Paul Peikert

Memorial plaque for Paul Peikert in Breslau

Paul Peikert , archpriest and archbishop-clergyman , (born October 1, 1884 in Langendorf , Neisse district , † August 18, 1949 in Bredenborn in Westphalia) was a priest of the Archdiocese of Breslau .

Life

Paul Peikert's parents were the carpenter Joseph Peikert and his wife Karolina Peikert, b. Rother. Especially under the influence of his aunt, the nun Hortulana, the parents decided to send the son to a high school. After graduating from high school, he studied theology in Breslau and was ordained a priest on June 20, 1910 by Cardinal Kopp . In the parish of Wansen in the Strehlen district he was a chaplain for one year, from there after two years he went to the parish of St. Heinrich in Breslau.

After a further three years he was sent to Grottkau in 1916 , where he took over the pastoral service of the educational home. In 1918 he came shortly to Neukirch, now a district of Wroclaw, and in November finally to Hermsdorf , now Sobięcin near Wałbrzych, where he organized the parish in 1920 and became its first pastor on February 20, 1923. In 1928 Peikert was sent to Waldenburg as pastor and in 1932 Cardinal Bertram selected him from over a hundred candidates for the post of pastor of St. Mauritius in Breslau.

From 1932 to 1946 he was pastor of the St. Mauritius Church in Breslau on Klosterstrasse. In the first years in the new parish, he began building the branch church of St. Josef in Ofener Strasse , renovating the parish church and the cemetery, and had a new baptismal font and a high altar made.

On August 17, 1937, during his retreat in Grüssau , Peikert was arrested by the Gestapo . With him the "open letter to the Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels ”by Cardinal George Mundelein . Peikert was accused of distributing letters but, despite investigations, nothing could be proven and on November 11th he was released. Despite the problems with the secret police, Cardinal Adolf Bertram appointed him to the clergy on November 26, 1940 for his ecclesiastical work .

After the war he moved to Westphalia, where he served as a pastor in Bredenborn in the Höxter district until his death in the church of St. Joseph and was buried there in the cemetery.

memory

Paul Peikert became known through his diaries, which were only published after his death, initially in Poland. Since the siege of Wroclaw began, he began meticulously to write down everything about the drama of war and terror by the Nazis on his own people. Today they represent a valuable document that describes in detail life in a fortress besieged by the Red Army. He also writes in his diaries time and again about his rejection of the Nazi regime. He was a supporter of the Center Party all his life .

Paul Peikert on March 13, 1945

"You can almost hear from everyone's lips that our enemies are not the Russians, but that our greatest enemy is the party." :

Paul Peikert on March 27, 1945:

“The need of the people is already so great in and of itself, the suffering and sadness hardly seem capable of an increase, and yet this horrific measure of driving entire parts of the city out of their homes comes with such unheard of threats and with one more carried out as frivolous brutality that almost breaks human hearts over the bestiality of brutalized and degenerate local group leaders and their assistants. "

Works

• Paul Peikert: "Fortress Breslau" in the reports of a pastor , January 22nd to May 6th 1945, ed. Karol Jonca and Alfred Konieczny, Union Verlag Berlin , 1974

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Paul Peikert: "Fortress Breslau" in the reports of a pastor, January 22 to May 6, 1945, ed. v. Karol Jonca and Alfred Konieczny, Union Verlag Berlin, 1974, pp. 14-18
3. ↑ ibid, p. 146
4. ↑ ibid, p. 215