Leonhard Meurer

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Leonhard Meurer (born May 21, 1916 in Düren , † April 22, 1991 in Eschweiler ) was a German priest of the Roman Catholic Church . On his numerous mission trips to West Africa , the art-loving priest collected folk art , including stoneware from the Westerwald .

Life

Leonhard Meurer attended the Stiftisches Gymnasium Düren . He studied Catholic theology in Bonn , Tübingen and Aachen , where he was ordained a priest on December 21, 1940 . From 1941 to 1946 he was chaplain in Anrath , in the parish was the Vennheide mission chapel , which during the Second World War became the center of its own pastoral care district, a rectorate . The responsible chaplain Leonhard Meurer received the title of rector , which protected him from being drafted into the armed forces.

He became chaplain to St. Peter and Paul in Eschweiler . On January 13, 1947, he took over the presidency of the Eschweiler Kolping Family. On March 15, 1955, he became pastor in Rölsdorf near Düren. He was involved in the mission for Africa. He later worked in Fulda and in the Diocese of Trier . From 1983 he was a subsidiary in Brüggen near Kerpen. He celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest on December 21, 1990.

art

House sign in Rölsdorf

House sign made of clay at the house Monschauer Straße 173

On the initiative of Pastor Leonhard Meurer, Christian house decorations made of clay, slate or sandstone were attached to around 60 houses in Rölsdorf between 1955 and 1961. These house signs were created through his mediation by artists from the Cologne factory schools . The motifs of the house stones were representations from the Bible, saints, the namesake of the house owners at the time, or the patron saints of various professions.

Art from Africa and the Westerwald

Leonhard Meurer made fourteen trips to Africa from 1968 to 1980 and founded a collection of African folk art . Today it is in Sankt Augustin and at missio in Aachen. On his travels in Africa, he also found artistic Westerwald stoneware, mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Testimony to help Jews

Leonhard Meurer reported in 1989 that Marie Elisabeth Leonie Gertud Paula Countess zu Stolberg-Stolberg in Düren hid a Jewish woman in her weaving mill in the former monastery next to the Capuchin Church on the Altenteich from 1940 to 1944.

Publications

  • Wine and bread: the church windows in the Nikolaus parish church in Düren-Rölsdorf. Düren-Rölsdorf 1960.
  • Ripe millet bows its head: African aphorisms. Düsseldorf / Vienna 1963.
  • With Eloi Kafando: Mossi children's dolls in Upper Volta . In: Tribus. Volume 13.1964.
  • Rhenish stoneware on the gold and slave coast . In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . No. 3, 1971, pp. 219-222.
  • Rhenish baroque jugs in West Africa . In: Keramos. Volume 66, 1974, pp. 33-40.
  • The Mossi dolls in Upper Volta. In: Tribus. Volume 27. 1978.
  • To the figurative sculpture of the Baule , Ivory Coast . In: Archives for Ethnology. Volume 34. MFV Vienna, 1980.

literature

  • Sibille Jäger: Pastor Leonhard Meurer's Africa Collection. Anrather Heimatbuch 1994, pp. 123–124
  • Annette Zeischka: Westerwald stoneware in Africa: The rediscovery by Pastor Leonhard Meurer 1968–80 . Documentation Center Kannenbäckerland eV, Ransbach-Baumbach, 2003. From 1994 to 2000 the scientist worked on Pastor Leonhard Meurer's estate.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.rhein-erft-geschichte.de/totenzettel/index.php?nummer=27310g
  2. ↑ http://www.kirchbauverein-anrath.de/Kreuzkapelle%20Vennheide.html
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dueren.de
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschichtswerkstatt-dueren.de
personal data
SURNAME Meurer, Leonhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest of the Roman Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Düren
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1991
Place of death Eschweiler