Elpidius Markötter

Elpidius Markötter

Elpidius Markötter OFM (born October 8, 1911 in Südlohn as Joseph Markötter ; † June 28, 1942 in Dachau concentration camp ), was a German Franciscan , priest and lecturer , active opponent of National Socialism and defender of the human dignity of Poles and Jews . He died in the camp and was one of the Catholic martyrs of the Nazi era .

Life

Career

Joseph Markötter was one of eight children of the post office clerk Hermann Markötter and his wife Elisabeth geb. Tenbrake. After primary school in Südlohn, he attended the Rector's School in Stadtlohn in 1925 and the St. Ludwig Franciscan College in Vlodrop , the Netherlands, from 1926 to 1932 . On April 14, 1932, he entered the novitiate of the Saxon Franciscan Province in Warendorf and took the religious name Elpidius . He studied philosophy and theology in Dorsten and Paderborn . He made Perpetual Vows on April 23, 1936 . On March 27, 1939, he was ordained a priest in Paderborn . From Easter of the same year he took on a teaching position at the mission college for the southern Brazilian order province in the Garnstock monastery near Eupen , Belgium . A speech with the key word “Mission of Love”, which he gave there at the sending-out ceremony for young missionaries, stayed with the audience for a long time. He was scientifically involved under the direction of Father Kilian Kirchhoff (1892-1944) in the translation of Greek source texts for his work The Eastern Church Prays .

National Socialism

Markötter's distance from National Socialism , which he made no secret of, grew after the German invasion of Poland , which began the Second World War . Since the Garnstocker Kolleg now lacked students, Markötter was transferred to Warendorf, first as a submagister of the novitiate, then as a pastor in the parishes. He witnessed the "disappearance" of Jews and the mistreatment of slave laborers .

On May 26, 1940, Markötter gave a sermon on 1 Jn 3 : 13-18  EU , in which he a. a. said: "Brother is to us the Italian, the Japanese, brother also the English, the Pole, the Jew". This statement got around and, reduced to the "enemy peoples", was brought to the police. On June 4, Markötter was arrested by the Gestapo for violating the treachery law and undermining military strength . During the interrogation before the Warendorf district court on June 15, the main witness weakened her testimony. Markötter himself emphasized that he had also called the war allies brothers. The examining magistrate then rejected an arrest warrant. Nevertheless, the Gestapo kept Markötter in protective custody . He was taken to the Münster police prison.

The chief public prosecutor of the Dortmund special court led the further investigations . At the hearing on November 1, 1940 in Warendorf, Markötter calmly declared his sermon as an explanation of the general Christian duty. He was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for violating the pulpit paragraph - endangering the public peace by discussing the Jewish question - which was considered to have served due to protective custody. The Gestapo nevertheless took him back to the Münster police prison.

Concentration camp imprisonment and death

On January 13, 1941, Father Elpidius was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on a prisoner transport, where he arrived with traces of abuse. Surviving fellow prisoners testified that after overcoming the first shock, he did everything to make life in the concentration camp easier for others and to strengthen them mentally. Although Mass celebrations were not possible, he wrote down the Latin mass texts from memory for daily prayer with the help of other priests .

On September 26, 1941, Markötter was transferred with other priests from Sachsenhausen to the Dachau concentration camp and was taken to Priest Block 26. There, the prisoners suffered from extreme malnutrition during hard work and constant harassment by the guards. The opportunity to celebrate Mass gave them consolation. For the high mass on Sundays and public holidays, Markötter wrote down chorale notes in large format so that all participating priests could sing along. In his letters from Dachau he tried to reassure his relatives and confreres about him and took part in their worries. After Easter 1942 he wrote: “I am grateful to God that I am allowed to be a priest. I haven't regretted it for a minute, although I was allowed to experience the seriousness of this profession. That grants special joy. ”However, the leadership of the Saxon Franciscan Province and some confreres initially kept a distance from Father Elpidius; At first he stayed in Sachsenhausen for four months without a letter.

In May and June 1942, Markötter was completely emaciated from a stomach and intestinal ailment. He was still able to write down a sermon that he was supposed to give to Peter and Paul at Mass . The day before the festival, a Sunday, he died in the sick barrack in the arms of a Dutch Franciscan. His sermon was read at the apostle festival. One participant later reported: “The whole priestly community was filled with deep sorrow, and we all agreed on the judgment: one of our best, a saint and martyr, has passed away. M. is an advocate for us at the throne of God. "

The urn with his ashes was buried after the exequies in the monastery church in the Franciscan cemetery in Warendorf. In the 1950s he was recognized as a martyr in his religious province . In Warendorf the Pater-Markötter-Promenade , in Südlohn the Elpidiusstraße reminds of him; a memorial for him was erected there in 1978.

literature

in order of appearance

• Jakob Torsy: Lexicon of the German saints, blessed, venerable and godly. JP Bachem, Cologne 1959, p. 135.
• Ottokar Mund (Ed.): Elpidius-Strasse. Life picture of P. Elpidius Markötter ofm, died on June 28, 1942 in the Dachau concentration camp. Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, Werl 1984, ISBN 3-87163-144-2 .
• Ottokar Mund: Flowers on the rubble. Martyrs from the Nazi era: Kilian Josef Kirchhoff OFM, Elpidius Markötter OFM, Wolfgang Rosenbaum OFM. A picture biography. Bonifatius, Paderborn 1989, ISBN 3-87088-566-1 .
• Norbert Seggeviss: P. Elpidius Markötter OFM (1911-1942). In: Franziskanische Studien , Vol. 74 (1992), pp. 146-252.
• Christian Frieling: priest from the diocese of Münster in the concentration camp. 38 biographies. Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 1992, ISBN 3-402-05427-2 . In it pp. 134–137: Josef Markötter (P. Elpidius) OFM .
• Ottokar Mund:  Markötter, Josef P. Elpidius. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 844-845.
• Engelhard Kutzner: Father Elpidius (Joseph) Markötter. In: Helmut Moll (ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Vol. I, pp. 921-925.

swell

• Diocese archive Münster: Collection of victims of Nazi persecution, Josef Markötter , volume January 14, 12, 1941 (copy).

Web links

• Gaby Flemnitz, Karl Reddemann; Westfälisches Landesmedienzentrum (Ed.): Exploited for the "Volksgemeinschaft"? Forced labor in the Münsterland during the "Third Reich". In: Historical learning, multimedia. City of Münster, Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-923432-34-8 (DVD with booklet - online: 70 pages, PDF file; 323 kB).
• Markötter, lecture by his nephew Hermann Schmitz, January 29, 2017 in the Humberghaus , detailed report Rheinische Post, Dingden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Two of the siblings died in early childhood (Kutzner p. 757)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Kutzner p. 757
3. ↑ ^{a b} Kutzner p. 758
4. ↑ ^{a b} Kutzner p. 759
5. ^ Gerhard Lindemann : From the November Revolution to the Second Vatican Council. In: Joachim Schmiedl (Ed.): From Kulturkampf to the beginning of the 21st century. (History of the Saxon Franciscan Province, Vol. 3) Paderborn u. a. 2010, pp. 289–631, here p. 626.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Kutzner p. 760