Julius Hanak

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Julius Alfred Hanak (born May 8, 1933 in Treffen , Carinthia ; † December 18, 2019 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian theologian , military superintendent of the Austrian Armed Forces and worked in pastoral care for detainees.

Life

origin

Julius Hanak was born on May 8, 1933 in Treffen near Villach , but in 1934 his family moved to Vienna . Here he attended elementary and middle school, which he continued to attend in meetings from 1945 onwards. In 1951 he obtained the Matura .

Study and training

In the winter semester of 1951/52 he enrolled at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Vienna. After graduating, he became teaching vicar in Bruck an der Mur in 1957 . From here he moved to the parish of Kufstein on September 1, 1958 as a ministerial candidate . Further stations as candidate for preaching office were the parishes of Stainach- Irdning and Naßwald .

Subsequently, the Evangelical Oberkirchenrat gave Hanak permission for military chaplaincy. After he had passed his official examination with "very good", he became spiritual on February 7, 1960 by Bishop Gerhard May and with the assistance of the lecturer at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Vienna Wilhelm Dantine and Vicar Alfred Boll in the Lutheran City Church in Vienna Office ordained . Hanak's love for sport developed in his youth, especially for mountaineering. As a student he became a member of the Austrian Alpine Club and the Vienna Academic Gymnastics Club . Julius Hanak was married to Ilse Hanak since 1959; they had two daughters and two sons.

Military pastoral care in Salzburg

Julius Hanak began his career on October 1, 1959 in the military chaplaincy in Salzburg as a Protestant military pastor in the Group Command III with the rank of military chaplain; on September 1, 1969 he was accepted into a civil service. He also stayed in Salzburg when Group Command III was reclassified to Corps Command II at the turn of the year 1973/74. In addition to the military institutions in the state of Salzburg , his pastoral care also included those in Tyrol and Vorarlberg . On January 1, 1964, Hanak was promoted to military curate, on January 1, 1968 to military curate, on July 1, 1973 to chief military pastor and on January 1, 1978 to military dean.

As an enthusiastic mountaineer, Hanak completed the very demanding training to become an army mountain guide from 1960 to 1962 and continuously improved it; In 1964 he also took part in an expedition to Spitsbergen (outside the army) . Even as a military superintendent, he repeatedly accompanied troops or military academics from the Theresian Military Academy ( Wiener Neustadt ) in the mountains and maintained contact with military mountain guides even in retirement.

The theological foundation of the military pastoral care also included the intensive preoccupation with its history, which was accepted as a dissertation topic at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna under Wilhelm Kühnert under the title Protestant military pastoral care in old Austria with special consideration of its integration into the church association . In the process, Hanak wanted to present the military chaplaincy as part of the church as a whole. His doctorate in theology took place on January 26, 1971.

He was engaged in pastoral care for top athletes several times. He accompanied the Austrian Olympic team a total of eight times.

Military superintendent

On September 1, 1980, Julius Hanak became a military superintendent, the leading clergyman of the Protestant military pastoral care and head of the Protestant military superintendent in Vienna. His inauguration took place on September 28, 1980 by Bishop Oskar Sakrausky in the Lutheran City Church in Vienna. He held this position until his retirement on December 31, 1998.

The time of his spiritual leadership of the evangelical military pastoral care fell "at the time of the greatest change in Europe in the last 70 years, when the blocks broke up, new peace, but just as new conflicts arose and therefore there were serious changes in the organization and tasks of the armed forces" . Hanak's name stands for the systematic development of military pastoral care under the conditions of the end of the Cold War as well as the transformation of the states of the Eastern Bloc into the democratic community of states; a process that not insignificantly affected both the military and the church. This included not only questions of human rights , resistance to National Socialism or the organization of community service , which were discussed in an ambivalent manner in the Austrian Armed Forces , but also the systematic recording of the conditions of an assignment abroad in a multi-religious environment. In the course of this, Julius Hanak also advocated the introduction of community service and - after its introduction - for the abolition of the "conscience test" as a prerequisite for community service. One of his first tasks, which should correspond to the spirit of modern military pastoral care, was the establishment of the "Working Group of Evangelical Soldiers in the Armed Forces (AGES)" founded in 1980. Julius Hanak soon recognized the new opportunities for international cooperation that arose from the collapse of the bipolar world order. Not least during his numerous stays abroad, he was able to gain personal experience in this regard. His pastoral and troop visits to the UN troops took him twelve times to Cyprus , twice to Egypt , 13 times to Syria , and twice to Bosnia ; for a period of up to one month each.

