Johannes Pfeiffer (theologian)

Professor Johannes Pfeiffer, around 1930

Johannes Baptist Pfeiffer (born January 12, 1886 in Mußbach , today Neustadt an der Weinstrasse ; † September 29, 1965 in Bad Dürkheim ) was a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Speyer , hospital chaplain in World War I , doctor of theology, church historian and professor at the university from Santiago de Chile as well as poets in German, Spanish and Latin.

Life

Origin and work at home

Pfeiffer, souvenir of the silver jubilee of the priesthood, 1934

Pfeiffer attended elementary school in Mußbach, then the humanistic grammar school in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, which has been called Kurfürst-Ruprecht grammar school since 1964 . Finally he studied at the Universities of Innsbruck and Würzburg . Pfeiffer was ordained a priest on August 1, 1909 by Bishop Konrad von Busch in Speyer Cathedral . These were the last ordinations that Bishop Busch gave before his death. Pfeiffer served as chaplain in Queichheim from September 1, 1909 to August 12, 1911, and then in Hettenleidelheim until May 13, 1914 . On this day he became a chaplain in Herxheim near Landau , where he stayed until January 1, 1918, in order to work again in the chaplaincy of his home parish Neustadt until August 12, 1919. During the First World War , he also served as a hospital chaplain at the reserve hospitals in Landau (Pfalz) and Germersheim from August 11, 1914 to December 1, 1918 . During this time Pfeiffer worked with the well-known church historian Sebastian Merkle in Würzburg on his dissertation and received his doctorate in theology in 1919. The topic of his dissertation was: “The Speyer Prince-Bishop Franz Christoph Cardinal von Hutten , 1743–1770. His fight against shortcomings and abuse in his diocese. At the same time a contribution to the history and assessment of the Age of Enlightenment ” . It was published by the author in book form in 1959 - 40 years later.

On August 12, 1919 Pfeiffer was promoted to pastor of Dudenhofen , dated May 11, 1920 of Freinsheim . On December 1, 1928, the priest went to the St. Ingbert grammar school as a teacher for Catholic religious teaching . Although this city still belonged to the diocese of Speyer, it was under French government as part of the Saar area. This remained so until the Saar referendum in 1935, when the Saar area was rejoined to what had meanwhile been National Socialist Germany . From St. Ingbert, Pfeiffer acted under French protection as an opponent of the Nazi regime and campaigned against the reintegration of the area into Hitler's Germany. He was in favor of accepting the so-called "Status Quo", i.e. a temporary leave of the French occupation until the end of National Socialism, in order to avert the further strengthening of the NS regime through a territorial political success and the Saarland its violent and, especially from a Catholic point of view, to withdraw ethically reprehensible rule.

Escape and stay abroad

Due to the outcome of the Saar referendum , the Saargau belonged to the German Reich again from March 1, 1935. The Anschluss and Nazi opponents were now threatened with reprisals or arrest. Many of them fled, including Pfeiffer. First he went to Switzerland, where he founded a private school for modern languages at Saint-Gingolph on Lake Geneva . In 1939 he moved to Argentina to work as a spiritual priest in Chajara. The German church historian had completed his habilitation and in 1941 was appointed professor at the University of Santiago de Chile. From 1949 Professor Pfeiffer worked as a church reporter in Chicago , USA, and retired in 1951.

