Johann Wilhelm Theobald
Johann Wilhelm Theobald (born September 7, 1726 in Petersacker, today Oberdiebach , Rhineland-Palatinate , † April 30, 1816 in Rastatt ) was a Catholic priest , Lazarist father , first provincial of his order in the Electoral Palatinate and pastor of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse .
Live and act
Early life
Johann Wilhelm Theobald was born to his father of the same name and his second wife Eva, widowed Georg. The parents were tenants of the Petersackerhof near Bacharach , which belonged to the Cistercian Abbey of Altenberg , but was territorially subordinate to the Electoral Palatinate . Today the farm has risen in the municipality of Oberdiebach .
Theobald entered the order of the Lazarists on September 14, 1746 and made perpetual profession on September 15, 1748 . In 1752 he was ordained a priest . On April 17, 1776, the clergyman advanced to superior at the small seminary of St. Anna in Metz . One of his students there was the later Pirmasens pastor Johann Michael Schang (1757–1842), who is also known as the Palatinate “ Pastor of Ars ” .
Lazarist Provincial
On August 21, 1773, Pope Clement XIV repealed the Jesuit order with the bull “Dominus ac redemptor noster” . Since he was very meritorious in pastoral care in the Electoral Palatinate, held chairs at Heidelberg University , ran several Latin schools and the Mannheim observatory , Elector Karl Theodor tried to postpone the repeal as much as possible. He first demanded the written delivery of the bull of repeal and then enabled the previous Jesuits to continue working at their posts as secular clergy. At the same time, he was looking for a congregation that would become her legal successor, especially with regard to monasteries and properties. In doing so, he opted for the Order of the Lazarists founded by St. Vincent de Paul , which so far only worked in Vienna in the German-speaking area.
On November 7, 1781, Elector Karl Theodor, on the recommendation of his court chaplain Nicolas Maillot de la Treille, ordered the introduction of the Order of the Lazarists in the Electoral Palatinate and transferred all the possessions and rights of the previous Jesuits to him. As the first Provincial of the Palatinate community, he appointed a son from his country, Father Johann Wilhelm Theobald, on October 12th that year.
Theobald built up the new order province with great effort and initially resided in Heidelberg . The Elector had lived in Munich since 1778 and the Electoral Palatinate had meanwhile sunk into a province. The Lazarists had been denied that on the Jesuit estates, e.g. B. in Petersau (near Frankenthal ) and Ingelheim am Rhein , heavy taxes were a burden, especially the pensions for former Jesuits, which the self-sufficient administration of the Electorate of the Palatinate had quickly transferred to these properties. In addition to the complicated construction work, the congregation had to struggle with considerable financial difficulties from the start.
When Father Theobald recognized the economically troubled situation of the new Order Province in its full scope, he asked in 1783 for a visit from the General Assistant Father Anton de Holleville. After completing the local checks, he sent a younger, energetic successor to the Palatinate Provincial, the French Johann Andreas Jacob.
During Theobald's time in Heidelberg, Joseph Anton Sambuga , later educator of King Ludwig I of Bavaria , joined the order of the Lazarists and worked as one of its employees.
Pastor in Neustadt
Johann Wilhelm Theobald took over a pastoral care position in Mannheim in 1784 and when the previous parish priest of Neustadt an der Weinstraße , the ex-Jesuit Franz Joseph Weckesser, died in January 1785 , Elector Karl Theodor presented him to this important parish. The ruler referred to him as “our beloved Johann Wilhelm Theobald, who was recommended to us with regard to his life, his customs and other virtues” and asks the responsible bishop of Speyer to appoint him as Neustadt pastor “if he is capable and after previous exams appropriately invented ” .
On May 24, 1785, the diocese of Worms , to which he was previously subordinate, dismissed Father Theobald from his employment and Auxiliary Bishop Stephan Alexander Würdtwein recommended him to the Speyer Bishop August von Limburg-Stirum on this occasion . He took him over to his diocese and entrusted him with the parish of Neustadt. Theobald lived there in the former Jesuit college , which now belonged to the Lazarists, today's town hall; Catholic parish church was the choir of the collegiate church that was used simultaneously . Besides him, one or two Lazarist fathers were active in Neustadt, mainly to run the Latin school. In addition to his pastoral office, Father Theobald acted as the local superior of the order.
