Konrad Graf von Preysing

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1980 postage stamp

Johann Konrad Augustin Maria Felix Cardinal Count von Preysing-Lichtenegg-Moos (short: Konrad Cardinal von Preysing ) (born  August 30, 1880 in Kronwinkl Castle near Landshut , Lower Bavaria ; †  December 21, 1950 in Berlin ) was Bishop of Eichstätt and Berlin .

Life

Konrad, from the Bavarian noble family Preysing , was the fourth of eleven children of Kaspar Graf von Preysing and his wife Hedwig Maria Ida nee. Countess of Walterskirchen . After attending grammar school in Landshut, he studied law at the universities of Munich and Würzburg . After graduating in 1905, he worked briefly in the Bavarian civil service: in 1906 he was a ministerial trainee in the Bavarian State Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1907 he was an attaché at the Bavarian legation at the Quirinal in Rome .

From 1908 von Preysing studied Catholic theology in Innsbruck , where he received the sacrament of ordination on July 26, 1912 . In 1913 he was in Innsbruck for a doctor of theology doctorate . In the same year the Archbishop of Munich, Franziskus von Bettinger , appointed him to be his secretary . After Bettinger's death, Konrad von Preysing became parish priest at St. Paul in Munich. Early in 1921 named him Michael von Faulhaber the preacher at the Munich Frauenkirche . During this time Preysing became an honorary member of the Catholic student association Rheno-Bavaria in the KV .

He met the Apostolic Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli , who had been accredited in Munich since 1917 and also in Berlin since 1920 , and who repeatedly made use of his discreet assistance in the 1920s. The close relationship with Pacelli, the later Pius XII. , who had taken over the post of cardinal secretary of state in 1930 , was probably not without influence on the decision of Pius XI. To appoint Preysing Bishop of Eichstätt on September 9, 1932. The Archbishop of Bamberg , Johann Jakob von Hauck , donated him the episcopal ordination on September 28, 1932 in Eichstätt. Co- consecrators were the bishop of Würzburg , Matthias Ehrenfried , and the bishop of Passau , Sigismund Felix von Ow-Felldorf .

Bishop in Berlin

Preysing in the Berlin Sports Palace on September 8, 1935
Gravestone in the lower church of St. Hedwig's Cathedral

In 1935 Preysing was raised to the rank of Bishop of Berlin by the election of the Berlin Cathedral Chapter (election confirmation by the Pope on July 5, 1935, enthronement on August 31, 1935). The diocese, which was only newly established in 1930, was a diocese in a diaspora area. One of his successes was 36 new churches and numerous new pastoral care offices.

Preysing was important to the Holy See as a diplomat in the German capital. As a press officer at the Fulda Bishops' Conference , he was confronted with hard disputes over the continued existence of the Catholic press. The failure of the negotiations for Catholic associations (church press) in 1936 and those of Pius XI. encyclical published in March 1937 with burning concern were milestones towards a clear demarcation from the Nazi state . Preysing called for public resistance within the church and for human rights .

After the arrest of Meißen Bishop Petrus Legge in October 1935, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Meißen on October 15, 1935 . Legge were accused of foreign exchange offenses. Preysing's testimony during the trial did not prevent him from being sentenced to a fine for negligent currency shifting. He was released from this office on March 15, 1937, when the bishop returned.

In a protest against the chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Adolf Bertram , who in April 1940, without having been authorized by the German bishops but sent a birthday congratulations with “ardent prayers” to the “high-ranking leader”, Preysing Pius offered XII. his resignation from the episcopate. At the urging of the Pope, he remained in office. In his sermons and pastoral letters he was a sharp opponent of National Socialism and stood up against the injustice of World War II . Preysing did not go into the war in his pastoral word in September 1939 and, unlike many of his counterparts, never described participating in the war as a patriotic duty. In 1941 he turned against the murders of the euthanasia program , comparable to Clemens August Graf von Galen , a distant cousin, and yet different in its consistency. In a pastoral letter of December 13, 1942 on the terms “law” and “justice”, he expressed the fact that there was “a single right, which lies outside of human will, guaranteed by God” , “which also goes against the interests of the individual and the nation must enforce ” . With statements (from the same pastoral letter) as

“The individual cannot and must not be completely absorbed in the state or in the people or in the race . He, whoever it is, has his immortal soul , his eternal fate. "

"But one thing is and remains certain that no violence on earth may undertake to force a person to make statements or actions that would be against his conscience , that would be against the truth."

