hospital, in Swinoujscie and in Parchim .

What Lampert didn't know, however, was that the Gestapo had set up a spy on him. "Engineer Georg Hagen" pretended to be an anti-Nazi and deeply religious person in search of spirituality. He gained Lampert's trust in Bible studies and discussions. In truth, however, “Hagen” was Franz Pissaritsch, a candidate for admission to the Waffen SS . Pissaritsch tried to persuade Lampert to make statements against the Nazi regime, but Lampert hardly went into this. When, after a few months of espionage activity, he was still unable to collect any concrete evidence, Pissaritsch constructed a plot according to which Carl Lampert would have listened to enemy transmitters and undermined the defense force with statements.

This protocol was the basis for a wave of arrests (“Stettin Case”) in which about 40 clergymen and nuns were arrested on February 4, 1943, including Carl Lampert. Lampert was subjected to intense interrogation and torture over the coming months. Two excerpts from the minutes testify to Lampert's steadfastness.

Chairman Trettin:
“Mr. Lampert, if you are sensible, leave the church and the priesthood. It's all just hocus-pocus. Witness children for the Führer Adolf Hitler . I will get you a good job! "
Lampert:
“Commissioner, I love my church. I remain loyal to my church and also to the priesthood: I stand for Christ and love his church! "
Question:
"Which do you value more highly: the Gospel or Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'?"
Lampert:
“The gospel is God's word and proclaims love. The book of Herr Hitler is the work of one man and preaches hatred! "

The trial against Lampert and two other priests, Father Friedrich Lorenz and Chaplain Herbert Simoleit , opened in December 1943 before the Reich Court Martial in Halle (Saale) . SS man Pissaritsch even appeared in court under his false name, Engineer Hagen , in order to confirm the charges with his statements.

Lampert was first found guilty on December 20, 1943. The death sentence was not signed because of disputes within the court - there were judges who spoke out in favor of the death penalty, others argued for a long prison term because of Lampert's beliefs. On January 14, 1944, the trial was delegated to the Reich Court Martial in Torgau , to which Lampert was deported. He spent seven months in almost solitary confinement. The judgment passed in Halle was confirmed on all points on July 27, 1944. On the night before the General Staff Judge Werner Lueben would the verdict have to sign these committed in 1944 on the morning of July 28 suicide . One of his last statements was:

Lueben :
“In this case it is neither a question of 'criminals' nor 'anti-social elements'. Their only tragedy is that they are Catholic priests! "

With new judges, there was a third trial against Lampert, in which he was sentenced to death again on September 8, 1944 with Father Friedrich Lorenz and Chaplain Herbert Simoleit.

On November 13, 1944, Lampert and those convicted with him were brought to the Roter Ochse prison in Halle. Here he was guillotined at 4 p.m.

The urn with his ashes was first buried in Halle and only after the war, in 1948, was transferred to his hometown of Göfis in Vorarlberg.

Effect and beatification process

The Katholisches Bildungswerk Vorarlberg has been organizing the Provikar Lampert Academy in the ORF Vorarlberg State Broadcasting House in Dornbirn since 2005 .

In 1997 the diocese of Feldkirch initiated a beatification process for Provikar Lampert. On June 21, 2011, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recommended that the Pope beatify Carl Lampert. Pope Benedict XVI followed this recommendation and signed the decree on June 27, 2011, by which the martyrdom of Lampert was recognized and the beatification was approved. The official "Elevation of the Blessed to Honor the Altars" took place on November 13, 2011 in the parish church of St. Martin in Dornbirn as part of a solemn holy mass . In the Dornbirn parish of St. Martin, Lampert began his priesthood as a chaplain at a young age. On November 11, 2012, the side chapel of the parish church of St. Martin was named after Lampert. At the same ceremony, the Carl-Lampert-Denkort Layer , designed by Hubert Matt , was handed over.

Commemoration

Memorial plaque of the martyrs of the Nazi era in the crypt of the Saint Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin-Mitte
  • Memorial plaques in St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin-Mitte remind of his fate .
  • Memorial on the south cemetery in Halle (Saale) and at the Holy Cross Church in Halle
  • He is the namesake of the Catholic Parish Association of Carl Lampert in Halle.
  • He is the patron of the Catholic student association KDSt.V. Rheno-Saxonia (Köthen) to Halle in the CV .

Movie

  • Bettina Schimak: Witness in a dark time. Carl Lampert. Documentation, 19 minutes, ORF 2001.

literature

  • Richard Gohm (Ed.): Blessed are those who are persecuted for my sake. Carl Lampert - a victim of Nazi arbitrariness 1894–1944. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-7022-2961-0 .
  • Gaudentius Walser: Carl Lampert. A life for Christ and the Church 1894–1944. Vorarlberger Verlags Anstalt, Dornbirn 1964, DNB 576869481 .
  • Gaudentius Walser (Ed.): Sentenced to death three times. Dr. Carl Lampert, a witness of faith for Christ. Christiana, Stein am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7171-0879-4 .
  • Werner Kunzenmann (Red.): Witness in merciless times. Provikar Dr. Carl Lampert. Documentation . Edited by the diocese of Feldkirch , Verlag Kirche, Innsbruck 1999, ISBN 3-9014-5058-4 .
  • Susanne Emerich (Ed.): If I didn't have an inner strength ... the life and testimony of Carl Lampert. With letters from Carl Lampert. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2011, ISBN 978-3-7022-3164-4 .
  • Klaus Gasperi (Ed.): Carl Lampert. The beatification. Published on behalf of the Catholic Church Vorarlberg. Bucher Verlag, Hohenems 2012, ISBN 978-3-99018-121-8 .

Web links

Commons : Carl Lampert  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Acta Studentica, Volume 178, Dec. 2011, p. 11f
  2. ↑ Vorarlberg Church commemorates the Nazi victim Lampert. In: Vorarlberg Online . November 10, 2008, accessed July 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Recommendation: Carl Lampert should be "blessed". In: ORF Vorarlberg . June 21, 2011, accessed July 10, 2020 .
  4. ^ One year of blessed Carl Lampert - festivities in Dornbirn St. Martin. In: Remember.at. November 11, 2012, accessed July 10, 2020 .
  5. ↑ clergymen (south cemetery). In: Halle im Bild. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on July 10, 2020 .
  6. ^ Catholic parish Carl Lampert. Retrieved July 10, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Lampert, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Catholic priest, victim of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Göfis
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1944
Place of death Halle (Saale)