Hermann Richarz

Hermann Richarz (born January 30, 1907 in Cologne-Poll ; † July 15, 1985 in Troisdorf ) was a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne, a pastor and a staunch opponent of National Socialism .

Life

After graduating from high school and studying, Richarz was ordained a priest in Cologne in 1933. He then worked as a chaplain in Solingen-Krahenhöhe (St.Joseph). In his youth work, he endeavored to educate the children and young people against National Socialism and to immunize them against the propaganda activities of the NSDAP. Thereupon, between 1933 and 1935, Richarz was repeatedly charged with corrosive and subversive activities. Investigations and interrogations by the Gestapo led to the District President in Düsseldorf being banned from teaching on February 7, 1935 . Richarz had violated the police ordinance on denominational youth associations of September 23, 1935 in the religious hours he led and at Sunday meetings of young people. According to reports from the state police, Richarz used these meetings as an opportunity to take a stand against leading figures of the regime and against state measures. From 1936 Richarz worked as a chaplain in St. Vinzenz in Düsseldorf.

After Richarz's apartment had been searched on October 2, 1942 and documents were confiscated, an interrogation followed on October 3. He was arrested by the Gestapo on November 17th and imprisoned in Düsseldorf. He was accused of making statements hostile to the state, collecting offenses and hate speech from the pulpit. Furthermore, he should have instigated young people to stay away from the Hitler Youth service. Richarz also took part in pastoral care for soldiers, which was forbidden at the time. Efforts by the pastor and the request of the vicar general on December 1 for release from prison were unsuccessful. On December 22nd, Richarz was sent to the Dachau concentration camp . On the basis of archive material, Hehl stated that an example should be made to Richarz. When arrested and imprisoned, the regime itself accepted a “strong excitement” in large sections of the population. Because of the arrest of the "extremely popular clergyman", the Gestapo was accused of disturbing internal peace and trust in the government.

Richarz was interned in the pastors' block in the concentration camp. There he led the group Victor in vinculis ("Sieger in Fesseln"), which arose as a group of Schoenstatters around the also interned founder Josef Kentenich . The group also included Karl Leisner , who was the only one who was ordained a priest in the concentration camp. On behalf of the group “Victor in Vinculis”, Richarz congratulated the ordination: “But we are happy to give you the most beautiful and best present: our prayer and our sacrifice, our bond with you in the spirit of the Mta, Victor in Vinculis Mariae. Maria has truly followed you into the vincula [fetters] of Dachau and into the even worse vincula of your illness. And with their help you have really emerged victorious so far. ”Under the conditions of the concentration camp, the group of priests led by Richarz prepared a primary card with a picture in seven copies. The primary picture showed hands tied with chains and stretching upwards. At the top was a crown and in the middle is MTA, with the T represented by a sword. In a letter to Richarz on January 22, 1945, Leisner thanked the group from the sick block for the support and the celebration of the priestly ordination: “Gradually the holy events fade away in the soul. That is why I am only now coming to the written answer. . . Special thanks to PK [Father Kentenich] and Father Fischer for the fine Mta-Horen, which give me great pleasure. "

Richarz was released from the concentration camp on March 29, 1945 after liberation by the American armed forces.

After the end of the war, Richarz initially worked as a pastor in Altenrath (Troisdorf) . There he campaigned for the rapid establishment of an independent village school. In 1958 he became pastor of the parish of St. Gerhard in Troisdorf, which was spun off from the old town parish of St. Hippolytus . He played a key role in the construction of the new church building. After his retirement he lived and worked as a pastor in peace in Troisdorf until his death in 1985.

documentary

Richarz's participation in the resistance against National Socialism from the Catholic milieu is the subject of a documentary film by the State Agency for Media in North Rhine-Westphalia . The conversations with former parishioners documented there show that the chaplain is very popular in youth work.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Boberach, p. 765
2. ↑ cf. Hehl, 1998, p. 779
3. ↑ Hehl, 1977, p. 223
4. ↑ oA: Insights into a vocation path II. Excerpts from Karl Leisner's diary and letters 1937 - 1945. , in: www.eo-bamberg.de.

literature

• Heinz Boberach: Reports of the SD and the Gestapo on churches and church people in Germany 1934-1943. Paderborn 1971.
• Ulrich von Hehl : Catholic Church and National Socialism in the Archdiocese of Cologne 1933-1945. Mainz 1977.
• Ulrich von Hehl: priest under Hitler's terror. Schöningh, Paderborn 1998, ISBN 3-506-79839-1 .
• Bedšrich Hoffmann: And Who Will Kill You: The Chronicle of the Life and Sufferings of Priests in the Concentration Camps . 4th edition. Pallottinum, Poznań 1994, ISBN 83-7014-223-0 , p. 395.
• Michael Schmid-Ospach; Hans Josef Hubert; WDR press office (ed.): It wasn't just July 20th. Documents from a series of WDR broadcasts; including Heinz Kühn on resistance in the Third Reich. Contributions by Walter Hensel, Wilhelm Niemöller, Hermann Richarz, Karl Klinkhammer, Paul Karalus. Jugenddienst Verlag, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7795-7342-3 .
• Rolf Müller: History of the Troisdorf Parishes . Respublica-Verlag, Siegburg 1969, ISBN 3-8771-0051-1 .
• Hans-Karl Seeger: Dean Josef Lodde, Coesfeld's rock in the brown flood: Christian civil courage at the time of National Socialism . LIT Verlag, Münster 2012, ISBN 9783643114570 , pp. 55–56, 74–79.