“Whoever wears a human face has rights that no earthly power should take away from him. [...] All the basic rights that man has, the right to life, to integrity, to freedom , to property , to a marriage , the existence of which does not depend on the arbitrary state, cannot and must not be denied to those who are not ours Is blood or does not speak our language. "

he set himself apart from the National Socialist ideology and practice. In numerous letters he informed the Pope about the situation in Germany.

On the occasion of the premiere of the "euthanasia" propaganda film Ich klage an (1941) in Berlin, he put together a warning against this film, which he sent to all other bishops in Germany. He also publicly condemned the film.

During the Second World War, Preysing campaigned emphatically for those persecuted by the Nazi regime , especially for the Jews and Christian “non-Aryans” : Among other things, he founded a church aid organization at his Berlin ordinariate , primarily to broker emigration opportunities and food supplies and procurement of housing. When its director, the Berlin Provost Bernhard Lichtenberg , was arrested in 1941 , Preysing personally took over the management of the relief organization at the Episcopal Ordinariate so as not to endanger other employees. Shortly after the Wannsee Conference , Preysing and Margarete Sommer became aware of the content of the conference minutes. During the deportations of Jews in 1943, Preysing finally appealed to Pius XII to “stand up for the many unhappy innocents”.

Preysing had connections to Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and the Kreisau district .

Cardinal Preysing's coat of arms

In 1945 his diocese extended over the four sectors of Berlin and part of the Soviet zone of occupation ; his official seat was in the American sector in Berlin-Zehlendorf. During this time it was one of the few interzonal institutions.

On February 18, 1946 Preysing was by Pope Pius XII. as Cardinal Priest with the title Church Sant'Agata dei Goti in the Cardinal College added. In 1947 he traveled to the USA asking for emergency aid . Just as he stood up for those persecuted and outlawed by National Socialism, so now those persecuted by the Red Army and the emerging Socialist Unity Party found an energetic lawyer in him. He forbade priests to make any political statements to protect them from conflict with the military administration.

The last years of Preysing's life were overshadowed by illness. He died on December 21, 1950 of complications from a heart attack . First he was buried in the St. Hedwigs Friedhof in Berlin and in 1969 found his final resting place in the crypt of the then rebuilt St. Hedwig's Cathedral . His name and those of other Catholic dignitaries are on a tombstone in front of the chapel of St. Hedwig's Kirchhof.

Von Preysing is the namesake of the Konrad-von-Preysing-Haus, a residential community for adults with intellectual disabilities, sponsored by the Caritas Association in Frankfurt . About a month before the tenth anniversary of his death, he was honored with the Preysingstrasse in Berlin-Lankwitz .

Works

His works mainly include translations and episcopal pronouncements.

  • The readership of the Philosophumena Hippolyts . In: Journal for Catholic Theology , 38, 1914, pp. 421–445.
  • Cardinal Bettinger . According to personal memories. Regensburg 1918.
  • Social manners and moral law. Munich 1927.
  • Thomas More in memory. In: Hochland 32 / I (1934/35), pp. 1–11. (first contribution by a bishop in this important Catholic cultural magazine)
  • Saint Hippolytus of Rome refuting all heresies. Munich 1922.
  • Pastoral letters and official pronouncements from the Eichstätt episcopal time can be found in the pastoral journal of the Eichstätt diocese from 1932–1935.
  • Pastoral letters, pulpit proclamations and petitions from the Berlin bishopric during the Nazi regime in: Documents from the struggle of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Berlin against National Socialism. Published by the Episcopal Ordinariate Berlin, Berlin 1948.
  • Past-war pastoral letters in: Pastoral word in serious time. Rallies by the Bishop of Berlin Konrad Cardinal Preysing from 1945 to 1947, Berlin 1947.

