Lübeck martyrs

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The three Catholic priests Johannes Prassek , Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange as well as the Protestant pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink are called Lübeck martyrs . On November 10, 1943, they were executed in quick succession in the Hamburg remand prison on Holstenglacis by beheading them with the guillotine . The reason was their public, critical remarks on the injustice of the National Socialists , which they had uttered as clergy. The three Catholic clergy were beatified on June 25, 2011. Stellbrink has been remembered in the Evangelical Name Calendar since 1969 .

resistance

Catholic provost church Herz Jesu in the inner city of Lübeck, which houses a memorial exhibition in the northern extension and in the crypt
A plaque at the Catholic provost church Herz Jesu in Lübeck, parade, commemorates the fate of the Lübeck martyrs.
The Luther Church in Lübeck's St. Lorenz district is dedicated to the memory of the Lübeck martyrs.
First issue of the special postage stamp "Lübecker Märtyrer"

The Catholic priests worked at the Sacred Heart Church in downtown Lübeck , Prassek as chaplain , Müller as adjunct and Lange as vicar . Stellbrink was pastor of the Luther Church . They had been on friendly terms with each other since 1941 and exchanged messages and sermons, including those of the Bishop of Münster , Clemens August Graf von Galen . They had made a protest letter from Theophil Wurm and Galen sermons accessible.

In the sermon on Palm Sunday 1942, Stellbrink said that because of the British air raid on Lübeck the night before, God spoke with a powerful voice. This was wrongly rendered as if he had spoken of a "judgment of God" - a term that was not used in his sermon. He was arrested on April 7, 1942, Prassek on May 18, Lange on June 15 and Müller on June 22. In addition to the clergy, 18 lay Catholics were arrested, including the later moral theologian Stephan Pfürtner .

process

A year later, from June 22nd to 24th, 1943, their trial took place before the 2nd Senate of the People's Court , chaired by Wilhelm Crohne , who had come to Lübeck for this purpose. The clergy were sentenced to death for “ broadcast crimes, treasonous enemy favoring and degradation of the military force ” . Most of the laypeople who were co-accused were acquitted or received prison sentences that were deemed to have been served due to pre-trial detention; only two received longer prison sentences - including the more heavily burdened Adolf Ehrtmann , who had expected a death sentence.

execution

Memorial plaque in the ramparts near the Hamburg remand prison

The clergy were then transferred to the Hamburg pre- trial detention center on Holstenglacis. The Bishop of Osnabrück , who is responsible for the Catholic priests , Wilhelm Berning , visited the clergy in prison and wrote a petition for clemency , which was rejected. Pastor Stellbrink received no support from his regional church and was dismissed from the church service because of his conviction before his execution . The executions were carried out by the executioner Friedrich Hehr . Eduard Müller was the first to be executed with the guillotine on November 10, shortly before 6 p.m. The execution costs were borne by the bereaved.

On November 15, 1943, the bodies of Hermann Lange and Karl Friedrich Stellbrink were cremated in Hamburg in the Ohlsdorf crematorium and later buried in the crypt of the Herz-Jesu-Kirche and the Lutherkirche. The bodies of Johannes Prassek and Eduard Müller were cremated in the Neuengamme concentration camp crematorium ; the ashes were scattered in the camp nursery there.

Commemoration

legacy

Copies of the letters from imprisonment and especially the farewell letters of the murdered can be read in the exhibition "... I can see you" in the Luther Church Memorial in Lübeck. What was special about the resistance of the Lübeck martyrs was that they communicated non-denominationally and did not resort to quiet diplomacy. They made it clear that Christian rules should take precedence over the rules of National Socialism. At that time, their church superiors did not adopt this clear stance.

beatification

On the 60th anniversary of the execution, Hamburg's Archbishop Werner Thissen announced the start of the beatification process for the three Catholic clergymen of the Lübeck martyrs. At the same time he agreed with the bishop for the diocese Holstein-Lübeck the North Elbe Evangelical Lutheran Church , Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter , the establishment of an ecumenical advisory group to ensure the joint commemoration.

The beatification of the three Catholic clergy took place on Saturday, June 25, 2011 in Lübeck. Cardinal Angelo Amato read the letter of Pope Benedict XVI during an open sky service in Lübeck . with which the three Catholic clergy were added to the list of the blessed . The sermon was delivered by Cardinal Walter Kasper , who also remembered the Protestant Stellbrink.

