Friedrich Wilhelm Maier

This article deals with the theologian Friedrich Wilhelm Maier. For the agricultural scientist see Friedrich Wilhelm Maier-Bode ; for other people see Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer .

Friedrich Wilhelm Maier (born March 11, 1883 in Müllheim (Baden) ; † November 28, 1957 in Mindelheim ) was a German Catholic theologian and professor of New Testament exegesis in Breslau and Munich .

School and study

Friedrich Wilhelm Maier was the son of Catholic parents; According to more recent findings, the statement - sometimes to be read - that his mother was a Protestant is at least very uncertain. Maier attended grammar schools in Mannheim , Lahr and Freiburg im Breisgau and studied Catholic theology , philosophy and classical philology at the University of Freiburg . In 1905 he received his doctorate in Freiburg to Dr. theol. ; his dissertation dealt with the letter of Judas . After his ordination in 1906, Maier worked as a pastor.

Habilitation, first teaching position and condemnation by Rome

The plan for a habilitation in Freiburg had to be postponed in 1907 because, according to the faculty, Maier did not have sufficient knowledge of the oriental languages, which he then completed through studies at the University of Bonn . The habilitation project finally failed in 1908 - according to Maier's statements, because the Archbishop of Freiburg , Thomas Nörber, considered him a modernist ; Another possible reason, however, is a deliberate preference for another candidate who at that time had already been a priest for a long time. Maier finally completed his habilitation under Ignaz Rohr at the University of Strasbourg in 1910 , where he became a private lecturer .

In 1912, on the advice of the Pontifical Biblical Commission , the Consistory in Rome condemned a commentary on the Gospels written by Maier in which he defended the two-source theory , albeit cautiously. Both Maier and the editor of the commentary, Fritz Tillmann , lost their academic offices.

Military and prison chaplain

Unlike Tillmann, Maier then did not change the theological field, but preferred to become a military chaplain. He became a divisional pastor in Wroclaw and took part in the First World War, from 1917 as army chief pastor. Between 1917 and 1919 he tried to get a call to the University of Freiburg and failed there again - according to his own account, again because of Nörber's objection. From 1921 he worked as a prison chaplain in the Siegburg prison .

Professor in Breslau and Munich

In 1924 Friedrich Wilhelm Maier was finally offered a chair for the New Testament at the University of Breslau on the intercession of the local Archbishop Cardinal Bertram , succeeding Joseph Sickenberger. In 1938 he turned down a call to the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich when new conditions were set there; the theological faculty in Munich was closed in 1939.

After the Second World War , Maier fled to Bavaria, leaving behind his theological records and documents. In 1945 he was appointed professor of New Testament exegesis at the University of Munich. In 1951 Friedrich Wilhelm Maier retired . His grave is in the cemetery in Tussenhausen .

meaning

Friedrich Wilhelm Maier was a charismatic teacher. Already during his time in Breslau he was of great influence; so after Maier's arrival the academic focus of the faculty there shifted from church history to exegesis. In his memoirs, Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Benedict XVI. , him as the "star of the faculty" in Munich in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Despite his early advance in 1912 and frequent negative comments later about the restrictive effect of Rome, Maier is not considered a modernist today, but rather a conservative exegete.

His students include Otto Kuss , Rudolf Schnackenburg , Franz Mußner and Wolfgang Trilling . Benedict XVI. attended Maier's lectures during his student days.

Works (selection)

Friedrich Wilhelm Maier published many theological writings before 1912; after the condemnation of his commentary on the Gospels that year, a book by him did not appear again until 1929.

• The three older Gospels: Das Matthäusevangelium , Berlin 1912. (indexed, withdrawn from the market)
• Israel in salvation history according to Romans 9-11 Aschendorff, Münster 1929
• Paul as a church founder and church organizer (edited by Günter Stachel). Echter, Würzburg 1961 (posthumous)
• Jesus - teacher of the rule of God . Echter, Würzburg 1965 (posthumous)

literature

• Ingo Broer: Braked exegesis: Catholic New Testament scholars in the first half of the 20th century . In: Cilliers Breytenbach and Rudolf Hoppe (eds.): New Testament Science after 1945. Main representative of German-language exegesis in the presentation of their students . Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2008, ISBN 978-3-7887-2274-6
• Ingo Broer:  Friedrich Wilhelm Maier. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 31, Bautz, Nordhausen 2010, ISBN 978-3-88309-544-8 , Sp. 824-826.
• Ingo Broer: The Munich New Testament scholar Friedrich Wilhelm Maier - a modernist? New light due to the personnel file . In: Biblische Zeitschrift , Vol. 54, No. 1, 2010, pp. 103-113. ISSN  0006-2014
• Joseph Ratzinger : From my life (1927–1977) . Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-453-16509-8
• Joseph Ratzinger : The relationship between the Magisterium of the Church and Exegesis in the light of the 100th anniversary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission . In: L'Osservatore Romano , German edition, Vol. 33, May 2003 vatican.va
• Rudolf Schnackenburg:  Maier, Friedrich Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , pp. 700 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Günter Stachel: Friedrich Wilhelm Maier . In: Hans Jürgen Schultz (Ed.): Tendencies of theology in the 20th century . Kreuz-Verlag, Stuttgart 1967

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ingo Broer: The Munich New Testament scholar Friedrich Wilhelm Maier - a modernist? New light due to the personnel file . In: Biblische Zeitschrift , Vol. 54, No. 1, 2010, pp. 103-113. ISSN  0006-2014 , p. 104