Otto Müller (priest)

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Otto Mueller

Gustav Otto Müller (born December 9, 1870 in Eckenhagen , † October 12, 1944 in Berlin ) was a Catholic priest and resistance fighter against the National Socialists .

Live and act

Otto Müller was born as the son of a teacher in Eckenhagen and later grew up in Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr . After graduating from high school in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1889, he studied Catholic theology at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn from 1889 to 1894 . There he became a member of the Catholic student association KDSt.V. Novesia Bonn in the CV . In 1894 he was ordained a priest in Cologne .

In 1895 the young clergyman received his first pastor's position in Mönchengladbach . In 1896 Müller became director of the Catholic labor associations with over 1200 members. In 1899, Müller succeeded in expanding the collaboration with Franz Wärme and Heinrich Brauns at the headquarters of the Volksverein for Catholic Germany . In 1900 Otto Müller became general secretary of the Catholic workers' associations of the Archdiocese of Cologne . During a leave of absence from 7 August 1902, he was in 1904 at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg in Freiburg in economics to Dr. rer. pole. doctorate , then on January 1, 1906 appointed Diocesan President of the Catholic Workers' Movement (KAB) in the Archdiocese of Cologne and on September 15, 1918 as Association President of the West German KAB.

As early as 1927, he was involved in the resistance against National Socialism together with Jakob Kaiser , Nikolaus Groß , and Josef Jakob and Bernhard Letterhaus . There were connections to the Kreisau circle around Alfred Delp . The Cologne Circle was formed with Otto Müller at its head and the endeavor to defend itself against the destruction of the Christian trade unions and the Catholic workers' and journeyman's associations and also to work on social and political reorganization plans based on Catholic social doctrine . Via Delp and the Berlin lawyer Josef Wirmer , the Cologne Circle finally maintained contact with the resistance group around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , who, in close cooperation with the conspirators of July 20, 1944, had drawn up the lists of the members of a future government, to whom Wirmer was Minister of Justice and Letterhaus should belong as Minister for Reconstruction.

After the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 , he went into hiding like many other resistance fighters. Otto Müller was located in a monastery in Olpe and arrested by the Gestapo on September 18, 1944 and imprisoned in Berlin-Tegel prison. Otto Müller died on October 12, 1944 in the police state hospital in Berlin.

Honors

Stolperstein in Cologne (Bernhard-Letterhaus-Str. 26)

Fonts

  • History of the Christian trade unions in Germany , 1904

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otto-Müller-Straße in the Bonn street cadastre
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Eckenhagen
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 1944
Place of death Berlin