Johannes Neuhäusler

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Johannes Neuhäusler (born January 27, 1888 in Eisenhofen near Dachau , † December 14, 1973 in Munich ) was a German Catholic theologian and ecclesiastical resistance fighter in the Third Reich . From 1941 to 1945 he was interned as a special prisoner in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. From 1947 he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising .

Life

Birthplace of Johannes Neuhäusler (2016)
Information board at the birthplace

Neuhäusler came from a farming family and had eight siblings. In addition to farming, his parents Magdalena and Georg also ran a shop and a grain trade. After attending the elementary school in the former prince-bishop's castle Eisenhofen in Hof , the eleven-year-old was sent to the Archbishop's seminary in Scheyern for five years in 1899 , where he was called to be a priest. He also shone at the grammar school in Freising with good grades and in 1909 passed the entrance exam for the renowned Georgianum seminary in Munich. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1913 by Cardinal Bettinger in Freising Cathedral .

After three years of pastoral care as chaplain in Oberaudorf am Inn, Neuhäusler was called to Munich, where he worked as general secretary of the " Ludwigs-Missionsverein " (the oldest and largest missionary organization in Bavaria, founded in 1838) and in 1925 founded the Bavarian Pilgrims Office . In recognition of this, he was appointed papal treasurer of honor and was allowed to accompany his superior, Archbishop Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich , to the World Eucharistic Congress in Chicago in 1926 .

In 1928 he was involved in founding the Medical Mission Institute in Würzburg , of which he became the first chairman. In the retreat house Fürstenried he founded the late vocational seminar St. Matthias and in 1932 followed Faulhaber's call to the cathedral chapter . Immediately after the “ seizure of power ” , he appointed him to the archbishopric's ecclesiastical policy with the explosive task of preparing a careful dossier about the attacks by the Nazi regime on the Catholic Church and intervening diplomatically against it.

Fight against National Socialism

Neuhäusler felt the gravity and danger of this assignment, but carried it out obediently from 1933 to 1941, "until what happened over and over again on countless days of the eight years in between - my arrest," as he wrote in his book Anvil and hammer writes. As early as the week of Pentecost in 1933, at the “International Catholic Journeyman's Day ” in Munich, which Neuhäusler helped to organize, many participants from all over the world were beaten by SS people and the Kolping emblems of SA members were destroyed, so that the event had to be stopped early. Written protests and personal interviews with Neuhäusler at the highest levels were fruitless and brought him into the sights of the Gestapo at an early stage , which arrested him at short notice in 1934.

The church political missions were carried out in close contact with the papal nuncio in Munich, Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. In April 1942, Cardinal Faulhaber sent greetings "from Pater Eugen" to the Dachau concentration camp. For example, with Neuhäusler's collaboration, on January 13, 1937, a complaint was filed by the Catholic bishops with the Reich government against the ongoing violation of the Reich Concordat. According to Neuhäusler's memories, the following were expressly named:

  • Agitation against the Holy See,
  • Obstruction of the proclamation of faith and cult,
  • Confiscation of pastoral letters ,
  • Insulting the clergy,
  • state employment of clergy without episcopal permission,
  • Oppression of the orders,
  • Violation of church property,
  • Shackling religious instruction in schools,
  • Fight against the denominational school ,
  • antichrist teachers even in denominational schools,
  • anti-religious teacher training,
  • Suppression of private monastic schools,
  • Dismantling of monastic teachers,
  • Terror against Catholic officials,
  • Destruction of Catholic professional associations,
  • Incite against the Concordat and its unilateral interpretation.

In order to avoid an escalation of the confrontation with the Nazi regime, Neuhäusler also had to admonish critics within the church to exercise restraint. B. a memorandum of the Catholic priest Emil Muhler disappear. In August 1940, through negotiations with the Gestapo, he succeeded in transferring the Jesuit father Rupert Mayer to the Benedictine monastery in Ettal after seven months in solitary confinement in the Ettal Benedictine monastery, presumably saving his life. To the request of Pope Pius XI. (“Send us reliable reports”), Neuhäusler made use of “courageous postmen”, primarily lawyer Josef Müller, the so-called “Ochsensepp” , who later became the first chairman of the CSU , who brought all of Neuhäusler's secret reports to Rome. Pius XII. And the British ambassador to the Vatican Osborne were regularly informed about the situation through Josef Müller and Robert Leiber SJ .

