Otto Sickenberger

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Otto Ferdinand Sickenberger (born September 5, 1867 in Munich ; † January 10, 1945 at Klebing Castle near Pleiskirchen ) was a German Roman Catholic priest and theologian, educator, social philosopher and university teacher.

Live and act

As the last of eight children of the mountain council Franz Sickenberger (1819-1893) and his wife Anna, geb. Eckart, Otto Sickenberger was born in Munich. Above all, his oldest sister, who later became a teacher and writer Therese Tesdorpf-Sickenberger , was involved in the upbringing at an early age and became an important reference person for him.

Sickenberger graduated from the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich in 1885 with the Abitur and from the winter semester 1885/86 studied first philosophy and later also theology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and at the Episcopal Lyceum in Eichstätt . Even before he finished his studies in the summer semester of 1889, he had made up his mind to become a priest and received the four minor ordinations in December 1887 . Following his studies, he prepared for the priesthood in the clerical seminary in Freising , and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1890.

From September 1890 he was employed as a coadjutor in Tegernsee for a year in pastoral care before returning to the Freising Seminar in November 1891 to work there as the second prefect and to advance his doctorate . He received his doctorate in 1895 under Georg von Hertling "On the so-called quantity of judgment". A subsequent attempt at the habilitation with Theodor Lipps "On the Concept of Natural Law" failed and Sickenberger left the clerical seminar.

At the instigation of Passau Bishop Michael von Rampf , Sickenberger received a professorship for philosophy at the Passau Lyceum from May 1900 . At that time, however, Sickenberger was already struggling with celibacy , and he was given leave of absence for the winter semester of 1901. He had resigned his priestly activity, asked for a dispensation from celibacy and wanted to enter into a marriage - he hoped to be able to find an amicable settlement with the official church and was anxious to settle his case in silence. However, the episcopal ordinariate and the Vatican refused to give him any support and finally launched his situation into the press. At the same time, Sickenberger had written a memorandum directed against the grievances in the official church under the title "Critical Thoughts on the Internal Church Situation", which he pushed into a corner in this way, finally published and which attracted a great deal of attention. Sickenberger was finally forced to retire at the instigation of the official church.

In the following years Sickenberger participated with lectures and publications in the circle of the Reform Catholics and the Kraus Society , who advocated an opening of the Catholic Church to the modern age and called for reforms in many areas of religious and pastoral life. His reform Catholic writings and contributions to the celibacy debate polarized and culminated in a dispute with the Rottenburg bishop Keppler . Sickenberger vehemently rejected the compulsion to be celibate, and not celibacy per se, and thus met with resistance even among reform Catholics.

For the next few years, Sickenberger hired himself as a teacher and speaker, a return to civil service failed in 1910 and was overshadowed by his high-profile marriage to Philomena Frisch. As a result, Sickenberger and his wife were excommunicated , in 1912 they founded a rural education home near Bad Aibling near Rosenheim , which they operated until the end of 1921. In the war years, Sickenberger, who was socially liberal, became politicized and, after the overthrow, founded the Free German People's League , which wanted to act as a mediator between the parties through reason. Due to his radical positions and his personality structure, however, Sickenberger could hardly gain any influence on political terrain.

Due to the precarious financial situation, the couple decided to emigrate to Brazil in 1922, an undertaking that failed after only six months. Sickenberger returned to Germany, first settling in Pfarrkirchen and finally in Munich . There he worked as a tutor , speaker and largely unsuccessful writer. For a short time he was the association chairman of the Association of German Emigrant Associations and the secretary of its " German Emigrant Newspaper ".

In 1934 he and his wife moved to Schloss Klebing in Pleiskirchen near Altötting , where he spent his old age and did local history research and wrote extensive manuscripts, all of which are lost. After his wife fell ill with cancer, her excommunication was lifted again at the end of 1941 after lengthy negotiations with the Diocese of Passau . However, Sickenberger himself refused to distance himself from his theological positions, as the Diocese of Passau asked him to do. For a long time he felt more connected to an early church , which he placed in late antiquity, than to the Roman official church.

Sickenberger died on the night of January 10th to 11th 1945 and was quietly buried in the church in the cemetery in Pleiskirchen. Nothing is known about his personal or literary estate.

Works

Otto Sickenberger published numerous articles in the Free German Papers and other newspapers, as monographs have appeared:

  • On the so-called quantity of judgment: a logical study as a contribution to the doctrine of the subject-forms of judgment. Kaiser, Munich 1896
  • Critical thoughts on the internal church situation: presented to the Catholic clergy and the educated Catholics of Bavaria (Volume I: The practical reason in Catholic life and work; Volume II: Extreme anti-Protestantism in Catholic life and thought)
  • Wrong Reform? Open letter to His Grace Paul Wilhelm von Keppler, Bishop of Rottenburg. Lampart, Augsburg 1903
  • Veritas et justitia? One last word on the 3rd edition of Bishop Keppler's reform speech from Rottenburg. Lampart, Augsburg 1903
  • To the priests the freedom of God's children! Open letter to the Archbishop of Munich-Freising. The New Century, Augsburg 1910
  • The compulsion to celibacy and Bishop Keppler: an answer on behalf of the priests who fight the compulsion to celibacy, to a pastoral letter defending it. Memminger, Würzburg 1911
  • The struggle for freedom of conscience. Kraus Society, Munich 1911

literature

  • Marc Rothballer (Ed.): The compulsion to celibacy. Writings of Otto Sickenberger from the years 1903–1911. Luxembourg 2020.
  • Marc Rothballer: “The free seeks freedom who cannot stand chains.” A short biography of the headstrong priest, philosopher and educator Otto Sickenberger (1867–1945). In: Upper Bavarian Archive. Volume 143, 2019, pp. 108-129.
  • Manfred Weitlauff : Sickenberger, Otto. In: New German Biography . Volume 24, 2010, pp. 312-313, [online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd11733717X.html#ndbcontent
  • Otto Weiß : Modernism in Germany. A contribution to the history of theology. Regensburg 1995.