literature

  • Stephan Adam: Konrad Cardinal von Preysing. A picture of life. Friedrich Pustet / Willibaldverlag, Regensburg / Eichstätt 2010, ISBN 978-3-7917-2344-0 / ISBN 978-3-9813219-4-4 .
  • Files of German bishops on the situation of the Church 1933–1945 I – VI (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series A: Sources, Vols. 5, 20, 25 edited by Bernhard Stasiewski; 30, 34, 38 edited by Ludwig Volk ). Mainz 1968–1985.
  • Walter Adolph : Secret Notes from the National Socialist Church Struggle 1935–1943. Edited by Ulrich von Hehl (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series A: Sources, Vol. 28), Mainz 1979.
  • Walter Adolph: pastoral office and Hitler dictatorship. More publishing house, Berlin 1965.
  • Walter Adolph: Cardinal Preysing and two dictatorships. His resistance to totalitarian power. More publishing house, Berlin 1971.
  • Walter Adolph: The Catholic Church in Germany Adolf Hitler. Berlin 1974.
  • Erwin Gatz (ed.): The bishops of the German-speaking countries 1785/1803 to 1945. A biographical lexicon. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-428-05447-4 , pp. 573-576 (lit.).
  • Karl Hausberger : Bishop Konrad Graf von Preysing. In: Martin Greschat (Hrsg.): The newest time III (= shaping church history 10/1), Stuttgart u. a. 1985, pp. 318-332 (QQ. And Lit.).
  • Ulrich von Hehl: Konrad Cardinal von Preysing - a fighter against totalitarianism. In: Christ's love is stronger. 86th German Catholic Day ... 1980 in Berlin. Paderborn 1980, pp. 473-482.
  • Ulrich von Hehl:  Preysing, Johann Konrad Maria Augustin Felix Graf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , pp. 716-718 ( digitized version ).
  • Heinz Hürten : German Catholics 1918–1945. Paderborn u. a. 1992.
  • Wolfgang Knauft: Konrad von Preysing - lawyer. The first Berlin cardinal and his time. More, Berlin 1998/2003, ISBN 3-87554-326-2 .
  • Georg May : Church Struggle or Persecution of Catholics? A contribution to the mutual relationship between National Socialism and Christian creeds. Stein am Rhein 1991 (with a strong apologetic tendency).
  • Hans-Jörg Nesner: The Archbishopric of Munich and Freising at the time of Archbishop and Cardinal Franziskus von Bettinger (1909–1917) (= Munich Theological Studies, I. Hist. Dept., Vol. 28), St. Ottilien 1987.
  • Hans-Jörg Nesner: The Metropolitan Chapter of Munich (since 1821). In: Georg Schwaiger (Ed.): Monachium Sacrum. Festschrift for the 500th anniversary of the Metropolitan Church of Our Lady in Munich . Volume I, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-422-06116-9 .
  • Bernhard Pfändtner in Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon of the KV. 5th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 6). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1998, ISBN 3-89498-055-9 , pp. 97-101.
  • Bernd Schäfer:  Preysing, Konrad Graf von . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Burkhart Schneider, Pierre Blet, Angelo Martini (eds.): The letters of Pius XII. to the German bishops 1939–1944 (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series A: Sources, Vol. 4), Mainz 1966.
  • Ludwig Volk (edit.): Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber's files 1917–1945 I – II (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series A: Sources, Vol. 17 and 26), Mainz 1975–1978.
  • Ludwig Volk: The Bavarian Episcopate and National Socialism 1930–1934 (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series B: Research, Vol. 1), Mainz 1965.
  • Ludwig Volk: Catholic Church and National Socialism. Selected essays. Edited by Dieter Albrecht (= Publications of the Commission for Contemporary History. Series B: Research, Vol. 46), Mainz 1987.
  • Manfred Weitlauff : "Modernism litterarius". The "Katholische Literaturstreit", the magazine "Hochland" and the encyclical " Pascendi dominici gregis " Pius' X. of September 8, 1907. In: Contributions to the old Bavarian church history 37 (1988), pp. 97-175.

Web links

Commons : Konrad Graf von Preysing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Diocesan History Association Eichstätt e. V .: Bishop of Berlin - appreciation. Retrieved May 25, 2017 .
  2. ^ Entry on Dresden-Meißen (Meissen) (Diocese) on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on June 17, 2020.
  3. ↑ Catholic protest against “euthanasia” and cinema propaganda for the murders, by Christian Kuchler
  4. ↑ Diocesan archive with information on the Catholic aid organization
  5. ↑ Antonia Leugers : “One of the most recent discoveries that now prove what the Catholic Church knew is the emergence of a document that underpins that the Catholic Church, in this case Margarete Sommer and Bishop Preysing, shortly after the 'Wannsee Conference ‹In January 1942 I received the contents of the protocol.” Quoted in: Jürgen Bevers: The man behind Adenauer . Ch. Links Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-518-8 , p. 71 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ mdr.de: The Catholic Church in the GDR | MDR.DE. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  7. ↑ see commons: Category: Konrad-Wolf-Straße (Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen)
  8. ^ Preysingstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
predecessor Office successor
Nicholas cash Bishop of Berlin
1935–1950 		Wilhelm Weskamm
Johannes Leo von Mergel Bishop of Eichstätt
1932–1935 		Michael Rackl
personal data
SURNAME Preysing, Konrad Graf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Preysing-Lichtenegg-Moos, Johann Konrad Augustin Maria Felix Cardinal Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bishop of Eichstätt and Berlin
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronwinkl Castle near Landshut , Lower Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1950
Place of death Berlin