Felix von Hartmann

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Archbishop Felix von Hartmann (1913)
Coat of arms of the Cardinal von Hartmann

Felix Cardinal von Hartmann (born December 15, 1851 in Münster , † November 11, 1919 in Cologne , full name: Bruno Felix Bernard Albert von Hartmann ) was Bishop of Münster from 1911 to 1912 and Archbishop of Cologne from 1912 to 1919 . From 1914 to 1919 he also served as chairman of the Fulda Bishops' Conference .

Life

Felix von Hartmann was born into the second marriage of the senior government councilor Albert von Hartmann. The family was closely connected with the Westphalian nobility and at the same time a traditional Prussian civil servant family.

After completing the lower level of the Paulinum grammar school in Münster, he attended the episcopal grammar school Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck near Goch / Niederrhein until he graduated from high school . There were Hermann Jakob Dingelstad , whom he later as Bishop of Munster succeeded, and Adolf Fritzen , who later became Bishop of Strasbourg, was his teacher.

In 1870 he began studying theology in Münster, where he also attended the seminary . He was ordained a priest on December 19, 1874 . Since no employment in Germany was possible due to Bismarck's so-called Kulturkampf , he went to Rome , where he became a chaplain at the Church of Santa Maria dell'Anima and at the same time began studying canon law . At the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Apollinare , he acquired the title of Dr. iur. can. and returned in 1879 to the diocese of Münster, where he worked as a chaplain in Havixbeck and Emmerich from 1880 .

In 1890 he became secret secretary and chaplain to Bishop Hermann Jakob Dingelstad of Münster, and in 1894 he was appointed vicariate general, and on October 30, 1905 he was appointed vicar general. As early as 1903 he was appointed to the cathedral chapter of Münster due to royal nomination , where he was promoted to cathedral dean in 1911 . With great ecclesiastical influence, as his bishop gave him full confidence, he had a narrow and fearful stand against reform Catholicism , which he did not give up later. Since his influence was known, his election as Bishop of Munster on June 6, 1911 did not surprise anyone. Although the royal government had reservations about his ultramontane attitude, they were impressed by the clever and authoritative manner as well as the skillful manners and the origin of Hartmann. His papal confirmation followed on July 27th and the episcopal ordination by the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Anton Fischer , on October 26th in Münster. Co- consecrators were Michael Felix Korum , Bishop of Trier, and Karl Joseph Schulte , Bishop of Paderborn.

He was elected Archbishop of Cologne on October 29, 1912 and enthroned on April 19, 1913. Hartmann went to Cologne reluctantly and tried to the last to persuade the Pope to withdraw his appointment, which he did not agree to. Pope Pius X accepted von Hartmann on May 2, 1914 as a cardinal priest with the titular church of San Giovanni a Porta Latina in the college of cardinals . From 1914 until his death he headed the German Bishops' Conference in Fulda .

When he arrived in Cologne at the height of the trade union dispute, his concern was initially directed at the Catholic workers' organizations , whereby he managed to take an elastic position. Since 1913 he also openly advocated interdenominational Christian trade unions . If this earned him encouragement in Cologne and elsewhere, internal-Catholic opponents of the trade union movement often regarded it as a betrayal, because Hartmann had been treated as a supposed representative of their position and his predecessor Cardinal Fischer (as an influential proponent of non-denominational workers' associations) under this sign had replaced. Cardinal Kopp even tried to prevent Hartmann's elevation to cardinal.

Due to his attitude during World War often as patriotic and loyal to the king referred to what is considered typical for the Ultramontanism applies and heritage of its Westphalian-Borussian embossing, it experienced its surroundings rather than fundamentally political conservatives , resulting in his reservations about the political Catholicism and the Center Party explained. In this sense and as an “aristocrat from head to toe” , the commanding general of the VII Army Corps Karl von Eine, stationed in Münster since 1909, characterized him. The abolition of the three-tier suffrage did not find his approval, as he feared that it would strengthen the social democracy .

He was convinced of the legitimacy of the First World War , so that in 1915, on behalf of the German government, he was asked to personally explain the question of the German occupation of Belgium in Rome, which was contrary to international law . Hartmann, who was averse to risk and conflict, tried at all costs to avoid the Belgian Cardinal Mercier . When Mercier asked the German episcopate in 1916 to absolve the Belgian population of accusations of partisan warfare, Hartmann found it difficult to dissuade him from making a public reply that would have drawn the episcopate into the nationalist polemic . Generally successful in military chaplaincy, he also took care of prisoners of war and pardoned many foreigners convicted by German courts- martial. In the summer of 1916 he toured the Western Front and maintained good contacts with Kaiser Wilhelm II even after the fall of the German Empire .

In July 1919 the Bund New Germany was founded on the initiative of Hartmanns . In mid-September 1919 he fell ill with herpes zoster in the area of ​​the left half of his head, which a short time later led to paralysis of the left half of his face. At the beginning of November he suffered from pneumonia , which in the early morning hours of November 11, 1919 led to his death. For von Hartmann, the collapse of the monarchy was a time that was no longer his.

In the month of his election as Bishop of Münster, in June 1911, Hartmann was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster. Hartmann was an honorary member of the Catholic student associations Germania Münster and K.St.V. Arminia Bonn in KV .

Works

  • Dies eucharisticus of the deanery M. Gladbach: brief description of the same; in addition to 49 dispositions d. lectures held and Sermons / solemn sermon of His Eminence, the Most Revered Cardinal and Archbishop Felix von Hartmann on the occasion of the 25th conference. Kühlen, Mönchengladbach 1917. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death note for Felix Cardinal von Hartmann on www.rhein-erft-geschichte.de, seen on July 27, 2016
  2. ↑ Colonel General von Eine, Memories of a Soldier , Verlag KF Koehler, Leipzig, 1933, p. 167
  3. ↑ List of honorary doctorates from the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University (PDF; 461 kB).
predecessor Office successor
Georg Cardinal von Kopp Chairman of the Fulda Bishops' Conference
1914–1919 		Adolf Cardinal Bertram
Antonius Cardinal Fischer Archbishop of Cologne
1912-1919 		Karl Joseph Cardinal Schulte
Hermann Jakob Dingelstad Bishop of Münster
1911–1912 		Johannes Poggenburg
Ludwig von Noël Vicar General of the Diocese of Münster
1905–1911 		Johannes Poggenburg
personal data
SURNAME Hartmann, Felix von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartmann, Felix Cardinal von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne (1912-1919)
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1919
Place of death Cologne