Friedrich Gerst

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Friedrich Eduard Gerst , baptized Fridericus Eduardus Gerst (born November 17, 1805 in Düsseldorf ; † September 13, 1867 there ), was a German priest of the Roman Catholic Church who was the first Catholic prison chaplain in Düsseldorf from 1841 until his death This activity - at times together with Theodor Fliedner - advocated the rehabilitation of prisoners. As Pastor Jääsch he enjoyed great popularity ; Even during his lifetime he was considered a Düsseldorf original . His work is passed down through humorous anecdotes .

Life

“Königliche Arrest- und Corrections-Anstalt” in Düsseldorf, generally called “et Kaschott” in the Düsseldorfer Platt , ironically also referred to by Gerst as a “penal hotel”, on a historical recording

Gerst was the sixth of 14 children of the married couple Wilhelm and Adelheid Gerst, geb. Meurer, born into a long-established Düsseldorf family of hauliers and guests. In the old town he grew up in the house "To the three Schollen" (Hunsrückstrasse 36). It is reported that Gerst initially trained as a carpenter and worked as a journeyman. After attending a grammar school, he began comparatively late - only at the age of 27 - on April 29, 1833 at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn to study Catholic theology , which he completed in the winter semester of 1835/1836. Then he attended the seminary in Cologne , where he was judged as follows: "mediocre subject, good-natured but not entirely independent, agreeable, the external education is not particularly good, healthy and strong, preaches mediocre" . On September 25, 1837 he was ordained a priest. On December 12, 1837, he was assigned the vicar position of the parish in Lützenkirchen , at the suggestion of the pastor there. On October 24, 1841, the Prussian Ministry of the Interior appointed him Catholic prison chaplain to the “Royal Arrest and Corrections Institution” in Düsseldorf, a position for which he had applied and which he initially took on without a church mission or permission. There he was committed to the rehabilitation of prisoners , a goal that he pursued together with Theodor Fliedner and three public prosecutors in the Rheinisch-Westfälische prison society founded in 1826 . Among other things, Gerst tried to find living and working opportunities for released prisoners. A well-known prisoner whom Gerst looked after was the poacher Johann Muckel , who had been convicted on several occasions . On September 25, 1862, Gerst celebrated his 25th jubilee as a priest. This event received public attention, the lawyer Anton Bloem held the keynote address. Because Gerst was impaired by hearing impairment in prison chaplaincy, Conrad Prell was assigned to him as a deputy in October 1865. He was also his successor after Gerst died in the monastery of the merciful sisters and was buried on September 16, 1867 in the Golzheim cemetery with great public sympathy .

Reception and appreciations

Plaque in memory of "Pastor Jääsch" on the historic portal in front of the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf , Schulstrasse, Düsseldorf- Carlstadt
Commemorative plaque for "Pastor Jäsch" at the Maxhaus , Schulstrasse, Düsseldorf-Carlstadt
Gravestone on the southern part of the Golzheim cemetery

The humoresques that the glove maker and writer Theodor Groll (* 1831), a former acolyte of Gerst, published in 1885 under the title Geerschtiaden , contributed significantly to the fact that Gerst's joke, presented in cheeky Düsseldorf dialect and his original interpretations of the Bible, has been passed down to this day . Gerst described Groll as a hard-drinking person who liked to give his sayings in good company, for example in taverns and at parties of the artists' association Malkasten . He directed many of his ironic remarks against the rich and powerful and show empathy for the poor and sinners. The memory of "Pastor Jääsch" was kept alive through numerous publications, pieces and objects, in books, essays and newspaper articles, on beer mats, postcards, carnival medals, plaques and memorial signs. The writer Erich Meyer-Düwerth wrote the folk play Pastor Geesch in 1932, which premiered in 1936 under the general manager Walter Bruno Iltz with Adolf Dell in the leading role of the pastor in the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus . The Heimatverein Altstädter Bürger-Gesellschaft Düsseldorf in 1948 donated a commemorative plaque that was affixed to the Maxhaus , Gerst's long residence. The Alde Düsseldorfer Bürgergesellschaft from 1920 awards the Pastor Jääsch plaque to people who care for the disadvantaged. A table community of the Heimatverein Düsseldorfer Jonges , which bears the name Pastor Jääsch , founded an archive with exhibits about the life and work of the prison pastor in a room of the Kaiserswerther Diakonie . After the Theodor-Fliedner-Kulturstiftung had registered its own needs for the Diakonie premises, the archive manager Dieter Ziob found a new location in the St. Anna-Stift on Eiskellerstraße at the beginning of 2019. The city of Düsseldorf honored Gerst by naming the Pastor-Jääsch-Weg at the old harbor.

literature

  • Thomas Schatten: Pastor Jääsch . Thomas-Schatten-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1998, ISBN 3-9805688-3-0 .
  • Heinz Jürgens: dr Jääsch. Jeschechte us Kerch on Kaschott . Grupello Verlag, Düsseldorf 1998, ISBN 3-928234-85-4 , with illustrations by Joachim Klinger .
  • Theodor Groll: Geerschtiaden. Humoresques from the life of Gerst's former prison pastor in Düsseldorf in Lower Rhine-Low German language . Verlag Dietz, Düsseldorf 1885 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Fridericus Eduardus Gerst  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Düsseldorf City Prison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Searching for traces: The first Düsseldorf city prison . Website in the lokalkompass.de portal , accessed on May 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ 200 years ago an unforgettable local saint was born in Düsseldorf: Pastor Jääsch. The kind-hearted shepherd for the black sheep. In: The gate. Issue 3/2005 (PDF) ( Memento of the original dated September 23, 2015 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@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.duesseldorferjonges.de
  3. ^ Theo Lücker: Ons Stadt op Platt . Triltsch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1971, p. 183.
  4. ↑ Honor for Father Wolfgang. In: Jan Wellem. Alde Düsseldorfer Bürgergesellschaft von 1920 eV Volume 83, Issue 4 (2008/2009), p. 5 (PDF)
  5. ↑ Semiha Ünlü: “Pastor Jääsch” is honored . Article from January 29, 2015 in the portal rp-online.de , accessed on May 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ Archive Pastor Jääsch (PDF) ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2015 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@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jaeaesch.de
  7. ↑ Marc Ingel: Pastor Jääsch returns to the old town . Article from January 5, 2019 in the portal rp-online.de , accessed on January 23, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Gerst, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerst, Friedrich Eduard (full name); Gerst, Fridericus Eduardus; Jaesch, pastor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1867
Place of death Dusseldorf