Christian Herwartz

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Christian Herwartz (2008)

Christian Maria Oskar Herwartz SJ (born March 16, 1943 in Stralsund ) is a German Roman Catholic priest , member of the Jesuit order , author , blogger and is considered the founder of the street retreat movement . In 2008 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

Life

Christian Herwartz is the oldest of six brothers. His father Oskar Herwartz (1915–2002) was a soldier ; he took part in World War II , u. a. as commander of a submarine , and later was a captain in the German Navy . Christian Herwartz's childhood and youth were characterized by several family-related changes of location and school; he dropped out of secondary school without leaving school. After a two-year internship in mechanical engineering at a shipyard in Kiel, he became a soldier in the army of the German Federal Armed Forces and a reserve officer there . In 1977, however, he applied for recognition as a conscientious objector . His professional goal was to work as a mechanical engineer in development aid.

In 1969, Herwartz completed his Abitur at the Collegium Marianum in Neuss. In the same year he entered the Jesuit novitiate . He had also dealt with other religious orders, but he could not imagine how to fit into a highly structured daily routine like this, to separate [oneself] from other people with a robe and to root [oneself] in a home monastery ". However, the spirituality and way of life of the Little Brothers remained important to him . During his apprenticeship in the Jesuit order, he completed a four-week Ignatian retreat and made the "experiments" provided by the order in a hospital, in psychiatry and in the form of a longer stay among the homeless. After the novitiate he studied philosophy for two years at the University of the Jesuit Order in Pullach and Munich and then theology at the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt am Main until his final exam in 1975 . One focus was the theology of liberation . His thesis was entitled Entering a Conversation with History - A Confrontation with the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius von Loyola . As early as 1971, in conversation with his fellow student and Jesuit Michael Walzer, the plan to get active in the world of work arose. Both implemented this several times during their studies. Herwartz had acquired a truck driver 's license because the Jesuit college had moved from Pullach to Munich and had repeatedly worked as a truck driver.

Worker priest

From 1975 Christian Herwartz lived in a Jesuit community in Toulouse to get to know the workers priests movement, worked as a driver and porter in a moving company and then as a press operator in the aluminum industry. In 1976 he was ordained a priest in Frankfurt am Main , but kept this a secret from his company. In 1977 he was fired for joining the union . He then completed retraining as a lathe operator in Strasbourg and worked in this profession for a temporary employment agency in Paris .

Christian Herwartz (2019); the tattoo illustrates the story of the burning bush ( Ex 3.1–15  EU )
Peace prayer on Bethlehemkirchplatz in Berlin (2019)

Herwartz worked as a lathe operator at Siemens in Berlin from 1978 and lived in a Jesuit community he co-founded. In 1987/88 he completed his Jesuit tertiary education in the order in Trosly-Breuil in northern France. During this time he experienced - also as a result of the death of Michael Walzer - a personal and religious life crisis, which he describes as the "loss of Jesus". From 1988 he lived again in the community on Naunynstrasse in Berlin and worked as a lathe operator, later as a warehouse worker at Siemens. The work enabled Herwartz to come into contact with poorer sections of the population, and at the same time it made it possible to carry the Christian faith into an atheistic environment. As a worker priest, he wanted to remain unrecognized as a priest in the anti-religious or anti-church environment of the factory; At that time he did not see his vocation in appearing with a “word mandate”, but in showing solidarity through living and working. In an interview with Christine Wollowski he said: “In my life I never wanted to be primarily professional, distant as a helper or pastor. That is why the questions of others often became my own. "

In 2000, Herwartz became unemployed and retired. When he left the profession, he began to present his religious existence and way of life in book form and on the Internet and to make it public. He wears numerous tattoos on his body, many of them on biblical symbols and stories in which he wants to express his faith.

Community in Berlin-Kreuzberg

In 1978 he founded a community among workers in Berlin with the Jesuits Michael Walzer († 1986) and the Hungarian Peter Mustó (until 1979) , first in Wedding , then in Kreuzberg , since 1984 at Naunynstrasse 60. 1980 came the Swiss Jesuit Franz Keller († 2014) about this. The project began with the support of the leadership of the order, although not always without criticism and resistance in the order. The community sees itself as a spiritual community that is always open to guests and roommates. Herwartz and Keller did not have a room of their own as a retreat, but lived in shared rooms in the shared flat. By 2010 there were around 400 people from over 60 countries and different religions who lived there for a shorter or longer period, on average around 16 people at the same time, including those released from prison, homeless people or people with mental health problems. Because of this context in life, prayers for peace were repeatedly held at various locations in Berlin, such as a monthly interreligious peace prayer on the Gendarmenmarkt from 2002 onwards, with Christian Herwartz significantly involved .

In 2016, Herwartz retired from the community in Naunynstrasse after the death of his long-time colleague Franz Keller for reasons of age and now lives in the Canisiuskolleg in Berlin.

Social Commitment

Herwartz is committed to the work for prisoners and takes part in political discussions with prisoners. He himself had to serve two prison terms, in 1987 for boycotting the census and in 1997 for insulting a police officer at a demonstration in front of the Siemens factory gate. He is a member of the group “Religious Against Exclusion”, which from 1995 carried out regular warning and prayer vigils in front of the deportation detention center in Berlin-Köpenick until it was closed.

