Heinrich Middendorf

Father Heinrich Middendorf SCJ (born August 31, 1898 in Aschendorf , † August 10, 1972 in Osnabrück ) was a German priest and missionary.

Life

After attending elementary school and the rectorate school in his birthplace Aschendorf, Heinrich Middendorf switched to the humanistic teaching institution of the religious order of the Sacred Heart Priests in Sittard (Netherlands) in 1912 . There he entered the order after finishing school.

After the novitiate in Fünfbrunnen (Luxembourg) he studied philosophy and theology at a university of the order and at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau and Innsbruck . He was ordained a priest in 1923 and then studied oriental and biblical studies at the universities of Freiburg , Münster and Berlin . 1927–1931 he was a chaplain in various parishes in southern Baden. From 1932 to 1938 he performed duties in the religious house in Bendorf , from 1936 as rector. In 1934 he had a doctorate in biblical studies.

From 1938 to 1946 he was rector of the religious house in Stegen . During this time he hid nine Jewish citizens in the monastery and thus saved them from the Holocaust . For this he was awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations posthumously (1994) .

From 1946 to 1949 he moved as rector to the religious house in Freiburg. He then became a member of the General Government of the Order in Rome. From 1956 he worked as a missionary in the Congo and was a member of the religious province of Zaire until his death in 1972.

Awards and honors

• 1994: Righteous Among the Nations
• 1997: The Realschule Aschendorf is renamed Heinrich-Middendorf-Realschule Aschendorf
• 1999: Inauguration of the "Pater Middendorf" senior citizens' residence in Stegen near Freiburg
• 2004: Gunter Demnig laid stumbling blocks in honor of Father Middendorf and those he rescued in front of the St. Sebastian College in Stegen

Web links

• Biography Father Middendorf
• Father Dr. Heinrich Middendorf SCJ . In: Historical Atlas of Lower Saxony
• Bothe, Bernd: Heinrich Middendorf
• Lipp, Hans: How P. Middendorf SCJ became “Righteous Among the Nations” (PDF; 1.0 MB)

literature

• Bernd Bothe: Father Heinrich Middendorf, Righteous Among the Nations . Aschendorf 1997 (= Aschendorfer Heimatblätter, issue 29).
• Paul Thoben: Father Dr. Heinrich Middendorf . In: Yearbook of the Emsland Heimatbund . Vol. 44, 1998, pp. 263-276.
• Israel Gutman et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations: Germans and Austrians. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2005.
• Bodo Hechelhammer:  Middendorf, Heinrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 927-928.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Yad Vashem: Righteous Among the Nations Honored by Yad Vashem (PDF; 271 kB); List dated January 1, 2012.
2. ↑ Parish of Stegen: 10 years of senior citizens' residence Pater Middendorf in Stegen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Official announcement of July 9, 2009.