Michael von Faulhaber

Bishop Faulhaber as field provost (1917)

Michael Faulhaber , from 1913 from Faulhaber ; (* March 5, 1869 in Heidenfeld , Lower Franconia ; † June 12, 1952 in Munich ) was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1917 and cardinal from 1921.

Life

Faulhaber graduated from high school in Würzburg, 1888

Michael Faulhaber was the third of a total of seven children to the married couple Michael (1831–1900) and Margarete Faulhaber, née Schmitt, (1839–1911) in Klosterheidenfeld near Schweinfurt. His father, a master baker, came from a farming family in Oberpleichfeld near Würzburg , the mother was a baker's daughter from Bergtheim . The village pastor made it possible for him to attend the grammar school in Schweinfurt from 1879 . In 1883 he was accepted into the episcopal boys' seminar Kilianeum Würzburg and attended the Royal New Gymnasium in Würzburg.

During his time as a one-year volunteer with the Royal Bavarian 9th Infantry Regiment "Wrede" , he became a member of the KStV Normannia Würzburg in 1888. On October 26, 1889, he entered the seminary in Würzburg . On August 1, 1892, he was ordained a priest in Würzburg . Then Faulhaber was a chaplain in Kitzingen . On September 1, 1893, he was appointed prefect of the Kilianeum boys' college. On May 6, 1895 he received his doctorate in theology with a dissertation on Eusebius of Caesarea at the University of Würzburg , and on November 11, 1899, he received his habilitation and was appointed private lecturer , also at the University of Würzburg. On July 26, 1903, he took over the full professorship for "Old Testament Exegesis and Biblical Theology" at the Catholic theological faculty of the University of Strasbourg .

Invitation card from the personal possession of Cathedral Chapter Joseph Schwind , the soul guide of St. Edith Stein , for the festive dinner on the occasion of the enthronement of Bishop Michael Faulhaber, Speyer, 1911

Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich and Freising (1931)

On November 4, 1910, at the suggestion of the Bavarian Minister of Culture, he was appointed Bishop of Speyer . After the papal confirmation on January 7th of the following year, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Franziskus von Bettinger , donated his episcopal ordination on February 19, 1911 . Co- consecrators were the Würzburg bishop Ferdinand von Schlör and the bishop of Strasbourg , Adolf Fritzen . On May 1, 1913, Prince Regent Ludwig III raised him . of Bavaria with the award of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown in the personal nobility .

With the beginning of the war in 1914, Bishop Faulhaber was also deputy field provost ( military bishop ) of the Bavarian Army . In 1917 he wrote that the Germans "had to leave peaceful work in the lurch in order to protect home and hearth against the insidious attack by our enemies". He commented on the legitimacy of the First World War as follows: "I am convinced that this campaign in the ethics of war will become the textbook example of a just war for us ."

On May 26, 1917, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising as the successor to the late Archbishop Franziskus von Bettinger . The inauguration took place on September 3, 1917. In the consistory of March 7, 1921 Pope Benedict XV raised him . cardinal and shortly thereafter cardinal priest of the titular church Sant'Anastasia . The cardinal took part in the 1922 conclave from which Pius XI. emerged as Pope.

The national-conservative Faulhaber was critical or even negative about the Weimar Republic . He said: “Kings by the grace of the people are no grace for the people, and where the people are their own king, sooner or later they will also be their own gravedigger”. He also spoke very critically about the Weimar Republic at the 62nd German Catholic Day in Munich . For Nazism , he also kept his distance; in November 1930 he described it as a "heresy and inconsistent with the Christian worldview".

Faulhaber played a leading role in the priestly association “ Amici Israel ” founded in Rome on January 24, 1926 . The main goal was Christian-Jewish reconciliation. The association asked Pope Pius XI. on January 2, 1928, to change the harshly formulated Good Friday intercession for the Jews ( Oremus et pro perfidis Iudaeis - “Let us also pray for the faithless Jews”). The Congregation for Rites agreed to the request, but was ultimately rejected by the Holy Office. The “Amici Israel” were also reprimanded and dissolved by the Pope. Faulhaber himself had already given his priests the program and prayer slip of the "Amici Israel" during the sermon course in 1927 and commanded: "Avoid anything that has an anti-Semitic sound in Christian sermons!"