Neustadt was in the battle zone of the so-called First Coalition War between France and the German Reich. In 1794 it was occupied by the French revolutionaries. Pastor Theobald noted in the church register that he had left Neustadt from October 30, 1794 to November 25, 1795, because he did not want to take the required oath on the civil constitution . Here he also saved valuable church inventory to Mannheim, which is now again in the parish of Neustadt. The historian Alban Haas wrote about this in 1960 in his book “The Lazarists in the Electoral Palatinate” (page 50): “It is to Theobald's wisdom and prudence that the Catholic parish church in Neustadt still owes its artistic altarpieces to today. The Jesuits had them made around 1740 by the gold and silversmith Johann Lent in Mainz . These are a silver-chased, richly gilded monstrance decorated with saints , an equally elaborate ciborium , a magnificent chalice with stones and enamel pictures and several simpler chalices. In addition, two large rococo candlesticks embossed in silver and a silver smoke barrel . "
In 1796 the Electoral Palatinate province of the Lazarists was dissolved again. Neustadt and the part of the Electoral Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine were already under French occupation. Nonetheless, Johann Wilhelm Theobald stayed at his post and maintained Neustadt's Catholic community during this dangerous time. He and his assistant priests had to flee several times, but they always came secretly into the city at certain intervals, administered the sacraments and maintained contact with the parish through intermediaries. Wilhelm Theobald was pastor of Neustadt until August 1798; he gave up due to age. Since the religious situation had consolidated somewhat, his chaplain (since 1797) Jakob Jungkenn was the official successor.
emeritus
Father Theobald withdrew to Heidelberg; from 1808 to his relatives in Rastatt. An official report says about him: "He is a deserving old man, including a Palatinate ...", which is why he deserves an appropriate pension.
The clergyman died on April 30, 1816, at the age of almost 90, in Rastatt. His niece Henriette Schwendt b. Theobald is given as a witness of death. Ignaz Anton Demeter, then city pastor and later Archbishop of Freiburg, buried him on May 1st in the local cemetery. The grave inscription read: “Reverend Johann Wilhelm Theobald, Provincial of the former Order of the Lazarists. He was born in Petersacker in the Rheinpfalz in 1726, was ordained a priest in 1752 and became pastor of Neustadt an der Haardt. "
Family environment
Johann Wilhelm Theobald's older brother Johann Peter Theobald (1717–1802) lived in Rastatt as a Württemberg lieutenant colonel and councilor of war. Two of his sons, the nephews of Father Wilhelm Theobald, made high military careers while the uncle was still alive and were ennobled:
Joseph von Theobald (1772–1837) was a major general in Württemberg and a member of the state parliament; As Commander of the Württemberg Military Merit Order and Knight of the French Legion of Honor , he had received the personal title of nobility in 1809.
His brother Karl Peter von Theobald (1769–1837) was a Bavarian lieutenant general , owner of the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment "König" in Munich and later a Palatine military commander (brigadier) in Speyer . Because of his special bravery in the Wars of Liberation , he had received the Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order in 1814 and carried the personal title of nobility of "Knight of".
Another brother, Joseph Karl Valentin Theobald (1800–1862), was a lieutenant general in Baden.
The sister Henriette Theobald, married to the merchant Sigismund Schwendt, apparently took care of the clerical uncle, since she was present as a witness when he died. She owned the Rossi house that her father had taken over , one of the most splendid private estates in Rastatt, where Father Johann Wilhelm Theobald was likely to have spent his last years.
literature
- Alban Haas : The Lazarists in the Electoral Palatinate. Pilgrim print shop, Speyer 1960.
- Reiner Albert, Günther Saltin: Catholic life in Mannheim. Volume 1. From the beginnings to secularization. Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0908-4 , pp. 444-460.
- Gisela Didt: The Petersackerhof, a former monastery of Altenberg Abbey. Association for the History of the City of Bacharach and the Viertäler e.V. , ISBN 3-928022-65-2 , p. 53.
Individual evidence
- ↑ To the father Johann Wilhelm Theobald
- ↑ To the Petersackerhof
- ↑ The Petersackerhof in the Description of the Electoral Palatinate, Volume 3, by Johann Goswin Widder, 1787
- ↑ On Father Theobald and the introduction of the Lazarists in the Electoral Palatinate
- ↑ To Johann Peter Theobald
- ^ Genealogical page on the family of Johann Peter Theobald ( Memento from February 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Source on Karl Peter von Theobald, followed by the résumé of his brother Joseph
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Zum Rossi-Haus Rastatt and the previous owners Theobald and Schwend )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Theobald, Johann Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German clergyman, Lazarist provincial |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 7, 1726 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oberdiebach |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 30, 1816 |
| Place of death | Rastatt |