Emmerich Fünkler

Emmerich Fünkler OSB (* 16th century or 17th century; † March 23, 1643 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a Catholic priest , Benedictine and abbot of the monasteries St. Marien in Stade and St. Januarius in Murrhardt.

Live and act

Emmerich Fünkler was born as the son of Reiner Funckeler and his wife Maria Sassen in Sittard in the former Duchy of Jülich , the year of birth has not been recorded. He joined the Benedictine order and made his vows in the Marienmünster Abbey .

From 1628 to 1629 Fünkler worked as provost in the Lower Saxon monastery of Zeven and finally took over the management of the monastery of St. Marien in Stade as abbot from 1629 . In addition to this position, Emmerich Fünkler was appointed on May 24, 1635 by the chairman of the Bursfeld congregation , Abbot Heinrich Spichenagl of St. Pantaleon in Cologne, as head of the St. Januarius monastery in Murrhardt , which after the battle of Nördlingen in the Thirty Years' War the Benedictines had been restituted .

As abbot, Fünkler tried by all means to promote recatholicization in Murrhardt and did not shy away from compulsory Catholic baptisms, weddings and burials under the threat of armed violence, which is why he had a dragoon unit billeted on site. Under his direction, the Murrhardt Monastery was rebuilt several times - for example, a beer brewery was set up in the west wing of the cloister , which was soon destroyed in a fire - and decorated with frescoes on the east side of the tower and on the interior walls.

Shortly before the end of 1642, Murrhardt was occupied by French, Swedish and Weimar mercenaries in the midst of the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War ; these seized the abbot and arrested him in the monastery. On January 11, 1643, the mercenaries deported Fünkler to their military camp in Freiburg im Breisgau , where he probably died in captivity on March 23, 1643 as a result of physical abuse. Emmerich Fünkler found his final resting place in the cemetery of the St. Peter monastery in the Black Forest.

Others

Memorial inscription for Abbot Emmerich Fünkler

The war fate of the abbot Emmerich Fünkler was carved by the remaining monks of the Murrhardt monastery as a memorial inscription in a semi-arch in the nave of the monastery church :

A (NNO) 1643 IAN (VARII) XI / CAPT (VS) ET AVECTVS EST / A GALLO SVECCIS WINA = / RIENSIBVS R (EVERENDVS) D (OMINVS) EMMERIC (VS) / IN STADEN ET MVRHART / ABBAS QVI XXIII MARTII / APVD HOSTES OBIIT / FRIBVRGI BRISGOIAE / DEVS MISERERE EIVS

( On January 11, 1643, the venerable Herr Emerich, Abbot in Stade and Murrhardt, was seized by the French, the Swedes and Weimar, and kidnapped; he died on March 23 with the enemy in Freiburg im Breisgau. God have mercy on him ! )

literature

• Rolf Schweizer: St. Walterich and his monastery in Murrhardt - His life and work. Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar 2013, ISBN 978-3-86595-522-7 , pp. 67-70.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1] . Annales Gangeltenses by Jacobus Kritzraedt, Gangelt 1641.
2. ↑ [2]. DI 37, Rems-Murr-Kreis, No. 303 (Gerhard Fritz), in: www.inschriften.net, urn: nbn: de: 0238-di037h011k0030307 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Otto Leonhard Hofsess	Abbot of Murrhardt 1635–1643	Joseph Huff