Peter Grebe

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Peter Grebe (born April 24, 1896 in Thieringhausen near Olpe , † March 20, 1962 ) was a Catholic clergyman and Nazi justice victim.

Life

Peter Grebe was born on April 24, 1896 as the son of a farmer in the village of Thieringhausen, which today belongs to the city of Olpe. After finishing school, he took part directly in the First World War. He became a reserve officer and received the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. After the end of the war he participated as a free corps fighter in Berlin in the fight against the Spartakist uprising .

In 1919 he returned to Thieringhausen. In the same year he obtained his secondary school leaving certificate in Attendorn . From 1920 to 1925 he studied theology in Paderborn and Tübingen . Here he joined the Catholic student association WKSt.V. Unitas Markomannia at. On March 28, 1925, he was ordained a priest in Paderborn by Bishop Caspar Klein . He then came to the provost church in Bochum as a cooperator . His resistance against Adolf Hitler began as early as 1931 . Jochen Krause's statement that Peter Grebe personally traveled to Braunau to get secure information on Hitler's family history in the church records there is not tenable. According to Grebe's own account, a vicar traveled there for this research. Grebe announced the broken family relationships from the pulpit. Politically, he was active in the Center Party until its dissolution in 1933. On April 1, 1933, he became vicar at the provost church in Bochum.

In 1935 he was banned from writing, preaching and teaching.

On May 14, 1936 he was vicar and on April 12, 1937 parish administrator in Kampen. On October 18, 1938, he came to the St. Nicolai Church in Lippstadt as vicar , where he stayed until August 3, 1942.

On October 8, 1942, he was denounced in Lippstadt by 17-year-old Inge Deutsch and then interrogated by the Gestapo in Dortmund- Hörde in February 1943 . Inge Deutsch was the daughter of the late chief physician at the Catholic hospital in Lippstadt. She had overheard a conversation between Peter Grebe and her mother, Maria Deutsch. Grebe was charged with the following statements: “1. The war is an effect of human malice. 2. God makes history. 3. When you realize that you can't win the war, you should stop in time, get off the stage and not first sacrifice so many people. 4. The party, militarism and a large part of the industrialists caused this war. ”He was fined 500 RM.

In May / June 1943 there were denunciations by Oswald Dormann from Elben and Wilhelm Kruse from Gerlingen . Dormann had been to hamster Grebe's brother in Thieringhausen that winter . This led to a conversation about the defeat of Stalingrad. In the conversation, Peter Grebe said that this was the first big blow in the neck that we had and that others would follow suit. He also said that if Briining were still in government, there would have been no war and the German people would have been spared suffering and misery; the German cities would then not be a heap of rubble.

On August 3, 1943, he was transferred to St. Georg, Gelsenkirchen , but did not take up the position. He was then transferred on September 5, 1943 as pastor of the Kohlhagen parish and pilgrimage church .

In September 1943 he received a summons from the Gestapo Siegen . On October 15, 1943, he was arrested by the Dortmund Gestapo. He was in solitary confinement in Dortmund until he was transported to Berlin on November 14, 1944. On November 16, 1944, he and 22 other death row inmates were sentenced to death and permanent loss of honor by the People's Court and transported to the Brandenburg prison . In the grounds of the judgment it is said that Peter Grebe tried to paralyze the defensive strength of German comrades in the exercise of his spiritual profession by making discouraging and corrosive statements and thus provided assistance to the enemy.

On March 25, 1945 he received from Bishop Wienken notification of his pardon and the conversion of his sentence to ten years in prison. On April 27, 1945 he was liberated by Russian soldiers at the front and returned to his parish in Kohlhagen on July 29.

literature

  • Bernhard Pauly: Sentenced to death by the People's Court 40 years ago: Pastor Peter Grebe, a victim of injustice in the Nazi state . In: Heimatstimmen aus dem Kreis Olpe 55. 1984, pp. 174–187
  • Jochen Krause: Born 100 years ago in Thieringhausen: the priest and resistance fighter Peter Grebe . In: Heimatstimmen from the Olpe district 184. 1996, pp. 203-206
  • Günther Becker and Martin Vormberg: Kirchhundem - history of the office and the community . Kirchhundem 1994. Therein chapter: Political persecution and euthanasia. P. 366ff.
  • Ulrich Wagner: Paderborn priests suffered suffering during the Nazi era. In: Der Dom 5 (1983), pp. 1ff.
  • Michael Senger: Faithfulness and Personal Courage. Priests and laypeople in the defense against National Socialism . In: The swastika in the Sauerland. Schmallenberg-Holthausen 1988. pp. 187ff
  • Peter Bürger: Sauerland witnesses of life. Peace workers, anti-fascists and martyrs from the Sauerland region of Cologne . Second volume. 2018. In it: escaped the scaffold. Self-testimony of a priest sentenced to death for "undermining military strength". By Peter Grebe (1896-1962). Sn. 289-320.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Thiel (ed.): 500 years of the pilgrimage church Kohlhagen. Contributions to the past and present. Kohlhagen 1990. pp. 281f.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Burr (ed.): Unitas manual . tape 2 . Verlag Franz Schmitt, Siegburg 1996, p. 270 .
  3. ↑ Peter Grebe: Escaped from the scaffold. In: Sauerland witnesses of life. Second volume. Sn. 289-320.
  4. ↑ Jochen Krause: People of the home. Part 1. Olpe 1987. p. 176
  5. ^ Bernhard Pauly: Sentenced to death by the People's Court 40 years ago. Pastor Peter Grebe - a victim of injustice in the Nazi state. In: Voices from the Olpe district. 137th episode, 1984 No. 4 pp. 174ff.
  6. ^ Günther Becker and Martin Vormberg: Kirchhundem - history of the office and the community. Kirchhundem 1994, p. 368
  7. ↑ Kirchhundem Community Archives, Kirchhundem Office, Part 2 No. 38. Statement by Peter Grebes from December 18, 1945 in the compensation proceedings.
  8. ^ Günther Becker and Martin Vormberg: Kirchhundem - history of the office and the community. Kirchhundem 1994, p. 369
personal data
SURNAME Grebe, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic priest and Nazi justice victim
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Thieringhausen
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1962