Nikolaus Moll (priest)

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Prelate Nicholas Moll

Nikolaus Moll (born November 2, 1879 in Sankt Martin (Palatinate) ; † November 30, 1948 in Landau- Queichheim ) was a Catholic priest of the Speyer diocese and for many years director of the St. Joseph's youth home in Queichheim (today St. Josef Landau-Queichheim Youth Office ).

Live and act

Nikolaus Moll was born the son of a winemaker in St. Martin in the Palatinate and lost his father at the age of three. The mother raised the boy alone, with the help of the local Catholic clergyman Jakob Schäfer. He attended the Latin school in Edenkoben , later the Episcopal Konvikt in Speyer and studied at the Canisianum (Innsbruck) .

On August 17, 1902, Nikolaus Moll was ordained a priest in the Speyer Cathedral by Bishop Joseph Georg von Ehrler . First chaplain in Queichheim and Mörlheim , then in Landau and finally in Ludwigshafen-Friesenheim , on October 1, 1910, he took over the management of the newly founded Catholic youth education center St. Joseph in Queichheim. It was a joint project of the Speyer priests Jakob Reeb , Franz Joseph Gebhardt and Fritz Claus and was supported by the Catholic Youth Welfare Association of the Palatinate, which they initiated, known today as Catholic Youth Welfare . The basis was the "Forced Education Act" proposed by Reeb in the Bavarian Parliament, which for the first time since 1902 focused less on punishment than on education for young people; a revolutionary innovation at the time.

Nikolaus Moll ran the home for 38 years, until his death in 1948. All construction work had to be done by him, in 1912 around 200 pupils were looked after; from 1924 the institute expanded on a larger scale. Moll founded a house for elementary school students who were difficult to educate and another for boys who were required to work, to which the institute's own training workshops were also connected. In 1926 he founded the Ramberg forest school in the Palatinate Forest for sick children and those in need of relaxation, in 1928 the Augustinusheim Godramstein for poorly gifted and needy schoolchildren of the upper level and in 1930 the St. Konradsheim Landau (Pfalz) for poorly gifted and speech-impaired children of the lower level. In the same year the institute church was built. In 1935, 92 employees looked after 500 young people living there in St. Josephsheim.

6791 boys passed through the institution under the directorate of Nikolaus Moll, whereby the Nazi period was the most difficult period and Moll constantly had to fight against the closure or the National Socialist takeover of the youth home. At that time, a tailor had been smuggled into the institution as an informant who was sent to the Gestapo office in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse u a. reported "Moll is an extremely refined, sophisticated person and it seems his whole tactic lies in it ... to be able to stay in the current sphere of activity as long as possible." At the end of the war, 300 other children joined the 600 regular pupils had to flee from their own homes from war damage.

After his death in 1948 Nikolaus Moll was buried in the garden of the Josephsheim Queichheim. The then Speyer Bishop Joseph Wendel personally attended the funeral. Before that, the deceased had been carried in a procession through the entire institute he had set up. The present (2013) imposing main building of the youth organization St. Joseph in Queichheim (administration building with church etc.) were all erected under Prelate Moll.

The Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities states: “Nikolaus Moll was a recognized authority in the field of curative education and youth welfare. He was the diocesan president of the youth associations of the Speyer diocese and was responsible for the magazine 'Willenskraft'. "

The priest bore the honorary title of Episcopal Spiritual Councilor and Pontifical House Prelate , addressed as Monsignor .

Moll published two specialist books on his field of activity; 1933 the work Crisis in Welfare Education? - One answer and in 1935 the documentation aimed at maintaining the institution's existence The St. Joseph Landerziehungsheim in Landau-Queichheim and its family homes . As early as 1930 he published his childhood memories under the pseudonym Adam Rain , which bore the title: A song always sounds to me - stories for bad boys and those who want to become one . In it, Nikolaus Moll u. a. in the chapter "With the Prince Regent on You and You" , how he opened the church to Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria , who surprisingly appeared in his home town of St. Martin, in 1888, as a little boy, and showed him around it, for which he later sent him a thaler as thanks let.

In Landau-Queichheim, Nikolaus-Moll-Strasse is named after the clergyman.

literature

  • Nikolaus Moll: The State Education Home St. Joseph zu Landau-Queichheim , Nikolaus Moll, St. Josefs Verlag, Landau-Queichheim, 1935
  • Viktor Carl: Lexicon Palatinate Personalities , 3rd edition, Hennig Verlag, Edenkoben, 2004, ISBN 3-9804668-5-X , page 592
  • Jakob Bisson: Seven Speyer bishops and their time 1870–1950. Contributions to the local church history Pilger-Verlag Speyer 1956, pages 293-295

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the St. Joseph youth organization with an overview photo of the institute that can be enlarged
  2. ↑ Jakob Bisson: Seven Speyer bishops and their time 1870-1950. Contributions to the local church history Pilger-Verlag Speyer 1956, page 295
personal data
SURNAME Minor, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest and educator
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Martin (Palatinate)
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1948
Place of death Queichheim