Johannes Prassek

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Johannes Prassek

Johannes Prassek (born August 13, 1911 in Hamburg ; † November 10, 1943 there ) was a German Catholic priest and one of the so-called Lübeck Martyrs , four Christian clergymen from Lübeck who were sentenced to death in 1943 for public criticism of National Socialist rule . He was beatified in 2011 .

Life

Catholic provost church Herz Jesu in the inner city of Lübeck with a memorial exhibition in the northern extension and in the crypt.
A plaque on the Catholic provost church "Herz Jesu" in Lübeck, parade, commemorates the fate of the Lübeck martyrs.
Memorial plaque in the ramparts near the Hamburg remand prison

Prassek was born in 1911 in the Hamburg district of Grindel (Hamburg) as the son of a bricklayer and came from a very simple background. His parents moved to Barmbek after he was born . He completed his school days at the Johanneum School of Academics in the Hamburg district of Winterhude.

He studied from 1931 theology and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main ( St. Georgen ) and Münster and was 1937 in Osnabrück for priests ordained . As a chaplain he was first in Wittenburg , then from 1939 as adjunct, later chaplain at the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Lübeck in the parish pastoral care. The later philosopher Hans Blumenberg was one of the young people whom Prassek had a formative influence as a youth pastor and spiritual companion .

Prassek is portrayed as having a strong character and courage. Two weeks before his arrest, he received the Air Defense Medal of Honor because he was killed during the devastating air raid on Lübeck on 28/29. March 1942 had helped to rescue people from a destroyed hospital.

He made no secret of his rejection of the National Socialist regime and made this known in his sermons. He also devoted himself to pastoral care among Polish forced laborers and learned Polish for this. He later used this knowledge to secretly look after Polish slave laborers, which was forbidden. He was finally denounced and arrested by the Gestapo on May 18, 1942 . With him came two other Catholic clergy from the provost church - Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange  - as well as the Protestant pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink , who had also openly turned against the Nazi regime.

The Second Senate of the People's Court came to Lübeck. During the trial, Prassek confessed to his criticism of National Socialism. A request for clemency from his bishop Hermann Wilhelm Berning was rejected.

Assassination in Hamburg

He was with his three co-defendants on 10 November 1943 in the Hamburg prison Holstenglacis by Executioner Friedrich Hehr with the guillotine executed . His corpse and that of Eduard Müller were burned in the crematorium of the Neuengamme concentration camp , and the ashes were scattered in the camp nursery.

beatification

On the 60th anniversary of Prassek's execution, the Archbishop of Hamburg, Werner Thissen , announced that the beatification process for Johannes Prassek as well as Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange would be opened.

On July 1, 2010, the Vatican Press Office announced that Pope Benedict XVI. authorized the prefect of the Congregation for Canonization to “ enforce” a corresponding decree and the process of beatification was completed. The beatification took place on June 25, 2011 together with the beatification of the other two Catholic clergy in Lübeck . The Protestant clergyman Stellbrink was also remembered.

Remembrance and places of remembrance

Johannes-Prassek-Haus in Bramstraße 105, Osnabrück
Stolperstein in Bramstrasse 105, Osnabrück
Johannes-Prassek-Park in Hamburg-Barmbek-Süd
Stumbling stone in front of the Holy Cross Church
  • A Johannes Prassek working group was founded in Osnabrück-Haste in 2005 and the local youth and community center was named after him. In 2007 a stumbling block for Johannes Prassek was laid in front of the Christ the King Church there. Prassek had his here in 1937 first Mass celebrated.
  • Prassek's breviary was found by chance when the apartment was liquidated and is now in Lingen (Ems) in a showcase in St. Joseph's Church .
  • In Hamburg-Volksdorf the parish hall of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Gemeinde is named after him because he celebrated his homeland prime in this church on April 4, 1937 . Prassek celebrated his first mass in the Christ the King Church in Haste (Osnabrück) .
  • In June 2011, in the Hamburg district of Barmbek-Süd, a new park was named Johannes-Prassek-Park .
  • On June 29, 2014, the Archdiocese of Hamburg established the new parish of Seliger Johannes Prassek in the “Pastoral Room” of Hamburg Northeast. Five formerly independent parishes are included: Assumption of Mary in Rahlstedt, Hl. Geist in Farmsen, St. Wilhelm in Bramfeld, St. Bernard in Poppenbüttel and Hl. Kreuz in Volksdorf. Around 250,000 people live in the area of ​​the parish, of which almost 25,000 are Catholics.
  • In June 2020, a stumbling stone for Johannes Prassek was laid on the sidewalk in front of the Holy Cross Church in Volksdorf with the inauguration service on June 21, 2020.

