Max Josef Metzger

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Memorial plaque on the house at Willdenowstrasse 8 in Berlin-Wedding
Memorial plaque for butchers in Magdeburg
Stumbling block for butchers in Meitingen
Stolperstein , Müllerstrasse 161, in Berlin-Wedding
Memorial stone on the square named after Max Josef Metzger in Berlin

Max Josef Metzger (born February 3, 1887 in Schopfheim ; † April 17, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a German Catholic priest who was sentenced to death on October 14, 1943 by the People's Court under the chairmanship of its President Roland Freisler on October 14, 1943 because of his pacifist convictions and was executed after six months.

Life

Max Josef Metzger was born as the first of four children to secondary school teacher Friedrich August Metzger and his wife Anna. He attended elementary school and secondary school in Schopfheim, then high schools in Donaueschingen , Lörrach and Konstanz . From 1905 to 1910 he studied philosophy and theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Freiburg im Üechtland . In 1911 he received his doctorate theologiae . Regardless of his outstanding talents, he did not pursue a scientific career, but devoted himself to practical work. Because of his experience as a division pastor in World War I , he became a radical pacifist with international influence and was a member of the International Union of Reconciliation . He founded various pacifist organizations, including the Peace Association of German Catholics , the World Peace Association of the White Cross and was involved in the non-denominational Una Sancta movement and for the planned language Esperanto and was also active for the Christ the King Society, which was dedicated to the care of drinkers. In 1915 he was general secretary of the Kreuzbund Association of Abstinent Catholics. In 1919 he was co-founder and later general director of the secular institute Christkönigs-Institut Meitingen and took on the name "Brother Paulus".

A few months after the National Socialists came to power , Metzger wrote in a memorandum that it would be consistent for the church to begin an open fight against the new state. Since National Socialism is hopelessly superior in terms of power politics, this is pointless. Instead, Metzger recommended constructive cooperation with the Nazi state in order to prevent “worse things”. It was through this memorandum, which left no doubt about his personal rejection of National Socialism, that Metzger was targeted by the Gestapo for the first time . After two shorter stays from January 23, 1934 to January 26, 1934 and from November 9, 1939 to December 4, 1939, he was finally detained on June 29, 1943 due to the betrayal of the Gestapo agent Dagmar Imgart , who turned himself into an informant in the Una-Sancta -Movement had crept in and gained his trust, arrested. Since she was a Swedish citizen and was regularly allowed to visit relatives in Sweden during the war, he had entrusted her with a memorandum (the Democratic Manifesto ) addressed to Archbishop Erling Eidem , which formulated the future democratic structures of Germany.

Condemnation

Max Josef Metzger was sentenced to death in a show trial lasting only 70 minutes . On that day, Freisler had already dealt with three criminal proceedings in his own way. He refused to listen to the accused because it was impossible for him to “the political tirades of Dr. Metzgers ”. When Metzger mentioned the Una Sancta movement , Freisler shouted: “Una Sancta, Una sancta - una sanctissima - Una - that's us, and there's nothing more!”. Freisler declared that such a plague was to be stamped out and a few minutes later announced the preconceived death sentence.

The judgment, which was also signed by the second professional judge, the chamber judge Hans-Joachim Rehse , is remarkable due to the evaluations it received in dealing with National Socialist injustices after the fall of the German Reich . First of all, Metzger's Democratic Manifesto is commented on in the following words:

“So it is a draft of a system of government for Germany that is democratic-pacifist, defenseless, subject to a terror army of our enemies, not a unitary state , not even a federal state, but only a confederation of states; in other words, to make our enemies' worst dreams come true! [...] A very monstrous thought, as only a deeply defeatist person can grasp. A shameful, treacherous thought, such as can only be grasped by someone who deeply hates our National Socialist Germany. "

and:

“Because Metzger's whole way of acting is so monstrous that it doesn't matter whether it is legally labeled as high treason […] or whether it is legally favored by the enemy […] - none of that matters: because every national comrade knows that such a departure of an individual German from our battle front is an outrageous act, a betrayal of our people in their struggle for their life, and that such a betrayal is worthy of death; it is a betrayal in the direction of high treason, a betrayal in the direction of defeatism, a betrayal in the direction of favoring the enemy, a betrayal which our common sense of the people considers worthy of death (§ 2 StGB.). Therefore Metzger would have to be sentenced to death for this common treason [...]. Today Metzger tried to show in the main hearing that he was only out of good precaution [...]. But that's a completely different world, a world that we don't understand. And with us in the Greater German Reich everyone can only be condemned according to the principles that apply here, according to National Socialist views that are so far removed from them that a discussion about them on a National Socialist basis is not at all possible - and these are the views the butcher's behavior is the basis - no German court can, may or will take into account. Everyone has to put up with being measured according to German, National Socialist standards. And he clearly says that a man who acts like this is a traitor to his own people. "