In 1927 he built in Munich Schloss Fürstenried the Archbishop's late bloomers Seminar "St. Matthias ” to give young men the opportunity to catch up on their Abitur and to become priests of the Roman Catholic Church. This was and is still the first goal of the house. In 1957 it was relocated to Wolfratshausen-Waldram , 30 km south .

Faulhaber supported Fritz Gerlich , who fought resolutely against National Socialism with his weekly The Straight Way . He firmly denied accusations against Gerlich and said that the "local clergy" were "thrilled that a man has finally appeared on the Catholic side who holds the line against the opponents [of National Socialism]".

Faulhaber's loyalty to the state authorities, however, hampered a more determined opposition to the National Socialists. Instead, he welcomed the Reich Concordat of July 20, 1933 after they came to power . He saw it as a way of keeping the church institutions independent and thanked Hitler in a telegram: "What the old parliaments and parties could not do in 60 years, Your statesmanlike foresight has realized world history in 6 months ... It really comes from the soul: God preserve our people our Reich Chancellor. ”He also obliged the Catholic priests“ to avoid anything in sermons and private conversations that could destroy confidence in the national government ". In November 1936 Faulhaber met Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess at Berghof ( Obersalzberg ) , after which Faulhaber once again assessed Hitler positively: "The Reich Chancellor undoubtedly lives in faith in God."

Epitaph in the Frauenkirche Munich

Faulhaber (whom the Berlin Bishop Konrad von Preysing called an autocrat of “sovereign coldness”) refused to publicly condemn the boycotts of Jews in the first weeks of the National Socialist dictatorship:

“This action against the Jews is so unchristian that every Christian, not just every priest, would have to oppose it. For the higher church authorities there are far more important issues of the present day; Because school, the continued existence of the Catholic associations, sterilization are even more important for Christianity in our homeland, especially since one may assume, and in some cases already experienced, that the Jews can help themselves, that we have no reason, the government a reason to turn the baiting of Jews into a baiting of Jesuits. I get questions from various quarters as to why the church is not doing anything against the persecution of the Jews. I am strange about it; because when there was agitation against the Catholics or against the bishop, no one asked what one could do against this agitation. That is and will remain the secret of the Passion. "

In a letter to the American Cardinal George William Mundelein in Chicago on March 30, 1933, he described the "atrocity propaganda" abroad as the trigger for this boycott of Jews:

“The untrue reports of bloody atrocities in Germany that have appeared in American and other foreign newspapers, and the attacks against the new government in Germany for its fight against communism, have prompted the German government to take countermeasures from April 1st to carry out the boycott of all Jewish businesses with the utmost rigor ... The correspondents of the foreign newspapers have not considered what a difficult situation they have put the Jews in Germany through their reports in the newspapers. I ask Your Eminence to do everything possible to ensure that the foreign newspapers, which have so far reported atrocities, make a statement that they have convinced themselves of the groundlessness of their earlier claims. "

In November 1936 Faulhaber spoke in a sermon about the readiness for suffering and heroic deeds that the Christian worldview demands. As examples, he cited Albert Leo Schlageter , who was martyred by Nazi and other right-wing circles , to whose Catholic denomination he referred, and the “heroes” of the Alcázar in the Spanish civil war .

In 1937 he designed at the request of Pius XI. the encyclical with burning concern and thus came into ever sharper opposition to the National Socialist rulers. On the evening of January 27, 1934, following a inflammatory speech by the Bavarian State Minister Hermann Esser, Faulhaber had been assassinated. On November 11, 1938, there was a "storm on the Archbishop's Palace" in Munich. In March 1939 he took part in the conclave for the election of Pius XII. part. After Georg Elser's unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler on November 8, 1939 in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller , he sent Hitler a congratulatory telegram on behalf of the Bavarian bishops and had a Te Deum performed in the Cathedral of Our Lady “to thank Divine Providence in the name of the Archdiocese that the Führer has happily escaped the criminal attempt that was made on his life ”.

