Richard Reitsamer

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Richard Reitsamer (born March 3, 1901 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † July 11, 1944 in Bozen ) was a religiously motivated conscientious objector . He was executed by the National Socialists in 1944 .

Appreciation

Stumbling block for Richard Reitsamer at Laubengasse 71 in Merano

After graduating from community school, Richard Reitsamer worked as a farmhand on farms. In the Schaffhausen area he met a priest who became his spiritual father. In his free time he read edifying small letters. In February 1944, when he was a farmhand at the Trenkwalderhof (near Merano), he received the order to be placed in the Wehrmacht, but he did not obey this order. Before the court he invoked the word of Pope Pius XII.: “Nothing is lost with peace, but everything can be lost through war.” Reitsamer made the confession: “As a devout Catholic, I do not fight for Hitler.” The Bolzano special court sentenced him to death. The prison chaplain recalls: “In a moving edification he receives the holy sacraments and the papal blessing with general absolution. Then comes the sad moment; I get on the death wagon with him and, with constant prayer, I guide him to the place of execution, while his body snuggles up to mine like a child. When he got to the place of disaster, two soldiers take him under their arms to lead him to the stake and tie him there. After two or three steps he breaks free, comes back to me, kisses my hands and with a smile on his face he prepares to make the sacrifice. "

Reitsamer's body was buried in the main cemetery in Bozen. In May 1956 this row grave was closed. The remains were placed in ossuary 4 in Bolzano .

In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Richard Reitsamer into the German martyrology of the 20th century as a witness of faith . In May 2012 a stumbling block was laid for him in Merano .

See also

literature

  • Josef Innerhofer: South Tyrolean martyrs at the time of National Socialism . Bolzano 1985.
  • Jakob Knab: I'm not fighting for that . Richard Reitsamer: farmhand, martyr . In: CiG 28/1994.
  • Helmut Moll (publisher on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference), witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 303-306.

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Riders, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION religiously motivated conscientious objector
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1944
Place of death Bolzano