Karl Adam (theologian)

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Karl Borromäus Adam (born October 22, 1876 in Pursruck , Upper Palatinate , † April 1, 1966 in Tübingen ) was a German Catholic theologian and dogmatist . In the Third Reich , Adam belonged to the faction of theologians who spoke out in favor of a compatibility between Catholicism and National Socialism .

Life

Adam was born on October 22nd, 1876 in the Upper Palatinate parish village of Pursruck as one of eleven children of the teacher Clemens Adam and his wife Babette. His brother August (1888–1965), who was twelve years his junior , also became a priest and theologian. After he had passed his Abitur at the humanistic grammar school in Amberg in 1895 , he studied at the Philosophical-Theological Seminary in Regensburg . On 24 June 1900 he received the Regensburg Cathedral by Bishop Ignatius of Senestrey the priesthood . Afterwards he worked as a pastor in Riekofen and Neustadt for two years . From 1902 he continued his studies at the University of Munich , where he in 1904 Joseph Schnitzer with a thesis on the concept of the Church of Tertullian doctorate was. In the following years he dealt with theological studies on the history of dogma and completed his habilitation in 1908 in dogmatics and the history of dogma. From 1908 on he taught religion at the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich and gave private lessons to the sons of the Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht . From 1912 to 1917 he was a religion teacher at the Bavarian Cadet Corps in Munich.

In 1915 he became professor of theology in Munich, in 1917 he took over the chair of moral theology in Strasbourg and in 1919 he moved to the University of Tübingen , where he was appointed to the chair of dogmatics.

In the period after the First World War , Karl Adam was one of the most respected theologians in Germany. He achieved worldwide fame with the publication of his book The Essence of Catholicism , which appeared in 1924 and was later translated into ten languages.

During the time of National Socialism , Adam was one of the most prominent Catholic theologians who spoke out in favor of a compatibility between Catholicism and National Socialism. Since 1933 he was a member of the NSDAP . In efforts to create a contemporary theology, he represented fundamental positions of National Socialist ideology and supported the Nazi regime with his racist , anti-Judaistic understanding of religion. After 1945 Adam was able to remain unchallenged on the dogmatics chair in Tübingen, where he retired in 1949 .

In a guest lecture in June 1976, Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Graber described the theologian Adam, to whom he was closely related in terms of content, as a “pioneer of the Second Vatican Council and its theology”.

The city of Tübingen dedicated Karl-Adam-Strasse to him in 1966. On July 25, 2011, the Tübingen municipal council decided to rename Karl-Adam-Straße to Johannes-Reuchlin-Straße. In 2010, the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese de- dedicated the Karl-Adam-Haus, a student residence in Stuttgart, and named it after Rupert Mayer . Regardless of this, Adam is still undifferentiated as the “ great son of our community ” on a plaque attached to the church of his birthplace, Pursruck .

Works

  • The essence of Catholicism . Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1924.
  • Christ our brother . Habbel , Regensburg 1938 (5th edition).
  • Jesus christ . Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1935 (4th edition).
  • Jesus Christ and the spirit of our time. Lecture (= publication of the Catholic Association of Academics) , Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1935

Honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 10.
  2. ↑ Cf. Lucia Scherzberg: Karl Adam und der Nationalozialismus, in: theologie.geschichte supplement no. 3 (2011), available online as PDF
  3. ^ Rudolf Graber: Karl Adam (1876–1966) on the 100th birthday. Regensburg 1976, p. 6.
  4. ↑ How much longer on Karl-Adam-Strasse? Commentary in: Schwäbisches Tageblatt of October 8, 2010.
  5. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 3, No. 250, December 29, 1951.
personal data
SURNAME Adam, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adam, Karl Borromeo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and professor of dogmatics in Tübingen
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Pursruck
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1966
Place of death Tübingen