Eduard Köck (priest)

Eduard Köck (* 1891 in Hohenau an der March , Lower Austria ; † October 14, 1952 in Vienna ) was an Austrian priest , pastor and monsignor .

Life

Eduard Köck was the son of a tobacco and toy dealer in Hohenau an der March . After elementary school, he attended the kk Staatsgymnasium Hollabrunn from 1902 , where he graduated from high school in 1910 and subsequently entered the local seminary . After completing his studies in theology at the University of Vienna , he was ordained a priest on July 25, 1914 in St. Stephen's Cathedral by Cardinal Prince Archbishop Friedrich Gustav Piffl (1864–1932) ; afterwards he worked as a chaplain in the parishes of Kirchschlag , Inzersdorf and Rudolfsheim between 1914 and 1921 . Although he was appointed field curate in the reserve in 1917, he was spared a foreseeable conscription because the war would soon end.

In 1915 the post of second pastor at the regional court prison house I was advertised for occupation. On February 27, 1921, cooperator Eduard Köck was appointed to this position alongside Josef Supp . His activity in this position spanned three periods:

The years 1921 to 1933 can be regarded as normal, orderly and regulated pastoral care .
From 1934 to 1938, Köck and Supp faced very heavy burdens when, after the February uprising and the July coup, the prisons were filled with “political prisoners”, many of whom had to go to their executioner .
The period from 1938 to 1945 can be described as Köck's great passion : the prisons were full of people of all ages and professions who were persecuted as "political criminals" and "enemies of the state" because of their descent, ideology or nationality.

Through the self-sacrificing care of the death row inmates and their relatives, Pastor Köck was given the honorable nickname Angel of the Prison House soon after 1938 . Various priests, including non-denominational priests, were available to Köck to provide last aid and consolation. Especially the Sterbematriken show the extent pastoral dedication and personal achievement: In the period from 6 December 1938 to 4 April 1945, a total of 1,184 by the guillotine executed 1,020 supervised religious until the last moment, at her request, while only 164 priests Refused assistance.

Eduard Köck accompanied 450 prisoners sentenced to death on the way to the scaffold . He took care of a total of thousands of people, including the now beatified Maria Restituta Kafka (1894–1943), the Augustinian canon Roman Scholz (1912–1944) and the resistance fighter Walter Caldonazzi (1916–1945).

literature

Franz Loidl : Prisoner Head Pastor Monsignor Eduard Köck. 1891-1952. Biographical information and appreciations . Miscellanea - Vienna Catholic Academy, Working Group for Church History and Vienna Diocesan History, Volume NR 27, ZDB -ID 847207-5 . Vienna Catholic Academy, Vienna 1981.

Philipp Hampl, Christian Kuhn: Eduard Köck, prison pastor under the Nazi regime . In: Maria Loredana Idomir, Matthias Keuschnigg, Michael Platzer: Vienna Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, November 2–13, 2011 . ( Symposium on the international outlawing of the death penalty, November 2-13, 2011 ). (German English). Federal Ministry of Justice (Hrsg.), Academic Council of the United Nations System (Hrsg.), Vienna (inter alia) 2012, p. 40 ff. - full text online (PDF; 1.1 MB).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Hampl et al. : Eduard Köck , p. 40.
↑ From day to day. (...) The comforter on death row . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 15, 1952, p. 3 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
↑ Hampl et al. : Eduard Köck , p. 42.
↑ Herbert Fritz: Wear colors, confess colors 1938–1945. Catholic Corporates in Resistance and Persecution . Austrian Association for Student History, Vienna 1988, p. 224.
↑ Jan Mikrut (ed.): Fascinating figures of the Church of Austria . Volume 11. Dom-Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85351-186-4 , p. 32.

Remarks

↑ Among other things, Köck Otto Planetta (1899–1934), the murderer of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (1892–1934), made confession. - Franz Winkler : The dictatorship in Austria . World Power Problems , Volume 6, ZDB -ID 531148-2 . Füssli, Zurich 1935, p. 183.

personal data
SURNAME	Koeck, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian priest, pastor and monsignor
DATE OF BIRTH	1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hohenau an der March
DATE OF DEATH	October 14, 1952
Place of death	Vienna

[Hampl_p40-1] Hampl et al. : Eduard Köck , p. 40.

[3] From day to day. (...) The comforter on death row . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 15, 1952, p. 3 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).

[4] Hampl et al. : Eduard Köck , p. 42.

[5] Herbert Fritz: Wear colors, confess colors 1938–1945. Catholic Corporates in Resistance and Persecution . Austrian Association for Student History, Vienna 1988, p. 224.

[6] Jan Mikrut (ed.): Fascinating figures of the Church of Austria . Volume 11. Dom-Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85351-186-4 , p. 32.

[2] Among other things, Köck Otto Planetta (1899–1934), the murderer of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (1892–1934), made confession. - Franz Winkler : The dictatorship in Austria . World Power Problems , Volume 6, ZDB -ID 531148-2 . Füssli, Zurich 1935, p. 183.