Hermann Joseph Schmitt

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Hermann Joseph Schmitt

Hermann Joseph Schmitt (born July 1, 1896 in Cologne ; † April 23, 1964 ibid) was a German clergyman, a functionary of the Catholic Workers' Movement (KAB) and politician (center).

Live and act

German Empire and Weimar Republic (1896 to 1933)

Hermann Joseph Schmitt was born the son of a postal secretary. After attending school, Schmitt took part in the First World War as a pioneer from 1915 to 1917 . Afterwards, thanks to a commission high school diploma, he was able to study Catholic theology, economics and philosophy in Bonn , Cologne and Berlin. He did not get his doctorate until the Second World War in Tübingen. The supervisor of his dissertation on "Internal migration within the Catholic Church as a moral theological and pastoral theological problem" (1942) was the moral theologian Theodor Steinbüchel .

In 1922 Schmitt was ordained a priest in Cologne. After a longer activity as a chaplain in Elberfeld , he was appointed general secretary of the Reich Association of Catholic Workers' Associations in Germany in 1928. He carried out this activity until 1939.

Period of National Socialism (1933 to 1945)

From March to November 1933 Schmitt was a member of the Reichstag as a member of the Catholic Center Party , in which he represented constituency 2 (Berlin). At the beginning of March 1933 Schmitt belonged together with his center colleague Joseph Joos , Ritter von Lex and Otto Graf from the Bavarian People's Party as well as Edgar Julius Jung , Rudolf Pechel and Edmund Forschbach to a group of right-wing / Catholic opponents of National Socialism in parliament and the higher state administration, the Discussed ways in which the adoption of the Enabling Act could be prevented. When these efforts proved to be futile, Schmitt finally agreed to the Enabling Act, probably under pressure from the factions.

From 1939 to 1944 Schmitt worked as a student chaplain in Berlin. During the Second World War, Schmitt met resistance against the Nazi regime. He was in contact with Carl Goerdeler , Jakob Kaiser and the Kreisau Circle : He expressly affirmed the “moral permissibility of tyrannicide ”. Schmitt was arrested on July 21, 1944. After he was acquitted by the People's Court , he was taken into " protective custody ". In December 1944 Schmitt was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp , where one of his fellow prisoners was the first post-war chairman of the SPD, Kurt Schumacher . In the following months he was held prisoner with others as a bunker prisoner. In April 1945 he managed to escape during the evacuation march from Dachau.

Post-war period (1945 to 1964)

After the war, Schmitt lived in Cologne again. He was now mainly active in the Catholic labor movement. From 1947 to 1963 he was President of the Western Union. In 1956 he was appointed papal house prelate . Politically, Schmitt spoke out in particular in the post-war period in favor of preserving the political unity of Catholicism : He was open about the question of whether the Catholic collection was again under the umbrella of the old Center Party or within the framework of a new organization like the then young CDU should be done.

Fonts

  • Internal migration within the Catholic Church as a moral theological and pastoral theological problem , slea [1942]. (Dissertation)
  • The godless movement and the Catholic workers , Mönchengladbach 1931.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel 18/1955, p. 14.
  2. ↑ Der Spiegel 22/1948, p. 5.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schmitt, Hermann Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman and politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1964
Place of death Cologne