Carl Mommert

Carl Mommert (born August 7, 1840 in Krehlau, Lower Silesia , today Krzelów, Wińsko parish , Poland, † around 1910) was a Catholic theologian and pastor who is considered a representative of anti-Semitism in the 19th century .

Life

Family and education

Carl Mommert was the first of twelve children and grew up on his parents' estate in Krehlau / Lower Silesia. In 1848 he was taken in by his uncle of the same name, who had been a pastor in Ullersdorf since 1844. Carl Mommert first received private tuition from an adjutant there and then from 1852 attended the high school in Sagan . In 1859 he switched to the grammar school in Glogau . His leaving certificate before changing school proves that he was by no means the best student:

“With insufficient diligence in mathematics and Greek and regular school attendance, he met the requirements of the lower secondary in the following way: a) In languages: In German, Latin and Hebrew his achievements were not sufficient, in Greek and French poor . b) In the sciences: in religion and history it met the requirements sufficiently, in physics it was insufficient; in mathematics his achievements were poor. c) In technical skills and arts: In drawing and gymnastics, he could be given the rating "excellent". "

He received his school leaving certificate in 1862 at the age of 22.

Study and religious awakening experience

Then he asked himself the question of profession. Carl Mommert said in his memoirs: "I would like to have become a soldier, but my civilian circumstances were not suited to this, and this class has therefore always remained an object of platonic love for me". Then he decided to study law, because this enabled his professional goal to be realized: "Such a tax supervisor who drives around in his car and inspects the schnapps distilleries and breweries". But that didn't happen because by mistake he enrolled at the University of Breslau for Catholic theology . At the beginning of his studies he devoted himself more to 'student life': He joined the Catholic student association Winfridia and was “well on the way to thoroughly learning beer drinking and dancing, two important but up to then completely new arts, although both of them were utterly unsympathetic to me ”. An assessment that can most likely be explained by the priestly status that Carl Mommert held when he wrote the memoirs. In 1864 he got so seriously ill with typhus that he was already receiving the anointing of the sick . He felt his recovery as a religious awakening experience and decided to sincerely “dedicate himself to the spiritual class”. In 1866 he passed the bankruptcy exam and because of the German War in 1866 he received shortly afterwards “the tonsure and the four minor orders, and on July 8th of the same year also the St. Subdiaconate ordination ”. Carl Mommert gave his first sermon on the Sunday after Bartholomäus in 1866 with his uncle in Ullersdorf.

Catholic pastor in the "Kulturkampf"

Carl Mommert, who later had his own parish in Schweidnitz , was always convinced that he had made the right career choice and also vehemently defended his status and his views as a Catholic pastor in the so-called Kulturkampf , which smoldered before, but completely after the establishment of the Empire in 1871 broke out. In his memoirs, Mommert claimed that he “fought bravely in the first ranks of the Kulturkampfe”, even though his reports are of course primarily concerned with adequate self-portrayal. But Carl Mommert was by no means an innocent lamb. He had "not only served a 14-day prison sentence, but [was] admittedly irritable, nervous and rough".

to travel

Carl Mommert traveled a lot during his studies, but especially afterwards. He not only visited Italy , Austria and Switzerland , but even traveled to the 1878 World's Fair in Paris . But his preferred travel destination was Jerusalem . Carl Mommert belonged to the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the German Oriental Society had him as a member as well. He worked on his interest in the holy city in numerous publications.

death

The date of Carl Mommert's death is unknown. Since his last German-language publication appeared in 1910, he must have died around this year.

anti-Semitism

In some of his publications, as the titles sometimes suggest, "[t] he continuity of anti-Jewish prejudice [...] and at the same time the latent presence of anti-Jewish dispositions in the Catholic population of Germany during the Wilhelmine era". Christoph Nonn is even of the opinion that Carl Mommert was "the most ardent advocate of the legend of the ritual murder at the turn of the century" among the Catholic clergy. Carl Mommert tried to support the legend of the ritual murder with such sentences: “From the annual recurrence of the festivals and religious celebrations, for which the Jews of human blood or the Christian blood require ritual purposes, it follows with hair-raising certainty that every year people , and especially Christians, to be killed by the Jews for the purpose of drawing blood ”. Lehr's assessment that Mommert was trying to demonize the Jews can therefore be entirely agreed. Nevertheless, there are also indications that his theses were sharply condemned.

Fonts

• The Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in its original condition , Leipzig 1888.
• The Dormition and the German property on the traditional Zion , Leipzig 1899.
• Zion and Akra. The hills of the old town , Leipzig 1900.
• Golgotha ​​and St. Grave in Jerusalem , Leipzig 1900.
• Salem, the royal city of Melchizedek. A Christian archaeological study , Leipzig 1902.
• Topography of Old Jerusalem , 4 vol., 1902-1907.
• The Praetorium of Pilate and the place of judgment of Jesus , Leipzig 1903.
• Aenon and Bethania, the Baptist's baptismal places , Leipzig 1903.
• From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904.
• Human sacrifice among the ancient Hebrews , Leipzig 1905.
• The ritual murder of the Talmud Jews , Leipzig 1905.
• Refutation of the contradictions of pious Jews and Christians against the accusation of blood against Jews , Leipzig 1906.
• The Bethesda pond in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem of the pilgrim from Bordeaux , Leipzig 1907.
• Siloam. Fountain, pond, canal to Jerusalem , Leipzig 1908.
• On the chronology of the life of Jesus , Leipzig 1910.
• Saint Étienne et ses sanctuaires à Jérusalem , Paris 1912.

literature

• Stefan Lehr : Anti-Semitism - Religious Motives in Social Prejudice. From the early history of anti-Semitism in Germany 1870-1914 . Munich 1974.
• Christoph Nonn : Rumors of ritual murder as a form of popular anti-Semitism - a Catholic specialty? , in: Catholic anti-Semitism in the 19th century. Causes and traditions in international comparison. Edited by Olaf Blaschke and Aram Mattiolo . Zurich 2000, pp. 145–159.
• Hermann Greive : The social significance of the Christian-Jewish difference - On the situation in German Catholicism , in: Jews in Wilhelminian Germany 1890-1914. An anthology. Edited by Werner E. Mosse . Tübingen 1998, pp. 349-388.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 19 f.
2. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 21.
3. ^ ^{A b} Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 27.
4. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 26.
5. ^ ^{A b} Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 32.
6. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 33.
7. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 38.
8. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 39.
9. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 16.
10. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 194 f.
11. ^ Carl Mommert: From the life of a village pastor , Leipzig 1904, p. 15.
12. ↑ Directory of members 1907 on www.archive.org
13. ↑ Hermann Greive: The social significance of the Christian-Jewish difference - on the situation in German Catholicism , in: Jews in Wilhelminian Germany 1890-1914. An anthology. Edited by Werner E. Mosse. Tübingen 1998, p. 359.
14. ^ Christoph Nonn: Rumors of ritual murder as a form of popular anti-Semitism - A Catholic specialty? , in: Catholic anti-Semitism in the 19th century. Causes and traditions in international comparison. Edited by Olaf Blaschke and Aram Mattiolo. Zurich 2000, p. 152.
15. ^ Carl Mommert: The ritual murder of the Talmud Jews , Leipzig 1905, p. 107.
16. ↑ Stefan Lehr: Anti-Semitism - Religious Motives in Social Prejudice. From the early history of anti-Semitism in Germany 1870-1914 . Munich 1974, p. 66 f.
17. ↑ Stefan Lehr: Anti-Semitism - Religious Motives in Social Prejudice. From the early history of anti-Semitism in Germany 1870-1914 . Munich 1974, p. 85.