Friedrich Benesch

Johann Friedrich Benesch (born July 6, 1907 in Sächsisch Regen , Austria-Hungary , † June 16, 1991 in Stuttgart ) was a German scientist , National Socialist , priest of the Christian community , anthroposophist and writer .

Life

Friedrich Benesch was the oldest of five children of a high school teacher. From 1925 to 1931 he studied natural sciences in Marburg , Halle an der Saale and Klausenburg and from 1932 to 1934 again in Marburg his previous (compulsory) minor subject Protestant theology . From 1938 to 1941 Benesch also heard prehistory, ethnology and racial studies from Professor Walther Schulz in Halle. Schulz was a student and successor to Hans Hahnes , whose lectures Benesch had already attended in 1926/27.

In Marburg, Benesch lived in the national conservative German Burse , which was managed by Johann Wilhelm Mannhardt . He became a member of the beating alliance Germania and was accepted into the German national association of Artamans in the 1920s , which was the only youth association to be incorporated into the Hitler Youth until 1934 .

During his studies, Benesch worked as an assistant at the zoological institute in Cluj-Napoca from 1929 to 1931, then from 1934 as a village pastor in Birk near Sächsisch-Regen in Transylvania with a National Socialist self -image. In 1934 he married Sunhilt Hahne, the daughter of the aforementioned professor Hans Hahne.

In 1936/37 the consistory of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania under Bishop Viktor Glondys initiated impeachment proceedings against Benesch. The reason was the National Socialist political activities during his service.

It was only 13 years after his death that the historian Johann Böhm made Benesch's “brown past” known: in 1934 he had become a member of the “radical Nazi” DVR ( German People's Party of Romania ) and in 1939 he applied in Halle to join the SS , whereupon until his withdrawal of this application he was listed as an SS applicant . In 1941 the German-language Bistritzer Zeitung reported that Benesch had been appointed the new district leader of Sächsisch-Regen and the deputy area leader of the Volksbund der Deutschen in Hungary. The Volksbund der Deutschen in Hungary was oriented towards National Socialism, based on the German Reich, organized itself from 1940 on the model of the NSDAP and the SS and was involved in the Holocaust in the area of Bistritz and Saxon-Regen.

After Northern Transylvania was annexed to Hungary as a result of the Second Vienna Arbitration Award , Benesch was again the village pastor in Birk from 1940 to 1944, and after fleeing Transylvania in September 1944 - Benesch was responsible for the trek from the Reener Land - he was from Pentecost 1945 to February 1947 pastor in Neukirchen near Halle. On November 30, 1947, after a nine-month training period, he was ordained a priest of the Christian Community by the arch-governor Emil Bock and worked as a parish priest in Coburg and Kiel , then from 1958 to 1985 in Stuttgart as head of the seminary, where he worked as a teacher until 1987 and (worldwide 28 extensive lecture tours) was active as a speaker.

Works

Power struggle and church. An answer to Dr. Konrad Möcke . Deutsche Volksdruckerei, Kronstadt 1937 ( text online )
Hutberg fortress. A mixed settlement near Wallendorf in the Merseburg district . Dissertation Halle 1941
The event of the ascension of Christ . Urachhaus (Lectures 1), Stuttgart 1974
Energy crises and growth limits under the sign of materialism . Urachhaus (Lectures 4), Stuttgart 1974
To the present crisis of consciousness. Authority - aggression and disinhibition - self-education , Urachhaus (Lectures 8), Stuttgart 1975
Pentecost today . Urachhaus (Lectures 12), Stuttgart 1976
Easter. Passion - death - resurrection . Urachhaus (Lectures 19), Stuttgart 1978
Apocalypse. The transformation of the earth. An occult mineralogy . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1981
Pebble, lime, clay. Processes in minerals, plants, animals and humans . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1983
The religious aspect of anthroposophy. The cosmic, the reverse cult . Die Pforte, Basel 1985
Ideas on the religious question . As the second part of The Religious of Anthroposophy . Die Pforte, Basel 1986
Destruction and transformation of the earth. On the nuclear issue from a religious point of view . Urachhaus (Lectures 35), Stuttgart 1986
The tourmaline. A monograph . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1990
Living with the earth . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1993
Christian festivals. Christmas - Passion - Easter - Ascension - Pentecost . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1993
Christian festivals. Midsummer and Michaelmas . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1994
Christ in the present. Contributions to Christology I . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1995
The hidden kingdom of God on earth. Contributions to Christology II . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1996
Celebrate Christmas in summer? The Christian annual festivals in the polarity of the northern and southern hemisphere . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 1998
To the ether geography of the earth. Christ in the spheres of earth and man . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 2000
Creation word - human language - future word. Loss and recovery of the living language source . Published by the Institute for Speech Design Unterlengenhardt, Marie-Steiner-Verlag, Bad Liebenzell 2004, ISBN 978-3-9808022-5-3 .
The tourmaline year . Urachhaus, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8251-7607-5 .

literature

Hans Werner Schroeder: Friedrich Benesch. Life and work 1907–1991 . Mayer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-932386-93-0 .
Johann Böhm: Fritz Benesch (1907–1991), natural scientist, anthropologist, theologian and politician . In: Half-yearly publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics . AGK, Dinklage, issue 1/2004, pp. 108-119.
Johann Böhm: Pastor and NS official: Friedrich Benesch . In: Hitler's vassals of the German ethnic group in Romania before and after 1945 . Lang, Bern 2006, ISBN 3-631-55767-1 , pp. 128ff.

