Georg Ratzinger (church musician)

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Georg Ratzinger (2014)

Georg Ratzinger (born January 15, 1924 in Pleiskirchen , Upper Bavaria ; † July 1, 2020 in Regensburg ) was a German Roman Catholic priest and church musician . He was the brother of Pope Benedict XVI. (Joseph Ratzinger).

family

Georg Ratzinger was born on January 15, 1924 as the son of the gendarmerie master Joseph (* March 6, 1877 - August 25, 1959) and the cook Maria, b. Peintner (7 January 1884 - 16 December 1963) was born. He was the great-nephew of the Reichstag member and priest Georg Ratzinger and had two siblings, Joseph Aloisius (born April 16, 1927) and Maria Ratzinger (born December 7, 1921; † November 2, 1991). Until her death, the sister devoted herself to his household and at times also to that of his brother, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

Life

Shortly after Ratzinger's birth, the family moved to Marktl am Inn , the father's new professional location. For professional reasons, the family moved to Tittmoning in 1929 , where Georg Ratzinger started school. In 1932 there was another move to Aschau am Inn ; a year later the parents bought a farmhouse in Hufschlag near Traunstein . Georg Ratzinger was already playing the church organ at the age of eleven . In 1935 he entered the Archbishop's Small Seminar in Traunstein, where he received his first professional instrumental lessons. In 1941 he heard the Regensburger Domspatzen for the first time when they sang in Salzburg for the Mozart year in 1941 .

In the same year he had to join the Hitler Youth because of the legally prescribed youth service. In the summer of 1942 he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service and in the autumn he was drafted into the Wehrmacht , where he was deployed in France, Holland and Czechoslovakia. In 1944 he was wounded on the right upper arm in Italy , transferred to the military hospital in Traunstein and returned to Italy after recovery. Towards the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the Americans . In July 1945 he returned to Traunstein.

In January 1946 he entered the seminary of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising together with his younger brother Joseph . At the same time he continued his musical studies. In October 1950 he received the subdiaconate and deacon ordination. On June 29, 1951, he and his brother received the sacrament of ordination from Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber in Freising Cathedral . He celebrated his first class on July 8, 1951 in the Traunstein parish church of St. Oswald .

Among other things, he worked as a music prefect in the Archbishop's Boys' Seminar in Freising, studied church music at the Musikhochschule in Munich and completed the master class there in 1957 . He then became choir director in Traunstein, shortly afterwards choir regent at the local parish church of St. Oswald and music prefect at the archbishop's study seminar. During his music studies he was active in pastoral care, among other things as chaplain in the parish of St. Ludwig in Munich and pilgrimage curate in the pilgrimage church of the Assumption in Maria Dorfen near Munich.

On February 1, 1964, he succeeded Theobald Schrems as cathedral music director at Regensburg Cathedral and director of the Regensburger Domspatzen. In 1967 he was appointed by Pope Paul VI. Appointed Papal Honorary Chaplain ( Monsignor ), in 1976 he was appointed Papal Honorary Prelate. On the 70th birthday of Georg Ratzinger and the 30th anniversary of the Domkapellmeister, he resigned as director of the Regensburger Domspatzen in 1994. His successor was Roland Büchner .

After his resignation, he entered the chapter of the collegiate monastery on Saints Johann Baptist and Johann Evangelist in Regensburg and moved to Luzengasse in Regensburg. From 1995 to 2001 he was the dean of the chapter of the collegiate monastery of St. Johann.

On July 8, 2001, Georg and Joseph Ratzinger celebrated their 50th anniversary as a priest together in the Munich Cathedral of Our Lady . On June 29, 2011, he and his brother and other consecrated colleagues celebrated his 60th anniversary as a priest in Rome.

In September 2011, Ratzinger's Memoirs of His Brother was published with the title My Brother, the Pope . They were recorded by the journalist Michael Hesemann .

On January 15, 2014 Georg Ratzinger celebrated his 90th birthday in the Vatican. In his honor was in the presence of his brother, Pope em. Benedict XVI. , given a privately organized concert with Wolfgang Nöth ; Michael Hesemann gave a laudation.

Georg Ratzinger died on July 1, 2020, shortly after his brother had visited him again for four days, at the age of 96 in Regensburg.

Over 200 active and former cathedral sparrows remembered him with a vesper for the dead in Regensburg Cathedral on July 5, 2020. This was followed by funeral ceremonies lasting several days, such as a death rose wreath , a funeral filee in the collegiate church of St. Johann and a requiem in the cathedral on July 8th, 2020 under the direction of Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer and the concelebrant Archbishop Georg Gänswein , who read a farewell letter from his brother, and the Apostolic Nuncio in Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterović . Guests included Reinhard Cardinal Marx , Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller as well as Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke , Curia Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst , Auxiliary Bishop Reinhard Pappenberger and Auxiliary Bishop Josef Graf and Gloria von Thurn und Taxis . His brother Benedict XVI. participated via livestream. Pope Francis sent a personal letter of condolence to Benedict XVI.

