Joseph Cornelius Rossaint

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Memorial plaque on the Marienkirche, Düsseldorf

Joseph Cornelius Rossaint (born August 5, 1902 in Herbesthal ; † April 16, 1991 in Bad Neuenahr ) was a Roman Catholic priest and, as a resistance fighter against National Socialism, the main defendant in the Berlin Catholic trial . He was a co-founder and from 1962 until his death chairman of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime .

Life

In 1921 Joseph Rossaint began studying philosophy and Catholic theology at the University of Bonn . There he received his doctorate in 1926 . On 26 June 1927 was followed by Cologne Cathedral , the ordination . He then worked as a chaplain for five years at the parish of St. Marien in Oberhausen . In July 1932 he was transferred from the church leadership to the Marienkirche in Düsseldorf .

Rossaint was also politically active. He became a member of the Center Party and was a member of the Peace Association of German Catholics founded by Max Josef Metzger in 1919 . He conferred with young Catholics and Communists on what could be done against National Socialism . He took in hiding communists for a short time and began to forge alliances against National Socialism. As one of the leaders of the Catholic storm troop, he designed and distributed anti-war leaflets and the like. Even before the National Socialists came to power, he wrote about the devastating consequences of the same and warned of the resulting war. In April and May 1931 he founded the campaign “The Catholic Youth Against National Socialism”. In February 1932 he organized an anti-war rally on the occasion of the Geneva World Disarmament Conference . On March 23, 1933, he resigned from the Center Party because the Center faction approved the Enabling Act .

After the National Socialists took over state power, Rossaint continued his political activities and also worked with communists. On January 29, 1936, after a sermon by the Gestapo in the church , Rossaint was arrested and sentenced to eleven years in prison as the main defendant in the “Catholic Trial” on April 28, 1937 by the People's Court for “attempting to form a united front between Catholics and Communists”. The defense of three co-defendants took over Oswald Freisler , the brother of the later notorious judge Roland Freisler . From May 26, 1937 to April 19, 1945 Rossaint was imprisoned in Remscheid-Lüttringhausen prison. With the help of the prison management and members of the guards, he escaped being shot by the Gestapo shortly before his release.

After the end of the Second World War, Rossaint resigned from church service, but remained a priest and became chairman of the Association of Christian Socialists . In 1949 he joined the Collection zur Tat , a small nationalist and neutralist party. Rossaint considered the existing parties unsuitable to cope with the tasks after the end of the war, and considered the combination of “counter-revolutionary forces” in a new overall political movement necessary. For him, Germany had become "the powerless plaything of foreign powers", "which must lead to war or to a compromise at Germany's expense".

In 1957, Rossaint was elected vice-president of the " International Federation of Resistance Fighters ". Since 1961 Rossaint has been a member of the presidium of the "Association of Persecuted Persons of the Nazi Regime" (VVN, from 1971 VVN-BdA), which he co-founded, and from 1971 to 1990 he was its president. Rossaint belonged to the leadership of the 1974 founded " Committee for Peace, Disarmament and Cooperation ".

In Bonn he belonged to the Rhenofrankonia Bonn student union .

Honors

Prizes and awards:

Commemoration

His grave is in Stolberg near Aachen .

  • After his death, streets in his place of birth - Herbesthal, now part of Belgium - and in Oberhausen were named in honor of Joseph Rossaint .
  • There are memorial plaques in Oberhausen at the Church of St. Marien and in Düsseldorf at the Church of St. Mary's Conception .
  • The Archdiocese of Cologne annually commemorates Rossaints on the day of his death, April 16, together with all diocesan priests who have died on that day since 1967.

Publications

  • New Germany. Verlag das Neue Wort, Stuttgart 1947.
  • together with other editors: Land reform. o. O. 1946.
  • From the second to the “Third Reich”. Weimar - fascism - resistance. Frankfurt 1986.
  • On Germany's foreign policy. Ruhr-Donau-Verlag, Dortmund 1954.
  • together with Michael Zimmermann: Resistance against Nazism in Oberhausen. Frankfurt 1983.

literature

in order of appearance

  • Klaus Kreppel : priest, resistance fighter and socialist. On the death of Joseph C. Rossaint. Obituary in: “Junge Kirche. A magazine of European Christians. ”52nd Volume No. 7. Bremen 1991, pp. 431–435.
  • Karl Heinz Jahnke , Alexander Rossaint: Dr. Joseph Cornelius Rossaint (1902-1991). From his life and work. Frankfurt am Main 1997.
  • Baldur Hermans (ed.): The Catholic peace movement before 1945 and the Nazi victim chaplain Joseph Rossaint . Diocese of Essen, Department for Social and Universal Church Tasks, Essen 1999.
  • History workshop Oberhausen, Catholic education center Oberhausen (ed.): Dr. Joseph Cornelius Rossaint. Reports and materials about a courageous life. Oberhausen 2001.
  • Karl Heinz Jahnke, Alexander Rossaint: Main defendant in the Berlin Catholic trial in 1937. Chaplain Dr. Joseph Cornelius Rossaint. Frankfurt am Main 2002.
  • Daniel Gaschick: Pastoral care as high treason? Chaplain Dr. Joseph Cornelius Rossaint and his resistance in the Third Reich. Diploma thesis University of Freiburg, 2004.
  • Karin Nussbaum:  Rossaint, Joseph Cornelius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 95 ( digitized version ).
  • Peter Bürger (arrangement): Josef Rüther (1881–1972) from Olsberg-Assinghausen. Left Catholic, Heimatbund activist, dialect author and Nazi persecuted. Eslohe 2013, pp. 28–38. (online as PDF file; 7.6 MB)
  • Martin Doerry : No more war! A chaplain was tried because he helped communists, in: Der Spiegel Geschichte 2/2019, pp. 58–64.

Movie

  • A German fate: Chaplain Joseph Rossaint . Film by Wilfried Viebahn, broadcast on WDR television in 1987 on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

Web links

exhibition

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. R [ossaint]: Against the restoration. In: The Free Opinion. Organ of collection for action. First July issue 1949; quoted in: Richard Stöss : German Social Union. In the S. (Ed.): Party handbook. The parties of the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1980. (Volume 1: AUD to EFP ) Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1983, ISBN 3-531-11570-7 , pp. 1243-1278, here p. 1260.
  2. ^ Karin Nussbaum:  Rossaint, Joseph Cornelius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 95 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Red front under peace camouflage? In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1977, pp. 28 ( online - 11 April 1977 ).
  4. ↑ Rhenofrankonia: Dr. J. C. Rossaint - The Federal Brother Dr. Rossaint is a special example of the resistance in the Catholic area during the Nazi regime
  5. ↑ Directorium for the Archdiocese of Cologne 2011 ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 251 kB) p. 30, April 16. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / erzbistum-koeln.de
personal data
SURNAME Rossaint, Joseph Cornelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic anti-fascist resistance fighter, co-founder and chairman of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime
DATE OF BIRTH 5th August 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Herbesthal (Belgium)
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1991
Place of death Bad Neuenahr