Heinrich Abel

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Heinrich Josef Maria Abel SJ (born December 15, 1843 in Passau , † November 23, 1926 in Vienna ) was a Catholic priest and Jesuit . From the 1890s onwards, he worked primarily in Vienna as a successful preacher and founder of congregations . Since he was mainly addressing men, he was nicknamed the “Male Apostle of Vienna”. His work was characterized by anti-Semitism with a Christian social character.

Life

Abel was born the son of a customs officer in Passau and grew up in the city. He entered the Jesuit order at the age of 20 and worked until 1891 as an educator and teacher, mainly for history, at the Jesuit college in Kalksburg near Vienna. He was the nephew of Karl von Abel .

In 1876 he was instrumental in founding the K.Ö.St.V. Austria Wien and later became an honorary member of the K.Ö.St.V. Rudolfina Wien , both in ÖCV . In 1890 he called the “Marian Congregation Mater Admirabilis for Merchants” into being, which was his most important foundation. In the course of the years numerous other congregations were founded, for example for middle school students, workers or for women of merchants.

In 1891 Abel began with his legendary men's sermons in Vienna, finally he suggested annual men’s pilgrimages to Mariazell from 1893 and to Klosterneuburg from 1904.

After his death on November 23, 1926, Father Abel was buried in the Loreto Chapel of the Augustinian Church in Vienna, the meeting place of the "Marian Congregation Mater Admirabilis for Merchants", which he founded.

meaning

preacher

Mission speeches (Hungarian edition)

Abel was famous for his popular, extremely well-attended sermons, which he held mainly in Vienna (St. Augustine), but also in "popular missions" throughout the monarchy, especially in the so-called Sudetenland.

Christian Social Movement

Abel was instrumental in the breakthrough of the Christian Social Party under Karl Lueger . The Christian Socialist journalist Friedrich Funder wrote: “In this popular movement, Lueger's leadership was complemented by Prince Alois Liechtenstein and Father Heinrich Abel. The success of none of the three is conceivable without the success of the other. "

Brigitte Hamann calls Abel "Lueger's most successful helper". At the same time, Abel maintained good contacts with the imperial court, which was actually hostile to the Christian Socials, a fact that points to Abel's diplomatic skill. Abel's closest relationship was with the imperial daughter Marie Valerie . A quote from the German envoy Eulenburg from 1897 also confirms Abel's presence at court. Eulenburg describes Abel in a report to Berlin as “very brilliant”, but his presence at court, which promotes “clericalism”, is also “very dangerous”.

Abel's closeness to the Christian social movement is first visible in his orientation towards the petty bourgeoisie. The Merchants' Congregation played the most important role within all Abelian foundations, for example as the sponsor of pilgrimages to Mariazell. Furthermore, Abel's sermons are characterized by a social rhetoric that makes the closeness to the Christian Socials clear. And finally, anti-Semitism connects him with Lueger and the Christian Socialists.

Political anti-Semitism

Friedrich Heer , Erika Weinzierl , Brigitte Hamann, Peter Pulzer and others characterize Abel's work as anti-Semitic. Remarks against Judaism were undoubtedly part of the standard repertoire of Abelian sermons.

In 1899 Abel called on his listeners in the Vienna Augustinian Church to take part in the Easter procession and justified this call with: “May this be the protest that we Christian men raise against the Jews and those of whom Christ the Lord said: Woe to you, Jews and Pharisees, and you who make proselytes everywhere who are many times worse than you! "

Abel's father once hit a Jew with a stick that was auctioned off to a baroness Tschovanelli. She later gave it to Abel, who in turn boasted that he had given this stick to the high-ranking, Christian social politician “ Dr. Psenner as a brave anti-Semite as a present ”.

Finally, there is a source - a letter from the private scholar Arthur Kaufmann to his friend, the writer Arthur Schnitzler - according to which Abel also called for the extermination of the Jews in Mariazell in 1918.

