Lothar König (Jesuit)

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Lothar König SJ (born January 3, 1906 in Stuttgart , Germany; † May 5, 1946 in Munich , Germany) was a German Jesuit and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

König, born on January 3, 1906 as the son of a merchant family, attended the Friedrich-Eugen-Oberrealschule in Stuttgart from 1915 to 1924 . In 1919 he joined the Catholic youth movement Bund New Germany , where he worked as a Gaugraf. In the summer semester of 1924 he studied philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich.

König entered the Jesuit order in 1924; After his novitiate in Tisis in Vorarlberg , he studied philosophy at the Berchmanskolleg in Pullach from 1926 to 1929 and natural sciences at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich from 1929 to 1933. During his theology studies (1934–1938) in Valkenburg in the Netherlands and at the Philosophical-Theological University of Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt am Main, he received his doctorate in philosophy from the LMU. In 1936 he was ordained a priest. From 1939 he was professor of cosmology in the Berchmanskolleg. He was involved in the resistance against National Socialism. He was supposed to be arrested after July 20, 1944, but managed to escape at the last moment. While he was in hiding, he became seriously ill; because he was underground, he could not get the medical attention he needed. He died as a result of the disease in 1946.

Resistance to National Socialism

Since its foundation in 1941, König worked in the Committee for Religious Affairs together with Fathers Odilo Braun OP , Augustin Rösch SJ , Laurentius Siemer OP , the lawyer Georg Angermaier as a representative of the lay people and some members of the Fulda Bishops' Conference such as Konrad Graf von Preysing and Johann Baptist Dietz , the committee was formed in response to the Nazi monastery tower. Here he worked as a “courier and liaison officer in the defense against National Socialist attacks against institutions of the church and its orders”.

In the Kreisau district he worked through the mediation of his Provincial Augustin Rösch SJ, here he was able to use and bring in his contacts and the trips that he had through his work in the Committee for Religious Affairs.

literature

  • Pencil, Roman : Dossier: Kreisau Circle. Documents from the resistance against National Socialism; from the estate of Lothar König SJ . Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7820-0556-2 .
  • Leugers, Antonia : Against a wall of episcopal silence. The Committee on Religious Affairs and its Resistance Concept 1941–1945 . Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-7820-0746-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
personal data
SURNAME King, Lothar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES King, Lothar SJ
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart , Germany
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1946
Place of death Munich , Germany