Ildefons here

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Mosaic as a grave slab for Ildefons Herwegen

Ildefons Herwegen OSB (born November 27, 1874 in Junkersdorf near Cologne as Peter Herwegen ; † September 2, 1946 in Maria Laach ) was a German Benedictine monk and abbot of Maria Laach , as well as a historian and liturgist .

Life

The son of a teacher attended elementary school in Cologne-Lindenthal and first the Apostelgymnasium in Cologne , then the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium there and finally the high school of the Benedictine abbey in Seckau in Styria . There he decided to enter the Maria Laach monastery, he was given the religious name Ildefons and began his novitiate in 1894 . He studied theology at the Theological College of the Benedictine Archabbey of Beuron and in Rome as well as history in Bonn . He was ordained a priest in 1901 , was unanimously elected abbot of Maria Laach by the monks ' convent on June 26, 1913 , and was consecrated by Bishop Michael Felix Korum on July 7, 1913 . He held this office until his death.

plant

Under Ildefons Herwegen, the old Benedictine abbey on the Laacher See became one of the focal points in the discussions and efforts to reorient German Catholicism after the defeat of Germany in the First World War and the end of the Wilhelminian authoritarian state . Because of this, a reflection on the central role of the liturgy encouraged the celebration of the liturgy to unite participating believers and to connect them in spirit and thus make communion with God tangible in the communion of the church . He became a pioneer of the liturgical reform that the Second Vatican Council completed 20 years after his death. Among other things, he worked with Romano Guardini , Odo Casel , Heinrich Rohr and Johannes Pinsk and published in 1918 in his series Ecclesia orans Guardini's work Vom Geist der Liturgie . In 1921 he entrusted Casel with the publication of the yearbook of liturgical science . From 1922 he sponsored the young Father Stephanus Hilpisch . Virgil Michel , Hans Ansgar Reinhold and Godfrey Leo Diekmann , who played a leading role in the liturgical movement in the USA from 1930, were among his students or visited Maria Laach for study visits.

Herway's political standpoint was committed to the traditional role of the church in absolutism . He advocated an authoritarian state , rejected the democratic form of government of the Weimar Republic and the policies of the Catholic Center Party . Herwegen had close ties to the national conservative group around Hitler's Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen and therefore welcomed the new National Socialist government in 1933 as a restoration of unity between people and state and as a counterweight to individualism and liberalism. But in the new state there must be enough space for the independence of the Catholic Church. Herwegen's biography found literary expression in Heinrich Böll's novel Billard at half past six in 1959 . Out of personal ties, Herwegen accepted his former Cologne schoolmate Konrad Adenauer as a guest in the abbey for a year when Adenauer had lost his political office in April 1933 and was threatened by his National Socialist opponents.

When the Catholic Church increasingly became the object of state conformity and after Herwegen had left Germany for a short time in 1935 in order to avoid being arrested for treason , he became convinced that National Socialism and Christianity were incompatible. In keeping with the line of the German bishops, however, he avoided any confrontation with the National Socialist authorities. The monks survived political and anti-church cleansing campaigns largely unscathed and were not expelled from Maria Laach even during the “ monastery storm ” of 1941, in which almost all the monasteries in the Rhine Province were dissolved.

Quotes

What the liturgical movement is in the religious field is fascism in the political field. - The German person stands and acts under authority, under leadership, ... Those who do not follow are a pest for the community. ... Let us say a wholehearted yes to the new structure of the total state, which is thought to be entirely analogous to the structure of the church. The Church is in politics in the world like Germany today. Ildefons Herwegen at the third special sociological conference of the Catholic Association of Academics in Germany , Maria Laach July 1933 ( Lit .: Ruster p. 105) .
Since the leader of the new empire declared at a solemn hour that Germany's future should be built on the foundations of Christianity, since the supreme pastor of our holy church has given his approval in the form of a concordat to the state requirements for Catholic life in the new Germany, we are German Catholics called for loyal cooperation and willingness to make sacrifices for the prosperity and prosperity of our fatherland. Ildefons Herwegen: As an escort. In: Emil Ritter (ed.): Catholic-conservative genetic material. A selection for the present. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1934. ( Lit .: Albert S. 103f.) .
I saw National Socialism only as a transitory form to a new monarchical constitution, for example based on the English model. Politically, in my opinion, the monarchy has remained the desired form of government for Germany (German kingship), and incidentally also for France. ... Hitler's speech on March 21, 1933 in the Garrison Church in Potsdam seemed to dispel religious and ecclesiastical fears and the conclusion of the Concordat in the summer of the same year apparently gave reassuring certainty about the freedom of church life. Who could believe - although such voices were loud - that all these assurances with word and signature were deliberate lies and deliberate popular fraud. ... I gained so much insight into the goings-on of big and small party bosses that everything connected with the name of National Socialism soon filled me with disgust and disgust. Wherever I was brought up with him in public, it was only my intention to serve religious interests. It soon became clear to me from the actions of National Socialism that this intention was in vain, and if one now had to observe how the intended war was being prepared with all perfidy while the German people were singing peace hymns to them, one also recognized soon what abyss Germany stumbled towards. Ildefons Herwegen: Memories of an Abbot. Archive of Maria Laach Abbey 1945/46. ( Lit .: Albert p. 239f.) .

Others

A primary school in Cologne-Junkersdorf was named after him. In order to preserve Herwege's spiritual legacy and to continue the scientific work in the monastery, his successor Abbot Basilius Ebel founded the Abbot Herwegen Institute for liturgical and monastic research in 1948 . Its chairman is the political scientist Werner Weidenfeld . Herwegen is an uncle of Weidenfeld.

Fonts

  • Maria-Laach In: The Catholic Encyclopedia 1910 (English, translated by M. Donahue)
  • The Art Principle in the Junfermann Liturgy , Paderborn 1912
  • Germanic legal symbols in the Roman Liturgy Winter, Heidelberg 1913
  • The holy Hildegard von Bingen and Guibert von Gembloux In: Alte Quellen neue Kraft Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1920
  • Old sources new Kraft Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1920
  • The holy Benedikt Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1926, new edition: Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-491-77347-4
  • Sense and Spirit of the Benedictine Rule Benziger Verlag, Einsiedeln 1944

literature

Single receipts

  1. ^ Klaus Breuning: Die Vision des Reiches Hueber, Munich 1969, pp. 207-209
  2. ↑ Dagmar Pöpping, Abendland. Christian academics and the utopia of anti-modernism 1900-1945 Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2002, 173 ff.
  3. ↑ a b P. Dr. Adalbert Schippers OSB: Guide through the Maria Laach Abbey Church , L. Schwann Verlag, Düsseldorf 1930

See also

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Fidelis of Stotzingen Dept. of Khajuraho
1913 - 1946 		Basil Ebel
personal data
SURNAME Because of this, Ildefons
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Because of that, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German monk and historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Junkersdorf
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1946
Place of death Maria Laach