Heinrich Feurstein

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinrich Feurstein

Heinrich Karl Joseph Feurstein (born April 11, 1877 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † August 2, 1942 in Dachau concentration camp ) was a German Roman Catholic priest and art historian .

Life

Heinrich Feurstein was born on April 11, 1877 in Freiburg im Breisgau as the son of a goldsmith . In Freiburg he attended the local Berthold-Gymnasium and, after having passed the Abitur, the University of Freiburg to study Catholic theology. He was ordained a priest at the age of 22. After his first vicarage in Tiengen , Heinrich Feurstein was transferred to the parish church of St. Stephan in Karlsruhe in September 1900 .

In 1901 Heinrich Feurstein took a leave of absence to study economics, which he obtained in Freiburg in October 1904 with a doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. completed. On June 15, 1901, Heinrich Feurstein joined the KDSt.V. Arminia Freiburg im Breisgau in the CV and in 1902 also became a member of the KDSt.V. Bavaria Berlin (CV), when he came to Berlin during the course of his studies in order to "... get to know the pulsating German labor movement in the Reich capital from first hand." . After two posts as parish administrator in Achern and Donaueschingen , Heinrich Feurstein became parish priest of Donaueschingen on May 17th at the parish church of St. Johann . He remained that way until his arrest by the Gestapo in 1942.

In Donaueschingen he was also part-time director of the Fürstenberg painting gallery. This directed his studies to the local church and art history. He became a respected expert and author of art historical writings, u. a. known for the work of the painter Matthias Grünewald and the master of Messkirch .

After a city fire, he took those who had become homeless into his rectory and founded a workers 'association and a building cooperative to build workers' family houses.

In 1914 he volunteered for the front. He didn't want to sit behind the front as a clergyman while "... an hour further west, hundreds breathed their last sigh to heaven ...". He refused to be awarded the EK II .

Heinrich Feurstein had campaigned under the rule of the National Socialists for the preservation of the Latin language in the Catholic liturgy and against its Germanization. He had also repeatedly spoken out publicly against the murder of the handicapped and the mentally ill in the so-called Action T4 of the National Socialists. The confiscation of the church bells on December 7th, 1941 was probably a trigger for him, as he was already giving his sermon on Christmas Day 1941 on martyrdom and on "... priests and lay people who were ousted from their position because of their convictions and who were in prisons and languishing concentration camps ... " stopped. His last two sermons were on New Year's Day 1942, in which he condemned the World War as a singular mockery of the Christmas message. He spoke about the terror of conscience, the persecution of the Church, hatred of the priests and the monastery storm and ended with the words: "Once, when the measure is full, the Lord of the Church will raise his hand, the Most Holy, who, according to the words of the Scriptures, kills his persecutors with the breath of his Mouth. "

Feurstein had been under the surveillance of the Gestapo since 1939 . He was finally arrested by the Gestapo on January 7, 1942, after his New Year's sermon, initially imprisoned in Konstanz and taken to Dachau concentration camp on June 5, 1942 (concentration camp no. 30594). He died there in July as a result of his imprisonment. His death became known on August 2nd. The funeral ceremony on August 18 in Donaueschingen turned into a triumphant victory celebration for the population loyal to the church.

Appreciations

In Donaueschingen, the "Heinrich Feurstein School Förderschule" and the "Heinrich Feurstein Street" became; named after him, in Reichenau the "Feursteinstraße" near the Reichenau Psychiatric Center .

The Catholic Church accepted Pastor Heinrich Feurstein in 1999 as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

Fonts (selection)

  • Wages and household of the watch factory workers in the Baden Black Forest. A socio-economic study , Braun, Karlsruhe 1905 (dissertation).
  • Directory of paintings. Princely-Fürstenberg collections in Donaueschingen , 3rd edition, Donaueschingen 1921. 4th edition 1934.
  • On the interpretation of the picture content in Grünewald , Filser, Augsburg 1924.
  • The catholic town church of St. John the Baptist in Donaueschingen 1724-1924 , Danubiana, Donaueschingen 1925.
  • Matthias Grünewald , Verlag der Buchgemeinde, Bonn 1930.
  • The Master of Messkirch in the light of the latest finds and research , Urban-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1933
  • The relationships between the Fürstenberg family and the residential and patronage parish of Donaueschingen from 1488 until today. Shown in regesta . Mory, Donaueschingen 1939.

literature

  • Konrad Hofmann: Heinrich Feurstein. In the school of Saint Stephen , in: ders./ Reinhold Schneider / Erik Wolf (ed.): Sieger in Fesseln. Testimonies of Christ from camps and prisons ( Das christliche Deutschland 1933–1945 , Gemeinschaftliche Reihe, Issue 1) , Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag Herder 1947, pp. 107–119.
  • Hermann Ginter : Dr. Heinrich Feurstein. Obituary. In: Writings of the Association for History and Natural History of the Baar. Vol. 23 (1954), pp. 12-17.
  • Wolfgang Müller:  Feurstein, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 116 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wilfried Lammert: In memoriam - Dr. Heinrich Feurstein. In: Festschrift for the 100th foundation festival of the Catholic German Student Union Arminia in Freiburg im Breisgau. Freiburg 1974.
  • Bruno Schwalbach: Heinrich Feurstein 1877–1942. Priest, humanist, martyr . In: Groundbreaking antiquity. On the topicality of humanistic education. Festival ceremony for Günter Wöhrle . Württemberg Association for the Promotion of Humanistic Education, Stuttgart 1986, pp. 99-109.
  • Richard Paid: Pastor Dr. Heinrich Feurstein (1877–1942). Pastor under Kaiser Wilhelm II, Reich President Ebert, Hindenburg and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, death in Dachau concentration camp in 1942 . Catholic Parish Office St. Johann, Donaueschingen 1992.
  • Richard paid: the uncontrollable. Priestly resistance in the Donaueschingen regional chapter 1933–1945 . Dold-Verlag, Vöhrenbach 1998, ISBN 3-927677-11-6 .
  • Helmut Moll (publisher on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume 1, pp. 253-257.
  • Klaus Hoffmann, Eckhard Scholz: Dr. rer. pole. Heinrich Feurstein (1877–1942). Namesake of the street leading through the Reichenau ZfP. In: 100 Years Center for Psychiatry Reichenau . Psychiatrie-Verlag, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-88414-536-4 , pp. 140-143.

Web links

Wikisource: Heinrich Feurstein  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Müller:  Feurstein, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 116 f. ( Digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Feurstein, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Feurstein, Heinrich Karl Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1942
Place of death Dachau concentration camp