Georg Ratzinger was buried in the Lower Catholic Cemetery in the foundation grave of the Regensburger Domspatzen. The burial was carried out by the canons' dean Johannes Hofmann .

Artistic work

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As early as 1965, the year after Ratzinger took over the office of cathedral music director, the first recordings were made and the first international tour to Rome with concerts, participation in a council mass of the ongoing Second Vatican Council and a private reception by Pope Paul VI. At Christmas 1965, Ratzinger gave the first of his Christmas concerts in Regensburg with the Domspatzen. In addition to numerous TV appearances, the choir developed a lively concert activity with trips and tours to the USA , Italy , Great Britain , Scotland , Scandinavia , Canada , Taiwan , Japan , Ireland , Poland , Hungary , the GDR and the Vatican as well as one every year Germany tour; furthermore he fulfilled his primary task, the liturgical services in the cathedral of St. Peter in Regensburg. Between 1964 and 1994 he played over 1000 concerts at home and abroad as the cathedral music director with the Regensburger Domspatzen. In 1976 the Domspatzen celebrated their 1000th anniversary. The following year, Georg Ratzinger led the choir at the consecration of his brother Joseph as Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Georg Ratzinger dedicated himself to church music not only in his office as cathedral music director (conductor), but also as a composer and arranger . On the occasion of the Holy Year 2000 he wrote the mass L'Anno Santo , which was premiered in Regensburg Cathedral. He also wrote a sentence to O dujoyful , which the cathedral sparrows occasionally sing as an encore in Christmas concerts.

At the Regensburger Domspatzen, recordings of great works of choral music and vocal polyphony were made under his direction . For his commitment to the Musica Sacra , he was made an honorary member of the “Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae” (CIMS; 1989) and of the “Pueri Cantores” (1991) association.

Musically, Ratzinger was - in addition to cultivating early music - above all close to romantic choral music . Among other things, it is thanks to him that the church music of the composer Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger , who has meanwhile been forgotten, is performed more often today. His repertoires also included contemporary works, such as those by Max Baumann , Karl Höller , Friedrich Zipp , Maurice Duruflé and his friend Hermann Schroeder . He was also a member of the Max Baumann Society .

His outstanding achievements in church music were recognized by the award of an honorary doctorate by the Pontifical College for Church Music "Pontificio Instituto di Musica Sacra" Rome (2000) and the appointment as honorary professor by the University of Catholic Church Music and Music Education Regensburg (2004).

Christian Heiß , a former member of the Domspatzen and Domkapellmeister in Regensburg since 2019, gives the following impression of Georg Ratzinger: “I saw Georg Ratzinger as a musically outstanding, lovable, fatherly caring, demanding and supportive person, for whom music and Christian faith are inseparable are connected. It was a stroke of luck for the Regensburger Domspatzen. "

Allegations and statements on abuse issues

After cases of physical and sexual abuse among the Domspatzen became public in 2010 , Ratzinger's upbringing and management style also came under fire. He himself admitted that he had occasionally punished misconduct with slaps in the face according to the style of upbringing that was common at the time. According to the news magazine Der Spiegel , former singers of the Regensburger Domspatzen described Ratzinger as "extremely choleric and irascible". Other former cathedral sparrows, who shortly afterwards turned to the Mittelbayerische Zeitung , took Ratzinger's protection and emphasized that there had been no such violence against singers in their time.

According to the final report (July 2017) by the lawyer Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the diocese to conduct extensive investigations into the incidents among the Domspatzen in their entirety, Ratzinger had no knowledge of sexual violence among the Domspatzen, but did not intervene in cases of physical violence despite knowledge.

In 2019, a study commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg came to the conclusion that cathedral music director Ratzinger had "failed to fulfill the educational and welfare commission assigned to him from a criminological point of view for numerous former students of the cathedral sparrows due to his violent behavior". He had inflicted severe suffering on the pupils concerned, both “in the form of neglect, primarily in view of his unperformed duties as chairman of the directorate of the Regensburger Domspatzen Foundation and a member of the board of trustees in Etterzhausen - as well as directly - in the form of physical and psychological violence exercised”. Typologically, Ratzinger tended “towards physical-expressive violence” during the period under study, “over the decades, measured in terms of behavior, there was no recognizable will to want to change something in terms of one's own lack of control and the associated spontaneous, reactive exercise of violence”.