The vigil for refugees and asylum seekers on the premises of the Flughafengesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg in Berlin-Köpenick were banned by the airport company because the prison is on private property and the area in front of it is not public. In a legal dispute over several instances, Christian Herwartz obtained that the Federal Court of Justice allowed demonstrations in front of the prison on the grounds of the future BER airport on June 26, 2015 , since a ban would violate Christian Herwartz's fundamental right to freedom of assembly.

Exercises on the street

Christian Herwartz became known through the retreat on the street . Together with the retreat guide Alex Lefrank, also a Jesuit, he conducted the first street retreat from the community in Naunynstrasse in 1998 for a group of three participants from the Jesuit order. The first open tender was made in 2000. After his retirement, Herwartz devotes himself increasingly to the task of accompanying such retreat courses, deepening them conceptually and making them known.

Awards

  • 2008: Federal Cross of Merit
  • January 19, 2013: Ecumenical Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburg Ecumenical Council (ÖRBB)

Publications

  • “Foreign workers” in the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Christian Herwartz u. a. (Ed.): So that everyone can live. Mainz 1973, pp. 43-79.
  • Exercises in urban hot spots. In: Geist und Leben 74 (2001), pp. 269-302.
  • (Ed.) Hospitality - The constant change from guest to host and back to guest. Berlin 2004 ( digital )
  • On bare soles. (= Ignatian impulses 18). 2nd edition, Echter, Würzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-429-02839-8 .
  • (Ed. With Renate Trobitzsch) Experience siblings. Berlin 2010 ( digital )
  • Burning present. Exercises on the street. (= Ignatian impulses 51) Echter, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-429-03428-3 .
  • (Ed. With Godehard Brüntrup , Hermann Kügler ) Unholy power. The Jesuit Order and the Abuse Crisis. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2nd edition, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-17-023289-1 .
  • (With Sabine Wollowski) To be a bridge. From worker priest to brother. Edition Steinrich, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942085-31-1 .
  • Meet the Risen One today. A determination of the location of a retreat on the street. In: Geist und Leben 87 (2014), pp. 252–260.
  • (Ed. With Maria Jans-Wenstrup, Katharina Prinz, Elisabeth Tollkötter, Josef Freise) Looking for God's traces in everyday life on the street. Personal encounters in street retreats. Neukirchener Verlag , Neukirchen-Vluyn 2016, 2nd edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-7615-6270-3 .
  • (Ed. With Nadine Sylla) Simply without. Berlin 2016 ( digital )

Web links

Commons : Christian Herwartz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Herwartz with Sabine Wollowski: Be a bridge. From worker priest to brother . Berlin 2013, p. 53 .
  2. ↑ jesuitwerden.org: Noviziatsprogramm
  3. ↑ Christian Herwartz with Sabine Wollowski: Be a bridge. From worker priest to brother . Berlin 2013, p. 45 .
  4. ↑ Susanne Szemerédy: From the host to the hostage of the other . Berlin 2012, p. 111 f.115 f .
  5. ↑ Christian Herwartz: On bare feet . Würzburg 2006, p. 12 f .
  6. ↑ Michael Johannes Schindler: God on the street . Berlin 2016, p. 33-36 .
  7. ↑ Christian Herwartz: On bare feet . Würzburg 2006, p. 21st ff .
  8. ↑ Susanne Szemerédy: From the host to the hostage of the other . Berlin 2012, p. 111-122 .
  9. ↑ Susanne Szemerédy: From the host to the hostage of the other . Berlin 2012, p. 128 .
  10. ↑ Christian Herwartz with Sabine Wollowski: Be a bridge. From worker priest to brother . Berlin 2013, p. 39 f .
  11. ↑ Susanne Szemerédy: From the host to the hostage of the other . Berlin 2012, p. 111 f .
  12. ↑ Madeleine Spendier: The Jesuit who tells of his faith with tattoos catholic.de, January 10, 2019 , accessed on November 29, 2019.
  13. ↑ Christian Herwartz: Living with tattoos. Retrieved December 14, 2019 (d).
  14. ↑ Susanne Szemerédy: From the host to the hostage of the other . Berlin 2012, p. 113-122 .
  15. ↑ friedensgebet-berlin.de: Initiators
  16. ^ Franz Keller: Franz Keller (born 1925). Retrieved December 6, 2019 (d).
  17. ↑ Franz Keller. Retrieved December 6, 2019 (d).
  18. ↑ Romina Carolin Stork: No more "getting one on the lid" , kathisch.de, April 16, 2016.
  19. ↑ IG Metall shop steward in jail. TAZ, December 5, 1997, accessed December 14, 2019 (d).
  20. ↑ nacktesohlen.wordpress.com: Vigil service against exclusion
  21. ↑ Susanne Szemerédy: From the host to the hostage of the other . Berlin 2012, p. 113-120 .
  22. ↑ Luisa Hommerich: To hell. Portrait: Christian Herwartz went to the Federal Constitutional Court for refugees. In: Der Freitag , issue 26/2015 digital , accessed on December 8, 2019.
  23. ↑ Legal Tribune Online: BGH allows protests in front of the deportation prison. Demonstrations also on airport premises. Online June 26, 2015 , accessed December 8, 2019.
  24. ↑ Philipp Gessler: Practiced charity in Berlin The sacred on the street. December 5, 1997, accessed December 14, 2019 (d).
  25. ↑ Ecumenical Prize: Berlin Brandenburg. January 19, 2013, accessed December 14, 2019 (d).
personal data
SURNAME Herwartz, Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herwartz, Christian Maria Oskar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic priest and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Stralsund