Ernst Moritz Roth

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Ernst-Moritz Roth 1931

Ernst-Moritz Roth (born January 31, 1902 in Cologne , † March 12, 1945 in Dreisel ) was a Catholic priest . He belonged to the resistance against National Socialism .

biography

Roth was the fifth of seven children of the church and decoration painter Wilhelm Roth (1870–1948) and his wife Margarethe born. Kruth (1866–1932) born. He grew up in the Belgian Quarter in Cologne in a strictly Catholic environment. His siblings included the future martyrs Joseph , Albert (1897–1914) and Wilhelm . Like his brother Karl-Gustav (1905–1987), Roth went to the St. Josef College in Vechta . His older brother Albert was his father's company Roth & van der Kaaij take over, but when he in the war fell had decided the father that Ernst take up the profession of the painter and taking Albert's place in the company should, and so he began in his father's business with training as a painter. Parallel to his apprenticeship, which he completed with the journeyman's examination on April 1, 1921, he attended the Cologne School of Applied Arts from 1919 to 1921 . There he had lessons from the professor and painter Robert Seuffert (1874-1946). At the same time he was in close contact with the artist Walter Ophey and his family in Düsseldorf through Father Eduard Heinrich Knackfuss . In order to continue his artistic education and to become a church and decoration painter like his father, he spent his time as a journeyman in Nuremberg in 1921 at the arts and crafts school . There, however, he decided - against his father's will - to become a priest like his brothers Willi and Karl. He studied theology from 1922 to 1928 at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , among others with Professor Arnold Rademacher . From 1928 to 1929 he was an alumnus of the seminary of the Archdiocese of Cologne in Bensberg . At the same time, he attended drawing studies with the sculptor Karl Menser in Bonn . On August 6, 1929, he was ordained a priest in Cologne Cathedral by Archbishop Karl Joseph Schulte .

His first vicar positions were St. Barbara in Mülheim-Dümpten (1929-1930), St. Antonius in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel (1930-1931), St. Antonius in Essen-Frohnhausen (1931-1932) and St. Laurentius in Dattenfeld an der Victory (1932-1935). His time in Dattenfeld was overshadowed by his active opposition to the National Socialists . The consequence was the withdrawal of his permission to teach and the transfer by his church superiors. Since he did not get a job at first, he continued to study theology, catechetics , salvation history, philosophy of religion, christology and introduction to art as a registered student at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in the semesters 1935 to 1937 . One of his professors was Paul Clemen . Between 1935 and 1936 he actively helped the Jewish doctor Kurt-Georg Leichtentritt. First he tried to save him by baptism (Roth's father became a godfather), then Roth and his family helped Leichtentritt and his wife to emigrate to America in 1939 . After his studies, he got the job of chaplain in the Elisabeth Hospital in Bonn (1936–1937).

For three years Roth was unable to preach because of mental and physical illness. He was also forbidden and forbidden by his superiors to keep in touch with his friends in Dattenfeld and the surrounding area .:

Not being able to preach or not being allowed to preach in times of persecution and misunderstanding made him swoon. Violence, prohibition and intrigue often prevented him from seeing the people who were entrusted to him.

From 1940 to 1945 he was a chaplain in Schwarzrheindorf . Despite the prohibition, he kept secret contact with his friends Rudolf Geimer and Willi Weber in Dattenfeld. When his older brother Joseph threatened further harassment after his release from the Buchenwald concentration camp at the end of 1944 , he managed to hide him near Dattenfeld with the Wachter family, who were very good friends of him. When he threatened arrest by the Gestapo after the death of his brother Joseph , he fled and hid with the family of his friend Weber in Dreisel . On March 12, 1945 he was killed there in a bomb attack.

His charismatic power as a priest and preacher was so great and convincing that three of his best friends (Rudi Geimer, Willi Weber and Josef Görgen) also felt called to the priesthood. Görgen fell as a soldier at the front towards the end of the war, but Geimer and Weber were ordained priests after the war as so-called late callers . You wrote about it in the first book publication on Roth in 1978.