Discography (selection)

(all recordings with the Regensburger Domspatzen)

Filmography (selection)

(all recordings with the Regensburger Domspatzen)

  • ZDF series "Choirs of the World" (1966)
  • Munich Sunday Concerts of the Bavarian Radio (first in 1970)
  • Folksongs on ZDF (1971)
  • Advent Sundays on ARD television (1976)
  • Peter Alexander Show on ZDF (1978)
  • Anneliese Rothenberger Show on ZDF (1980)
  • "We Children - The Regensburger Domspatzen" on ARD (1981)
  • Portrait of the Regensburger Domspatzen on ZDF (1987)
  • "Under the Schwibbögen" - portrait of Georg Ratzinger on ZDF (1993)

Fonts

  • with Michael Hesemann: My brother, the Pope. Herbig, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7766-2678-0
  • Missa L'anno santo for mixed choir a cappella. Feuchtinger & Gleichauf, Regensburg 2000

honors and awards

literature

  • Paul Winterer: The cathedral music director. Georg Ratzinger - a life for the Regensburger Domspatzen. Mittelbayerische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Regensburg 1994, ISBN 3-927529-34-6 .
  • Anton Zuber: The Pope's brother. Georg Ratzinger and the Regensburger Domspatzen. Herder, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-451-29604-8 .

Web links

Commons : Georg Ratzinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Georg Ratzinger  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Pope brother" Georg Ratzinger in Regensburg died. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk . July 1, 2020, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Georg Ratzinger celebrated his 90th birthday with his brother Benedikt XVI. kath.net, January 16, 2014.
  3. ↑ Moving farewell: That happened when the Pope visited his sick brother. , on www.tz.de from July 1, 2020.
  4. ↑ Benedikt's letter moved to Requiem for Brother on kurier.de from July 8, 2020
  5. ↑ 200 former cathedral sparrows bid farewell to Georg Ratzinger , Bayerischer Rundfunk from July 6, 2020
  6. ↑ Benedict XVI. Present by livestream at the funeral service on Bunte.de on July 9, 2020
  7. ↑ condolences of Pope Francis on onetz.de from July 2, 2020
  8. ^ Farewell to Georg Ratzinger's coffin on pnp.de on July 7, 2020
  9. ↑ a b Barbara Just (KNA): "Pope brother and church musician: A portrait on the death of Georg Ratzinger" on kathisch.de from July 1, 2020, accessed on July 3, 2020
  10. ↑ a b c d e "Georg Ratzinger - curriculum vitae and stations" , Diocese of Regensburg, July 2020, accessed on July 3, 2020
  11. ↑ Andreas Meixner: Inniger concert evening with cathedral choir. In: Mittelbayerische.de , December 3, 2014. Accessed June 27, 2017.
  12. ↑ a b c Martin Lohmann : "Georg Ratzinger: A cosmopolitan Bayer" In: tagespost.de , July 2, 2020. Retrieved on July 4, 2020.
  13. ↑ Alexander Unger: Georg Ratzinger, brother of the Pope emeritus, is dead on www.onetz.de , July 1, 2020
  14. ↑ Karl Birkenseer: PNP Interview: Georg Ratzinger rejects allegations against himself. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Domspatzen: Pope brother Ratzinger distributed slaps in the face during choir rehearsals. In: Der Spiegel from March 9, 2010
  16. ↑ www.spiegel.de New allegations of abuse at Regensburger Domspatzen , from March 13, 2010
  17. ↑ Former cathedral sparrows protect Georg Ratzinger. In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung of March 16, 2010.
  18. ↑ Final report presented in Regensburg: Domspatzen investigators counted 547 cases of abuse ( memento from January 6, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) on www.br.de, July 18, 2017
  19. ↑ Final report of Domspatzen ( memento from July 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), incidents of violence being exercised against wards at the Regensburger Domspatzen. Investigation report, Ulrich Weber / Johannes Baumeister, July 18, 2017.
  20. ^ Matthias Rau, Lisanne Breiling, Martin Rettenberger: Regensburg processing study, social scientific analyzes and assessments of violence among the Regensburger Domspatzen 1945 to 1995. Electronic series of the KrimZ, Volume 18, 2019 , p. 143.
  21. ↑ Photo Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class
  22. ↑ "Carry the cross in your heart": Georg Ratzinger becomes the canon of honor
  23. ↑ Italy: Brother of the Pope receives distinction ( Memento of October 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Vatican Radio, October 25, 2010.
  24. ↑ www.festivalmusicaeartesacra.net
predecessor Office successor
Theobald Schrems Domkapellmeister at Regensburg Cathedral
1964 - 1994 		Roland Büchner
personal data
SURNAME Ratzinger, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diocesan priest and church musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Pleiskirchen , Upper Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 2020
Place of death regensburg