Return to the Homeland

Pfeiffer, death picture, 1965

Pfeiffer returned to Germany in his home diocese of Speyer and, as emeritus, took over the post of clinic pastor of the psychiatric sanatorium "Sonnenwende" in Bad Dürkheim . In addition, Pfeiffer helped out in the priestly service of his old and not far away parish of Freinsheim and also looked after Spanish guest workers, whose language he had been fluent in since his stay in South America. From 1959 to 1962 he held Sunday services in the Gimmeldinger Nikolauskirche . The professor took part in the Second Vatican Council as an observer. Pfeiffer died in Bad Dürkheim in 1965 and was buried in Freinsheim. The obituary states: “An unusual way of life found its completion in the peace of God. 'He was always a priest and a man'. With this sentence from his obituary notice, his personality is aptly described. "

Works

During the First World War , Pfeiffer published the soldiers' magazine “Guten Morgen Kameraden”. In addition to his dissertation on Franz Christoph Cardinal von Hutten , which was only published as a book in 1959 , he wrote several theological books, including “At the Border between Two Worlds” in 1944, which deals with occult phenomena. In South America he published under the pseudonym "Juan B. Pfeiffer-Braun". He also published the volume of poems Lieder ohne Noten with drawings by Karl Heinz. Selbstverlag, Bad Dürkheim o. J. [1967], who in an “encore” (pp. 139–153) as a “selection of poems and hymns from the South American period (1939–1951)” three poems in Spanish and two in Latin Contains language (both in sapphic stanzas ). An unknown number of other poems may have remained unpublished. De igne et purpura is a 15-verse enkomion to the archbishop of Santiago de Chile, José María Caro Rodríguez , on the occasion of his elevation to cardinal with a final triple alleluia and amen. The second of the Latin poems, entitled Valete , is a farewell poem to Chile, the country, its nature and its people; the translation comes from the author himself:

Ite in Mundum Universe

et Praedicate Nuntium

Bonum! Marc. 16.15

VALETE!

Andium moles similis stupendo

Aedis altari generis gigantum

Marmoris fulgens niveo colore,

Percipe vocem!

Suaviter moti marium tapetes,

Rite qui formant iter ad sacellum,

Cerei noctis tenues in alto

Lugubre discant!

Tendit in longum fugiens hirundo,

Eloquens solis comes aestuosi;

Iugiter currit fluvialis unda

Qualibet hora.

Passeri compar habitans et ego

Solus in tecto vigil in laboratories

Audio rursus monitum repente:

"Tempus eundi!"

Ergo, iucundae segetes, valete,

Murmur undarum maris et paudum,

Andium fortis rutilansque moles,

Castra movebo.

Sed magis cari valeant alumni

Gentis electae decus atque lumen,

Gaudium semper mihi parvulaeque

gemma coronae!

“Cornibus cantant!” - Pueros senesque

Corde concussus benedico vadens:

“Numen asservet pretiosa vobis

Munera pacis! "

Go out into all the world

and preach the happy

Embassy! Marc. 16.15

FAREWELL!

You mighty Andes, like that

The splendid temple altar of a race of giants,

Shining like snow-white marble

Hear my voice!

You gently moving sea carpets,

Spread out on the way to that sanctuary,

You lovely lights of the night on high,

Hear the painful news!

The fleeting swallow strives into the distance,

The talkative companion of the hot sun;

The wave of the current moves constantly

Hour after hour.

Alone I live like a sparrow

Under the roof and toil;

Suddenly I hear the warning again:

It's time to go!

So farewell, you laughing seeds,

You murmur of the waves of the sea and the lakes,

You, mass of the Andes in your shining force,

I'm preparing to leave.

And you, students, darlings of my soul,

Ornament and light of a chosen people,

Always the joy of my heart and the gem

Goodbye to my humble crown!

Listen, the signals are sounding! Trembling heart

I bless big and small parting:

May the good God keep you

The precious goods of peace!

literature

• “Schematismus Bistum Speyer, 1934” , Bischöfliches Ordinariat Speyer, p. 295.
• Obituary , The Pilgrim , No. 41, October 10, 1965; Pilgrim calendar, Speyer 1967.
• Viktor Carl: "Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities" , Hennig Verlag, Edenkoben 2004, ISBN 3-9804668-5-X , p. 667.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klaus Witt City:  Merkle, Sebastian. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1302-1317.
2. ^ Sonnenwende Clinic, Bad Dürkheim ( Memento from April 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).