From the late 1980s onwards, Hanak became involved in the ecumenical networking of the military chaplains of the three major book religions as part of the Association Military Christian Fellowship (AMCF). With great sympathy he also contributed to the international opening at the level of the leading military chaplains. An international and interreligious conference of senior military chaplains (the Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference ) has been held annually since 1990 . One of the highlights was the meeting with Pope John Paul II during the Chief of Chaplains conference in Rome in 1992 , in which Hanak took part.

He had already tried to establish a stable relationship with the Catholic military pastoral care . Within the Evangelical Church in Austria, Julius Hanak represented the military chaplaincy in the General Synod for many years, and was also the speaker for church music in the Evangelical Upper Church Council and the chairman of the “Austrian Mission Council”.

retirement

After his retirement at the end of 1998, Julius Hanak became involved in various social areas in Salzburg, where he lived. For many years he worked as a university chaplain in Salzburg. He remained connected to ecumenical and international work. In 2010 he took part in the great ecumenical meeting in Edinburgh as one of the Austrian representatives.

However, he paid particular attention to people in particular social and pastoral need in deep existential crises. He was just as active as a probation officer as he was in the platform for human rights and as the Islam representative of the Superintendenz Salzburg-Tirol . Since 1999 he has been the evangelical pastor for the people detained in the Salzburg police detention center. He also always brought up his concerns in the media.

For his diverse voluntary work as well as for his life's work, he was awarded the Medal of Merit of the State of Salzburg in 2012.

On January 3, 2020, Hanak was buried after a memorial service in the Salzburg Christ Church at the Aigen cemetery (Salzburg city).

Appreciation

Alfred Stipanits , Hanak's successor as military superintendent , remembers: “It took [...] a fair amount of bravery to profess pacifism as a military pastor [...]. Julius Hanak has pondered aloud about the limits of the obedience justifiably required of soldiers and the primacy of conscience under certain conditions, when July 20, 1944 and names like Robert Bernardis were still taboo in the armed forces and beyond discussion. "

When he retired in 1998, the then Federal Minister for National Defense, Werner Fasslabend, praised Julius Hanak's successes in “profiling a specifically evangelical military pastoral care with simultaneous consideration of the importance of ecumenism”.

Awards

Fonts (selection)

  • The Protestant military pastoral care in old Austria, with special consideration of its integration into the church association. In: Yearbook for the History of Protestantism in Austria 87 (1971) pp. 3–140; 88 (1972) pp. 3-74 (also Diss., Vienna 1970).
  • Austria's defense policy since 1945 from the perspective of the Protestant Church. In: Military and Ethics. Defense policy conceptions and Christian ethics, ed. by Johann Berger – Franz Kernic (Vienna 1988) 111–120
  • Protestant military pastoral care [Austria]. In: European Military Pastoral Care Yearbook 1 (1991) pp. 10-14.
  • The soldier of the United Nations in the field of tension between multi-religious convictions. In: The blue helmets. In action for peace, ed. by Ernst Koch (Frankfurt / Main – Bonn 1991) pp. 187–195 (= Austrian Military Journal 1/1992, pp. 41–44)
  • Necessary closeness. The importance of ecumenical relationships for work in military pastoral care from the perspective of a diaspora church. In: Waiting with patience. Snapshots, ed. by Peter H. Blaschke (Hannover 1991) pp. 160-169
  • Protestant military pastoral care in the Second Republic. In: Roman-Hans Gröger, Claudia Ham, Alfred Sammer: Between Heaven and Earth. Military pastoral care in Austria. Graz – Vienna – Cologne 2001, pp. 171–175.
  • with Karl-Reinhart Trauner: The Protestant military pastoral care in the Austrian Armed Forces. In: For the protection of the Republic of Austria… Contributions to the history of the Austrian Armed Forces, ed. by Wolfgang Etschmann – Hubert Speckner (= writings on the history of the Austrian Armed Forces special volume “50 Years of the Armed Forces”). Vienna 2005, pp. 223-234.
  • Sketches for Protestant military pastoral care in the Austrian Armed Forces of the Second Republic (until 1995). In: There is never too much pastoral care ... 50 years of Protestant military pastoral care in the Austrian Armed Forces, ed. by Karl-Reinhart Trauner (= writings on the history of the Austrian Armed Forces 11). Vienna 2007, 32–75

