Paul Schulte

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Schulte (known as The Flying Father ; * May 14, 1895 in Magdeburg ; † January 7, 1974 in Swakopmund , Namibia ) was a religious of the Congregation of Oblate Missionaries , pilot, author and founder of the Missions-Verkehrs-Arbeitsgemeinschaft (MIVA).

Life

Paul Schulte was the son of a steam plow owner . He attended the Oblate High School in Valkenburg (Netherlands) and entered the Oblate Novitiate at the age of 18 . In 1914 he began studying theology at the Oblate College in Hünfeld . During the First World War he was drafted as a medic in 1915 and trained as a fighter pilot at the flying school in Fürstenwalde / Spree in 1917 . After the war he continued his studies. He was ordained a priest in 1922.

The flying priest - excerpt from a newspaper article in the Grazer Volksblatt, stuck to a postcard posted in Preding

Paul Schulte secretly obtained his civil license in 1926, but was initially banned from flying by his superior . With the death of his friend P. Otto Fuhrmann OMI, who worked as a missionary in South West Africa and died of pneumonia in 1925 because he could not be transported to a doctor in time, he came up with the idea of ​​founding an association that would achieve the goal has to equip missionaries around the world with vehicles. After it had turned out in 1926 that this could not be achieved within the framework of the papal work to spread the faith , Paul Schulte founded the Missions-Verkehrs-Arbeitsgemeinschaft , MIVAG (later abbreviated as "MIVA") in Cologne on March 22, 1927 Chairman Konrad Adenauer became. By 1933, fourteen aircraft and hundreds of cars could be put into service by the missions. The mission pilots were trained at the Butzweilerhof airfield . Paul Schulte mainly flew for the missions in southern Africa. His mission films and his widely read book The Flying Pater , published by Ullstein Verlag in 1934 , made his work and - under this name - himself known. On May 8, 1936, Father Paul Schulte OMI was the first priest in the world to celebrate a Catholic Holy Mass in the air: on board the Hindenburg airship .

From 1936 Paul Schulte worked as a missionary with the Cree on James Bay and among the Inuit on Hudson Bay and briefly on Arctic Bay . When the Canadian government suspected him of espionage after the outbreak of war in 1939, he withdrew to the USA. After the USA entered the war, his superiors transferred him to a monastery in Belleville (Illinois) , which he was not allowed to leave as an "enemy alien". In 1944, covered by Bishop Henry Althoff of Belleville , he was able to found the “Wings of Mercy” mission flying school incognito. After the end of the war, he sent aid deliveries from the USA to the destroyed homeland.

After returning to Germany in 1949, Paul Schulte was unable to resume work for "his" MIVA due to a resolution by the German Bishops' Conference . It was dissolved, re-established as Diaspora-MIVA , now with the aim of equipping the pastors in the German diaspora areas with vehicles, and incorporated into the Bonifatiusverein . MIVA was also founded in Austria in 1949 and continues to support missionaries around the world with vehicles to this day. The Swiss MIVA was founded in 1932.

Paul Schulte was President of the Diaspora MIVA until 1970. He spent his twilight years in the community of the Oblates in Swakopmund, Namibia. He is buried in the cemetery of the Provincialate of the Oblates in Döbra (Namibia) .

Since 1935 he was a member of the Catholic student union KDStV Hercynia Freiburg im Breisgau .

Fonts

  • The flying priest. The work of a modern missionary . Ullstein, Berlin 1934.
  • The flying priest in Africa . Publishing house of Bonifacius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1936.
  • Rolf becomes a Miva pilot. Paulinus Printing House , Trier 1936.
  • Polar flight - rescue flight. Report of the rescue of a hero of the ice mission . MIVA publishing house, Cologne 1938.
  • The Flying Father among the Eskimos . Publishing house of Bonifacius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1950.
  • The Flying Priest's Dare . Publishing house of Bonifacius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1953.
  • The Flying Father's secret weapon. A rosary book . Pattloch, Aschaffenburg 1954.
  • The flight of my life . Pattloch, Aschaffenburg 1964.

literature

  • Norbert Stahl: Paul Schulte, the Flying Father (1895-1974) . In: Bruno Moser (ed.): Great figures of faith . Südwest-Verlag, Munich 1982. ISBN 3-517-00774-9 . Pp. 311-320.
  • Josef Schulte, Hermann Lembeck: The flying Father Paul Schulte. Founder of MIVA . Pattloch Verlag, Aschaffenburg 1987. ISBN 3-557-90900-X .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Paul Schulte: The flight of my life . Aschaffenburg 1964. p. 17.
  2. ↑ Paul Schulte: The Daring of the Flying Father . Paderborn 1953. p. 23.
  3. ↑ Paul Schulte: The Daring of the Flying Father . Paderborn 1953. p. 30.
  4. ↑ Paul Schulte: The Daring of the Flying Father . Paderborn 1953. pp. 91-96.
  5. ↑ Paul Schulte: The Daring of the Flying Father . Paderborn 1953. pp. 121-203.
  6. ↑ Paul Schulte: The Daring of the Flying Father . Paderborn 1953. pp. 214-215.
  7. ↑ Paul Schulte: The Daring of the Flying Father . Paderborn 1953. p. 229.
  8. ↑ Paul Schulte: The flight of my life . Aschaffenburg 1964. p. 30.
personal data
SURNAME Schulte, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The flying priest
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German religious and founder of MIVA
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH 7th January 1974
Place of death Swakopmund