Franz Ballhorn

Franz Ballhorn (born November 29, 1908 in Münster , † February 27, 1979 in Nottuln ) was a German local politician and a functionary of the Association of German Youth Workers (DJK).

Ballhorn was an executive at the DJK from a young age. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, he founded a resistance group . In particular, he openly denounced the murder of Adalbert Probst . The Reichsführer of the DJK was arrested in connection with the Röhm Putsch and shot on July 2, 1934.

Ballhorn had to emigrate to the Netherlands and together with Father Friedrich Muckermann continued to fight against National Socialism. The magazine Katholieke Wereldpost , for which he wrote, received worldwide attention as a Catholic press service . After the German occupation of the Netherlands, Ballhorn was arrested on June 29, 1940 and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp via the Reich Security Main Office . He processed his experiences in the book The Press of God .

After 1945 he became the official director in Nottuln near Münster. In the DJK he again took on numerous tasks - initially as 2nd chairman in the DJK central association - and in this position contributed to the end of the dispute with the DJK main association. He convinced with his great rhetorical talent. From 1964 to 1974 he succeeded Johannes Sampels as chairman of the DJK association, which was reunited in 1961.

Honors

In addition to all the awards and honors of the DJK, he received the papal knightly order of St. Gregory the Great , the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class and the order Pour le merite de la Resistance of the Netherlands. In the municipality of Nottuln, a street near his home is named after him.

literature

Joel Diekmann, Bernd Hammerschmidt: In memory of Franz Ballhorn , floor talk, University of Münster, 2017.