Franz Rudolf Bornewasser

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Consecration of the Bishop of Münster: Cardinal Archbishop Karl Joseph Schulte of Cologne, Bishop Rudolf Bornewasser of Trier and Bishop Wilhelm Berning of Osnabrück accompany the new Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen in a solemn procession to the cathedral (October 28, 1933)

Franz Rudolf Bornewasser (born March 12, 1866 in Radevormwald ; † December 20, 1951 in Trier ) was Bishop of Trier from 1922 to 1951 .

Life

Franz Rudolf Bornewasser was the son of a music teacher, businessman and innkeeper. After attending the Progymnasium in Wipperfürth and the humanistic grammar school in Neuss , he completed his studies in Marburg and Bonn , where he studied law , and then studied theology in Bonn and Cologne . During this time he became a member of the KDSt.V. Ripuaria Bonn in the CV . In 1894 he was ordained a priest and worked as vicar in Cologne Cathedral .

From 1899 to 1909 he was director of the Gregoriushaus in Aachen, which later became the Catholic University for Church Music St. Gregorius .

In 1921 he became provost of the monastery. On April 23 of the same year Pope Pius XI appointed him . as titular bishop of Bida and auxiliary bishop in Cologne . He was ordained bishop on May 29, 1921, by the Archbishop of Cologne, Karl Joseph Schulte .

Bornewasser became Bishop of Trier on February 27, 1922. On January 4, 1944, Pope Pius XII awarded him . the personal title of archbishop .

When, on January 13, 1935, the citizens of the Saar region , which on the part of Catholics largely belonged to the Diocese of Trier, were supposed to vote on whether they wanted to return to the German Reich, he called on the population to vote for it.

In 1946 Bornewasser became an honorary citizen of the city of Radevormwald. In the same year he was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Trier in 1946 for “fearless defense of law and morals against tyranny”.

During the time of the French occupation, until the occupation statute came into force in 1949, there was a "tense relationship between the Trier church and the French military government." There were differences, especially in school and cultural policy, which the Cath. Church claimed as its area and wanted to prevent outside interference.

In 1949, Bishop Bornewasser founded the Familienwerk , an association that has been registered since 1951, the primary aim of which was to alleviate the housing shortage after the Second World War and thereby support many families. The association granted, among other things, building loans for the construction of homes and rented existing living space. The members of the family work paid the “family groschen” or 10 pfennigs a month, which were collected in the parishes by volunteers - for example altar boys.

In addition to his membership in the CV, Bornewasser was also an honorary member of the KStV Carolingia Aachen in the KV .

Bornewasser and National Socialism

After the First World War, the Saar area was separated from the German Empire on the basis of the Versailles Treaty (referred to there as the "Saar basin area"). In 1920 it was placed under French administration for 15 years with a mandate from the League of Nations. After that, a referendum was supposed to decide the fate of the Saar area. Friedrich Grimm , a member of the NSDAP parliamentary group of the Reichstag, supported the return of the Saar area to the Reich as a speaker for the NSDAP. In 1934 his 135-page book: France on the Saar: The struggle for the Saar in the light of historical French policy on the Rhine , was published in the Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, a publishing house of the NSDAP. The NSDAP gave 6,000 copies of this book free of charge to the Catholic Church for distribution, as they could not distribute them themselves. Grimm had persuaded the Archbishop of Trier Franz Rudolf Bornewasser, to whose diocese the Saarland communities belonged. Grimm himself was banned from entering the Saar area because his agitation there was not tolerated. After the vote, the Saar area again belonged to the German Reich without restrictions on March 1, 1935.

On the 50th birthday of Adolf Hitler on April 20, 1939, Bornewasser issued the following to the individual parishes of his diocese:

"1. On Wednesday, April 19th Js., On the eve of the birthday, is ceremoniously rung in all churches from 6pm to 6½pm.

2. On Thursday, April 20th d. Js., All churches and church service buildings as well as the service apartments of the clergy show the imperial and national flag.

3. On the same day, in all parish and curate churches, a solemn votive mass is held in honor of St. in honor of the divine blessing over the people and leaders. Michael, the patron saint of our German people, held at the appropriate hour. At the end of this service, the "general prayer" for the people and fatherland is to be performed together with the believers.

Trier, April 3, 1939, The Bishop of Trier, † Franz Rudolf "

On June 25, 1940, Bornewasser sent a congratulatory telegram to Adolf Hitler on the occasion of the French campaign that was victorious for Germany :

"After the war with France came to such a glorious and quick end through the great deeds of the German Wehrmacht under the ingenious leadership of your Excellency, I as Bishop of the great borderland diocese of Trier thank your Excellency from the bottom of my heart for the effective protection, also on behalf of the faithful entrusted to me our home. [...] With the thanks I combine the oath of loyalty to the Führer and Reich. "

On September 14, 1941 Bornewasser got into a conflict with the Nazis because he in a sermon on the commandment " Thou shalt not kill " pointed while the " euthanasia " policy of those in power, the killing of the mentally ill and disabled in the action T4 , attack. Contemporary witnesses repeatedly reported that Bornewasser used his outwardly neutral stance towards the National Socialists to help Jews escape unobserved. Even after the seizure of power in 1933 until he fled to the Netherlands in 1938, he maintained good contacts with the Trier chief rabbi Adolf Altmann .

Fonts

  • Franz Rudolf Bornewasser, Albert Heintz: Words to his priests ; Trier: Paulinus-Verlag, 1961
  • Rock in a storm. Sermons and pastoral words of Archbishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser . Edited by Albert Heintz. Paulinus-Verlag, Trier 1969.
    • Volume 1: 1922-1939 .
    • Volume 2: 1939-1951 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Franz Rudolf Bornewasser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ P. Brommer: Sources for the Gesch. v. Rhld.-Palatinate during the French Crew, p. 699
  2. ↑ J. Plume: Franz. Kulturpolitik in D., p. 84
  3. ↑ Grimm: With an open visor . 1961 p. 165f
  4. ↑ Decrees of the Most Revered Bishop, No. 83, in: Kirchlicher Amtsanzeiger für die Diözese Trier, Edition 8, 83rd year, Trier, April 15, 1939, p. 51.
  5. ^ Alois Heck: The Missionshaus St. Wendel under Nazi rule, in: Werner Prawdzik (Ed.): 100 Years Missionshaus St. Wendel 1898-1998, Volume 2, Nettetal 2000, p. 141.
  6. ↑ Altmann died in 1944 with his wife and two of his children in the Auschwitz concentration camp
predecessor Office successor
Michael Felix Korum Bishop of Trier
1922–1951 		Matthias Wehr
Joseph Müller Auxiliary Bishop in Cologne
1921–1922 		Hermann Joseph Strater
personal data
SURNAME Bornewasser, Franz Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, Catholic bishop of Trier
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Radevormwald
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1951
Place of death trier