Philipp Jakob Mayer

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Philipp Jakob Mayer (born April 14, 1870 in Albig ; † January 3, 1936 in Mainz ) was Vicar General of the Diocese of Mainz .

Life

After graduating from high school, Mayer studied Catholic theology in Mainz . After his ordination on August 16, 1892, he became a chaplain in the parish of St. Stephan in Mainz and later in Ober-Olm. During this time, the Catholic student association WkSt.V. Unitas Hetania zu Würzburg. In 1895 he was released for further theological studies and in 1897 finally obtained a doctorate in theology. In 1897 he became a teacher at the grammar school in Bensheim and in 1906 a senior teacher there. In 1908 he returned to Mainz, where he taught as a professor at the grammar school. In 1917 he was elected cathedral chapter . From 1920 to 1922 he served as Regens at the Mainz seminary . On March 19, 1922, he was appointed vicar general by Bishop Ludwig Maria Hugo .

The rise of the NSDAP in the German Reich also fell during his term of office . On August 4, 1929, an NSDAP member was killed during violent clashes at the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. His church burial took place on August 9th in Lorsch in the diocese of Mainz. The local pastor in Lorsch forbade the official participation of NSDAP groups at the funeral with reference to their unchristian, racist and anti-Semitic attitude. Thereupon a Catholic supporter of the NSDAP turned to the Mainz Episcopal Ordinariate to clarify the attitude of the church to the NSDAP.

Vicar General Mayer thereupon rejected the compatibility of Catholicism and National Socialism in general. He was referring to points 4 and 24 of the 25-point program of the NSDAP. Regarding point 4, Mayer explained that an overstrain in nationalism leads to disdain and hatred of foreign peoples, especially the Jewish people. Regarding point 24, Mayer explained that the attitude of National Socialism with regard to Christianity and Catholicism in particular meant negating and dissolving the maxims and norms based on Christianity. Point 24 elevates the morality and morality of the Germanic race to the ethical norm of action, without specifying in detail what exactly is meant by this.

The incident became known nationwide through the press organs of the NSDAP.

A year later, a pastor from the Odenwald asked again for clarification on National Socialism, as this would conduct intense agitation under the guise of Christian ideas. Mayer stated:

“Because of point 24 of its program, the National Socialist German Workers' Party founded by Hitler is one of the associations banned by the Church (...). It follows from this, 1. that a Catholic cannot be allowed to become a registered member of the Hitler party, and 2. that a corporate participation of this party in Catholic services and funerals must not be allowed. "

Thus National Socialists were effectively excluded from the Church by the Mainz Ordinariate. As a result, Mayer refused to give the deceased NSDAP Gauleiter Peter Gemeinder a church burial in 1931 . This "Mainz position" was also heavily discussed within the church. The Munich Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber rejected it because of its practical impracticability. A uniform approach by the German episcopate in matters of National Socialism did not come about, although the NSDAP was viewed rather negatively because of its anti-religious objectives. After Hitler came to power in 1933 and his concordat negotiations with the Holy See, there was a significant weakening of the previous opposition to the NSDAP. How Mayer and his bishop Ludwig Maria Hugo reacted to this can no longer be clarified, as a number of archive documents burned in the Second World War. Bishop Hugo was, however, repeatedly the target of National Socialist agitation.

After Hugo's death in 1935, Mayer was elected vicar of the capitular , i.e. the administrator of the diocese. After Albert Stohr's election as the new bishop in June 1935, he was again appointed vicar general. However, he could only hold the office for a few months. He died in Mainz on January 3, 1936. He was buried in the cathedral cemetery.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette , Darmstadt, 1892, p. 151 of the year; (Detail scan)
  2. ↑ a b Wolfgang Burr (ed.): Unitas manual . tape 1 . Verlag Franz Schmitt, Siegburg 1995, p. 349 .
  3. ^ Hermann Josef Braun, The Diocese from 1918-1945 in: Friedhelm Jürgensmeier (ed.) Handbuch der Mainz Kirchengeschichte, Vol. 3/2, echter Verlag 2002, p. 1203
  4. ↑ Braun, The Diocese of 1918-1945, p. 1204
  5. ↑ Braun, The Diocese of 1918-1945, p. 1204
  6. ↑ Braun, The Diocese of 1918-1945, p. 1205
  7. ^ Dismissal of the Hessian envoy in Berlin, July 30, 1931. Contemporary history in Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  8. ↑ Braun, The Diocese of 1918-1945, p. 1205
  9. ↑ Braun, Das Bistum von 1918-1945, p. 1208, see also fn 17

literature

personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Philipp Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Vicar General of the Diocese of Mainz
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Albig
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1936
Place of death Mainz