Jakob Fried

Jakob Fried (born July 25, 1885 in Eibesthal , † May 18, 1967 in Vienna ) was an Austrian Roman Catholic clergyman and author.

Life

Jakob Fried was born on July 25, 1885 as the son of the farmer Jakob Fried (1853-1939) and his wife Katharina (nee Schneider; 1855-1933) and grew up in a farming family with six siblings. After elementary school in his home town of Eibesthal and the community school in Mistelbach , he attended high school in Nikolsburg for a year and then the archbishop's college for boys in Hollabrunn . In July 1905 he graduated with honors, entered the archiepiscopal clerical seminary in October 1905 and began to study theology in Vienna . During his studies, he came into contact with the KÖHV Amelungia , a color-bearing and non-striking student association and member of the Austrian Cartel Association (ÖCV), of which he became a member on October 6, 1908 and where he was given the couleur name Gerhart . Furthermore, Fried is a band philistine of the KÖStV Kürnberg , which was founded in 1900 , a likewise color-bearing and non-striking student association within the ÖCV.

After completing his studies, he was ordained a priest on July 18, 1909, and the primacy on July 25, 1909 , and worked as a cooperator and manager of the Volksbund in Sitzendorf . From September 1914 he was a consultant in the central office of the Catholic Volksbund in Vienna and at the same time was active in pastoral care in the parish of St. Elisabeth in Vienna-Wieden . From 1917 he was active as a cooperator in the Reindorf parish in what was then the 14th Viennese district of Rudolfsheim (today the western part of the 15th district of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus ). In addition, he held the position of General Director of the Catholic People's Union for Austria and was the diocesan president of the male Catholic youth associations. In 1924 he was appointed church rector of St. Ruprecht and in 1925 as cathedral curate of St. Stephan . In 1926 he was appointed papal secret chamberlain and in 1934 papal house prelate . Also in 1934 he was appointed to the cathedral chapter of St. Stephen.

Fried was active in numerous Catholic associations and in the Catholic press: in 1918 he was the founder of the Reich Association of Catholic German Youth in Austria and in 1931 initiated the working group of Catholic youth associations . From 1915 he was general director of the Catholic Volksbund and, after its merger with the Piusverein Austria in 1919, from that same year until its dissolution in 1938, general director of what is now the Volksbund of Catholics Austria . He also remained president of the Catholic youth associations. He was a main organizer of the Austrian Catholic Days in 1923 and 1933. From 1922 he was chairman of the Herold press association , which published the Reichspost and from 1929 also Das Kleine Volksblatt , which Fried co-founded. In addition, he was the author of numerous publications and brochures.

After Austria was "annexed" to the Nazi state , the activities of the Volksbund were forcibly suspended. Jakob Fried was appointed city ​​dean for the first and second districts of Vienna . Possibly because of his conversations with Felix Slavik and Johann Müller (Müller-Thanner group) , he was arrested by the Gestapo on November 21, 1939 . Initially imprisoned in the Gestapo prison, he was transferred to the Vienna Regional Court in February 1940 and in January 1941 to a prison in Regensburg . At the beginning of October 1943 he received the indictment and in November 1943 he was transferred back to Vienna. On 23/24 November the trial took place there before the People's Court , in which he was accused of "helping in preparation for high treason" and "not reporting criminal activities". He was sentenced to two years in prison for violating the notification requirement. In May 1944, he was loudly stating Karl Ebner in the Dachau concentration camp to be laid, but Ebner was in Friedreich 'imprisonment inability' notice so that Fried was released on May 23, 1944th On Ebner's advice, he temporarily moved to Großpriesen as a precaution . In September 1944 he returned to Vienna, where he lived in seclusion and did not perform any public functions. However, he came back into contact with resistance groups (around the O5 ).

After the end of the Nazi regime , Cardinal Theodor Innitzer commissioned Fried to rebuild the Catholic Action (KA) in Vienna. With his liaison brother Karl Rudolf he disagreed about the direction of the KA: Fried favored free Catholic associations, while Rudolf advocated a more hierarchical form of organization and thus prevailed. Fried then devoted himself to other tasks and became editor of the Wiener Kirchenzeitung and director of Wiener Dom-Verlag . In addition, he was chairman of the supervisory board of the construction and settlement cooperative "Peace" . Furthermore, after the end of the war he rebuilt the parish church of Eibesthal , which had been destroyed by war events .

In 1952 Fried was infuled cathedral cholaster and received the title of Apostolic Protonotary ; a year later he was made cathedral cantor. In addition, he held numerous other church functions and was a judge at the Metropolitan Court .

As a result of a financial affair, he resigned from all offices in 1959. Fried died on May 18, 1967 at the age of 81 in Vienna and was then buried in his parents' grave.

Works (selection)

• Saints who walked through Vienna. Reinhold, Vienna 1935.
• The holy helpers in need. Publishing house of the mission society "Queen of the Apostles", Vienna 1938.
• National Socialism and the Catholic Church in Austria. Wiener Dom-Verlag, Vienna 1947.

literature

• Herbert Fritz, Peter Krause (Ed.): Wearing colors - Confessing colors, 1938–1945. Catholic Corporates in Resistance and Persecution (= Tradition and Future . Volume 15). Austrian Association for Student History, Vienna 2013, p. 288 f.
• Michael Polgar: 100 years of K.Ö.ST.V. Kürnberg 1900–2000 . Self-published, Rohrbach 2000, p. 202-203 .

Web links

• Jakob Fried in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
• Entry about Jakob Fried in Biolex, the web lexicon of the ÖCV