Franz Vorwerk

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Franz Vorwerk (born October 25, 1884 in Emstek ; † November 12, 1963 in Münster ) was a German Catholic priest and from 1933 to 1940 the official of Münsterscher Bishop in Vechta .

Life

Vorwerk was the son of the farmer Heinrich Nikolaus Vorwerk and his wife Anna Maria Sophia Elisabeth born. Hüsing. He attended the Antonianum Vechta high school and studied theology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster from 1906 to 1910 . He was ordained a priest in Münster on May 21, 1910. He then came to Oldenburg as vicar in August 1910 and was drafted as a military chaplain from September 1914 after the outbreak of the First World War . In February 1918 he returned to Oldenburg and worked as a chaplain at St. Peter until 1926 .

In addition to that, Vorwerk was involved in prison chaplaincy. This led to his being appointed to Vechta as a prison chaplain in 1926 . Other part-time and honorary activities included the management of the Oldenburg Caritas Association, the state manager position of the Volksverein for Catholic Germany and the district presidential function of the Catholic workers' associations of the State of Oldenburg. For a while, he also took over religious instruction at the grammar school in Vechta.

Franz Vorwerk was appointed official in Vechta on November 14, 1933 by the recently appointed Bishop of Münster, Clemens August von Galen . With the National Socialists in power in the Free State of Oldenburg since June 1932 , tensions soon arose, which intensified at the beginning of 1934 because of the state government's action against church associations and because of the first Easter pastoral letter from Bishop Galen. In this 1934 Galen attacked central statements of the Nazi ideology, called them neo-paganism and strictly rejected a national church based on the teachings of blood and race. From 1936 onwards there were also conflicts with the National Socialist state government of Oldenburg over the crucifix in schools (" Kreuzkampf ") and the denominational school . In May 1938 Catholic and Protestant parents went on strike in Goldenstedt against the establishment of a community school instead of the denominational elementary school . Twelve men were subsequently arrested and taken to concentration camps. Vorwerk took responsibility for the strike and managed to get those arrested to return home after six months. In June 1938, however, the government banished him from the state of Oldenburg and forcibly brought him to Münster on June 30, 1938. After he had resigned from the office of the Episcopal Official in April 1940, he then resided there until 1941 as Cathedral Chapter and Spiritual Councilor at the Vicariate General. His successor in office in Vechta was Johannes Pohlschneider .

On May 4, 1941 he was exiled to Brüel , where he stayed until the end of World War II . At the end of 1945 he returned to Münster and, after the death of Bishop Galen, headed the local diocese from 1946 to October 1947 as a capitular vicar. In January 1948 he was appointed head of the Bonifatius associations in the diocese. Vorwerk died on November 12, 1963. He was buried in the cathedral cemetery in Münster.

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Löffler (Ed.): Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen - files, letters and sermons 1933-1946. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich, 2nd edition 1996, ISBN 3-506-79840-5 , p. 67 ff.
predecessor Office successor
Lambert Meyer coat of arms
Episcopal Münsterscher official in the Oldenburg official district
1933 - 1940 		Johannes Pohlschneider
personal data
SURNAME Vorwerk, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Emstek
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1963
Place of death Muenster