Matthias Beckers

Matthias Beckers (* 1900 in Mönchengladbach ; † February 8, 1985 in Düsseldorf ) was a Roman Catholic pastor and peace activist .

Life

After his theological training, Beckers first became chaplain in the parish of St. Bruno , and on February 20, 1934, he was rector of the Rectorate Golzheimer Heide in Düsseldorf-Stockum, which is now dependent on St. Bruno . This finally became the independent Rectorate Parish of the Holy Family in 1940 .

For his public support for the marginalized people living in his parish, the National Socialists banned him from preaching and residing. In 1940 he was captured, expelled and banished by the Gestapo .

“Christians! He shouted, and the word hit like a whip, and again: Christians! When the Lord of Life and Death will ask you on the last day: where are your brothers, the Gypsies from Heinefeld? Then you will not be able to give him an answer. But the gentleman will continue to ask piercingly: where have the gypsies gone? Then you will stutter and talk about the SS and the Fiihrer Adolf Hitler , who ordered all of this. Then you will all have to bow your head in shame and answer: 'Lord, we were followers and duckies in a pack of wolves ...' "

- Beckers' sermon in Heinefeld, Golzheimer Heide

Beckers, who returned after the end of the war , was solemnly reintroduced as the rectorate pastor of his church on Heinefeld on August 12, 1945 , and with the elevation to the canonical parish in 1951, he became the first pastor of the community. He stayed that way until 1975 and also lived in the parish when he retired. On December 31, 1975, Pastor Beckers retired.

Engagement in the peace movement

Together with Father Franziskus Maria Stratmann , who returned to Germany from exile in 1947 , he revived the Peace Association of German Catholics in Düsseldorf , which Stratmann had re-established while in exile with Rudolf Gunst and Felix Hinz .

Beckers characterized the difference to the newly created Pax Christi movement as follows:

“In Düsseldorf (we also started) a Pax Christi movement which, unlike the Peace Association of German Catholics, wants to ask for peace from the Lord God. Father Manfred Hörhammer said: 'The Pax Christi movement is the work that prays and the Peace Alliance is the creative work', i.e. the one who not only wants to pray for peace, but also wants to advance into the political arena that wants to educate and educate people etc."

From 1948 to 1950 Beckers and Christa Thomas published the monthly "Friedensbriefe" as an organ of the Friedensbund in order to familiarize the population with the concerns of the Friedensbund.

At the end of 1950, Pastor Beckers, together with Christa Thomas and Wilhelm Elfes and Katharina von Kardorff-Oheimb, supported GDR Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl's proposal to Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to start negotiations on the formation of an all-German constituent council . In response to a request from the Archbishop's General Vicariate of Cologne on January 26, 1951, he wrote his position as an FDK member:

“It is true that I co-signed an appeal on the matter of the Grotewohl letter. This was done carefully and was like an inner must out of my religious attitude, not to get involved in a highly political matter ... The concern of peace is a religious one for me. In terms of its effects, however, it will not be possible to limit it to the purely religious area ... Because I am for peace, not only theoretically but also practically to work on its realization, I consider myself obliged in my conscience, that is why I am also for peace with the German brothers on the other side of the iron curtain and against a war in which Germans stand against Germans. That is why I believed I had to help, that everything, even difficult, must be tried in order to get into conversation with the brother come and exhaust all possibilities that are supposed to serve peace ... By the way, I am of the opinion that advocating an understanding with the Germans in the East is to be evaluated just as politically as an election, although it is out of Christian responsibility in the political arena and wants to influence political events. "

The Friedensbund was also one of the first Christian groups to take a stand against plans to rearm West Germany. Thereupon he was violently attacked publicly by the German Catholic bishops as well as the then federal government under Konrad Adenauer. Under this pressure it broke up in 1951. His commitment to the Friedensbund led Beckers to his reputation as "peace pastor".

Together with Christa Thomas, Joseph Emonds and Nikolaus Ehlen , he initiated the "appeal to outlaw the atom bomb on the basis of the Easter message of Pope Pius XII in 1954".

Aftermath

The memorial for Pastor Beckers can be found on Heinefeldplatz . The plaque of the memorial reminds of the entry and the practical help by Beckers for the marginalized people living there, to whom u. a. many Sinti belonged. Because of his charitable work, Beckers is also known to many as the "pastor of the poor".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 5. Foundation of the first parish on the Heinefeld (PDF file). Website of the Bürgererverein Unterrath 1909 and Lichtenbroich eV Accessed on August 22, 2016.
2. ^ Konrad Breitenborn , Der Friedensbund Deutscher Katholiken, 1918 / 19-1951, 1981, pp. 148–156, for the previous one; for the designation as peace pastor see p. 150
3. ↑ Martin Stankowski , Left Catholicism after 1945. The press of oppositional Catholics in the dispute for a democratic and socialist society, 1976, p. 19
4. ^ Memorial sites of the Sinti and Roma on sintiundroma.de
5. ↑ Literature: Karola Fings , Frank Sparing, Johanneskirche (Düsseldorf) : "Oh, friends, where have you gone ...?" Otto Pankok and the Düsseldorf Sinti. 2nd ext. 2006 edition, without ISBN. With many historical recordings.
6. ↑ Ulrich Brzosa, 100 years Caritas association for the city of Dusseldorf. The history of Caritas in Düsseldorf from the beginning to the present, 2004, p. 532