Georg Sterzinsky

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Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky (2007)
Cardinal's coat of arms

Georg Maximilian Cardinal Sterzinsky (born February 9, 1936 in Warlack , Heilsberg district , East Prussia , today Worławki, Powiat Olsztyński ; † June 30, 2011 in Berlin ) was Archbishop of Berlin .

Life

Georg Maximilian Sterzinsky came from the Warmia in East Prussia. He grew up in a large family. His mother died when he was eleven years old. After the Second World War , the family was expelled from East Prussia in 1946. She came to Thuringia in the later GDR .

After 1954 started studying Catholic theology , he was on 15 November 1959 by Bishop Ferdinand Piontek for ordained deacon and received on 29 June 1960 in Erfurt by Joseph Freusberg , Auxiliary Bishop of Fulda, the ordination , he was appointed to the diocese of Fulda incardinated . Then he was chaplain at St. Elisabeth in Eisenach until 1962, prefect and assistant at the regional seminary in Erfurt from 1962 to 1964 , vicar of the provost church of St. Marien in Heiligenstadt from 1964 to 1966 , pastor at St. Johannes Baptist in 1966 to 1981 Jena . In 1981 he was appointed vicar general in the episcopal office of Erfurt-Meiningen by Joachim Wanke . Pope John Paul II granted him the title of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness on March 8, 1982 .

1989 it chose the Berlin Cathedral Chapter the Bishop of Berlin; the papal appointment took place on June 24, 1989. Joachim Wanke donated his episcopal ordination on September 9, 1989; Co-consecrators were Johannes Kapp , auxiliary bishop in Fulda , and Wolfgang Weider , auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Berlin. His motto was Deus semper maior (“God is always greater”).

On June 28, 1991, Pope John Paul II accepted him as a cardinal priest with the titular church of San Giuseppe all'Aurelio in the college of cardinals . With the elevation of the diocese of Berlin to the archbishopric on June 27, 1994 Sterzinsky became the first archbishop of Berlin and metropolitan of the Berlin church province . At the conclave in 2005 Cardinal Sterzinsky participated as Cardinal elector.

On February 24, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI. his resignation request submitted for reasons of age on reaching the age of 75. Auxiliary Bishop Matthias Heinrich took over the official business in the Archdiocese of Berlin as diocesan administrator . On July 2 of the same year, Benedict XVI appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cologne Rainer Maria Woelki as Sterzinsky’s successor.

Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky died after a serious illness in the early morning hours of June 30, 2011 in Berlin. Following the Requiem in St. Hedwig's Cathedral , he was buried on July 9, 2011 in the lower church of the cathedral.

He is also remembered at the listed St. Hedwigs cemetery in Konrad-Wolf-Straße in the Lichtenberg district, Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen district . On a simply designed memorial stone with the inscription “The eternal light shine for them. The deceased Brandenburgen ”next to the cemetery chapel are the deceased members of Brandenburgia , an association of Catholic clergy, noted, including Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky.

Act

Shortly after taking office in 1989 Sterzinsky was due to the reunification of the task of the Diocese of Berlin (since June 27, 1994 as the archdiocese merge), in addition to Berlin parts of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania includes. With the reorganization of the second largest diocese in terms of area in Germany, he had to cope with massive financial problems in addition to the integration.

Cardinal Sterzinsky was particularly committed to migration and asylum policy and established the sub-commission for women in church and society at the German Bishops' Conference.

Memberships

Roman Curia

German Bishops' Conference

  • Commission for Marriage and Family (Chairman) (1991–2011)
  • Migration Commission (Deputy Chairman) (1996–2011)
  • Pastoral Commission (Vice Chairman)
    • Subcommittee on Women in Church and Society (Chairman) (1999–2011)
  • Ecumenical Commission (1990–1996)

Honors

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg Sterzinsky  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 1987 , Città del Vaticano 1987, p. 2048.
  2. ^ Rinuncia di Arcivescovo di Berlin (Germania) , in: Press Office of the Holy See: Daily Bulletin of February 24, 2011.
  3. ↑ Claudia Keller: Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky has died. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 30, 2011, accessed June 30, 2011 .
predecessor Office successor
Joachim Cardinal Meisner Bishop of Berlin
1989–1994 		-
- Archbishop of Berlin
1994–2011 		Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki
personal data
SURNAME Sterzinsky, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sterzinsky, Georg Maximilian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archbishop and cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Warlack
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 2011
Place of death Berlin