Josef Neumann (clergyman)

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Father Anno Josef Neumann

Wilhelm Josef Maria Neumann , religious name Anno Neumann (* May 12, 1856 in Dudeldorf , Eifel; † December 12, 1912 in Düsseldorf-Heerdt ) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman, advocate of the temperance and abstinence movement and founder of the Kreuzbund .

Life

Josef Neumann was the son of a court clerk and attended high schools in Siegburg, Münstereifel and Mainz . After graduating from high school in 1876, he studied theology in Rome, Bonn and Eichstätt . After his ordination in 1881, he worked as a pastor and religion teacher in Bonn, Dransdorf , Fischenich and Aachen .

In 1895 in Aachen he came into contact with the Catholic abstinence movement, which wanted to counter the increasing misery alcoholism in the course of industrialization and urbanization with moderation, sobriety and moderation. Soon he became one of the most important champions of this movement in Germany, and on February 23, 1896, he founded the Catholic Association against the Abuse of Spiritual Drinks in Aachen (since 1899 the Catholic Cross Alliance ).

From 1896 Neumann was vicar in Rellinghausen (now at Essen) and also founded a temperance association there. Further foundings followed in southern and western Germany. In 1897 Neumann founded the journal of the Cross Alliance , the Volksfreund , of which he was editor for a long time.

From 1900 he worked as rector in Honnef for a year and a half , took over pastoral care for alcoholics and organized pilgrimages to the French Marian pilgrimage site of Lourdes . In 1901 he founded the priestly abstinence association . From 1901 to 1909 he was pastor in Mündt- Opherten near Jülich (today in Titz ). In 1901 he was involved in the establishment of the first Catholic drinkers 'establishment in Germany, the Kamillhushaus in Heidhausen (now in Essen), and in 1903 in the establishment of the first Catholic drinkers' establishment for women, the St. Anna House in Mündt . In 1904 he was involved in the founding of the Association of Abstinent Catholics in Hamburg and the German Lourdes Association .

In 1909 Neumann entered the Dominican monastery of St. Joseph in Düsseldorf and took the religious name Anno . He died in 1912, shortly after the Dominican Order had taken solemn vows . Neumann is buried in the Südfriedhof in Düsseldorf .

effect

Josef Neumann Medal of the Kreuzbund

After his death, the cross alliance founded by Neumann (since 1926: Kreubund ) soon became the most important Catholic association in the fight against alcoholism, comparable to the Protestant Blue Cross .

Since alcoholism was recognized as a disease by the WHO and the Federal Social Court (BSG) in 1968 and this insight has also spread more and more in society, the Kreuzbund has developed from an abstinence association into a self-help and helper community that today works for addicts and their families across Germany is.

The association awards the Josef Neumann Medal as the highest honor for special services to the Kreuzbund for non-members .

Publications

(Selection)

  • The task of Catholic Caritas in the temperance movement (lecture), Fredebeul and Koenen, Essen 1896
  • Catechism of temperance , several editions from around 1900
  • To reform drinking habits. The cooperation of the German Catholic assemblies in the same, outlined from their negotiations. A small contribution to the great alcohol question , Bachem, Cologne 1903
  • The pastor and alcoholism (= pastoral practice, Volume 17), Schöningh, Paderborn 1906

Editing:

  • Lourdes-Rose (magazine)
  • Volksfreund (magazine, from 1897)
  • Catholic Temperance Gazette (magazine)
  • Sobrietas (magazine)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Neumann, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neumann, Wilhelm Josef Maria; Neumann, Joseph; Neumann, Anno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman and pioneer of the abstinence movement
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Dudeldorf , Eifel
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1912
Place of death Düsseldorf-Heerdt