Joseph Ludwig Colmar

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Joseph Ludwig Colmar as Bishop of Mainz and commander of the French Legion of Honor
Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar, contemporary portrait painting in the Mainz seminary
The new French departments on the left bank of the Rhine, each congruent with the associated diocese. The Département du Mont-Tonnerre or Diocese of Mainz in dark blue color
Grave monument, Mainz Cathedral
Epitaph

Joseph Ludwig Colmar (born June 22, 1760 in Strasbourg ; † December 15, 1818 in Mainz ) was the first bishop of Mainz after the end of the Archdiocese of Mainz .

Live and act

Priest in Strasbourg

Joseph Ludwig Colmar was born as the son of the language teacher Johannes Colmar and his wife Elisabeth. Gräff was born and grew up in his native Strasbourg, where he also completed his training. He attended the royal college, began his philosophical studies at the university in the fall of 1776 and advanced to a licentiate in philosophy on June 29, 1779 . He then studied theology, received a Baccalaureus on January 27, 1783, and theological licentiate in the same year, and was ordained a priest on December 20 of the same year .

Then he worked as a teacher at the Strasbourg College and as such promoted the study of the Greek language and history during the eight-year period of his activity. In addition, he administered the position as chaplain to St. Stephen free of charge and devoted himself to the pastoral care of the German regiments garrisoned in Strasbourg in French services.

In 1791 Joseph Ludwig Colmar refused to take the oath on the civil constitution of the clergy . Although a price was placed on his head, Colmar remained hidden in Strasbourg even during the revolutionary reign of terror and pursued his priestly profession at constant risk of death, in various disguises.

When public activity became possible again after 1795, he founded a school for young Catholics and a Catholic library. In these years he was also very beneficial as a pulpit speaker, especially through the apologetic lectures which he gave in the Strasbourg Cathedral from 1799 to 1802 .

Bishop of Mainz

As a result of the French occupation of the German territories on the left of the Rhine , dioceses that were congruent in area were established in accordance with the Concordat of 1801 between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon , in each of the departmental seats. The old dioceses - including Mainz, Worms and Speyer - were declared dissolved (with regard to their left bank, now French parts). The area of ​​what is now Rheinhessen-Pfalz was merged into the new French Département du Mont-Tonnerre with the capital Mainz . The new, exclusively on the left bank of the Rhine, the Grand Diocese of Mainz, was built congruently, uniting the left bank areas of the old dioceses of Mainz and Worms , as well as considerable parts of the left bank territory of the old diocese of Speyer .

Became dated July 6, 1802 Joseph Ludwig Colmar bishop of this new diocese, received on 24 August by the also newly appointed Trier Pastors Charles Mannay , in the Carmelite Church in Paris the consecration and was on October 3, the year in St. Peter (Mainz) enthroned. At the same time, due to the Concordat, in the German territories occupied by France, the aforementioned Bishop Mannay of Trier (congruent with the Département de la Sarre ) and Bishop Marc-Antoine Berdolet in Aachen (congruent with the two combined Départements de la Roer and de Rhin-et-Moselle ) installed. The parts of the Principality of Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine (still German) continued to exist under the old Prince Archbishop Karl Theodor von Dalberg , which is why his tenure as Archbishop of Mainz overlaps with that of Bishop Colmar.

The structuring and organization of the newly created large diocese of Mainz, which extended to Pirmasens and Zweibrücken in the south-west, fell during Colmar's tenure . But this also included the pastoral aspects. He went on numerous visitation trips to get to know his diocesans personally and, after a period of enlightenment and the national church efforts of his predecessor, promoted solemn services, brotherhoods, pilgrimages, etc. Ä., whereby the religious life flourished again in a short time. Colmar founded a seminary in 1803 and appointed Bruno Franz Leopold Liebermann to its regens . It developed into the most loyal to Rome in all of Germany, and the so-called Mainz Circle was created around the bishop and Liebermann . He devoted himself to the poor and the sick. During the typhus epidemic in the winter of 1813, which was triggered in Mainz by the French army flooding back after the Battle of Leipzig , Colmar and his priests and seminarians personally cared for the sick and dying, who were often helpless, wrapped in rags, in barns, backyards and Cellars were wasting away.

The bishop made a great contribution by rescuing the cathedral in Mainz and Speyer, which had already been approved for demolition . Mainz Cathedral, for example, was badly damaged during the siege of Mainz (1793) . The building was degraded to a warehouse and in 1801 the inventory, or what was left of it, was auctioned off. Napoleon's birthday in 1804 was used for the reconciliation of the building. He was unable to save other churches, such as St. Maria ad Gradus in Mainz .

