Hermann Ginter

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Hermann Josef Ginter (born February 14, 1889 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † August 3, 1966 there ) was a German Catholic priest, art historian and monument conservator .

Life

Hermann Ginter was a son of the engine driver Hermann Ginter and his wife Maria geb. Laule. Hermann Ginter studied Catholic theology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau . He was particularly influenced by the professor of patrology , Christian archeology and art history Joseph Sauer . In 1912 he was ordained a priest in St. Peter (Upper Black Forest) . He was then vicar in Haslach im Kinzigtal , Oppenau and Kehl am Rhein and then from 1920 to 1927 parish administrator and from 1927 to 1935 pastor in Ludwigshafen on Lake Constance . Even as vicar, he wrote about the church of the former Benedictine abbey in Gengenbach and the St. Michaelskirche in Appenweier . From 1923 he edited the local history of Lake Constance , in which he himself published on the history of churches and art on Lake Constance, including the pilgrimage church of Birnau . It was during these years that his doctoral thesis on Southwest German Baroque Church Painting, supervised by Joseph Sauer, was written . The Constance and Freiburg Masters of the 18th Century. In 1926 he was promoted to Dr. theol. PhD. In 1930 the dissertation appeared in print. In 1934, Ginter was appointed editor of the Freiburg Diocesan Archives , 1935 editor of the Konradsblatt , the journal of the Archdiocese of Freiburg , and in 1936 lecturer in Catholic religious studies at the Karlsruhe College of Teacher Training .

In 1941 the Konradsblatt was banned, in 1942 the religious lectures in Karlsruhe were stopped. Ginter was drawn to the "Landesdenkmalamt für das Alsace" in Strasbourg , which had been in German hands since 1940, as a "research assistant" . He was supposed to participate in the salvage of church art treasures during the ongoing Second World War and to examine church bells before they were melted down for war purposes. Suspiciously observed by the National Socialist authorities , he was able to save many things. Nevertheless, after the liberation of Strasbourg by Jacques-Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque , he was interned like all Germans in December 1944. He was only released ten months later in September 1945 with the help of his Alsatian friends. He was then allowed to transport all his property, including his extensive library, back to Baden.

From 1946 he was parish administrator in Güttingen, today a district of Radolfzell , so again on Lake Constance. When Joseph Sauer died in 1949, Ginter was his successor as conservator of the ecclesiastical art monuments of the Archdiocese of Freiburg . Because of the proximity to the Freiburg authorities, he moved to Wittnau , a village a few kilometers south of Freiburg , as a pastor . In 1951 he became a lecturer in church monument preservation and in 1956 honorary professor for art history at the theological faculty of the University of Freiburg. In 1957 he retired as a pastor, but kept his apartment in the Wittnau rectory until shortly before his death. Death tore him from energetic efforts to restore the Birnau pilgrimage church. A representative of the Strasbourg Archbishop Jean-Julien Weber also attended his funeral in Freiburg .

Works

A complete list of publications was published in the Freiburg Diocesan Archive in 1966 .

His most important scientific work is his dissertation - "a salvation of honor for the baroque, which has so far been described as 'degenerate' by art history". It contains the biographies and catalog raisonnés of Jakob Karl Stauder (1694–1756), Franz Joseph Spiegler , Franz Ludwig Hermann , Johann Christian Wentzinger , Benedikt Gambs , Johann Pfunner (1716–1788) and Simon Göser , which are still fundamental today .

In addition, the list of publications lists publications on the most important - not only, but mainly baroque - southwest German and neighboring art monuments, be it in the Ortenau district with Offenburg , Gengenbach , Appenweier and Schuttern , be it near Lake Constance with Konstanz , Überlingen , Meersburg , Mimmenhausen , the Birnau , the Salem Abbey and the island of Reichenau is it in the southern administrative district of Freiburg with Freiburg itself, Breisach , the Kaiserstuhl , Kirchzarten , the Abbey of Saint Peter in the Black forest , the monastery of St. Margen , the monastery of St. Blasien (Schwarzwald ) and Herbolzheim , be it - from Ginter's time in Strasbourg - across the Rhine in Ebersmünster .

