Franz Kaspar Drobe

Bishop Franz Kaspar Drobe

Franz Kaspar Drobe (born February 16, 1808 in Menden (Sauerland) , † March 7, 1891 in Paderborn ) was bishop of Paderborn from 1882 to 1891 .

Live and act

Franz Kaspar Drobe was born in 1808 as the second son of Josef Drobe and Christine Schramme in Menden in the Sauerland. His father was a tailor, for the education of Franz Kaspar, who had seven other siblings, there was no money on his parents' side. After his first school years in Menden, he attended grammar school in Arnsberg , and from 1826, due to lack of money, he only studied philology for one semester at the University of Bonn . Other maintenance had to Drobe as a private tutor to earn before he struck the priests career, in Munster after studying theology him on August 9, 1831 in Paderborn , the priesthood was received.

First Drobe was chaplain in Arnsberg and from 1840 pastor in Rüthen . The good ratings as a school chancellor also led to acceptance into the Paderborn cathedral chapter in 1854. His career in the chapter earned him the position of official in 1864 and the position of vicar general in 1875 . Drobe was a member of the cathedral chapter at the time when the bitter culture war between the Prussian state and the Roman Catholic Church was also at its height in Paderborn. Bishop Konrad Martin , who was in exile, kept in touch with Franz Kaspar Drobe as a “secret vicar general”, while the Prussian commissioner Edgar Himly managed the diocese's affairs. From February 26, 1881 he led the entire diocese ad interim. With the settlement of the Kulturkampf, the way for Drobe to the bishop's seat was free. But although both the cathedral chapter, the Pope and even the Prussian government voted in favor of the almost 80-year-old and handicapped Drobe, the latter unequivocally rejected his choice. Only after an urgent request from Pope Leo XIII. Drobe gave in.

During his short term of office, not only did he rebuild the internal church institutions that had suffered from the Prussian Kulturkampf (especially the training of priests ), but also the integration of mainly Polish-speaking Catholics into the western diocese in the up-and-coming eastern Ruhr area, which was marked by social upheaval.

Franz Kaspar Drobe died on March 7, 1891 in Paderborn. He was buried in the bishop's crypt in Paderborn Cathedral .

literature

• Hans Jürgen Brandt, Karl Hengst : The bishops and archbishops of Paderborn . Bonifatius-Verlag, Paderborn 1984, pp. 317-320, ISBN 3-87088-381-2 .
• Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the German-speaking countries 1785/1803 to 1945. A biographical lexicon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-428-05447-4 , pp. 142-144.

Web links

• Entry on Franz Kaspar Drobe on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Konrad Martin	Bishop of Paderborn 1882 - 1891	Hubert Theophil Simar