Georg Häfner

Joseph Georg Simon Häfner (born October 19, 1900 in Würzburg ; † August 20, 1942 in Dachau concentration camp ) was a German Roman Catholic priest from the diocese of Würzburg , an opponent of the National Socialists and martyrs . On May 15, 2011 he was beatified in the Würzburg Cathedral .

Life

Häfner's burial place in the crypt of Neumünster 2010. The burial place is designed differently today with a modern sculpture.

Georg Häfner came from a humble background; his father Valentin Häfner was a city worker. Georg Haefner was baptized in the cathedral parish, in 1918 he made the war High School and became the army moved in. His parents made it possible for him to study theology . Two years after it began, he entered the Third Order of the Discalced Carmelites . Georg Häfner was ordained a priest on April 13, 1924 ; he held the first session in the Himmelspforten monastery . Several assignments as a chaplain followed , in 1934 he was appointed pastor of Oberschwarzach in Franconia.

Häfner refused to perform the Hitler salute, which made the Nazi rulers disliked even as the chaplain of Altglashütten . From 1938 he was banned from giving religious education at the local school in Oberschwarzach, so that he had to secretly hold communion and confirmation classes . Because of critical statements against the Nazi state in sermons and Christian doctrine - he is said to have spoken of brown dung beetles , among other things - he was reported to the Gestapo several times and ordered for interrogation.

In August 1941, a seriously ill party member of the NSDAP asked him to donate the sacraments to him . Pastor Häfner complied with the request, but had the party comrades sign a declaration on his deathbed in which he declared his second civil marriage to be invalid before God and his conscience. After Pastor Häfner read out a brief statement in the church the following Sunday in order to be able to bury the man in church , he was denounced by another party member and finally arrested by the Gestapo . At first he was held in the Gestapo prison in Würzburg. Although Vicar General Franz Miltenberger stood up for him, Pastor Häfner was taken to the so-called priestly block of the Dachau concentration camp (prisoner number 28876) on December 12, 1941, without a judicial decision , where he died on August 20, 1942 of the consequences of abuse and malnutrition. His urn was first buried on September 18, 1942 in the priest's burial place in the Würzburg main cemetery. In addition to the entire diocesan clergy, Cardinal Faulhaber's envoy, also later canonized Father and Nazi opponent Rupert Mayer, was present.

Beatification process

On December 9, 1982, the urn was transferred to the crypt of the Neumünster Church in the presence of Bishop Paul-Werner Scheele . On July 23, 1992, the episcopal inquiry into the beatification was initiated and concluded on May 31, 2002. On July 3, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree according to which Häfner was considered a martyr . On September 8, 2010, the Würzburg bishop Friedhelm Hofmann and the postulator in the process of beatification, cathedral dean Günter Putz, announced the beatification on May 15, 2011 in Kilians Cathedral in Würzburg . The motto for the beatification was: simple, believing, consistent .

Further honors

Stumbling stone in front of the Neumünster Collegiate Foundation in Würzburg.

The Monteverdichor Würzburg dedicated its concerts “The Beatitudes” on July 16 and 17, 2010 to Georg Häfner and Father Engelmar Unzeit . The Egbert-Gymnasium Münsterschwarzach performed a scenic oratorio Häfner in March 2011 - a decision . A square on the corner of Bockgasse (formerly: Obere Bockgasse) was named after Georg Häfner in 2011 in Würzburg near his parents' house. Finally, since June 11, 2007, a stumbling stone in front of the Neumünster in Würzburg has been a reminder of the martyr priest.

The Catholic Church accepted Pastor Georg Häfner as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

• Günter Putz : God is the reason. Georg Häfner's testimony. Insights into the priesthood. Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-429-02198-7 .
• Günter Putz: sacrificial fruit. Blessed Georg Häfner (1900–1942). Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-429-03573-0 .
• Diocesan Archives Würzburg (Ed.): Georg Häfner 1900–1942. Wuerzburg 2011.
• Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century. Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , pp. 706–708.
• Paul-Werner Scheele, Klaus Wittstadt: Georg Häfner. Priest and sacrifice. Letters from custody. Gestapo documents. Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 1983, ISBN 3-429-00838-7 .

Web links

• Memorial page for Georg Häfner
• Curriculum vitae on the website of the Diocese of Würzburg ( Memento from February 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
• Georg Häfner in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
• Announcement of the beatification ( memento of February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The good shepherd suffers for the sheep - article in the FAZ from May 15, 2011
2. ^ Tortured to death - Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 15, 2011
3. ↑ Klaus Witt City: church and state in the 20th century. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 453–478 and 1304 f., Here: pp. 458–463: The era of the people's and resistance bishop Matthias Ehrenfried (1924–1948). P. 462.
4. ^ Pastor Georg Häfner ( Memento from February 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ ^{a b} Postulator in the beatification process ( Memento from January 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ César Franck: "The Beatitudes"
7. ^ Bruno Rottenbach: Würzburg street names. Volume 1, Franconian Society Printing Office, Würzburg 1967, p. 96.
8. ↑ The city has a Georg-Häfner-Platz, article in the Mainpost from May 13, 2011