In 1940, he protested against the mass murder of the disabled and chronically ill by Aktion T4 with a public letter to the Reich Minister of Justice. On July 26, 1941, Faulhaber publicly opposed the removal of the school crosses . On September 12, 1943, Faulhaber, together with the German bishops, condemned the killing of “people of foreign races and origins” and emphasized the fundamental right to life and physical integrity.

In 1941 Faulhaber commented on the war as follows:

“But we want to make this sacrifice for the dear fatherland, if it has now become necessary for a happy outcome of the war and for overcoming Bolshevism . The picture of Bolshevism as our soldiers get to know it is terrible. The struggle against this enemy of the world is tremendous and terrible, and we express our deepest thanks to our death-defying soldiers for everything they achieve in this struggle and tolerate difficult things. "

In October 1943, when the course of the war had turned, Faulhaber informed the Church Ministry: “Nobody inside can even wish for an unfortunate outcome to the war. Every reasonable person knows that in this case the state and church order, any order in general, would be overturned by the Russian chaos. "

After Munich was occupied by the US Army at the end of April 1945, Faulhaber tried to negotiate to ease the living conditions of the Munich population. Since the summer of 1945 he worked with the Catholic and Protestant bishops of Bavaria for the release of imprisoned NSDAP members. He explained to the American occupation authorities that a blanket punishment for all NSDAP members was not compatible with “democracy”. He also accused them of propaganda against Germany and compared the consequences of the war for Germany with the crimes committed during National Socialist rule :

“Representatives from American newspapers and American soldiers were brought to Dachau for weeks and the horror images from there captured in photos and films in order to bring the shame and shame of the German people before the eyes of the whole world right down to the last Negro village. It would be no less terrifying pictures if the terrible misery that came through the attacks by British and American planes over Munich and other cities ... could have been summarized in a photo or film, as it happened in Dachau. "

In 1946 there was a first visit to Pope Pius XII. in Rome, among other things to organize aid deliveries. On September 11, 1948, he was again able to celebrate a pontifical office in the ruins of the Frauenkirche in Munich. In 1949 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Munich . He died on June 12, 1952 in Munich and was buried in the lower church of the Frauenkirche.

Faulhaber was revered by many people during the Second World War for his fearless remarks to the Nazi rulers. The ambivalence of his position is also evident in the fact that in his time he was viewed by the political left as an anti-democrat and anti-socialist, and by the National Socialists as an ideological opponent and “friend of the Jews”. In 1949, the regional association of the Jewish community in Bavaria wrote to Faulhaber:

"As representatives of the Bavarian religious communities, we will never forget how you, dear Cardinal, defended the ethics of the Old Testament from the pulpit with unparalleled courage and protected thousands of Jewish people from terror and violence in the years after 1933."

On June 29, 1951 Michael von Faulhaber consecrated Joseph Alois Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, in the Freising Cathedral . , and his brother Georg Ratzinger as priests.

Hundreds of thousands of people said goodbye after Faulhaber died on Corpus Christi Day in 1952.

Episcopal coat of arms

Coat of arms of the Bishop of Speyer

Double coat of arms of the Munich cardinal

Faulhaber's bishop's coat of arms shows the white cross on a blue background in the upper part of the shield, the diocese coat of arms of Speyer. As a personal coat of arms, the seven-armed candlestick, reminiscent of his earlier work as a professor for the Old Testament, this is associated with the dove of the Holy Spirit as a symbol he interpreted for his episcopal work: academic teaching and episcopal office thus work closely together.

As archbishop he chose a double coat of arms, which shows the "Freisinger Mohr" for the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in the left coat of arms and his personal coat of arms on the right coat of arms. In his Munich sphere of activity, too, the connection between the Old and New Testaments was important to him. The coats of arms are crowned with the red Galero cardinal's hat , the staff with the double cross surrounds the pallium .

With the motto Vox temporis vox Dei (“The voice of time is the voice of God”) Faulhaber set himself the claim to hear God's call in the respective time and to recognize God's will according to the needs of the time.

Private life

As only became known in 2017 through the publication of her diary, Faulhaber had from 1940 - he was 71 at the time - a close relationship with Franziska Bösmiller, a convert, who was 27 years his junior and who was a doctor of German . The relationship ended in 1950, but Faulhaber's interest had probably cooled. It is not known whether the relationship went beyond close affection and tenderness.