literature

  • Wolfgang Burr: Johannes Prassek. In the S. (Ed.): Unitas manual. Vol. 1, Bonn 1995, pp. 295-302.
  • Ingaburgh Klatt: " Erase my eyes ...": Life and violent death of the four Lübeck clergy during the National Socialist era. An exhibition in the castle monastery in Lübeck from November 8, 1993 to November 10, 1994. In: Democratic history: Yearbook on the workers' movement and democracy in Schleswig-Holstein. 8: 205-280 (1993).
  • Martin Merz: "The priests on the scaffold". A Lübeck trial 50 years ago. Booklet accompanying the exhibition "Erase my eyes from ..." The life and violent death of the four Lübeck clergymen during the Nazi era. Revised Manuscript of a radio broadcast as part of the series "Religion and Society" on August 6, 1993 in the third program of Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Lübeck 1993.
  • Else Pelke: The Lübeck Christian Trial 1943. , Mainz 1961/1974.
  • Josef Schäfer (arr.): Where his witnesses die is his kingdom : letters from the beheaded Lübeck clergy and reports from eyewitnesses. Hamburg 1946.
  • Ann-Helena Schlüter : '' Free as the birds: The heroes of Lübeck - A story against oblivion, '' SCM Hänssler (23 August 2018), ISBN 978-3-7751-5865-7 .
  • Isabella Spolovjnak-Pridat and Helmut Siepenkort (eds.): Ecumenism in resistance. The Lübeck Christian Trial 1943 , Lübeck 2006
  • Brigitte Templin:  Prassek, Johannes Heinrich Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 675 ( digitized version ).
  • Martin Thoemmes : Johannes Prassek. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Neumünster 2000, pp. 314-316.
  • Peter Voswinckel : Complete after 61 years. Farewell letters from the four Lübeck martyrs in a historical context. In: Zeitschrift des Verein für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 85 (2005), pp. 279–330
  • Peter Voswinckel : Guided Paths. The Lübeck martyrs in words and pictures . Kevelaer 2010
  • Peter Voswinckel : Documents on the subject of Lübeck Martyrs 1941–1945, on behalf of the Cultural Office of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, funded by the non-profit Sparkassenstiftung zu Lübeck, compiled by Peter Voswinckel , (without publisher), Lübeck June 2011
  • Martin Thoemmes: "Never say three, always say four". The memory of the Lübeck martyrs from 1943 until today. Ansgar, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-932379-93-2 .
  • Martin Thoemmes: The martyrs of the Lübeck Christian trial. In: Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century. ed. by Helmut Moll on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference, Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , vol. 1, pp. 319–327.
  • Isabella Spolovjnak-Pridat: Ecumenism in Resistance. The Lübeck Christian Trial in 1943. Schmidt RömhildLübeck 2001, ISBN 3-7950-0773-9 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Matthias Popien: Can the Pope canonize four North Germans? In: Hamburger Abendblatt from January 26, 2017, p. 18.
  2. ↑ Cf. Dahlke, Benjamin / Laarmann, Matthias: Hans Blumenbergs Studienjahre. Spotlights on places, institutions and people. In: Theologie und Glaube 107 (2017), pp. 338–353, there 341 (lit.).
  3. ↑ Ecumenical resistance ended under the guillotine on www.evangelisch.de
  4. ↑ Lübeck Martyrs - Short Chronicle
  5. ^ Press Office of the Holy See, Bulletin No. 436/2010 of July 1, 2010 (Italian)
  6. ↑ Thousands at the beatification of Nazi resistance members in Lübeck ( Memento from July 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Lübecker Nachrichten online from June 25, 2011
  7. ^ Johannes Prassek working group ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Johannes Prassek's breviary saved by fortunate circumstance
  9. ↑ Beatification of the "Lübeck Martyrs". Catholic Church commemorates Johannes Prassek . In: Der Markt, Hamburg, May 28, 2011, p. 20
  10. ↑ His college friend Adolph Grothaus came from this community. (Peter Voswinckel: Guided Paths , p. 66)
  11. ↑ Johannes-Prassek-Park at Hamburg.de, accessed on June 25, 2016
  12. ^ Catholic parish Seliger Johannes Prassek Hamburg , accessed on February 15, 2015.
  13. ^ Weekly newspaper MARKT, Aus der Region (Volksdorf), page 20, "Stumbling block for Johannes Prassek"
personal data
SURNAME Prassek, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest and one of the Lübeck martyrs
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1943
Place of death Hamburg