Robert Schälzky

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Grand Master's coat of arms of the Teutonic Order

Robert Johann Schälzky (born August 13, 1882 in Braunseifen , Austria-Hungary , † January 27, 1948 in Lana , Italy ) was a theologian and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order between 1936 and 1948 .

Life

Schälzky was the nephew of Grand Master Norbert Klein and the son of a country mailman with nine children. After he had passed the Abitur in Troppau in 1902 , he entered the convent of the Teutonic Order, where he also made his first vows on September 15, 1903. After completing his theological studies in Brixen , he made his solemn vows on September 15, 1906 , and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1907 in the Bressanone Cathedral. After a brief assignment as a cooperator and catechist in Freudenthal , he took on the position of a religion teacher in Freudenthal. Appearing for the first time as a speaker at the Association Day of the Christian Social Party in Opava since 1912, he has been a local councilor in Freudenthal and in 1913, he has been on the board of the German Christian People's Party since 1918 , from which he was also elected regional chairman on December 8, 1918 in Olomouc. For this purpose, he became deputy party chairman in 1920 . From 1919 to 1921 Vice Mayor of Freudenthal, he was also a member of the Silesian State Assembly in 1919. From 1920 to 1925 he was primarily active as a member of the Prague Parliament , where his efforts were primarily in the field of social policy. Since the autumn of 1924 chairman of the “German Main Office for Housing and Settlement Welfare in Czechoslovakia”, after the dissolution of parliament (1925), he not only had to resign his mandate, but also to give up his political work due to the prohibition of any political activities by the Vatican .

Now active in the constitution commission of the order, he lived in Vienna since February 1926 . Elected President of the Volksbund Deutscher Katholiken on February 5, 1927 , he was appointed religious inspector for German civic schools in Moravia-Silesia in February 1928. Appointed pastor and dean in Freudenthal on September 1, 1929, he also became general economist and hospital officer of the Teutonic Order in 1930. The general chapter of 1932 also elected him to the general council.

After several ballots, Schälzky was elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order on March 24, 1936 in Vienna with a very narrow majority. Disappointed by the tight majority, he took the post after coaxing Marian Tumler on, was enthroned on March 25 and March 29 by Cardinal Innitzer to Abbot benediziert . Within the scope of visitations, Schälzky quickly established a close personal relationship with the various provinces of the order. These were almost completely demolished under its two predecessors. He also endeavored to manage and increase income and modernize the order's own social facilities.

However, his work was interrupted by the National Socialists , who expropriated the order in 1938. Protests only came to fruition in 1940 and Church Minister Hanns Kerrl tried personally to have the expropriations canceled. But it failed because of Bormann and Gauleiter Henlein , who had signed the expropriation decree. While the livelihood of the priests was ensured by pastoral care offices paid by the bishop, Schälzky received a small pension from the Reichenberg district forest administration.

When the Grand Master's term of office expired in 1942, Pope Pius XII extended it. this, since a general chapter was not possible due to the war. After he had to vacate Freudenthal Castle in 1939 and lived in the forest house Wiedergrün, he moved to the Kommende Troppau a little later. Fled to Marktlangendorf in the spring of 1945 , he returned in 1945, robbed on the way, on foot to Freudenthal and Troppau in 1945. Interned in Opava without reproach, the Grand Master, whose health was badly affected, followed his deported friars to Vienna in an open truck shortly afterwards. Mainly old friends made a living here. Nevertheless, he could not pay for a necessary hospital stay and went to Lana / South Tyrol for a visit. He died here in January 1948.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Schälzky, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schälzky, Robert Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Brown soaps , Moravia
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1948
Place of death Lana