Ernst Moritz Roth, who died in an air raid on March 12, 1945, was a priest with holy zeal for the church and people. Always aware of his mission and calling, he consumed himself in proclaiming the Good News, which he understood to present to the faithful in unadulterated words and pictures. We owe him next to God that we, as later called, also became priests. This little book gives a little insight into the soul of our friend, into his artistic and priestly work. May the reader keep a little of it in his heart.

Before and during his time as a priest he was also an artist. His expressionist works include poems and pictures.

Honors

  • On June 14, 2010, the Dattenfeld primary school was renamed the Ernst Moritz Roth School.
  • On March 29, 2012 two stumbling blocks were laid by the artist Gunter Demnig . The first stone at the house where they died in Dreisel and the second stone at the foot of the church stairs in Dattenfeld.

literature

  • Ertel, KF: Ernst Moritz Roth 1902–1945. Beuel 1968, no page numbers
  • Siering, Theo / Steger, Hans: Ernst Moritz Roth 1902–1945. Bonn, Siering Verlag 1978, no page numbers
  • Hundhausen, Emil: Ernst Moritz Roth as vicar and opponent of the Third Reich . Stromberg / Sieg 1979
  • Kölner Stadtanzeiger No. 243 Local section of the Siegburger Zeitung of October 18, 1979, p. 14.
  • Heimatblätter des Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, yearbook 1980, pp. 197–204.
  • Bernd Floer: Collective resistance against National Socialism from a village-Catholic milieu in the Archdiocese of Cologne: A case study from 1935. GRIN Verlag, 2008 (There are errors in the family history in this work, such as the wrong maiden name of the mother, the wrong order of his siblings and the unwitting omission of the older brother Joseph )
  • Historical archive of the Archdiocese of Cologne , estate of Karl-Gustav Roth
  • Josef Roth: Ernst Moritz Roth . Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon, Verlag Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen 2012, ISBN 978-3-88309-690-2 , p. 1138-1140 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.baufachinformation.de/denkmalpflege/Fr%C3%BChere-Restaurierungen-am-Deckenfresco-im-Treppenhaus-des-Schlosses-Augustusburg/1988067138011  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.baufachinformation.de  
  2. ^ Roth family archive : Documents from Ophey, pictures and photos
  3. ↑ * July 19, 1872 in Cologne, † November 10, 1929 in Bonn. Menser created u. a. the figures on the portal of the former Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture in Bonn's Weststadt , he designed the Rhöndorfer Waldfriedhof, created the relief on the grave of the composer Caspar Joseph Brambach in the Poppelsdorf cemetery and the plastic jewelry on the grave of the composer Louis Lacombe in the Père Lachaise cemetery
  4. ^ A b Historical archive of the Archdiocese of Cologne: Karl-Gustav Roth estate. Letters and documents from 1934 to 1936
  5. ^ Historical archive of the Archdiocese of Cologne: Karl-Gustav Roth estate. Ernst Moritz Roth student ID from 1935
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de
  7. ↑ Siering, Theo / Steger, Hans: Ernst Moritz Roth 1902–1945. Bonn, Verlag Siering 1978, no page numbers, second page.
  8. ↑ St. Brother Konrad in Dreisel (circumstances of the death of Roth)
  9. ↑ a b Arguable in difficult times  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Kölner Stadtanzeiger from June 14, 2010@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ksta.de  
  10. ^ Roth family archive , letters from father Wilhelm Roth in 1945 on the death of his sons
  11. ↑ Siering, Theo / Steger, Hans: Ernst Moritz Roth 1902–1945. Bonn, Verlag Siering 1978, no page numbers, last page.
  12. ^ Letter from the school principal Wagner to the Roth family dated March 21, 2012
  13. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ksta.de
personal data
SURNAME Roth, Ernst Moritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roth, Ernst-Moritz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, poet and Catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1945
Place of death Dreisel