Arrest and internment in Sachsenhausen and Dachau

Neuhäusler had to reckon with a "hammer blow" at an early stage and was often prepared to go to prison. For example, when in June 1936 he organized the unanimous resistance of the entire diocesan clergy against the police prohibition of a pastoral letter with which the Bavarian bishops publicly condemned the expulsion of the monastic teachers from the schools from all pulpits. Likewise again when he printed and distributed over 40,000 copies of the papal encyclical With Burning Concern the following year . But it wasn't until February 4, 1941, that he was arrested (unexpectedly at the time). In his book Saat des Böse Neuhäusler suspects that the reason for this was the publication of the book The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the Third Reich (London 1940 and New York 1942, author anonymous), the material of which clearly reveals its origin in Bavaria and from the Vatican English had been translated. This was followed by three months of solitary confinement in the Berlin police prison, on May 24th he was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (where Neuhäusler was "greeted" by an SS man with a slap in the face), and on July 10th, 1941, he was transported back to Bavaria to the Dachau concentration camp with his companions Pastor Karl Kunkel , Michael Höck , the editor-in-chief of the Münchner Katholische Kirchenzeitung, and the Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller .

The bunker in which special prisoners like Neuhäusler were housed

Hopes of the Gestapo that Niemöller might convert through attempts to convert his Catholic fellow prisoners and compromise himself as a champion of the Confessing Church were seen through by all clergy, who instead eased their almost four-year imprisonment there through mutual help and joint worship services. In Dachau there was also a brief contact with Georg Elser , the so-called citizen brew assassin.

liberation

On April 24, 1945, after more than four years in a concentration camp, Neuhäusler and other Dachau prisoners (among them the former Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg , the Protestant theologian Martin Niemöller , the cabaret artist and later nun Isa Vermehren , were members of the resistance fighters from 20. July 1944 from the families Stauffenberg and Goerdeler , Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, Colonel General Halder and Reichsbank President Schacht ) transported by bus to South Tyrol by the Schutzstaffel . He left an offer to flee during a bus breakdown on the Brenner Pass unused in order not to abandon his 135 fellow prisoners. On April 30 and May 4, the kinship and special prisoners in Niederdorf in the Puster Valley were liberated by Wehrmacht soldiers under the leadership of Captain Wichard von Alvensleben and American troops.

On May 22, 1945, Neuhäusler, who was brought to Rome by the Americans, received the good news of the liberation of many prominent prisoners (including the former French Prime Minister Léon Blum , the Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Kállay and members of the Stauffenberg and Goerdeler families) via Vatican Radio ) and the next day Pope Pius XII. report personally.

post war period

Immediately after his liberation, Neuhäusler began to write his main work Cross and Swastika , which was published with a foreword by Cardinal Faulhaber in March 1946. It documents the resistance of the Catholic Church against National Socialism and also turns against church critics. In Dachau main process Neuhäusler testified as a witness. On February 8, 1947 he was by Pope Pius XII. appointed titular bishop of Calydon and auxiliary bishop in Freising and Munich . The episcopal ordination received his Cardinal Faulhaber on April 20 of that year. Co- consecrators were the Bishop of Fargo , Aloysius Muench , and the Apostolic Vicar of Sweden , Johann Evangelist Müller .

On October 29, 1950, he ordained the prospective priest Joseph Ratzinger as a deacon in Freising Cathedral . In 1955 he became provost of the Munich Metropolitan Chapter . John XXIII appointed him in 1961 as papal assistant to the throne .

Although he had been in a concentration camp, Neuhäusler campaigned for many years after the war on behalf of German war criminals who were imprisoned abroad. Under his chairmanship the "Committee for Church Prisoner Aid " was founded, from which the silent help for prisoners of war and internees arose. Neuhäusler's legal advisor and managing director of the committee, Rudolf Aschenauer , represented war criminals in court and was active in right-wing extremist circles.

Petersberg Basilica , view from the southeast

In 1953, in fulfillment of a vow taken during his imprisonment, he initiated the restoration of the basilica on the Petersberg near his home village of Eisenhofen, municipality of Erdweg near Dachau.

From 1968 to 1972 he was regional bishop of the northern region of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. Together with the Protestant bishop Theophil Wurm , Florentine Rost van Tonningen and Helene Elisabeth von Isenburg , he founded the silent help association for prisoners of war and internees in 1951 . In 1960, as a close collaborator of Joseph Wendel , he organized the 37th World Eucharistic Congress in Munich and inaugurated the “ Agony of Christ Chapel ” on the site of the later Dachau concentration camp memorial , which “has since been a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands from all over the world”, as he later wrote gratefully.

