Jakob Weis

Pastor Dr. Jakob Weis, 1930

Front of the memory book published by Pastor Weis in 1917

Title page of the memory book issued by Pf. Weis with the note that the proceeds from it will be used for charitable purposes

Jakob Weis (born May 13, 1879 in Ommersheim , Saarpfalz , † March 18, 1948 in Zweibrücken ) was a priest of the Diocese of Speyer , a prison chaplain and, in World War I, divisional pastor of the 12th Bavarian Infantry Division , as well as a Catholic pastoral officer in the Mackensen Army High Command ( August von Mackensen ). He was interned voluntarily with the soldiers from 1918 to 1920 in order to be able to give them pastoral support.

Jakob Weis as divisional pastor in Romania, 1917

Life

Jakob Weis was in Saar Palatinate Ommersheim born and received on 4 October 1901 Speyer Cathedral the priesthood . This was followed by years of chaplaincy in Mittelbexbach (October 10, 1901 to August 30, 1905), in Gersheim (August 31, 1905 to October 16, 1905), and in Landau in der Pfalz (October 17, 1905 to June 30, 1909). From July 1, 1909 to February 27, 1921, Dr. Weis as a prison curate in prison Zweibrücken , an extremely difficult and thankless pastoral care items. During this time the First World War fell. From August 4, 1914, Weis entered the Bavarian Army as a divisional pastor and remained there until August 1920, where he was subsequently a prisoner of war. After returning from the war, he continued his service as a prison chaplain. On March 1, 1921, Jakob Weis became the parish priest of Pirmasens , where he campaigned very strongly for the construction of a second parish church. He became the driving force of the church building association that already existed for this purpose, but was not very active. From April 1, 1925, the priest worked as a professor at the secondary school, later at the Zweibrücken grammar school. Here, too, he was heavily involved in building the branch church of Utweiler . Jakob Weis retired in 1940 and lived in Zweibrücken, where he died on March 18, 1948 and was buried - still active in pastoral care, but more and more sickly in recent years. The obituary in the Pilger (church newspaper of the Diocese of Speyer) No. 15/16, dated April 11, 1948 states: “A spirited man, with a characteristic peculiarity, but with a genuinely priestly disposition, he knew how to achieve great things in the various fields of work. The social tendency that led him to take over the prison chaplaincy was also evident in the pastoration of the industrial parish of Pirmasens. He was not only a teacher for his students in Zweibrücken, but also a consultant and helper. As a preacher and writer, he worked far beyond his field of work. "

Jakob Weis is the great-uncle of the former vicar general and current official of the Diocese of Speyer , cathedral capitular, prelate Dr. Norbert Weis . Both come from the same family as the famous Speyer bishop Nikolaus von Weis .

Military chaplain in the First World War

Jakob Weis (far left), as a division pastor on the Western Front, 1916. Cardinal Franziskus von Bettinger in the center , his secretary Konrad von Preysing on his left, his secretary Michael Buchberger on his right

As a military chaplain, Jakob Weis initially held the position of field hospital chaplain and finally received the office of divisional pastor of the 12th Bavarian Infantry Division. He also advanced to the position of Catholic pastoral counselor in the Army High Command, Field Marshal General Mackensen . At the end of the war, the priest voluntarily went into captivity so that he could continue to provide pastoral care to the “Mackensen Army”, which had been cut off in Romania after the German defeat in autumn 1918 . He was elected by the troops as a delegate of the German Red Cross and developed an extremely beneficial activity to alleviate the - physical and psychological - needs of the prisoners. Since Weis stayed with them voluntarily, he was held in the highest esteem by the victors and the vanquished alike. In the summer of 1920 he was the last German to leave the prisoner-of-war camp in Romania. Due to his military use Weis received a large number of awards, of which the Iron Cross First Class deserves special mention, as it was received as a reward for personal bravery in pastoral care at the front. He was also the bearer of the Iron Cross II. Class, the Bavarian Military Order of Merit IV. Class with Swords, the Prussian Red Cross Medal 3rd Class and the Cross of Honor for combatants (for non-combatants ). About the one from him at the 12. bay. Division participated in the Romanian campaign, Jakob Weis published a memory book in 1917 under the title "With a Bavarian Division through Romania" . It is dedicated to the then division commander Hugo von Huller . He also mislaid memorial postcards drawn on the front. He donated the profit from both for the war welfare of the soldiers.

literature

• Obituary in Pilger , Speyer, No. 15/16, of April 11, 1948.
• Jakob Weis: With a Bavarian division through Romania . Huber, Diessen near Munich, 1917, online
• Ludwig Börst: The Palatinate Theologians in World War 1914-18 . Pilger, Speyer (no year, approx. 1930), page 27.
• Balthasar Meier: The Bavarian Catholic clergy in the field 1914-18 . Brönner & Däntler, Eichstätt 1937, page 82.
• Schematism of the Diocese of Speyer, 1934 . Pilger, Speyer 1934, p. 329.
• Michael Faulhaber (ed.): "The sword of the spirit" (field sermons in the world war) . Herder, Freiburg, 1917 (contains on pages 443–446 two speeches by division pastor Jakob Weis, with the titles “Faith and Life” and “Crux suprema lex”, given on the occasion of front burials).
• Festschrift for the consecration of the parish church St. Anton , Pirmasens . Self-published by the parish office, Pirmasens 1931.

Web links

• Entry about Dr. Jakob Weis, in “Saarland Biographies”.
• Literature by and about Jakob Weis in the catalog of the German National Library