Julius Bessmer

Julius Bessmer (born August 21, 1864 in Baar , Canton Zug , Switzerland; † April 18, 1924 in Valkenburg , Netherlands ) was a Jesuit priest , university professor and religious psychologist .

education

He attended high school in his hometown and in Zug. In 1882/83 he studied philosophy at the Episcopal Lyceum Eichstätt and from 1883 to 1889 theology in Rome at the Collegium Germanicum . There he was promoted to Dr. phil. and Dr. theol. doctorate and was ordained a priest in Rome on October 28, 1888 . Then he worked in pastoral care ; in Niederwil near Cham in the canton of Zug he was a chaplain . In 1890 he became professor and head of the boys' secondary school in Baar and soon afterwards professor at the St. Michael College in Zug. On September 30, 1892 he became a Jesuit novice in Exaten near Roermond (Netherlands), the religious house of the German Jesuits from 1872 to 1927.

Teaching and writing activity

In 1895 he became a lecturer in dogmatics at the Jesuit College Ditton-Hall, Shropshire (England), the home of the theological study of the Jesuits from 1872 to 1895. When the German Jesuits moved the theological study of their religious offspring to Valkenburg (Netherlands), he was there in 1896 lecturer for dogmatics. From 1898 he worked as a professor of theology at the Jesuit writers' home “Bellevue” in Luxembourg , where the editors of “Voices from Maria Laach ” were based; he wrote countless articles for this Jesuit magazine. In 1900 he worked as a writer and specialist in psychology and psychiatry in Castres (southern France), but in 1904 he went to Leipzig University to further intensify his knowledge . In the same year one of his most important works was published with “Disturbances in the Soul”; others followed until shortly before his death. From 1911 he lived and worked again at the Ignatius College of the Jesuits in Valkenburg, where he died at the age of almost 60. Even 25 years after his death, the religious psychologist was judged: “He was a highly learned man. His scientific publications received high recognition. ”(Steiner, Das Geistliche Baar, p. 45).

Own works

• Many contributions in the " Voices from Maria Laach " and in the " Voices of the Time "
• Translation of educational writings of the venerable Dionys the Carthusian (before 1893)
• About the Popes at the end of the Middle Ages (= series of articles in the Zuger Nachrichten; before 1894)
• Disturbances in the soul life . Freiburg: Herder 1904 (2nd probably and improved edition 1907)
• Brain and soul (1904)
• The basics of soul disorders . Freiburg: Herder 1906
• Visions in Crystals (1908)
• Modern speaking in tongues (1910)
• The soul life of animals and the soul life of people. In: Theology and Faith 2 (1910)
• Philosophy and Theology of Modernism. An explanation. the teaching content of the Pascendi encyclical, the Lamentabili decree and the oath against modernism. Freiburg 1912
• Human Will (1915)
• Alfons Lehmen: Textbook of philosophy on an Aristotelian-scholastic basis for use in higher educational institutions and for self-teaching. Volume 2, part two: Psychology. Edited by Julius Beßmer SJ 4. u. 5th, improved and increased edition. Freiburg: Herder 1921
• The Occult Today (1922)
• Spiritism Today (1923)

Biobibliographic literature

• Franz Sales Romstöck: Personnel statistics and bibliography of the Episcopal Lyceum in Eichstätt . (1894), p. 178
• Catalogus Collegii Germanici et Hungarici . (1900)
• Keiter's Catholic literature calendar . (1907), p. 78
• A (lbert) Letter: Ägeri. Contributions to the local history of the Aegeri valley. I (1910), p. 110
• Wilhelm Jos. Meyer: Zug biographies and necrologist. (1915), p. 13
• Schweizerische Kirchenzeitung (1924), pp. 205f.
• Sounds of home. Weekly supplement to the Zuger Nachrichten (1924) p. 70, (1948), p. 57
• Ludwig Koch: Jesuit encyclopedia. (1934), col. 200
• Dr. P. Julius Besmer, SJ , in: Anton Karl Steiner: Das Geistliche Baar. List of all clergy from Baar. (1936), p. 45 (with portrait illustration on. Plate after p. 44)
• Anton Bieler: The people of Zug at foreign universities. In: Heimatklänge. Cultural supplement to the Zuger Nachrichten. 28 (1948), No. 15 of May 26, 1948, p. 1 (there directory No. 17)
• Albert Iten: Tugium Sacrum II. The Zug clergy of orders, congregations and societies. (1973), pp. 141f.
• Peter Schmidt: The Collegium Germanicum in Rome and the Germanicists. (1984), pp. 321-346
• Paul Ward: Word of god, word of man. Modernism's revelation in the works of George Tyrell. Detroit, Michigan 2002, pp. 8f.
• Siegfried Schieweck-Mauk: "... unforgettable years". Swiss students at the Episcopal Lyceum Eichstätt (1848-1912). Treatises on student and higher education, volume 15. Cologne: SH-Verlag 2007, among other things p. 224f.

Web links

• His works in the Bavarian Library Association