Friedrich Zeitler

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Friedrich Zeitler (born August 20, 1918 in Mitterteich ; † June 24, 1984 ibid) was a German Roman Catholic priest and boarding school director.

Life

Friedrich Zeitler was born the son of a master blacksmith and a farmer's wife in Mitterteich, where he also attended the first five classes of elementary school. His parents then sent him to a church boarding school in Regensburg, to the Episcopal Boys' Seminar in St. Wolfgang. In Regensburg he attended and graduated from the old grammar school. Following this, he entered the local seminary and began studying at the state philosophy-theological college . This was interrupted by a war effort. As a theology student, Zeitler had worked as a temporary prefect in the cathedral church of Regensburger Domspatzen since 1939 .

After serving in the war and being a prisoner of war , he resumed studying theology and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1949 . On September 1, 1953 Zeitler was appointed prefect and religion teacher of the newly established boarding schools of the cathedral inspectors and the cathedral grammar school. In the spring of 1958 Zeitler fled to Switzerland in order to evade the police investigation into "fornication with addicts" of Domspatz pupils. After returning to Germany, he was sentenced to three years in prison in May 1959. According to the ruling of the Regensburg Regional Court, Zeitler abused several cathedral students for years in boarding school, on concert tours, on private trips, on pilgrimage trips and in their parents' home. The public prosecutor alleged that he had "seriously damaged an institution with a worldwide reputation" without mentioning the "Domspatzen" by name. In the boarding school management succeeded Zeitler by the clergyman Georg Zimmermann , who in turn was convicted of sexual abuse.

After his early release from prison, Zeitler went back to Switzerland and from October 1961 worked as a spiritual director in a girls' boarding school in Chur. The last two years before his death in 1984 he worked as a retired pastor in his home parish Mitterteich.

In his autobiographical retrospective around 1960, Theobald Schrems , who was then cathedral music director, praised the work of Friedrich Zeitler without going into his sexual assaults and convictions.

Zeitler's actions in reporting after 2010

In March 2010, Zeitler's sexual assaults prior to 1959 were covered in various media across the country. One person concerned spoke of a "real harem" Zeitler in the Domspatzen boarding school and of weekly sexual assaults. In 2013 it became known that Zeitler had already abused Domspatzen students in the house chapel of the cathedral priest in the late 1930s. Zeitler's deeds and convictions were also dealt with in the widely acclaimed ARD film “Sins of the Boys' Choir”. In January 2016, the former Domspatzen student and current conductor Lothar Zagrosek spoke up and burdened Zeitler seriously. This had already been sexually abusive in another boys' seminar before the Domspatzen boarding school.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Declaration by the Diocese of Regensburg ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2016 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. dated March 5, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.domspatzen.de
  2. ↑ Boarding school director has to pay for misconduct for three years. Report of the Mittelbayerische Zeitung from April 17, 1959
  3. ^ The Causa Georg Zimmermann - Over 50 years of cover-up history. Report on regensburg-digital , 2013
  4. ↑ Declaration by the Diocese of Regensburg ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2016 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. dated March 5, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.domspatzen.de
  5. ^ Abuse at the Domspatzen under Theobald Schrem's report on Regensburg-digital from March 22, 2013
  6. ↑ It's the system and not the individual perpetrators. Report in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung on March 11, 2010
  7. ↑ Diocese in the fighting phase. Report on Regensburg-digital from January 22, 2015
  8. ↑ Abuse: Zagrosek speaks up. Report on NDR-Kultur from January 21, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Zeitler, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic priest and boarding school director
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Mitterteich
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1984
Place of death Mitterteich