Awards

• 1933: Honorary membership of the Unitas Association
• 1951: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Knight of the Order of Hubert
• Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown (knight connected with the ennoblement )
• Iron Cross 2nd class
• Bavarian Order of Military Merit 1st and 2nd class
• Bulgarian Order of St. Alexander

Fonts

Diaries

In his diaries from 1911 to 1952 Faulhaber made detailed records of high historical value about his visitors and conversations. They are written in the Gabelsberger shorthand and have been published since 2014 in a twelve-year project. Since October 2015, diary entries from the years 1918, 1919 and 1933 can be viewed online as digital copies and as transcriptions .

Publications

• 1896: The Greek Apologists of the Classical Fathers' Era I (other volumes not published)
• 1899: The prophet catenas according to Roman manuscripts
• 1900: Hesychii Hierosolymitani Interpretatio Isaiae Prophetae, nunc primum in lucem edita, prolegomenis, commentario critico, indice adaueta a Michaele Faulhaber
• 1902: Song of Songs, Proverbs and Preachers Catenas
• 1903: The catenary manuscripts in the Spanish libraries
• 1907: School and Religion . Lecture
• 1911: priests and people and our time . Speech at the Mainz Catholic Day
• 1912: Character images of the biblical world of women
• 1913: The Edict of Milan and the freedom of the Church
• 1914: The verse technique of biblical poetry
• 1915: Weapons of Light . Collected war speeches
• 1917: The sword of the spirit. Field sermons in World War I.
• 1922: Peter does not die . Lent pastoral letter
• 1925: Canisius sermons
• 1929: The Vesper Psalms of Sundays and Holidays
• 1931: Calling voices in the desert of the present, collected speeches, sermons, pastoral letters
• 1932: Time calls - calls to God, collected sermons
• 1933: Judaism, Christianity, Germanism Huber, Munich

literature

• Ludwig Volk (ed.): Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber's files. 3 volumes:
  • Volume 1: 1917-1934. Matthias-Grünewald, Mainz 1975, ISBN 3-7867-0435-X .
  • Volume 2: 1935-1945. Matthias-Grünewald, Mainz 1978, ISBN 3-7867-0721-9 .
• Dieter Katte : Word and answer. An examination of the sermons that Cardinal Faulhaber gave between January 1, 1933 and April 30, 1945. Salzburg 1976 (university thesis)
  • Main volume, Salzburg 1976.
  • Documentation volume. Documentation d. Sermons given by Cardinal (Michael) Faulhaber between January 1, 1933 a. held on April 30, 1945. (Salzburg, Univ., Diss. April 28, 1977.)
  • Heinz Hürten (Ed., Using the preparatory work by Ludwig Volk): Volume 3: 1945–1952. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-79889-8 .
• Peter Pfister , Susanne Kornacker, Volker Laube (eds.): Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber 1869–1952. An exhibition of the archives of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising , the Bavarian Main State Archives and the Munich City Archives on the 50th anniversary of death. General Directorate of the Bavarian State Archives, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-921635-67-5 .
• Petra Ritter-Müller , Armin Wouters: Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber's Advent sermons in 1933. A critical consideration. In: Joachim Mehlhausen (Ed.): ... beyond Barmen. Festschrift for Carsten Nicolaisen . (= Joachim Mehlhausen (Hrsg.), Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz (Hrsg.), Protestant Working Group for Church Contemporary History (Hrsg.): Works on Church Contemporary History. Series B. Representations. Volume 23, Vandenhoeck and Rupprecht, Göttingen 1995, p. 234-250).
• Johannes B. Schauer (Ed.): The homiletic course 1927. Kösel & Pustet, Munich 1927, p. 40.
• Hubert Wolf : "Let us pray for the faithless Jews". News on the topic of the Catholic Church and anti-Semitism from the Vatican archives. In: Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Ed.): Economy and Science. 4th quarter 2004, Essen 2004, ISSN  0943-5123 , pp. 42-49.
• Klaus Fitschen:  Michael von Faulhaber. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 24, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-247-9 , Sp. 602-615.
• Rudolf Reiser: Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber. The emperor and the leader's patron saint. Buchendorfer Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-934036-13-9 .
• Hans-Michael Körner: Michael von Faulhaber. In: Katharina Weigand (ed.): Great figures of Bavarian history. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8316-0949-9 .
• Michael Schmaus :  Faulhaber, Michael von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 31 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Sarah Röttger: Between pastoral office and political calculation. The Advent sermons of Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber 1933. In: Contributions to Old Bavarian Church History 55. 2013, pp. 167-254.
• Antonia Leugers, "You have united everything: soul and spirit and body". Cardinal Faulhaber and his girlfriend, in: History Association of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart (ed.), Man - woman - partnership. Gender debates of Christianity, (= Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte), Volume 35, 2017, ISBN 978-3-7995-6385-7 , pp. 173–212.
• Short biography Franziska Bösmiller online