When, after the end of the French occupation, the territory of the previous Grand Diocese of Mainz was divided up again and the Diocese of Speyer revived in the now Bavarian Rhine Palatinate , the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph carried this bishop's seat on December 24, 1817 to Joseph Ludwig, whom he valued Colmar at. King Max knew the bishop personally from the time they spent together in Strasbourg, when he himself was colonel and commander of the "Alsace" regiment, which Colmar took care of. He preferred - also because of his advanced age - to remain Bishop of Mainz. He recommended his confidante and vicar general Johann Jakob Humann to the monarch as Speyer high shepherd, but this was not enforceable in the liberal Bavarian government under Minister Montgelas .

When Joseph Ludwig Colmar died in 1818, his student, the later Speyer Bishop Nikolaus von Weis (1796–1869), said:

“ I was unable to pray for the deceased because the thought - if this father and shepherd is not a saint, there is hardly anyone - stood so vividly in the spirit. "

- Franz Xaver Remling : Nikolaus von Weis, Bishop of Speyer, in life and work , Speyer 1871

Bishop Colmar's grave slab is in the center aisle of Mainz Cathedral.

On the 250th birthday of Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar, a biography of the church historian Georg May was published in Mainz, under the title: Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar (1760-1818) as a pastor

Orders and decorations

Colmar was in command of the French Legion of Honor and Grand Cross of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Louis .

See also: Diocese of Mainz and the Mainz district .

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Joseph Ludwig Colmar. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1099-1100.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Friedrich Lauchert :  Colmar, Josef Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, pp. 505-507.
  • Ludwig Lenhart : Joseph Ludwig Colmar from Strasbourg, the religious bishop of a turning point in Mainz (1802-1818). In: Jahrbuch Bistum Mainz 1, 1946, pp. 76–95.
  • Ludwig Lenhart: The Alsatian theological colony in Mainz. Mainz 1, 1956.
  • Ludwig Lenhart:  Colmar, Joseph Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 329 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Helmut Mathy : The Napoleon cult of the Mainz bishop Colmar. In: Mainzer Almanach 1970–1971.
  • Georg May : The right to worship in the Diocese of Mainz at the time of Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar (1802-1818). Grüner, Amsterdam 1987, ISBN 90-6032-290-8 .
  • Georg May: Pastoral care for mixed marriages in the Diocese of Mainz under Bishop Ludwig Colmar. A contribution to canon law and state church law in the Rhineland under French rule. Gruener, Amsterdam 1974.
  • Georg May: Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar (1760-1818) as pastor. Published in the series Mainzer Perspektiven. (From the history of the diocese, volume 5, edited by Barbara Nichtweiß.) Diocese Mainz publications, Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-93445044-8 .
  • Barbara Nichtweiß : From prince of church to begging boy. The current diocese of Mainz is created. 1792 - 1802 - 1830. Documentation following an exhibition in Mainz, Haus am Dom, 7 May to 5 June 2002. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002.
  • Franz Xaver Remling : History of the bishops of Speyer. 2 vol., Mainz 1852–54, reprint Pirmasens 1975 (in addition: place, person and subject index, edited by Jacob Lebon, Pirmasens 1976).
  • Joseph himself : Joseph-Ludwig Colmar. A picture of time and life for the memory of the century in 1902.

Web links

Commons : Joseph Ludwig Colmar  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On Colmar's parents see Erwin Gatz (ed.): Die Bischöfe der Deutschensprachigen Länder 1785/1803 bis 1945. Ein biographisches Lexikon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-428-05447-4 , p. 103.
  2. ^ To the royal college in Strasbourg
  3. ↑ Mainz Diocese News No. 23, June 30, 2010
  4. ^ Source of personal acquaintance with the later King of Bavaria
  5. ↑ See: Franz Xaver Remling, Modern History of the Bishops of Speyer , Ferdinand Kleeberger Verlag, Speyer 1867
  6. ^ Academic lecture by Georg May, a canon lawyer from Mainz, on the subject of Bishop Colmar as a pastor on the occasion of Colmar's 250th birthday
  7. ↑ The book for the 250th birthday  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on the official website of the Diocese of Mainz@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wwww.bistummainz.de  
  8. ^ First class, Grand Crosses of the Hessian Order of Ludwig
predecessor Office successor
Karl Theodor von Dalberg Bishop of Mainz
1802-1818 		Joseph Vitus Castle
personal data
SURNAME Colmar, Joseph Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Mainz
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1818
Place of death Mainz