Legal review after 1945

The legal processing of this and other unjust judgments remained very imperfect. The informer was established in 1947 as part of the denazification of the denazification in casting as the main culprit to ten years detention condemned, but was released after three years. The criminal investigation was inadequate. First of all, the Gestapo officer mentioned was acquitted in October 1951 by the Limburg jury court of allegations of complicity in murder and deprivation of liberty. After the Federal Court of Justice had overturned this judgment, the Kassel jury could only agree to a prison sentence of one year and three months in prison for deprivation of liberty. It refused to call the death sentence materially illegal. Only after the renewed appeal did the BGH declare the judgment to be a terrorist judgment, it was a matter of “jurisdiction as a terrorist instrument”. After Freisler could not be called to account for his death, only Hans-Joachim Rehse was available. Ultimately, the proceedings initiated against him for perversion of justice and other offenses also failed . It was not until 1997 that the death sentence against Max Josef Metzger was posthumously overturned by the Berlin Regional Court.

memory

The Catholic Church took Max Joseph Metzger in 1999 as witnesses of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century on. In Augsburg every year on April 17th at 5 p.m. there is a commemoration at the Max-Josef-Metzger-Stele in front of the cathedral.

The April 17 is the Protestant calendar name out as a day of remembrance for butchers.

On the occasion of the renaming of the former Courbière-Platz in Berlin-Wedding to Max-Josef-Metzger-Platz in 1994, the Berlin Senate unveiled a granite stele in honor of the priest with the inscription "I offered my life to God for the peace of the world."

In Magdeburg , Brandenburg an der Havel , Leipgzig-Gohlis , Konstanz , in the Freiburg district of Rieselfeld and in Augsburg streets and in Meitingen the state secondary school were named after Max Josef Metzger. In Lörrach , there is a Max-Josef-Metzger-house and in his hometown of Schopfheim elementary school was named after him. On September 22nd, 2016 , a stumbling block was laid in front of the St. Joseph Church (Berlin-Wedding) , Müllerstraße 161 .

Beatification process

On May 8, 2006, the then Archbishop of Freiburg , Robert Zollitsch , opened the process of beatification for Max Josef Metzger, whom he described as a “prophetic martyr”. Written sources and testimonies were collected for eight years. In March 2014, the documentation was handed over to the Congregation for the Process of Beatification and Canonization , thus completing this first part of the process, the “diocesan information process”. In 2015, the beatification process was ended at the diocese level and the result, with around 6,000 pages of studies and evidence, was passed on to the Roman Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Fonts

  • Memorandum. (PDF; 9 kB) Metzger's Democratic Manifesto . (No longer available online.) In: die-linke-wedding.de. Die Linke , February 16, 2007, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 : "Copy from the files of the German Federal Archives in Berlin, BArch NJ 13512";