Memorials

Memorial plaque at the Lübeck town hall
Memorial at the armory in Lübeck for the resistance fighters in Lübeck
Johannes Prassek House in Osnabrück
Hamburg, Holstenglacis remand prison, Holstenglacis 3: stumbling blocks for the Lübeck martyrs executed on Holstenglacis in the Hamburg remand prison
Hamburg, St. Marien Dom, Canon Cemetery: Monument with the four heads of the Lübeck martyrs in iron on four steles
  • In the northern extension and the crypt of the Catholic provost church Herz Jesu in the inner city of Lübeck near the cathedral there is a documentation on the work of the clergy and on the political developments during the time of National Socialism.
  • From 1995 to 2013 there was an exhibition on the Lübeck martyrs in the gallery of the Evangelical Luther Church . On November 8, 2014, after extensive renovations in the church, it was reopened with expanded content under the title “… I can see you” - resistance, friendship, encouragement of the four Lübeck martyrs ”.
  • At the Lübeck town hall there is a memorial plaque on the wall of the passage from Breite Straße to the Ratskeller. After a prayer in St. Mary's Church , representatives of the Christian and Jewish religions laid a wreath / flowers there on the day the martyrs died.
  • On the day of the death of the Lübeck martyrs, flowers are laid at the memorial at the armory in the parade , which is dedicated to the resistance fighters during the Nazi era.
  • In the Catholic Church of St. Johann in Niendorf from 1911, which towers over the area of ​​the Maria Meeresstern Clinic with its bell tower, the Lübeck martyrs are remembered.
  • In the ramparts at the Hamburg remand prison , a plaque commemorates the execution by the guillotine in the courtyard on November 10, 1943. Stumbling blocks for the Lübeck martyrs were laid in front of the entrance to the remand prison at Holstenglacis 3.
  • In Hamburg's St. Marien Cathedral there is a metal banderole with the names on the right rear church pillar and a display case on the Lübeck martyrs in the south aisle. A memorial with the four heads of the Lübeck martyrs on four iron steles by the sculptor Karlheinz Oswald commemorates their work in the canon cemetery of St. Mary's Cathedral in Hamburg.
  • Crypt of the Holy Spirit Church in Georgsmarienhütte - Oesede .
  • Johannes Prassek House in Osnabrück
  • Kaplan-Prassek-Heim, Herten (youth home)

Designation of public places

  • Prassekstrasse in Lübeck-St. Gertrud since 1961
  • Stellbrinkstrasse in Lübeck-St. Gertrud since 1961
  • Johannes-Prassek-Park in Hamburg-Barmbek since 2011

Commemorative stamp

At the end of 2018, a stamp was issued in honor of the martyrs, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of their execution, which is in 2019. The white postage stamp shows, purely typographically designed, a large red heading Lübecker Märtyrer in capital letters, whereby the vertical left line of two of the letters r in "Märtyrer" is drawn far down. The names of the four follow in smaller gray letters.

Events as the basis for a novel

In 2018 the pianist, author and poet Ann-Helena Schlueter published the novel Free as the Birds , in which she dealt with the events. In a suggestive - narrative form, she links what happened then with the fictional world of thoughts of Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller, Hermann Lange and Karl Friedrich Stellbrink. She describes what the martyrs locked in solitary confinement might have thought about in their last weeks and how they might have felt. The author describes her work as a novel against oblivion.

literature

in order of appearance

  • Josef Schäfer SJ (arr.): Where his witnesses die is his kingdom. Letters from the beheaded Lübeck clergy and reports from eyewitnesses. Hansa Verlag Josef Toth, Hamburg 1946.
  • Else Pelke: The Lübeck Christian Trial 1943. Grünewald, Mainz 1961; 2nd edition 1963; as Topos-Taschenbuch 1974, ISBN 3-7867-0490-2 .
  • "Extinguish my eyes ...". Life and violent death of the four Lübeck clergy during the National Socialist era. An exhibition in the castle monastery in Lübeck from November 8, 1993 to November 10, 1994, created by the castle monastery in Lübeck in cooperation with the November 10th working group. To:
    • Ingaburgh Klatt: " Extinguish my eyes ...". In: Yearbook Democratic History. ISSN  0932-1632 , Vol. 8, 1993, pp. 205-280 (as a special edition published by the Burgkloster zu Lübeck / Office for Culture of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, 1994).
    • Martin Merz: "The priests on the scaffold". A Lübeck trial 50 years ago. Booklet accompanying the exhibition, Lübeck 1993 (revised manuscript, NDR radio broadcast, Religion and Society series , August 6, 1993).
  • Ekkart Sauser :  The martyrs of Lübeck. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 1208.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive  on 2007-06-29)
  • Isabella Spolovjnak-Pridat, Helmut Siepenkort (ed.): Ecumenism in resistance. The Lübeck Christian Trial in 1943. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2001; 3rd, updated and expanded edition 2006, ISBN 3-7950-7035-X .
  • Martin Thoemmes , Sebastian von Melle: Ecumenism in resistance. The Lübeck Martyrs. In: Martin Lätzel, Joachim Liß-Walther (Hrsg.): Christianity between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. A short ecumenical church history of Schleswig-Holstein. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004.
  • Peter Voswinckel : Complete after 61 years. Farewell letters from the four Lübeck martyrs in a historical context. In: Journal of the Association for Lübeck History and Archeology. Vol. 85, 2005, pp. 279-330.
  • Harald Schultze, Andreas Kurschat (ed.): "Your end looks at ...". Evangelical martyrs of the 20th century. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006, pp. 446–448 (2nd edition, 2008, pp. 478–480).
  • Sebastian von Melle: The Four Lübeck Martyrs - Ecumenism in Resistance. In: Jens Ehebrecht-Zumsande, Sigrid Kessens, Martin Lätzel (eds.): Convinced! Witnesses of faith from the north. Special issue of the series : in Religion , Bergmoser + Höller, Aachen 2008, pp. 65–67.
    • Sebastian von Melle: We were like brothers. For the beatification of the Lübeck martyrs. In: Hirschberg. Issue 6, 2011, published by Bund Neudeutschland - KMF, pp. 361–363.
  • Peter Voswinckel : Guided Paths. The Lübeck martyrs in words and pictures. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer and St. Ansgar, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7666-1391-2 .
  • Peter Voswinckel : Documents on the subject of Lübeck Martyrs 1941–1945, on behalf of the Cultural Office of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, funded by the non-profit Sparkassenstiftung zu Lübeck, compiled by Peter Voswinckel. (Without publisher), Lübeck June 2011.
  • Martin Thoemmes: "Never say three, always say four". The memory of the Lübeck martyrs from 1943 until today. Ansgar, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-932379-93-2 .
  • Martin Thoemmes: The martyrs of the Lübeck Christian trial. In: Helmut Moll (ed.): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century. 6th edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, Vol. 1, pp. 319–327.
  • Karen Meyer-Rebentisch: "... I can see you." Resistance, friendship and encouragement from the four Lübeck martyrs . Published by the Luther Church Memorial, Lübeck 2018.
  • Ann-Helena Schlüter: Free as the birds: The heroes of Lübeck - A story against forgetting, SCM Hänssler (23 August 2018), ISBN 978-3-7751-5865-7 .

Movie

  • Resisting in the Spirit of Christ - The Lübeck Martyrs. Documentary by Jürgen Hobrecht, Polis Film, Berlin 2011

Web links

Commons : Lübecker Märtyrer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b F. J. Krause: From martyrs of stupidity to witnesses of faith in the north. In: Senioren Magazin Hamburg, November 2018, pp. 14-17.
  2. ↑ http://www.luebeckermaertyrer.de/de/geschichte/kurzchronik/index.html
  3. ↑ Archbishopric Hamburg and North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church (ed.): You have known the truth. The four Lübeck martyrs. Leaflet from 2010.
  4. ↑ Lübeck Martyrs - Beatification
  5. ^ Thousands at the beatification of Nazi resistance members in Lübeck. ( Memento from August 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Lübecker Nachrichten online from June 25, 2011
  6. ↑ The memory of martyrs in a new guise. After a year the exhibition was reopened in the Luther Church. In: Lübecker Nachrichten, 9./10. November 2014.
  7. ↑ In memory of the Lübeck martyrs. In: Lübecker Nachrichten, November 14, 2015, p. 13.
  8. ↑ In memory of the Lübeck martyrs. In: Lübecker Nachrichten, November 11, 2015, p. 16.
  9. ↑ Archdiocese of Hamburg: iron steles remind of Lübeck martyrs