Commemoration

Monuments and memorial plaques

Father Abel monument in Mariazell. Abel leads a young man. The additional panel attached in 2009 to the base
Memorial plaque on the Augustinian Church in Vienna
  • Klosterneuburg: memorial plaque in the collegiate church .
  • Mariazell: In 1928 a memorial for Abel was erected. On May 28, 2009, the “Province of the Austrian Jesuits” installed an additional plaque with an explanatory text, the content of which corresponds to the additional plaque on the Abel memorial stone in the Augustinian Church in Vienna.
  • Passau: Memorial plaque on Abel's birthplace at House Domplatz 5.
  • Vienna, Innere Stadt: In 1937 an Abel monument was inaugurated on today's Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz , but it was destroyed during the war and not rebuilt.
  • Vienna, Inner City: In 1953 a memorial plaque was erected on the outer wall of the Augustinian Church at Augustinerstraße 7. This bears the inscription “P. Heinrich Abel SJ / b. 1843 died 1926 / founder of the Marian Congregation / Mater Admirabilis for merchants / and Viennese male apostles / rests in the Loretto Chapel of this church / built in Anno Domini 1953 "
  • Vienna, Inner City: Abel memorial stone in the Loreto Chapel of the Augustinian Church . On December 2, 2008, an additional commentary plaque was erected by the "Province of the Austrian Jesuits" at the Abel memorial stone in the Augustinian Church. This draws attention to Abel's anti-Semitism, asking God and the Jews for forgiveness and expressing a desire for a sincere and respectful relationship with the people of the First Covenant. On May 28, 2009, an additional plaque with an identical text was attached to the monument in Mariazell.
  • Vienna, Josefstadt: In the entrance to the Confraternität building, 1080 Vienna, Skodagasse 32, Abel's house where he lived and where he died (he lived here from 1895 until his death in 1926), a plaque commemorates him.

Designations

  • Klosterneuburg: "Pater-Abel-Straße".
  • Mariazell: "Pater-Heinrich-Abel-Platz".
  • Vienna: Today's Friedrich-Engels-Platz was called “Pater-Abel-Platz” from 1934 to 1946.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margarethe Richer, Father Heinrich Abel SJ, mach. Diss., Vienna 1947. p. 31.
  2. ↑ Der Neue Herder: Der Neue Herder (first half volume: A to L) . Abel, Karl von, there also a brief meeting with his nephew, the Jesuit Heinrich von Abel. Herder Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1949, OCLC 180627861 , p. 6 .
  3. ↑ Father Abel's death picture , accessed January 3, 2015.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Funder: From Yesterday to Today: From the Empire to the Republic. Vienna 1952, p. 106.
  5. ^ Brigitte Hamann: Hitler's Vienna. Apprenticeship as a dictator. Piper, Munich 1996. p. 420.
  6. ↑ Richer, p. 82. Hamann, p. 406.
  7. ↑ cit. after Martha Schad: Empress Elisabeth and her daughters. Piper, Munich 1997, p. 168.
  8. ↑ Friedrich Heer: The Faith of Adolf Hitler. Anatomy of a political religiosity. Bechtle, Munich 1968. pp. 79f, p. 85.
  9. ↑ Erika Weinzierl: Catholicism in Austria. In: Karl Heinrich Rengstorf, Siegfried von Kortzfleisch (ed.): Church and Synagogue, Handbook on the History of Christians and Jews. Volume II. Dt. Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1988, p. 514.
  10. ↑ Hamann, p. 420 ff.
  11. ↑ Peter Pulzer: The emergence of political anti-Semitism in Austria and Germany, 1867-1914. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, pp. 115, 206, 227.
  12. ↑ A major work on Abel's anti-Semitism is still pending. Margarethe Richer's dissertation is useless in this regard. Her sentences include: “Let us first consider those who were hostile to Father Abel and his work. Obviously this includes all enemies of Christianity, the Jews, the Freemasons, the Liberals, the Social Democrats, the German Nationals, etc. ”see footnote 1, p. 94.
  13. ^ P. Heinrich Abel: Los von Gott. Vienna 1899 (4th edition), p. 31.
  14. ↑ Hans Schmitz: From P. Abel's memories of the early Christian social era. In: Volkswohl, Christian Social Monthly. Volume 12, 14th year, 1923. P. 343.
  15. ^ Letter of July 15, 1918 from Arthur Kaufmann to Arthur Schnitzler. Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, Arthur Schnitzler estate, holdings / accession number: 85.1.3648. For an assessment of this source see: Wolfgang Weilharter: P. Heinrich Abel . In: Coordination Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (ed.): Church anti-Semitism 1880 to 1938 (=  Dialogue - Du Siach ). tape 74 . See also: Commission for literary forms of use of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Diary 1917–1919 . Vienna 1985, p. 162-169 .
  16. ↑ Reichpost. July 1, 1928, p. 8 and Reichpost. July 2, 1928, p. 3, as well as the year "1928" on the base of the monument.
  17. ↑ a b kathweb news .
  18. ↑ Richer, p. 100.
  19. ↑ viennatouristguide.at (see picture here ).
  20. ↑ Article: Jesuits apologize for anti-Semitism P. Heinrich Abels dated December 2, 2008 on Orden online accessed on April 20, 2011
  21. ↑ see picture here .
personal data
SURNAME Abel, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abel, Heinrich Josef Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jesuit, "Male Apostle of Vienna"
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Passau
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1926
Place of death Vienna