Johannes Mölders

Johannes Mölders (born July 18, 1881 in Krefeld , † June 29, 1943 in Cologne ) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman and church musician , as well as collegiate bandmaster at Aachen Cathedral and cathedral bandmaster at Cologne Cathedral .

Live and act

While still at school, Mölders attended the conservatory in his home town of Krefeld. After graduating from high school , he then studied Catholic theology at the universities in Bonn , Freiburg i. Br. And Cologne . On February 23, 1907, Cardinal Antonius Hubert Fischer was ordained a priest .

Mölders then took up his first position as 3rd chaplain at the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Düsseldorf-Flingern and in 1910 switched to the position of 2nd chaplain at St. Peter in Aachen. Here he became a student of the collegiate vicar and collegiate music director Franz Nekes at the Aachen Minster . In 1912 he took over his office as collegiate vicar and one year later also the office of collegiate bandmaster. Mölders stayed here until 1918 and then moved to the parish of St. Martinus in Neuss - Uedesheim . Finally, on October 1, 1921, he accepted a call to Cologne Cathedral, where he was accepted as cathedral vicar as well as cathedral music director and director of the cathedral choir. In addition, he received a teaching position as professor for church music at the Cologne seminary and at the Cologne State University of Music . For his services, the Pope appointed Mölders papal secret chamberlain and awarded him the title of monsignor .

At the same time Mölders belonged to the Cecilia Society in the Archdiocese of Cologne and was elected diocesan president on November 22nd, 1925. On July 15, 1930, he was elected General President of the General Cecilia Association for Germany (ACV) in Lucerne . During his term of office, economic and political pressures from the Nazi regime led to restrictions in the association's work, which ultimately led to the association's magazine " Musica sacra " being discontinued at the end of 1937 . A year later Mölders temporarily took over the office of editor of the journal “Die Kirchenmusik”, which replaced the association organ as “Journal of the ACV” until 1943.

During the so-called “Peter and Paul air raid” on downtown Cologne on June 29, 1943, Mölders was hit by bombs in the basement of his apartment and died. He found his final resting place in the cemetery in the Krefeld district of Hüls .

literature

• Stefan Klösges: Johannes Mölders , in: Stefan Klösges / Eberhard Metternich (eds.): In aeternum cantabo. Testimonies from 1300 years of Cologne's cathedral music history , Cologne 2013, pp. 200–206.
• A. Kaltwasser: Msgr. Johannes Mölders † , in: Musica sacra , 69 (1949), pp. 26-27
• Herbert Paffrath: Committed to church music. Professor Johannes Mölders died 15 years ago , in: Musica sacra , 78 (1958), pp. 213-214
• Karl Gustav Fellerer: On the 100th birthday of Johannes Mölders , in: Musica sacra , 108 (1981), pp. 267–268

Web links

• Portrait in the General Cäcilienverband für Deutschland, p. 32/33
• Chrismie Fehrmann: Choral Singing for the Pope , in: Westdeutsche Zeitung from June 19, 2013