Mathias von Gersdorff

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Mathias von Gersdorff (* 1964 in Santiago de Chile ) is a Catholic graduate economist from Frankfurt am Main and belongs to the noble family of the gentlemen von Gersdorff . He heads the German office of the traditionalist society for the protection of tradition, family and private property and appears in public as a publicist and activist of the right to life movement .

Career and activities

Gersdorff studied economics and graduated in 1989 in Bonn with a degree in economics. He worked for several years as a banker in London and Frankfurt am Main. In addition, he publishes books and brochures and publishes articles with ideological and church-political content, among others for the right-wing conservative magazine Junge Freiheit or the internet portals kreuz.net and kath.net . He also writes for blogs such as Charismatism , Treff-Am-Kreuz , Parliamentary Check and FreieWelt.net .

TFP and DVCK

Gersdorff has been an activist for many years and since 2008 director of the German section of the Society for the Protection of Tradition, Family and Private Property (TFP), an association founded in 1960 by the Brazilian Plínio Corrêa de Oliveira , which is committed to " communism and the Catholic left [...] oppose ”and fight liberation theology in the Catholic Church and, in the words of the founder, advocate a“ sacred, anti-legal and anti-liberal Christian culture ”, which is characterized as“ counter-revolutionary ”. The TFP is classified by the political sociologist and right-wing extremism researcher Karin Priester as a right-wing extremist sect ; A self-description as a “non-partisan association” can be found on the website of the TFP campaign “The Sacred Heart of Jesus Apostolate for the Future of the Family” led by Gersdorff . Mathias von Gersdorff has been the coordinator of the affiliated German Association for Christian Culture (DVCK) since 1993 and heads the campaigns “Children in Danger” (KiG), which is primarily directed against the youth magazine Bravo , and “SOS Leben”.

Protection of life and bioethics

Mathias von Gersdorff has been active in the German right to life movement since 1990 and speaks at events and in publications against abortion , pornography , same-sex marriage and blasphemy as well as against the “ gender ideology”. He took part in “ Marches for Life ” and supports the “ Demo for All ” action alliance belonging to the network of AfD politician Beatrix von Storch and the couple Klaus and Birgit Kelle in the fight against the Baden-Württemberg education plan 2015 , including as a Speaker at rallies. In 2013, Gersdorff appeared as an invited speaker at the World Congress of Families (WCF) in Sydney , a Christian fundamentalist network with evangelical influences from the United States , which, according to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, has similar family and socio-political goals as those from Latin America Original TFP persecuted on the Catholic side.

In the book “Germany aborts” Mathias von Gersdorff is described as follows from the apabiz's point of view : “Above all, the nobleman von Gersdorff, the head of Aktion KiG, participates in debates about abortion, PGD, gender mainstreaming and sexual ones with sharp formulations Early education. He was already an author for the Christian Democrats for Life , in whose federal members' meetings the DVCK partly participated and the Junge Freiheit as well as a speaker at the extreme right-wing State and Economic Political Society eV The KiG campaign is part of the protests against the 2015 education plan in Baden-Württemberg. "

Internal church activities

Von Gersdorff regularly comments on internal church debates regarding marriage , family and sexual morality and, in the context of the Roman Synod of Bishops on the family in 2014 and 2015, took a negative position against liberalization tendencies in Catholic lay committees and in the episcopate . Von Gersdorff also sharply criticized the reform of church labor law recommended by the German Bishops' Conference in 2015. He is also quoted and interviewed on these topics in friendly international media as a “prominent German church observer”. Gersdorff is co-organizer of an online petition to the Pope initiated by circles close to the TFP (“Surrendered request to His Holiness Pope Francis about the future of the family”), which he describes as “a backlash against attempts by left-wing Catholicism, ie by organizations like We are church , left theologians and unfortunately also from some bishops who understand how to polish and liberalize Catholic doctrine ”, and which, according to our own statements, was signed by seven cardinals and around 140 bishops worldwide. The Pope is asked to clearly condemn the “admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to Holy Communion” and all forms of “homosexual partnerships”.

For his biography of Plínio Corrêa de Oliveira, published in 2015 by Verlag der Abbey Mariawald , Mathias von Gersdorff received honors from various ecclesiastical dignitaries from his ecclesiastical environment (including the Cardinals Raymond Burke , Walter Brandmüller and Paul Josef Cordes , Archbishop Wolfgang Haas , Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Georg May ).

Fonts (selection)

  • The sexual revolution reaches children. DVCK, Frankfurt am Main 2005. 138 pp. ISBN 978-83-88739-26-2
  • Targeting Christian hatred. Christophobia, religious warfare and blasphemy in the media. DVCK, Frankfurt am Main 2010. 150 pp.
  • The fight for life. "SOS-Leben" campaign by DVCK, Frankfurt am Main 2012. 156 pp.
  • Alarm to the children. "Children in Danger" campaign by the DVCK, Frankfurt am Main 2013. 129 pp.
  • Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and the counter-revolution. In: Daniel Führing (Ed.): Against the Crisis of Time: Portrait of Conservative Thinkers. Graz 2013, ISBN 978-3902732217 .
  • Intolerance against Christians in Europe. In: Gerhard Stumpf (Ed.): The Catholic Church on the way through time. Landsberg am Lech 2014, ISBN 978-3-9814138-2-3 .
  • As editor: marriage and family in the barrage of revolutionary attacks. With contributions by: Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Murillo Galliez, Felizitas Küble and Christa Meves . DVCK, Frankfurt am Main 2014. 163 pages.
  • Encounter with Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: Catholic warrior in stormy times. Patrimonium-Verlag , Heimbach 2015. ISBN 978-3864170331 (biography of the TFP founder).
  • Gender: what's behind it? Media Maria, Illertissen 2015. ISBN 978-3945401149

