Eduard Müller (martyr)
Eduard Müller (born August 20, 1911 in Neumünster , Schleswig-Holstein , † November 10, 1943 in Hamburg ) was a German Roman Catholic priest . He was executed as one of the Lübeck martyrs . In 2011 he was beatified .
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Live and act
Eduard Müller came from a family with seven children. The father had left the family early; the mother tried to support the family with odd jobs. Eduard did an apprenticeship as a carpenter. He was also active in the Catholic youth movement. His wish to become a priest was supported by the Neumünster chaplain Bernhard Schräder ; Schräder made it possible for Müller to go to school by organizing donors. From 1931 to 1935, Müller prepared for his Abitur in the Clementinum late-career seminar . In 1940 Eduard Müller was ordained a priest . He then worked as an adjunct at the Sacred Heart Church in downtown Lübeck . His main focus was the pastoral care of young people . He was popular with the youth; however, he turned down the offer of the Hitler Youth to work with her. Müller was rather apolitical; He was nevertheless clear about the incompatibility of National Socialism and Christianity.
Müller and his fellow brothers Johannes Prassek and Hermann Lange as well as the Evangelical Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink heard the German-language service of the English radio, which was made a criminal offense by the Nazi regime since 1939 through legal measures such as the regulation on extraordinary radio measures . Müller also took part in the copying and distribution of sermons by Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen , who was Bishop of Münster from 1933 to 1946 and who opposed the killing of so-called "life unworthy of life" by the National Socialists. In addition, open discussions about the futility of war took place at group evenings in the Sacred Heart Church.
After the Protestant pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink was arrested on April 7, 1942, the three Catholic clergymen Eduard Müller, Johannes Prassek and Hermann Lange as well as 18 lay people were arrested in the next few weeks. Müller was arrested on June 22, 1942. The four clergymen were sentenced to death about a year later, in June 1943, by the 2nd Senate of the People's Court , who had traveled from Berlin, for “treasonous enemy favoring”, “ degradation of military strength ”, “offenses against the Broadcasting Act” and the “ Heimtückegesetz ” ; the lay people who were also accused received prison sentences. Eduard Müller wrote the following words after the verdict was pronounced: “So I have the expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed in any piece, but that in all boldness, as always, Christ will be glorified in my body now, be it through life, be it by death. Because for me life is Christ and death is gain. "
The death sentence was carried out on November 10, 1943 in the Holstenglacis prison in Hamburg (today Hamburg remand prison ) by executioner Friedrich Hehr with the guillotine .
In 2003 a process for the beatification of the Lübeck martyrs, including Eduard Müller, was initiated. On July 1, 2010, the Vatican Press Office announced that Pope Benedict XVI. authorized the prefect of the Congregation for Canonization to “ enforce” a corresponding decree and the process of beatification was completed. The beatification of Müller and the two other Catholic clergy took place on June 25, 2011 in front of the Sacred Heart Church in Lübeck. The Protestant Stellbrink was also remembered.
literature
- Martin Thoemmes : Eduard Müller . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Neumünster 2000, p. 272-273 .
- Peter Voswinckel: Guided paths: The Lübeck martyrs in words and pictures . Kevelaer 2010, ISBN 978-3-7666-1391-2 .
- Martin Thoemmes : "Never say three, always say four". The memory of the Lübeck martyrs from 1943 until today. Ansgar, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-932379-93-2 .
- Ann-Helena Schlüter : `` Free as the birds: The heroes of Lübeck - A story against forgetting '' , SCM Hänssler Verlag (23 August 2018), ISBN 3775158650 , ISBN 978-3775158657
- Martin Thoemmes , Art .: Eduard Müller, in: Witnesses for Christ. The German Martyrology of the 20th Century , ed. by Helmut Moll on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference., Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Vol. I, pp. 319–327.
Web links
- Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
- Portrait with vita at the Archdiocese of Hamburg
- Joachim Schäfer: Eduard Müller in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , last updated on August 30, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quotation in this form at the web link Archdiocese of Hamburg.
- ↑ Ecumenical resistance ended under the guillotine on www.evangelisch.de
- ^ Press Office of the Holy See, Bulletin No. 436/2010 of July 1, 2010 (Italian)
- ^ New church newspaper of September 19, 2010 (38), Hamburg
- ^ Thousands at the beatification of Nazi resistance in Lübeck ( Memento from July 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Lübecker Nachrichten online from June 25, 2011
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Müller, Eduard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Catholic priest and one of the four Lübeck martyrs and blessed |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 20, 1911 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Neumunster |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 10, 1943 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |