Leo Christoph

Leo Christoph (born February 6, 1901 in Buchau near Neurode , Neurode district , Silesia ; † January 3, 1985 in Reinbek ) was a German theologian . From 1939 he was pastor of the Glatz-Scheibe hospital , from 1942 to 1945 Caritas director of the County of Glatz and from 1952 Caritas director of the Diocese of Osnabrück . From 1962 to 1977 he was the Grand Dean and canonical visitor to the County of Glatz, which belonged to the Archdiocese of Prague until 1972 .

Life

Leo Christoph was the son of a teacher. After attending the Glatzer Gymnasium, he studied Catholic theology at the University of Breslau . On February 14, 1926, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Prague by the Archbishop of Wroclaw, Adolf Bertram . He then worked as chaplain of Ludwigsdorf and from 1928 as chaplain of Habelschwerdt . In 1931 the then Grand Dean Franz Dittert appointed him to be his secretary for the Vicariate General in Mittelwalde . When Franz Dittert was accused by the Gestapo on November 25, 1936, as part of a large-scale campaign against the Catholic Church in the County of Glatz, of disseminating reports critical of the regime through his Vicariate General in Mittelwald, he was arrested. Dittert's arrest was prevented by a family doctor who happened to be present and pointed out the 78-year-old's poor health. However, instead of him the vicariate secretary chaplain Leo Christoph, the pastor Georg Charfreitag von Neuwaltersdorf and the local chief Carl Taube as well as the pastor Petrus Tautz von Konradswalde were arrested. On November 27, 1935, the first three were transferred from the Breslau police prison to the Columbia concentration camp in Berlin without any proceedings having been initiated . Pastor Tautz, who was also imprisoned, was allowed to return to Konradswalde at that time. Leo Christoph, Georg Charfreitag and Carl Taube were only released from the Columbia concentration camp on March 6, 1936 without explanation.

After the death of the great dean Franz Dittert, Leo Christoph was appointed by his successor Franz Monse as his general vicariate secretary in Glatz. At the same time he was pastor of the monastery in Glatz-Scheibe from 1939 and from 1942 Caritas director of the county of Glatz. When his life in Glatz was endangered after the Second World War in 1945 and the subsequent transition from Silesia to Poland, Leo Christoph fled via Prague to Osnabrück at the end of 1945 before the German population was expelled . In 1946 Bishop Hermann Wilhelm Berning was appointed parish priest and chaplain in Aurich in Osnabrück . In 1952 he made him the director of the Osnabrück diocesan charity. In 1956 he became curator of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Elisabeth in Hamburg-Reinbek.

After the death of the great dean Franz Monse in 1962, Leo Christoph was appointed canonical visitor for priests and believers from the County of Glatz by the German Bishops' Conference , while retaining the title of great dean. In 1963 he introduced the annual pilgrimage of those displaced from Kłodzko to Telgte . After 15 years of activity, he gave up the office of grand dean in 1977. He was succeeded by Prelate Paul Sommer.

Editorships

• Personnel diagram of the Catholic clergy of the County of Glatz , Hoheneck-Verlag, Hamm 1967
• You belong to us. From Glatzer homeland priests . Self-published, Reinbek 1969

literature

• Silesian Church in Life Pictures , Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1992, ISBN 3-7995-7115-9 , pp. 215-219
• Michael Hirschfeld: Grafschaft Glatzer priest in conflict with the Nazi regime . In: The County of Glatz between 1918 and 1946 . Edited by Horst-Alfons Meißner and Michael Hirschfeld. Aschendorff-Verlag Münster, ISBN 978-3-402-12896-1 , pp. 355-369

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Buchau was incorporated into the city of Neurode in 1936. See [1]
2. ↑ Scheibe incorporated into the city of Glatz in 1936. See [2]
3. ^ Visitatur Glatz