Friedrich Erxleben

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Friedrich Erxleben (born January 29, 1883 in Koblenz , † February 9, 1955 in Linz (Rhine) ) was a German Catholic priest. During the time of National Socialism he was a member of the Solf Circle and part of the resistance against National Socialist rule.

Life

Erxleben was born the son of a banker in Koblenz, where he also passed the Abitur at the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium there . After training as a singer, he studied theology and philosophy in Trier, Vienna, Heidelberg, Innsbruck and Rome. After completing his studies, doctorate and ordination, he worked as a pastor in the diocese of Trier . He took part in the First World War as a chaplain and was wounded twice. After the war he first moved to Berlin as a pastor . Erxleben, who spoke fluent Latin and Ancient Greek , eventually became professor of ancient languages ​​at the Jesuit College in Rome, and also lecturer in comparative religious studies at the universities of Prague and Vienna. In addition, Erxleben was an expert in Asian culture and an excellent tenor and oratorio singer.

In Berlin, Erxleben made friends with the later Federal President Theodor Heuss , the French diplomat André François-Poncet and the writer Carl Zuckmayer . There he also became a member of the Solf Circle founded by the former State Secretary of the Reich Colonial Office , Wilhelm Solf . After Solf's death, the circle was continued by his wife Hanna Solf and developed into an important meeting place for opponents of the Third Reich.

Erxleben, described in a report by the Gestapo spy Paul Reckzeh as the “driving force behind the defeatist conversations in the Solf house”, was arrested in May 1944 and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . From there he was taken to the Gestapo prison on Lehrter Strasse in Berlin, where Soviet soldiers finally freed him at the end of the war. A planned trial at the People's Court was postponed several times and finally did not take place.

Because of the concentration camp imprisonment and the Gestapo torture, Erxleben was a seriously ill man. After the war he was still active as a pastor in Müden (Mosel) , where Heuss, now Federal President, and Zuckmayer visited him again in 1949. In 1951 Erxleben retired and moved to Linz (Rhine) , where he died in February 1955. He was buried at his own request in a priest's grave in Müden . In July 2019, a street was dedicated to Erxleben in Müden.

Quotes

  • Carl Zuckmayer on the legacy of experience: courage, willingness to suffer, serenity

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Koblenz Memorial - A virtual memorial for Koblenz, northern Rhineland-Palatinate and Germany
  2. ↑ Why Müden renamed his Kirchstrasse. Retrieved June 13, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Erxleben, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priests and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1955
Place of death Linz (Rhine)