For the 2nd edition of the Lexicon for Theology and Church (from 1932) Ginter wrote the articles Gengenbach, Gottfried Bernhard Götz , Joseph Hörr , Hans Ulrich Glöckler , Pierre Michel d'Ixnard , Martin Knoller , Lautenbach im Renchtal , Münsterlingen , Sankt Märgen, Sankt Peter, Peter Anton von Verschaffelt , Zell am Harmersbach and Jörg Zürn .

In addition to literary work, many of these places were also active in conservation. From 1961 to 1965, for example, the interior of the monastery church of St. Peter was restored to its "original beauty" under Ginter's conservational supervision. In 1951 he managed to purchase a damaged baroque altar of unknown origin from the archbishopric's holdings along with a painting by Caspar Fuchs (1671–1741) for his late baroque Wittnau parish church Mariae Himmelfahrt instead of a neo-Romanesque altar, which was "very embarrassing" for him as a conservator to procure and restore the holdings of the Freiburg Augustinian Museum.

His concern for the Alsatian art monuments has also been recognized by the French. “What blessing the procedure he followed (dilatory treatment) brought to Alsace was particularly evident from the fact that when the III. Reiches barely a quarter of the bells was delivered. ... By and large, the stock of old bells was preserved in the country. He also tried to secure the famous (14) tapestries (for the life of Mary ) of the Strasbourg cathedral ... together with his friend Josef Brunissen, director of the Odilienberg . There, far from Strasbourg, both of them hid the tapestries in a secret storage room, where they were protected from any access. ... The gratitude that Alsace showed him ... determined its attitude towards it for all of the future. He loved the beautiful neighboring country, still richly endowed with art treasures, like a second home. As a Glocken-Ginter ... he has grown into the tradition of the Alsatian clergy. "

Honors

In 1947 Ginter was appointed a clergyman , and in 1959 a papal secret chamberlain . In 1952 he was awarded the honorary title of professor by the state of Baden. In 1959 he received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class . In 1962, the year of his golden jubilee as a priest, the Wittnau community made him an honorary citizen.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Brommer: Ginter, Hermann Josef. In: Baden biographies . New episode Volume 3. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 104-107.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Müller: Obituary for Professor Dr. Hermann Ginter. In: Freiburg Diocesan Archive, Vol. 86, 1966, pp. 5-8.
  3. ^ Hermann Ginter: Southwest German Church Painting of the Baroque. The Constance and Freiburg painters of the 18th century. Dr. Benno Fischer Verlag, Augsburg 1930.
  4. ↑ a b c d Médard Barth: Necrologist: Prelate Hermann Ginter of Freiburg im Breisgau (1889-1966). In: Archives de l'Église d'Alsace 32, 1967/68, pp. 315-317.
  5. ^ François-Joseph Fuchs: Ginter, Hermann Joseph. In: Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne Faszikel 13, Strasbourg 1988, pp. 1090-1091.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang E. Stopfel: Josef Sauer as conservationists. In: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 120, 2000, pp. 261–281, here p. 288 ( digital ).
  7. ^ Bibliography Hermann Ginter . In: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 86, 1966, pp. 557-564 ( digitized version ).
  8. ↑ available online: Der Birnauer Kreuzweg , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 56th year 1928, pp. 84–104 ( digitized version ).
  9. ^ Hermann Ginter: Seminary and parish church St. Peter in the Black Forest. 8th edition. Munich and Zurich, Schnell & Steiner 1968.
  10. ^ Hermann Brommer: The Assumption Church in Wittnau. In: Elfi Harter-Bachmann (Ed.): Wittnau, Biezighofen: About life in the village - then and now. Wittnau municipality 1986, pp. 118–130.
  11. ↑ Elfi Harter-Bachmann: honorary citizen of the Wittnau community. In: Wittnau, Biezighofen: on life in the village - then and now. Wittnau municipality 1986, pp. 331-332.
personal data
SURNAME Ginter, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ginter, Hermann Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic priest, art historian and monument conservator
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH 3rd August 1966
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau