Franz Joseph Herold

Franz Joseph Herold (born August 11, 1787 in Münster , † May 16, 1862 in Mannheim ) was a German Catholic priest and grammar school director. From 1831 to 1846 he was the first episcopal official of the Oldenburg part of the diocese of Münster with his official seat in Vechta .

Life path

Herold was born as the son of the garrison pharmacist Balthasar Felix Herold and his wife Katharina Margaretha geb. Berthold was born in Münster in Westphalia. After graduating from the Paulinum Gymnasium in Münster, he studied philosophy and Catholic theology in his hometown. Shortly after his ordination in 1811, he became a pastor in Gießen , was a member of the school commission and in 1815 was appointed assessor for the church and school council. Already here he was active - as later - as an author of hymns; He left the preparatory work for a hymnbook to his successor in Giessen at this point, the later Bishop of Mainz, Peter Leopold Kaiser . He also wrote Latin homage poems and tracts. In 1817 he moved to Gernsheim am Rhein as a pastor , which, like Gießen, belonged to the recently re-established diocese of Mainz in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . - In 1819 the University of Giessen awarded him the degree of Dr. phil.

Another step in his professional career was taking over the pastor's position in Bensheim , which was connected with the position of director at the local grammar school . During his tenure and under his aegis, the new building of the Bensheim parish church of St. Georg , designed by Georg Moller , was built.

In 1831 Herold took over the office of official in Vechta, a unique institution in the Catholic office structure, which was to administer the parts of the diocese of Münster located in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg . At the same time he became director of the Antonianum Vechta grammar school and was a member of the cathedral chapter of Münster. In 1838 he obtained the degree of Dr. theol. at the University of Giessen.

In his official office, Franz Joseph Herold got caught between the erupting church political fronts: Both the diocese of Münster and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg claimed primacy in making decisions about appointments. Herold himself clearly managed to make the Vechta district into a separate diocese . It is in this context that an impeachment proceedings initiated by the cathedral chapter in Münster in 1846 for "moral misconduct" must be seen, which forced Herold to resign from his offices in Vechta. Although all allegations in the second instance by the Archbishop's Court in Cologne have been qualified as unfounded and as “defamatory suspicion” , Herold had to fight for another three years to restore his rights. His offices were returned to him in 1851 and he was retired at the same time. In 1853 he moved to Mannheim near his previous workplaces in southern Hesse, where he remained until his death.

Herold probably joined Freemasonry during his time in Giessen : In the printed membership directory of the Marc Aurel zum Flammenden Stern lodge in neighboring Marburg for the year 1815/1816, he is listed as the “Catholic Pastor of Giessen” .

Honors

• Title of a Grand Ducal Hessian Council of Churches
• Title of a Grand Ducal Oldenburg Secret Council of Churches
• Owner of the Grand Ducal Oldenburg House and Merit Order

swell

• Markus Instinsky: Franz Joseph Herold (1787–1862). Episcopal official and grammar school director in Vechta. In: The Catholic clergy in the Oldenburger Land. A manual. Edited by Willi Baumann and Peter Siewe etc. Münster: Dialogverlag 2006, pp. 328–337.

• Ders .: “Only the suspicion remains”. On the impeachment of the first Vechta official in August 1846. In: Heimatblätter. Supplement to the Oldenburgische Volkszeitung No. 4 of August 10, 1996, p. 38f.

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Episcopal Münsterscher official in the official district of Oldenburg 1831 - 1846	Engelbert Reismann