Franz Vaahsen

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Franz Vaahsen (according to birth certificate "Vaaſsen", other spellings Vaaßen, Vaassen, Vassen) (born October 23, 1881 in Mönchengladbach ; † October 2, 1944 in Düsseldorf ) worked from 1924 as pastor in the Wittlaerer Church of St. Remigius until his Arrested by the Nazi regime in 1944.

Life

Youth and education

Franz Vaahsen came from a Christian merchant family from Mönchengladbach. He first attended the local high school and later received private lessons. On September 13, 1904, the young man passed his Abitur at the Hildesheim high school Josephinum Hildesheim . Studies in theology and art history at the University of Bonn followed . Vaahsen then attended the Cologne seminary . On August 10, 1908, Franz Vaahsen was ordained a priest by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Müller in Cologne Cathedral .

Life as a pastor

After a first location in Kall in the Eifel , stepped Vaahsen on March 14, 1912 at St. Peter and Paul in Ratingen the Kaplan successor when he was twelve years worked. There he placed particular emphasis on youth work .

On February 16, 1924, Franz Vaahsen was appointed pastor in the then still independent community of Wittlaer and was also included in the local school board. Vaahsen continued the youth work he started in Ratingen in the new community. A youth home with an attached library was built under his direction . He also took care of the construction of a sports field and a sewing room. In 1931 the Catholic youth organization in the small town had around 100 members of both sexes. When the National Socialists came to power , the struggle for the continued existence of the Catholic associations began. In 1933 the local association Wittlaer of the German youth force was dissolved.

Resistance to National Socialism

As early as April 9, 1933, the Wittlaerer pastor criticized the new rulers in his sermon on Palm Sunday. The local NSDAP group Wittlaer responded with a call to all “national comrades” to gather in the restaurant “Brands Jupp” to explain the party's claims to power to Pastor Vaahsen, who was invited by registered mail. Since 1937, religious instruction in schools was banned in the Düsseldorf administrative region . Vaahsen passed these on against resistance from the National Socialists in an extension of the pastorate.

Patron of art

As a pioneer of modern sacred art, Vaahsen stood in contradiction to the church leadership in his time; so he refurbished his parish church in line with avant-garde modernism . As a member of the “candle circle” he got to know Ewald Mataré . Over the years, the artist created the crucifixion group, the altar cross, the tabernacle and for the northern sacristy, Mataré designed windows. Jan Thorn Prikker was able to deliver new windows as early as 1926 to 1927 . The end of the refurbishment program was a window in 1937 as a joint effort by Heinrich Nauen and Wilhelm Teuwen .

Arrest and death

On June 29, 1944, Franz Vaahsen was taken into "protective custody" by the Gestapo on charges of having made speeches against the state . Vaahsen, who had suffered from liver cirrhosis for a long time , was declared unable to work on September 1, 1944 and released from prison. The terminally ill could no longer return to his community and died on October 2, 1944 in the Marienkrankenhaus in Kaiserswerth .

In 1949 there was a trial before the Düsseldorf jury court against two people who had reported the pastor. There was an acquittal and conviction for crimes against humanity .

Honors

A street and a primary school are named after him in Düsseldorf-Wittlaer.

In 2015, the Catholic Church accepted Pastor Franz Vaaßen as a witness to the German martyrology of the 20th century in the 5th edition.

literature

  • Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 359–364.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein: Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch, contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine 61st volume . Droste, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-7700-3033-8 , p. 125
  2. ^ Hermann Kleinfeld: Dusseldorf's streets and their names . Grupello, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-928234-36-6 , p. 126


personal data
SURNAME Vaahsen, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 1944
Place of death Dusseldorf