Ludwig Kirsch

Ludwig Kirsch (born December 9, 1891 in Dresden , † January 22, 1950 in Chemnitz ) was a politically committed Roman Catholic pastor. Kirsch was one of the co-founders of Germany's first forerunner party to the later CDU and was a member of the German People's Council and the Provisional People's Chamber of the GDR for the CDU .

Youth and Work in the Weimar Republic

Ludwig Kirsch was born as the only child of the married couple Hedwig and Alexander Kirsch on December 9, 1891 at Johannesstraße 23 in Dresden. The father was a master goldsmith, the mother a housewife. After attending primary school, Kirsch's parents advocated Ludwig's transfer to the Catholic Progymnasium in Dresden in 1902 because of the emerging giftedness . In 1904, at the age of 13, he moved to the Wendish High School in Prague . Since priestly training in the Evangelical Kingdom of Saxony was not possible at that time, and the diocese of Meißen also no longer existed, the grammar school on the Lesser Town in Prague developed into a kind of Saxon-Catholic enclave . After an excellent Abitur, Kirsch was enrolled at Charles University in Prague in 1910 to study theology. In 1913 he finished his studies at the Paderborn seminary . On August 3, 1914, shortly after the start of World War I , he was ordained a priest in Paderborn by Bishop Karl Joseph Schulte . A short time later, Kirsch held his first service in the Catholic Court Church in his home town of Dresden. Kirsch took up his first priesthood in the Liebfrauengemeinde in the Leipzig district of Lindenau .

The world war and the resulting needs of his community members shaped Kirsch and aroused his interest in politics. In 1919 Kirsch was appointed to the branch in Bärenstein near Annaberg. In the Catholic diaspora he formed a strong community and brought about the building of the Bonifatiuskirche, which was consecrated in 1921. Kirsch joined the Center Party and began publishing political articles in newspapers. In 1929 Kirsch was even elected Saxon state chairman of the Center Party, which he remained until the party was dissolved in 1933. In 1924 he was promoted to pastor of the parish “St. Marien ”in Reichenbach in Vogtland . There, too, the renovation and redesign of the church was carried out under his direction. Kirsch's political activity increased during the Great Depression. As a gifted speaker, he quickly became a sought-after guest preacher in the newly established diocese of Meißen, in political meetings and as a columnist in various newspapers, above all the Catholic Saxon People's Newspaper.This activity made Kirsch a political opponent of some parties, especially the NSDAP .

Work in the time of National Socialism

On May 5, 1935, Kirsch was appointed pastor of the Catholic parish of St. Joseph in Chemnitz . Shortly beforehand, a member of the community from Reichenbach sought advice from Kirsch in a case of forced sterilization . Kirsch replied in writing, saying that the state laws were in complete opposition to the fundamental church beliefs. When the person asking for advice in Reichenbach wanted to avert the impending forced sterilization by means of legal proceedings, he used Kirsch's letter as an aid to argumentation. The trial judge then examined the letter and confiscated it. He then passed it on to the Saxon Gestapo headquarters in Dresden. On September 3, 1935, Ludwig Kirsch was summoned to the Chemnitz police headquarters at 2 p.m. and taken into protective custody after the interrogation. He was imprisoned in Chemnitz until September 6, 1935, when he was transferred to the nearby Sachsenburg concentration camp . With the prisoner number 1648, Kirsch spent a few months in this notorious Saxony-wide concentration camp, which was one of the first of its kind in Germany. From November 1935, a fellow prisoner was also the social democrat and later high-ranking SED functionary Erich Mückenberger . The insistence of the diocese leadership around Bishop Petrus Legge , who was arrested in October 1935 himself, and the work of the Chemnitz law firm around Curt Rothe, prevented a trial against Kirsch and obtained his release before Christmas 1935. On December 21, 1935, he was able to read his first holy mass in his Chemnitz parish after his imprisonment. As a result, Kirsch remained under constant surveillance by the Gestapo, but was not arrested again. Under his responsibility, a parish hall was consecrated in the spring of 1937, and a new organ was installed in St. Joseph's Church. Under Kirsch, the Junge Gemeinde became a place of retreat for young people who did not want to join National Socialist organizations.

Work in the post-war period

Poster with information about the event in Dresden for May 24, 1957, speaker: Ludwig Kirsch

Under the influence of the massive destruction of Chemnitz and the liberation of the Saxon city by American troops, Kirsch was determined to interfere in political life. After the Soviet occupation forces had approved the founding of parties, he and other fellow campaigners founded the Christian People's Party (CVP) in Chemnitz on June 20, 1945. The Center Party was nicknamed this for some time during the Weimar Republic. This founding of the Chemnitz party was the first founding of a denominational party in the Soviet occupation zone before the CDU was founded in Berlin on June 26, 1945. When Chemnitz learned of the founding of the Berlin party, the CVP joined the CDU. When the Chemnitz CDU district association was constituted, Kirsch was elected its chairman, who he remained until his death. After the Chemnitz city council was constituted, Kirsch also represented the CDU as city councilor. At the first party congress of the CDU in 1946 he was elected to the main board, and at the second party congress in 1947 he rejected an election to the political committee of the main board. In 1948, Kirsch was elected deputy state chairman by the Saxon state association. Because of these prominent party functions, he was also nominated as a candidate for the First German People's Council. Kirsch was also a member of the Second German People's Council and the Provisional People's Chamber

On January 22, 1950, Kirsch died as a result of unexplained lead poisoning . He was buried in the Chemnitz municipal cemetery. Shortly after his death, Alexanderstraße at St. Joseph's Church was renamed Ludwig-Kirsch-Straße in his honor.

Web links

• Project "Processing Contemporary History-Ludwig Kirsch" of the Catholic parish of St. Joseph in Chemnitz with many original documents
• Site of the Chemnitz History Association