Robert Tüchler

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Robert Tüchler 1931

Robert Georg Heinrich Tüchler (born February 3, 1874 in Altmannsdorf near Vienna, † May 25, 1952 in Vienna ) was the second bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Austria from 1928 to 1942 .

Life

Childhood, adolescence and studies

His parents were Georg Tüchler and Marie, née Schuch.

From 1880 he first attended school in Vienna, due to his musical abilities he received two years of musical training and violin lessons at Lilienfeld Abbey from 1883 . Then he moved to the Melk Abbey High School . As a “poor student” he was allowed to attend the abbot's lunch table . On September 25, 1892, he graduated from high school and entered the Cistercian Abbey of Lilienfeld as a novice . After the novitiate, however, he left voluntarily and went back to Vienna, where he began studying theology in October 1893 . Among his fellow students were also clerics of the Barnabite Order , which at that time had its seat in the Michaelerkirche in Vienna . Through them Tüchler got to know the order and its life. In 1894 he asked for admission, began the novitiate again and was given the religious name of Don Innocent.

priest

After he had finished his studies in theology, Tüchler received on 25 July 1898 in the Viennese St. Stephen's Cathedral , the ordination . He received his first position as a priest on September 1st, 1898 at St. Martins College in Mistelbach (Lower Austria) , where he worked as a cooperator and from 1904 as procurator (supervision of agriculture, forestry and winery). It was here that he met his future wife.

In 1907 he converted to the Old Catholic Church, which he had got to know as a catechist , was accepted into the Old Catholic clergy by Diocese administrator Czech on March 15, 1907 and was appointed assistant priest. At first Tüchler worked in pastoral care in Vienna, later he was transferred to Olmütz , Friedland an der Mohra and Schönlinde . From 1909 to 1911 he was parish administrator in Schönlinde during the absence of the local pastor Alois Pašek . In July 1911 he took over the vacant pastoral care of the parish of Ried im Innkreis . The youngest of the four children, two girls and two boys, was born there. Tüchler worked from 1911 to 1926 as a pastor in this parish, which at that time comprised the two states of Upper Austria and Tyrol . During this time, daughter churches emerged in Linz and Salzburg . From 1914 to 1917 he was also a pastor of the old Catholic church in Passau .

During the First World War , Tüchler was entrusted with the exercise of military pastoral care in the area of ​​the 14th Army Corps. In recognition of this service, Emperor Karl I awarded him the Golden Cross of Merit with Crown in 1918 .

In February 1924, Tüchler took his pastoral seat in Linz, but continued to work as a pastor in Ried im Innkreis. With effect from January 1, 1926 Tüchler took up the pastoral care position in Vienna-Fünfhaus and gave up pastoral care in Ried. When the first Austrian Old Catholic Bishop Adalbert Schindelar died in October 1926 , the Synodal Councilor Tüchler, the oldest clergyman, transferred the function of diocese administrator on October 11, 1926, but he continued to provide pastoral care in the west of Vienna.

bishop

On July 1, 1928, the Austrian Synod elected Tüchler as the second bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Austria. He received his episcopal ordination on August 9, 1928 in the St. Salvatorkirche in Vienna by the bishops Alois Pašek ( Warnsdorf ), Henricus van Vlijmen ( Haarlem ) and Marko Kalogjerá (Yugoslavia).

The situation of the Old Catholic Church in the First Republic and later in the corporate state was anything but easy. In addition to more or less clear rejection, there were also personal attacks against the bishop. The Old Catholics of Austria were given the impression of being second-class citizens and not being seen as a church but as a sect. This also affected the public image of their bishop. So Tüchler endeavored to imitate the Roman Catholic Church in the form of the services and the priestly and liturgical clothing. Not all clergy, however, agreed with this "Catholic" line. In addition, the economic situation of the diocese deteriorated massively due to unemployment in the 1920s. Differences of opinion in the Synodal Council and with some clergymen led Tüchler to consider resigning as early as the early 1930s.

For social reasons he founded the Old Catholic Diakonie to care for needy parishioners as well as for children and young people.

After Austria was annexed to National Socialist Germany in 1938, Tüchler found himself less and less able to exercise his office. He therefore entrusted more and more tasks to his colleague Pastor Stefan Török , whom he finally appointed vicar general in 1938. Already when creating the address of homage on the occasion of the Anschluss, he gave Török a completely free hand.

Resignation and end of life

After a violent dispute within the church about a matriculation issue that had taken place a year ago , Tüchler resigned on May 31, 1942. On July 11, 1948, he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest and his 20th anniversary as a bishop in the Heilandskirche in Vienna.

At the beginning of 1952 his health deteriorated, so that in May he had to be admitted to the Rudolf Hospital in Vienna, where he died on May 25, 1952 of pneumonia and heart failure.

At the funeral service for the deceased bishop, Diocese administrator Török read out a last letter from Tüchler dated March 14, 1947. There it says:

“Even I was only a person with all sorts of shortcomings, mistakes and weaknesses, but I tried to fulfill my duties to the best of my knowledge and belief and to live in peace and friendship with everyone. I thank all those who have done me good and dear things from the bottom of my heart [...] But all those whom I consciously or unconsciously hurt or have done wrong, I sincerely ask for forgiveness, as well as all who hurt me or wronged me have forgiven [...] God's grace you and me! "

- Robert Tüchler : Letter of March 14, 1947

Bishop Tüchler's urn was buried on August 4, 1953 in the Church of St. Salvator in Vienna.

Web links

literature

  • Christian Halama: Old Catholics in Austria. History and inventory . Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-205-77224-8 , chapter 36: Bishop Robert Tüchler (1874–1952), p. 757 ff .
  • Robert Josef Tüchler: The story of my life. Excerpts from Blankenstein-Halama (see under web links).
  • Dick J. Schoon : Van bisschoppelijke Cleresie dead Oud-Katholieke Kerk. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het katholicisme in Nederland in de 19de eeuw . Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen 2004, ISBN 90-5625-165-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. also Schoon p. 802
  2. ^ Christian Halama: Old Catholics in Austria. History and inventory . Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-20-577224-8 , p. 760
  3. ^ Memoirs of his son Robert Josef Tüchler: The story of my life , pp. 187–188; quoted from Christian Halama: Old Catholics in Austria. History and inventory . Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-20-577224-8 , p. 760
predecessor Office successor
Adalbert Schindelar Austrian Old Catholic Bishop
1928–1942 		Stefan Török
personal data
SURNAME Tüchler, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tüchler, Robert Georg Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Old Catholic Bishop
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Altmannsdorf (Vienna)
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1952
Place of death Vienna