Jakob Schwalb
Jakob Schwalb (born August 4, 1872 in Hettenleidelheim , Palatinate , † April 25, 1934 in Mannheim ) was a Catholic priest and clergyman in the Diocese of Speyer . As a persecuted person and prisoner of the Nazi regime , he was mentally and physically abused, of which he died a good ten months later.
Life
Career as a clergyman
Jakob Schwalb comes from a wealthy and long-established family of manufacturers in Hettenleidelheim, who ran the Palatinate clay works Hagenburger and Schwalb . He attended the Latin school in Grünstadt , studied a. a. in Munich and belonged there to the Catholic student association "Alemannia" , which also Pope Benedict XVI. is one of its members. In the commemorative publication for the 25th anniversary of the founding of the association, Jakob Schwalb is registered in 1906 (with photo) as a student for the years 1892 to 1894, at which time he also held the office of treasurer. Schwalb was ordained a priest on August 22, 1897 by Bishop Joseph Georg von Ehrler in Speyer Cathedral .
For almost seven years he worked as a chaplain in Arzheim and Bad Dürkheim , but briefly only in the communities of Oberlustadt , Blieshaben , Weyher and Landstuhl . Jakob Schwalb received his first independent parish in Nünschweiler , where he worked from 1908 to 1912. On February 1st of this year he went to the North Palatinate district of Göllheim as a pastor , where he was very active and had an organ purchased for the parish church that had just been built and consecrated . Pastor Schwalb renewed parish life, founded the Elisabethenverein (nursing) in 1914 and called the Dillinger Franciscan Sisters to the village in 1916 , who worked there until 1953. He bought a sister house for them and, after the First World War, bought replacement bells for the bells that had been collected by the state. Jakob Schwalb was kind of hearted and generally popular and respected because of his helpfulness. He became dean and was given the honorary title of clergyman .
Victims of National Socialism
The emergence of National Socialism gradually found a strong following in Göllheim, where Catholics were already in the minority. The social and political climate in the place became visibly poisoned. Even before the takeover of power, Pastor Schwalb made no secret of his opposition to the National Socialist ideology, but bravely opposed it.
The population accused him more and more of “anti-patriotism”, as recorded in the parish memorial book. With the teacher Hans Planck from Kaiserslautern , who had recently been transferred to Göllheim , the priest founded a “young group” for boys.
The founding of the Catholic association caused the political opponents such excitement that they staged strong tumults on Corpus Christi 1933 because of the association flags they had carried with them, which led to the procession being broken off. The agitation against the church and the pastor grew sharper and finally culminated in the parsonage storm just a few days later.
On the evening of June 23, 1933, around 9:30 p.m., figures - partly masked - gathered in front of the rectory and began to bombard it with heavy stones. Almost all the window panes were broken. Then numerous sharp shots were fired; later at least 30 bullets were counted. They tried to break the front door and finally blew it open with a detonation.
The crowd broke into the parsonage to drag the pastor out. His sister stood up to the intruders and Jakob Schwalb holed up on the second floor. The summoned mayor tried to calm the crowd, but with the help of some of the violent criminals, he arrested the priest, explaining that it was only for his own safety and to prevent further attacks. In fact, the mayor protected him from public violence and personally fended off all such attempts at violence. A guard was left in the devastated rectory and the priest was taken to the nurses' house.
There the fanatical crowd had meanwhile also smashed numerous windows (26 panes) and arrested the teacher who lived in the house. At 11:00 p.m. a truck drove up to take both prisoners to the Kirchheimbolanden prison . When Pastor Schwalb got into the vehicle, he was dealt a violent blow from the crowd, but it didn't hit him properly. He was loudly ridiculed as a “ traitor to the fatherland ”, chanted “hang up” and sang “Now is the day of vengeance”.
The transport of prisoners left at 11:30 pm; everything that the priest was carrying had been taken from him; only the breviary was left as a prayer book at his pleading request. Both prisoners were locked in cells like criminals and apparently also physically abused. On Sunday, June 26th - three days later - she was released on condition that she would not reveal anything about the incidents of detention and that she would not do anything against it in word or in writing.
Pastor Jakob Schwalb immediately went to his home in Hettenleidelheim and never returned to Göllheim.
According to the statements of contemporary witnesses, the already ailing man was broken physically and mentally from now on. After a long recovery cure in the Black Forest, he was transferred to the Dahn parish in the South Palatinate , at the opposite end of the diocese, with effect from September 1, 1933 .
Due to illness, he could hardly do his job there. Because of increasing complaints, he was taken to the Theresienkrankenhaus in Mannheim after a few weeks , where he died after only two days, on April 25, 1934, at ½ 10 am.
The death notice and obituary notice were published in the diocesan newspaper Der Pilger No. 17 on April 29, 1934. An obituary for the deceased was announced, which, however, contrary to all other customs, only appeared four weeks later on May 27th (pilgrim no. 21).
This obituary is not written by the editorial staff as usual, but anonymously "by one of his classmates" and contains - apparently due to government intervention - only hints of the true cause of death. However, in addition to brief recollections of the riots, the protective custody that followed and the resulting “emotional depression”, the writer specifically pointed out the mourning sentence on the obituary, which reads “true and telling”: “His life was love, his death was a Victim . "
Pastor Jakob Schwalb is buried in his place of birth, Hettenleidelheim, in the family grave of the factory owners.
Commemoration
In 2009 a so-called " stumbling block " was set for the confessing priest in Dahn, in front of the property at Kirchgasse 1, the rectory he last lived in. This is to keep the memory of him alive for future generations. The reasons for this expressly state that Pastor Jakob Schwalb was severely mistreated during his imprisonment and died a few months later as a result.
literature
- Obituary; Pilgrim No. 21, May 27, 1934
- “Historical Notes - Supplement to the Schematism of the Diocese of Speyer 1947” , Pilger-Verlag Speyer 1947, also published in reprint
- Max Joseph Lüneborg: "300 Years of the Catholic Parish in Göllheim" , 1986
Web links
- Website about Pastor Schwalb's "Stolperstein"
- Memorial page of the Dahn Kolping Family, to Pastor Jakob Schwalb
Individual evidence
- ↑ 200th anniversary of the Progymnasium Grünstadt , list of still living students, Riedel Verlag, Grünstadt, 1929, p. 30
- ↑ Extensible report from the parish memorial Goellheim about the development in the village, in front of the rectory storm
- ↑ Extensible scan across the rectory storm, from the parish memorial Goellheim
- ↑ Enlargeable scan of the obituary in the "Pilger"
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schwalb, Jakob |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German priest, clergyman, victims of National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th August 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hettenleidelheim |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1934 |
| Place of death | Mannheim |