Maria Restituta Kafka

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Sel. Sr. M. Restituta Kafka (photograph around 1919)

Sr. Maria Restituta (* 1. May 1894 in Hussowitz in Brno , Austria-Hungary; † 30th March 1943 in Vienna ), with the real name Helene Kafka was an Austrian Ordens- and nurse and martyr who, during the Opposed the rulers in the time of National Socialism . Pope John Paul II beatified Sr. M. Restituta in 1998 .

Childhood, Profession and Order

Helene Kafka was born as the fourth of seven children to the shoemaker Anton Kafka and Maria Stehlík. When she was two years old, the family moved to Vienna-Brigittenau. There Helene Kafka attended elementary school, the three-year citizens' school and later the one-year housekeeping school in Vienna's inner city. After a few years as a housemaid, she became an assistant nurse in Lainz Hospital in 1914. At the age of 19 she joined the order of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Love (also known as the "Hartmann Sisters ") and took on the religious name Maria Restituta. After the First World War , she came to the Mödling Hospital as a surgical nurse in 1919 and made it up to the head nurse of the surgical department.

Resistance and death in the Nazi era

The Mödling hospital was not spared by the annexation of Austria in 1938. Sister Restituta refused to remove crucifixes from the hospital rooms. She also refused to give preference to “Aryan” patients over “foreigners”. These attitudes and two texts critical of the regime that she dictated were her undoing. The surgeon Lambert Stumfohl, a member of the SS, denounced Sister Restituta. On Ash Wednesday, February 18, 1942, she was arrested by the Gestapo in the operating room . On October 29, 1942, she was sentenced to death for “ favoring the enemy and preparing for high treason ” .

On March 30, 1943, Maria Restituta Kafka was executed by beheading in the Vienna Regional Court . As with the other victims of National Socialism who were put to death by the National Socialist state because of their ethnic affiliation , their beliefs or for political reasons , their execution is now referred to and felt as a murder .

Despite the church's wishes, the body was not handed over to the religious community. Sr. Restituta, like about 2,700 other people, was buried anonymously in the so-called group 40 of the Vienna Central Cemetery (row 30, grave number 158).

Commemoration in the post-war period

On June 21, 1998, Sr. Restituta was beatified during the Pope's visit by John Paul II to Vienna. Her liturgical feast day is October 29th (day of the death sentence, 1942).

In Mödling , the western half of Weyprechtgasse in front of the hospital was renamed Sister-Maria-Restituta-Gasse to commemorate her . In 2000, a Maria-Restituta-Platz was named in Vienna-Brigittenau, the district of her childhood and youth, near the Danube bridge, near the U6 station “Handelskai” . In 2006 the Cologne artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block in Mödling at Sr.-Maria-Restituta-Gasse 12 . In Vienna-Margareten a community building is named after her (corner of Pannaschgasse-Margaretenstrasse). Her house in Brigittenau as a child (Denisgasse) has a memorial plaque. In the Hartmannspital in Vienna- Margareten there is a permanent exhibition RESTITUTA documentation Faith against Nazi violence . In the basilica of Klein-Mariazell , too , there are reports about her life and special thought for her. Since May 27, 2009, a bust by Alfred Hrdlicka has been installed in the Barbara Chapel of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . In the weekday chapel of the parish church Herz-Jesu in Mödling - to this parish belongs the Landesklinikum (hospital) Mödling - a ceramic statue created by Lukas Philippovich was placed on October 29, 2017.

A cross carried by Sr. Restituta has been placed as a relic on a side altar in the Basilica of San Bartolomeo all'Isola in Rome since March 2013 . Pope John Paul II dedicated this church in 2002 to the memory of martyrs and witnesses of faith of the 20th century, regardless of their denomination.

In 2000, the Brigittenauer Gymnasium premiered the musical “Restituta” (composer: Elisabeth Lotterstätter; lyrics: Elisabeth Lotterstätter, Rita Melzer, Ingeborg Schnaubelt; book: Elisabeth Lotterstätter, Ingeborg Schnaubelt). In 2010 a double CD was released with the musical and the "Restituta-Messe" (composed by Elisabeth Lotterstätter, texts: Elisabeth Lotterstätter and Rita Melzer; recorded by Singgemeinschaft Ebergassing).

literature

in order of appearance

radio play

  • Susanne Ayoub : Sister Kafka. Scenes from the life of Helene Kafka . Radio play. Production ORF - Radio Ö1. First broadcast in 2004.

Web links

Commons : Maria Restituta Kafka  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Online presence of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Love
  2. ^ Martin Krist, Albert Lichtblau : National Socialism in Vienna. Perpetrator. Victim. Opponent . Studien Verlag, Innsbruck 2017, therein p. 330.
  3. ↑ Willi Weinert: “You can put me out, but not the fire”. Biographies of the resistance fighters executed in the Vienna Regional Court: a guide through Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery and to sacrificial graves in Vienna's cemeteries. Wiener Stern-Verl., Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-9502478-2-4 , p. 82
  4. ↑ https://www.doew.at/erinnern/biographien/spurensuche/maria-restituta-helene-kafka-1894-1943 https://books.google.de/books?id=zV8qCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=Bericht+ to + death sentence + against + Helene + Kafka & source = bl & ots = l6sTM5VHiA & sig = ACfU3U2OOzYI-DhzCNkDE-GH6wVIvji7WQ & hl = en & sa = X & ved = 2ahUKEwjFtY_BkdPoAhVpVRUIHVfFCh0Q6AEwBHoECAsQKw # v = OnePage & q = report% 20zum% 20Todesurteil% 20gegen% 20Helene% 20Kafka & f = false
  5. ↑ Evelyn Steinthaler: She died for her faith , Wiener Zeitung extra, June 21, 2008, online , wienerzeitung.at, accessed on June 15, 2012
  6. ↑ Online presence of the municipality of Mödling, Stolpersteine ​​2006 campaign
  7. ↑ Restituta-Forum magazine ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Opening times of the exhibition
  8. ↑ ORF Online: Hrdlicka designed St. Stephen's Cathedral sculpture  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed May 13, 2009)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wien.orf.at  
  9. ↑ Church in Mödling 2017/02, p. 6: “A patron saint for our chapel” by Nikolaus Philippovich
  10. ^ Austrian Catholic Press Agency, March 5, 2013 ( Memento from April 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
personal data
SURNAME Kafka, Maria Restituta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kafka, Helene (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian nun and nurse, Blessed
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Hussowitz near Brno , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1943
Place of death Vienna