Web links

Commons : Michael von Faulhaber  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Michael von Faulhaber in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Michael von Faulhaber in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Faulhaber, Michael von. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed January 19, 2017.
• Entry on Michael von Faulhaber on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved January 19, 2017.
• Cardinal Faulhaber Archive of the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising
• Michael von Faulhaber in the Saarland biographies
• Jakob Wetzel: Which side was Cardinal von Faulhaber on? Catholic Church under National Socialism. In: Süddeutsche.de. October 15, 2013, accessed October 15, 2013 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf-Joachim Baum, Ulrich Becker, Ralf J. Baumbach and others: Student body and corporations at the University of Würzburg. 1582-1982. Published for the 400th anniversary of Alma Julia-Maximiliana by the Institute for Higher Education at the University of Würzburg. Würzburg 1982, p. 292.
2. ↑ faulhaber-edition.de: Diary entry from November 11, 1918.
3. ↑ Johannes B. Schauer (ed.): The homiletic course. Kösel & Pustet, Munich 1927, p. 40.
4. ↑ Rudolf Morsey : Fritz Gerlich - An early opponent of Hitler and National Socialism. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2016, p. 232 books.google.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Quotes from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 144.
6. ↑ Ludwig Volk (ed.): Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber's files . Volume 1: 1917-1934 . Matthias-Grünewald, Mainz 1975, p. 705.
7. ↑ Joachim Köhler: “Catholic Church, Catholics and the Jews in the Time of National Socialist Rule.” In: Side by side - with each other - against each other? On the coexistence of Jews and Catholics in southern Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. (Laupheim Talks 2000), Bleicher, Gerlingen 2002, p. 244 f.
8. ^ Guenter Lewy : With a firm step into the New Kingdom . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1965, p. 86 ( online ).
9. ↑ Ludwig Volk (ed.): Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber's files . Volume 2: 1935-1945 . Matthias-Grünewald, Mainz 1978, p. 859.
10. ↑ Quoted from Pfister, p. 344.
11. ↑ Welt im Film 368/1952 .
12. ↑ sueddeutsche.de April 30, 2017: The strict cardinal and his secret love affair .
13. ↑ Antonia Leugers , "You have united everything: soul and spirit and body". Cardinal Faulhaber and his girlfriend, in: History Association of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart (ed.), Man - woman - partnership. Gender debates of Christianity, (= Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte), Volume 35, 2017, ISBN 978-3-7995-6385-7 , pp. 173–212.
14. ↑ Wolfgang Burr (Ed.): Collection of Unitarian Life Pictures . tape 3 . Verlag Franz Schmitt, Siegburg 2004, ISBN 3-87710-500-9 , p. 34 .
15. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 3, No. 250, December 29, 1951.
16. ↑ Diary entry March 17, 1918: Star for the Order of Military Merit 2nd class .
17. ↑ uni-muenster.de Critical online edition of the diaries of Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber (1911–1952) , accessed on March 21, 2017.
18. ↑ faulhaber-edition.de: Critical online edition of the diaries of Michael Kardinal von Faulhaber (1911–1952) , accessed on March 21, 2017.

predecessor	Office	successor
Konrad von Busch	Bishop of Speyer 1910–1917	Ludwig Sebastian
Francis Cardinal von Bettinger	Archbishop of Munich and Freising 1917–1952	Joseph Cardinal Wendel
Alessio Ascalesi CPPS	Cardinal proto-priest 1952	Alessandro Verde