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Austrian Alpine Association (Ed.): Academic Section Vienna, Communications 67 . 112th year, March No. 2 . Vienna 2013, p. 7 .
  2. ^ Church communications. Retired ... Military Superintendent Dr. Julius Hanak. In: Official Journal for the Evangelical Church in Austria . Born in 1999, 1st piece. Vienna January 29, 1999, p. 7 .
  3. ↑ Manfred Wallgram: Julius Hanak - stations of his life . In: From the past into the future ... Julius Hanak on his 75th birthday, ed. by Oskar Sakrausky, Karl-Reinhart Trauner . M&S 25. Vienna 2008, p. 4 .
  4. ↑ Innsbruck (1964), Munich (1972), Montreal (1976), Innsbruck (1976), Lake Placid (1980), Moscow (Moskwa) (1980), Sarajewo (1984) and Los Angeles (1984). See Responsible For Losers . In: Der Spiegel 8 . 1980, p. 116 .
  5. ^ Gunther Spath: Laudation on the occasion of the 75th birthday of retired military superintendent Dr. Julius Hanak . In: Oskar Sakrausky, Karl-Reinhart Trauner (ed.): From the past to the future ... Julius Hanak on his 75th birthday . M&S 25. Vienna 2008, p. 99-102 .
  6. ↑ HANAK Julius: Sketches for Protestant Military Pastoral Care in the Austrian Army of the Second Republic (until 1995) . In: Karl-Reinhart Trauner (Ed.): Writings on the history of the Austrian Armed Forces . tape 11 . Vienna 2007, p. 32-75 .
  7. ^ Wallgram Manfred: Julius Hanak - stations of his life . In: Oskar Sakrausky, Karl-Reinhart Trauner (ed.): From the past to the future ... Julius Hanak on his 75th birthday . M&S 25. Vienna 2008, p. 4th f .
  8. ↑ Delegations, representations and assignments of the Evangelical Oberkirchenrat AB (Oberkirchenrat AB G 05; 2463/2015 of November 19, 2015) . In: Official Journal for the Evangelical Church in Austria 2015 . No. 200 . Vienna November 19, 2015, p. 173–175 here 174 .
  9. ↑ Ursula Liebing: The dignity of others. Laudation on the occasion of honoring people who have volunteered for people in detention for years. In: Platform for Human Rights 2012 (Ed.): 10 Years Salzburg Human Rights Report . S. 20–22 here 21 .
  10. ↑ Integration policy - conditions for detention pending deportation “a catastrophe”. Salzburg platform for human rights detects massive deterioration in conditions. In: The Standard. December 10, 2009, accessed December 4, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Awarding of the Merit Sign of the State of Salzburg to volunteers who have been working for people in detention for years. In: Platform for Human Rights 2012 (Ed.): 10 Years Salzburg Human Rights Report . S. 19 .
  12. ↑ Alfred Stipanits: Thanks to Julius Hanak . In: Oskar Sakrausky, Karl-Reinhart Trauner (ed.): From the past to the future ... Julius Hanak on his 75th birthday . M&S 25. Vienna 2008, p. 95-98 .
  13. ↑ Werner FASSLABEND: Mr. Military Superintendent Dr. theol. Julius Hanak. The Federal Minister for National Defense, GZ 401 116 / 32-2.2 / 98 v. 12/09/1998 . In: Oskar Sakrausky – Karl-Reinhart Trauner (ed.):: From the past into the future ... Julius Hanak on his 75th birthday . M&S 25. Vienna 2008, p. 4th f .
  14. ↑ Oskar Sakrausky, Karl-Reinhart Trauner, among others: From the past into the future ... Julius Hanak on his 75th birthday [Festschrift] . In: Oskar Sakrausky, Karl-Reinhart Trauner (ed.): M&S - Military & Pastoral Care . tape 25 . Vienna 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Hanak, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hanak, Julius Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Meet , Carinthia
DATE OF DEATH 18th December 2019
Place of death Salzburg