Heinrich Himmel of Agisburg

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Heinrich Himmel of Agisburg
Coat of arms of Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg, 1890.

Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg (born May 3, 1843 in Mährisch Schönberg , † March 28, 1915 in Brixen ) was an Austrian nobleman, major general and Catholic activist.

Life

The Himmels originally came from Loslau (Upper Silesia). Heinrich Himmel's great-grandfather Johannes († 1833) founded the Austrian civil service in the family as gubernial clerk in Brno .

Born without a title of nobility, Heinrich Himmel joined the Austrian army in 1859 , became a lieutenant in 1863 and took part in the campaigns of 1866 ( German War ), 1878 (occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ) and 1882 (battles of insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina). In 1877 he was promoted to captain and in 1888 to major . With an imperial diploma of April 21, 1890, the officer was raised to hereditary nobility under the name of Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg .

As a member of the Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment No. 6, he became a lieutenant colonel and military educator of Archduke Ladislaus Philipp of Austria (1875–1895) in 1892 . Finally, Himmel von Agisburg was promoted to colonel in 1895 , and in 1896 he retired. In 1908, on the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph , the veteran received the title of major general . As an honorary citizen of Abfaltersbach (Tyrol) , he died in Brixen in 1915. He wore u. a. the Knight's Cross of the Leopold Order , the Commander's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order with a star and the silver Military Merit Medal on the ribbon of the Military Merit Cross .

Pilgrimage organizer

Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg was a devout and committed Catholic. He had toured India, South America, North Africa and Palestine . In 1884 he stayed in Jerusalem . He lived in the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family and was amazed to find that he was the only guest there. At the pilgrimage sites, too, he met only a few Catholics from the German-speaking area or the Habsburg Empire. Himmel von Agisburg therefore decided to promote pilgrimage to the Holy Land . First he published his travel memories in 1889 under the title "Eine Orientreise" . After his retirement, he set up a Palestine pilgrimage in Brixen and organized the first Tyrolean pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1898, in which 507 pilgrims took part. Another six major pilgrimages to Israel followed, all of which were organized by the officer. Some of them were even mentioned themselves, including a group from the Rhineland in 1900 and the first Swiss people's pilgrimage in 1903.

On his initiative, other pilgrimage associations were formed, including the Bavarian Pilgrimage Association of the Holy Land . Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg traveled specifically to Munich for its founding meeting on November 10, 1903; The local co-initiator, Cathedral Chapter Sebastian Kirchberger (1846-1919) , became chairman . Both were able to build on the preparatory work of the priest Hermann Geiger (1827–1902), who had previously led smaller “pilgrim caravans” from Bavaria to Israel and the first Bavarian people's pilgrimage to the Holy Land , with 538 participants, took place in July 1904.

Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg managed to make the pilgrimage to Palestine in the German-speaking area popular again on a larger scale for the first time since the Middle Ages and to organize it as an inexpensive communal pilgrimage. In this context, the Pope honored him with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Gregory , the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem with the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deutsches Adelsarchiv: Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Volume 84, Page 224, 1984; Excerpt from the source
  2. ^ Genealogical paperback of the noble houses of Austria , Volume 1, page 312, Vienna, 1905; Excerpt from the source
  3. ^ History of the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiments Karl I, King of Romania, No. 6., 1851–1907 , Budapest, 1908, page 256; Excerpt from the source
  4. ↑ Bavarian Pilgrims' Association from the Holy Land: Into the Holy Land from the Isar beach, memorial book of the 1st Bavarian People's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land , Munich 1905, pages 10 and 11
personal data
SURNAME Heaven from Agisburg, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heaven, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian nobleman and major general
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Moravian Schönberg
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 1915
Place of death Brixen