Otto Neururer

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Blessed Otto Neururer

Otto Neururer (born March 25, 1882 in Piller , Tyrol ; † May 30, 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp , Germany ) was a Catholic priest, Nazi victim and concentration camp prisoner. He was murdered for illegally exercising his priesthood and is a blessed of the Catholic Church.

Life

Otto Neururer was born as the twelfth child of the miller Alois Neururer and his wife Hildegard nee. Strictly born in the hamlet of Piller (municipality of Fließ ). From an early age he felt the desire to become a priest; therefore he attended the Vinzentinum boys' seminar in Brixen from 1895 . After his graduation Neururer changed to the local seminary , received 1907 in Brixen the priesthood and then worked as a religion teacher in Innsbruck . In 1932 he became pastor in Götzens . In March 1938 Austria was annexed .

Because he a young woman from a marriage to a leaked from the church and divorced Nazis discouraged, Otto Neururer was from the December 15, 1938 Gestapo arrested and initially to the prison to Innsbruck, then on 3 March 1939 in the Dachau concentration camp and brought to Buchenwald concentration camp on September 26th.

Reliquary with ashes by Otto Neururer on the cross altar in Innsbruck Cathedral
Portrait of Otto Neururer, memorial plaque in Innsbruck Cathedral

While still in the concentration camp, he worked as a pastor. In April 1940 he was approached by a fellow prisoner who wanted to be baptized. Although religious acts were strictly forbidden in the camp, Otto Neururer and his Austrian brother Matthias Spanlang began teaching the faith. When this became known, Neururians were hung upside down by their feet, naked, until after 34 hours the painful death occurred as a result of excessive blood pressure in the head. His legs were wrapped in lambskins to avoid leaving any traces of hanging. It was feared that the body would be handed over to the family or to the church, as he was the first Austrian priest to perish in the Buchenwald concentration camp. According to the eyewitness, chaplain Alfred Berchtold (1904–1985), Otto Neururer did not resist or scream when hanging up, but only prayed softly while he was conscious. Four days later, at roll call, the death of Pastor Spanlang was reported; presumably he was murdered in a similar way.

Neururer's body was cremated and his urn was sent by post from Weimar to Innsbruck in June 1940. The memorial service on June 30, 1940 in his last place of employment in Götzens turned out to be a great demonstration of faith. Provikar Carl Lampert had a death notice published on behalf of the Apostolic Administration Innsbruck-Feldkirch , in which the place of death was stated and the cruel manner of death was alluded to with the words “... we will never forget his death”. That is why the prelate was arrested on July 5, 1940 and deported to Dachau concentration camp. He was released on August 1, 1941; on November 13, 1944 he was executed.

beatification

In 1996, Otto Neururer of Pope John Paul II. As a martyr, the priestly services for exercising was murdered beatified . Some of his ashes have since been kept as a relic in Innsbruck Cathedral. In 2002 a relic by Otto Neururer was placed in the altar table of the new Telfs-Schlichtling parish church .

Provikar Carl Lampert, whose arrest on July 5, 1940 is linked to the death of Neururer, was beatified in 2011.

Commemorations and honors

Memorial plaque in the St. Jakob Cathedral in Innsbruck

literature

  • Helmut Tschol: Otto Neururer. Priests and martyrs . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 1982, ISBN 3-7022-1441-0 .
  • Armin Strohmeyr : Witnesses of faith of the modern age: the saints and blessed of the 20th and 21st centuries. Patmos, Mannheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-491-72547-8 .
  • Diocese of Innsbruck (ed.): Pastor Otto Neururer. A blessed man from the concentration camp. [Documentation]. 2nd Edition. Editorial office "Kirche", Innsbruck 1997, ISBN 3-9014-5053-4 .

Movie

The feature film Otto Neururer - Hopeful Darkness by Hermann Weiskopf (screenplay by Peter Mair) traces the life story of Otto Neururer - via a framework story.

Web links

Commons : Otto Neururer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Annual report 2007/2008 of the Vincentium (PDF; 4.9 MB) p. 11.
  2. ↑ Johannes Maria Lenz : Christ in Dachau. Libri Catholici, Vienna 1974, p. 112f.
  3. ↑ Scan of the obituary
  4. ↑ Josefine Justic: Innsbruckerstraße name. Where do they come from and what they mean . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-7022-3213-9 , p. 241-242 .
  5. ↑ "Otto Neururer - Hopeful Darkness" - A film against oblivion , accessed on September 18, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Neururer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Catholic pastor, victim of the Nazi regime
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Piller
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1940
Place of death Beech forest