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Imprint of the German Society for the Protection of Tradition, Family and Private Property eV , Bad Homburg vor der Höhe .
  2. ↑ a b c Short biography ( English , WCF).
  3. ↑ a b short biography (German, JF).
  4. ^ Mathias von Gersdorff: Fifty years too many. kreuz.net from August 23, 2006, in the Internet Archive
  5. ↑ a b c Article in the Linz internet magazine Kath.net : Journalist: 'Colossal failure of the German episcopate' (April 29, 2015); German Bishops' Conference does what Napoleon failed to do (May 6, 2015); German Bishops' Conference invents its own family term (June 24, 2015), accessed on June 26, 2015.
  6. ↑ Gersdorff's posts in the Christian Forum blog network by Felizitas Küble, accessed on June 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ a b Humanistic press service of February 4, 2015: Clerical-aristocratic networking in the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) , accessed on June 26, 2015.
  8. ↑ Before that he was chairman of the “Association of Austrian Youth for a Christian-Cultural Community within the German-speaking Area”, the youth department of the Austrian section of the TFP ( program of the TFP Summer Academy 2007 , page 9).
  9. ↑ a b c d Andreas Kemper : Germ cell of the nation - Part 2. Ed. from Forum Politics and Society of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin 2014, pp. 19–22 (“2.1.2 American Activities in Europe”).
  10. ↑ Short biography of the TFP founder (source: TFP project website www.der-adel.info): Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: A man of faith, a man of action and a philosopher , accessed on July 1, 2015.
  11. ↑ Quotation from the founding manifesto Revolution and Counterrevolution (1959) by Corrêa de Oliveira on the website of the Austrian section of the TFP , accessed on June 26, 2015.
  12. ↑ Karin Priester : The Society, Politics and the Pope. ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Neue Gesellschaft / Frankfurter Hefte 2009, Heft 3 (March 2009), pp. 12–16 (here: p. 15).
  13. ↑ The Sacred Heart of Jesus Apostolate - For the Future of the Family , visited June 30, 2015.
  14. ^ Program of the TFP Summer Academy 2007 , page 3.
  15. ↑ TAZ of March 17, 2009: Das nackte Grauen , accessed on October 22, 2014; Munich daily tz from April 22, 2014: Strict Catholics want to ban Bravo , accessed on June 26, 2015.
  16. ↑ Kath.net of October 7, 2014: 'With this we save children ...' CDU General Secretary Tauber replies to the “Action SOS Leben” , accessed on June 26, 2015.
  17. ↑ Book presentation from March 15, 2015: Gender ideology is “sheer fanaticism” (Internet magazine Idea from March 15, 2015), accessed on June 30, 2015; Leipzig Book Fair: Book of the “Children in Danger” campaign against gender presented (bulletin of the “Children in Danger” campaign of March 17, 2015), accessed on July 1, 2015.
  18. ↑ On Deutschlandfunk he was described as the representative of children in danger during the protests in Stuttgart against the education plan (report of March 3, 2014: Baden-Württemberg education plan: willingness to compromise sounds different , accessed on June 26, 2015). The gay portal Queer.de described him as one of the “central spokesmen for the protests” against the 2015 education plan (report of April 3, 2014: Beatrix von Storch on the education plan: Resistance is compulsory , accessed on October 28, 2014).
  19. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung of March 5, 2014: Education plan divides CDU party leadership , accessed on June 26, 2015.
  20. ↑ Eike Sanders, Ulli Jentsch, Felix Hansen from the Antifascist Press Archive and Education Center Berlin (apabiz eV): "Germany drives itself off." Organized "life protection", Christian fundamentalism and anti-feminism. Münster, August 2014 ( description of the publisher , accessed on June 26, 2015).
  21. ↑ LifeSiteNews.com, May 6, 2015: Germany's bishops vote to allow Church employees to publicly defy Catholic teaching , accessed June 26, 2015.
  22. ^ So Edward Pentin on May 15, 2015 in the National Catholic Register (“Prominent German Church commentator Mathias von Gersdorff”; in: Top German Lay Catholic Group Pushes Communion for Civilly Divorced-Remarried and More , accessed on June 26, 2015).
  23. ↑ Interview with Mathias von Gersdorff from June 2, 2015 on the life protection portal LifeSiteNews.com : Understanding the kerfuffle in the German Catholic Church - interview with Mathias von Gersdorff , accessed on June 26, 2015.
  24. ↑ Interview with Mathias von Gersdorff from May 11, 2015 in the blog newspaper FreieWelt.net , accessed on July 1, 2015.
  25. ↑ See the public signatory list of the campaign ( Memento of October 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed November 17, 2015).
  26. ↑ Asia News: A filial appeal from Manila to the pope to stand by marriage
  27. ↑ Text of the petition "devotee Please" ( Memento of 7 November 2015, Internet Archive ).
  28. ↑ Publishing information on the biography of Plínio Corrêa de Oliveira , accessed on July 1, 2015.
  29. ↑ plant evidence ( Memento of 3 March 2016 Internet Archive ): The struggle for life .
personal data
SURNAME Gersdorff, Mathias von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic publicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Chile