literature

  • Werner Becker : Max Josef Metzger. In: Werner Becker, Bruno Radom (ed.): Ecumenical people. Dedicated to Hermann Hoffmann as a festive gift on the occasion of his 90th birthday. St. Benno Verlag, Leipzig 1969, DNB 575073357 , pp. 39-59.
  • Klaus Drobisch : Against the war. Documentary report on the life and death of the Catholic clergyman Dr. Max Josef Metzger. Berlin 1970, DNB 456489282 .
  • Paulus Engelhardt (Ed.): Max Josef Metzger: Brother Paulus. Imba-Verlag, Friborg 1980, ISBN 3-85740-099-4 .
  • Rupert Feneberg , Rainer Öhlschläger (eds.): Max Josef Metzger. On the way to a peace council (= Hohenheim Protocols. Vol. 22). Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-926297-02-6 .
  • Emmanuel Maria Heufelder : Dr. Max Josef Metzger. A commemoration of his 80th birthday on February 3, 1967. In: Erbe und Einsatz . Vol. 43 (1967), pp. 143-146.
  • Benedicta Maria Kempner : Priest before Hitler's tribunals. 2., through and additional edition. Rütten and Loening, Munich 1967, DNB 457181737 , pp. 273-289; unchangeable Reprinted by Bertelsmann, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-570-12292-1 .
  • Karl Cardinal Lehmann : The priest Max Josef Metzger. Gestapo imprisonment and death sentence (= Topography of Terror. Notes, Vol. 11). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95565-164-0 .
  • Marianne Möhring: doer of the word. Max Josef Metzger - Life and Work. Kyrios-Verlag Meitingen, Meitingen / Freising 1966, DNB 457616695 .
  • Marianne Möhring:  Butcher, Max Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 255 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Helmut Moll (ed.): Witnesses for Christ . The German martyrology of the 20th century. 7th, revised and updated edition. tape 1 . Paderborn 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , pp. 274–277 (edited on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference ).
  • Hugo Ott : Documentation on the sentencing of the Freiburg diocesan priest Dr. Max Josef Metzger and on the opinion of the Archbishop of Freiburg, Dr. Conrad Groeber. In: Freiburg Diocesan Archive . Vol. 90, 1970, pp. 303-315, urn : nbn: de: bsz: 25-opus-56655 (annual volume PDF; 25.8 MB).
  • Michael Plathow :  Metzger, Max Josef. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1399-1401.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive  on 2007-06-29)
  • Dagmar Pöpping: Occident. Christian academics and the utopia of anti-modernism 1900–1945. Metropol, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-932482-71-9 , pp. 187-199 (Zugl .: Bochum, Univ., Diss., 2000).
  • Ralf Putz: The Christ the King Institute, Meitingen, and its founder Dr. Max Josef Metzger (1887–1944). For the peace of the world and the unity of the church (= Theos series of publications. Volume 26). Kovač, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-86064-842-X (diploma thesis, University of Augsburg 1998).
  • City of Schopfheim (Hrsg.): For the peace of the world and the unity of the church. (Book accompanying the Dr. Max Josef Metzger exhibition). Text editing: Klaus Schubring. Rünzi printer, Schopfheim-Fahrnau 1987, ISBN 3-926431-00-8 .
  • Lilian Stevenson: Max Joseph Metzger, priest and martyr, 1887-1944, with a selection from his letters and poems written in prison. SPCK, London 1952, OCLC 18478759 .
  • Leonard Swidler: Bloodwitness for Peace and Unity. The life of Max Josef Metzger. Ecumenical Press, Philadelphia 1977, OCLC 3160257 .

Web links

Commons : Max Josef Metzger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Instead of the F at the end of this name, initially written with PH." Meinulf Barbers: Max Josef Metzger (executed on April 17, 1944). Campaigners for peace, reconciliation and Christian unity - and Quickborner . In: Quickborn Working Group (ed.): Burgzeitung . No. 1 , 2014, p. 39–43 ( quickborn-ak.de ( Memento from March 27, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 892 kB ; accessed on September 24, 2019] here: p. 39 Note 1: detailed short biography).
  2. ↑ Dagmar Pöpping: Occident. Christian academics and the utopia of anti-modernism 1900–1945. Berlin 2002, p. 192 f.
  3. ↑ For the original text see writings .
  4. ↑ The judgment of the People's Court against Dr. Butcher: 8 J 190/43 g l H 253/43. As a judge, the President of the People's Court served as chairman Freisler, Kammergerichtsrat Rehse Gauhauptstellenleiter mayor Ahmels, Ortsgruppenleiter cup Kreisleiters Reinecke, representing the upper realm lawyer , the first prosecutor Drullmann.
  5. ^ LG Kassel, November 16, 1954. In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German convictions for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966. Vol. XII. Edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, H. H. Fuchs and CF Rüter . University Press, Amsterdam 1974, No. 408, pp. 743-858.
  6. ↑ Max Joseph Metzger in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints , accessed on March 26, 2020.
  7. ^ Entry in the Leipzig Lexicon, accessed on April 28, 2020
  8. ^ Roland Schnell: Archive of the category: Max Josef Metzger. In: esperanto.berlin. Esperanto Association Berlin-Brandenburg e. V., September 25, 2016, accessed January 24, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Dr. Max Josef Metzger - A "prophetic martyr". (PDF; 42 kB) Press release of May 8, 2006. (No longer available online.) Archdiocese of Freiburg, May 11, 2006, archived from the original on October 30, 2016 ; accessed on October 30, 2016 .
  10. ^ " Apostle of Peace" and "Pioneer in Ecumenism". Communication from the Archdiocese of Freiburg on the conclusion of the diocesan information process. (No longer available online.) In: erzbistum-freiburg.de. March 28, 2014, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on October 23, 2018 .
  11. ↑ (KNA): Lehmann pays tribute to Nazi opponent Max Josef Metzger. Cardinal of Mainz speaks about resistance priests. (No longer available online.) In: kathisch.de . German Bishops' Conference, December 16, 2015, archived from the original on October 24, 2018 ; accessed on January 25, 2019 .
  12. ↑ exhibition. In: freiburg.paxchristi.de, accessed on October 23, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Butcher, Max Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brother paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest, sentenced to death by the Nazis and executed
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Schopfheim , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1944
Place of death Brandenburg an der Havel , German Empire