Inner courtyard of the Carmel Holy Blood in Dachau

In 1964, with his support , a convent of Discalced Carmelites was founded on the north side of the former Karmel Heilig Blut concentration camp . When he died after a serious illness on December 14, 1973 in Munich, he also found his final resting place in the Church of Mount Carmel.

Awards

Quotes

  • “I credit you with the fact that you have never experienced a dictatorship, least of all a dictatorship of people who knew no conscience and no responsibility and were determined to use them ruthlessly. You will never be able to imagine how difficult it is to make a decision, especially when you not only have to make it for yourself, but also become responsible for others, perhaps hundreds of thousands, and fear endangering their freedom and their lives had to. You should consider these difficulties. Then you would certainly be more cautious with your criticism of the Catholic Church and its bishops. "
  • “I do not know of any class that, in those days of terrorism that threatened freedom and life, would have resisted so firmly, so openly and so courageously as the Bavarian clergy did on June 21, 1936 . (In a pastoral letter that opposed the banishment of religious women from school service, dV) He did not regard and obey those of the Gestapo as a 'higher order', but that of the bishops, when it was a matter of defending God's and human rights. "
  • "We walked through fire and water, but you led us to freedom.", "Sing his name full of light, extol his glory!" (Psalm 66, quoted as closing words in the memoirs anvil and hammer )

Fonts

  • Cross and swastika. The struggle of National Socialism against the Catholic Church and the church resistance. Publishing house d. Catholic Church of Bavaria, Munich 1946.
  • Witnesses to the truth, fighters of the law against National Socialism. Publishing house d. Catholic Church of Bavaria, Munich 1947.
  • Sermon for conviction d. HHP Rupert Mayer SJ in the lower church of the Bürgersaal in Munich on May 23, 1948. Verl. D. Catholic Church of Bavaria, Munich 1948.
  • The consecration of the altar. Publishing house d. Catholic Church of Bavaria, Munich 1948.
  • The ordination of bishops: summary of the rites for consecration. Compiled v. Johann Neuhäusler, Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 1949.
  • What was it like in Concentration Camp at Dachau? An attempt to come closer to the truth. Transl. from German in: Johannes Neuhäusler [Ed.], Trustees for the Monument of Atonement in the Concentration Camp at Dachau. Munich / Dillinger, Manz, (around 1955 – around 1961).
  • Guidelines of the German bishops for the celebration of Holy Mass in community. (Responsible for the owner: Joh. Neuhäusler), Archbishop. Ordinariate, Munich 1961.
  • How was it in Dachau? An attempt to get closer to the truth. Board of Trustees for Atonement for the Dachau Concentration Camp, Publishing House vorm. GJ Manz AG, Munich / Dillingen 1960.
  • Seeds of evil. Church struggle in the Third Reich. Manz Verlag, Munich 1964.
  • Anvil and hammer. Experiences in the church struggle of the Third Reich. Manz Verlag, Munich 1967.

literature

  • Heimatgeschichte Eisenhofen eV (Hrsg.): EISENHOFEN - local history Eisenhofen, Hof, Petersberg . 500 pages, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Johannes Neuhäusler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erik Soder von Güldenstubbe : The first plan to build a tropical clinic in Würzburg in 1933 failed. In: Tempora mutantur et nos? Festschrift for Walter M. Brod on his 95th birthday. With contributions from friends, companions and contemporaries. Edited by Andreas Mettenleiter , Akamedon, Pfaffenhofen 2007 (= From Würzburg's City and University History , 2), ISBN 3-940072-01-X , pp. 213–222, here: pp. 215 ff.
  2. ↑ Harald C. German: We'll end up on the gallows! General Oster's resistance group. 1. Continuation, in: DER SPIEGEL 20/1969 (May 12, 1969)
  3. ^ Felix Bohr: The war crimes lobby: Federal German help for Nazi perpetrators imprisoned abroad . First edition. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-518-42840-5 , pp. 69 (1057788438 [accessed August 25, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Neuhäusler, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neuhäusler, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic bishop and ecclesiastical resistance fighter in the Third Reich
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenhofen
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1973
Place of death Munich