Web links

Literature by and about Friedrich Benesch in the catalog of the German National Library
Biographical entry in the online documentation of the anthroposophical research center Kulturimpuls
Dossier on Benesch and his National Socialist past by Michael Eggert

Individual evidence

↑ A more detailed biography: Regina Reinsperger, curriculum vitae of Friedrich Benesch ( memento of the original from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Marc Zirlewagen: Biographies of the clubs German Students: Volume 1 - Members AL , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-7357-2288-1 , page 45 f .; on-line
↑ Hans Hahne (1875–1935) was a prehistoric and since 1933 first NS rector of the University of Halle , NSDAP member since the 1920s, deputy Gau culture warden Halle-Merseburg, on the staff of the district administration, worked in the race and settlement main office, 1934 in the Reichsbauerthing Darrès (after Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 ).
↑ Viktor Glondys: Diary. Records from 1933 to 1949 . AGK Verlag, Dinklage 1997, ISBN 3-928389-12-2 .
^ Johann Böhm: National Socialist Indoctrination of Germans in Romania 1932-1944 , Lang, Frankfurt et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-57031-9 , p. 102, note 260; preview
↑ After his application, Benesch described himself as “joined the SS in July 1939”, but was listed in the files as an “SS applicant” without becoming a member (because the admission procedure to the Allgemeine SS because of the mandatory Aryan proof of the Applicant and his wife, the "racial assessment" of the applicant and a theoretical and practical training lasted about 1 year). In addition, German citizenship was required, which Benesch did not have (first Romanian and from 1940 Hungarian citizenship), but was able to obtain it at any time due to his Aryan certificate. Did he no longer apply for her after the outbreak of war because of conscription? The protocol on the withdrawal of the application for membership, commentary and other sources in Schroeder (2007) pp. 421-430.
↑ Bistritzer Zeitung of March 14, 1941, No. 12, p. 3 (from the holdings of the library of the Institute for Foreign Relations, Stuttgart).
↑ See Norbert Spannenberger: The People's League of Germans in Hungary 1938–1944 , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2002 and Hans Holzträger: Cain, where is your brother Abel? , from: Additions. Forum of the Evangelical Circle of Friends of Transylvania , Volume 3, No. 1 from September 1988, pp. 53–63.

personal data
SURNAME	Benesch, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Benesch, Johann Friedrich (full name); Benesch, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German priest, anthroposophist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	July 6, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saxon Regen , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	June 16, 1991
Place of death	Stuttgart

[1] A more detailed biography: Regina Reinsperger, curriculum vitae of Friedrich Benesch ( memento of the original from May 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[2] Marc Zirlewagen: Biographies of the clubs German Students: Volume 1 - Members AL , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-7357-2288-1 , page 45 f .; on-line

[3] Hans Hahne (1875–1935) was a prehistoric and since 1933 first NS rector of the University of Halle , NSDAP member since the 1920s, deputy Gau culture warden Halle-Merseburg, on the staff of the district administration, worked in the race and settlement main office, 1934 in the Reichsbauerthing Darrès (after Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 ).

[4] Viktor Glondys: Diary. Records from 1933 to 1949 . AGK Verlag, Dinklage 1997, ISBN 3-928389-12-2 .

[5] Johann Böhm: National Socialist Indoctrination of Germans in Romania 1932-1944 , Lang, Frankfurt et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-57031-9 , p. 102, note 260; preview

[6] After his application, Benesch described himself as “joined the SS in July 1939”, but was listed in the files as an “SS applicant” without becoming a member (because the admission procedure to the Allgemeine SS because of the mandatory Aryan proof of the Applicant and his wife, the "racial assessment" of the applicant and a theoretical and practical training lasted about 1 year). In addition, German citizenship was required, which Benesch did not have (first Romanian and from 1940 Hungarian citizenship), but was able to obtain it at any time due to his Aryan certificate. Did he no longer apply for her after the outbreak of war because of conscription? The protocol on the withdrawal of the application for membership, commentary and other sources in Schroeder (2007) pp. 421-430.

[7] Bistritzer Zeitung of March 14, 1941, No. 12, p. 3 (from the holdings of the library of the Institute for Foreign Relations, Stuttgart).

[8] See Norbert Spannenberger: The People's League of Germans in Hungary 1938–1944 , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2002 and Hans Holzträger: Cain, where is your brother Abel? , from: Additions. Forum of the Evangelical Circle of Friends of Transylvania , Volume 3, No. 1 from September 1988, pp. 53–63.