Sebastian Georg Schäffer

Sebastian Georg Schäffer (born April 16, 1828 in Koblenz ; † November 16, 1901 in Cologne ) was a Catholic clergyman and, as the longstanding General President of the Catholic Journeyman's Association and later International Kolping Society, the direct successor of Blessed Adolph Kolping .

Life

Sebastian Georg Schäffer was born as the son of the soap boiler Georg Josef Schäffer and his wife Klara Maria (née Meyer) in Koblenz. There he attended elementary school and high school, which he completed with the Abitur. He then studied Catholic theology in Trier and received in the local cathedral on 28 August 1852 by Bishop William Arnoldi the priesthood . He received his first position as chaplain in Trier, where on August 14, 1855 he was appointed religion teacher at the higher middle school and at the provincial trade school. After Adolph Kolping's death on December 4, 1865, the board of directors of the Cologne journeyman's hospital elected Schäffer as the new General Praeses on February 18, 1866. On April 9, 1866, he was introduced to his office in the Minorite Church in Cologne . Schäffer died in Cologne on the morning of November 16, 1901, after he was allowed to witness the golden foundation festival of the journeyman's association in 1899 and the general assembly in 1900.

Act

Schäffer had already founded the city's first Catholic journeyman's association as a chaplain on August 10, 1853 in Trier and remained its president even during his activity as a religion teacher. Within just five years this association had gained over 150 members. Therefore, a few years later, Schäffer also held the office of diocesan president of the journeyman's associations in the diocese of Trier. He was also the editor of the Trier Sunday paper “Eucharius”. Schäffer became known beyond the diocese for his committed participation in the general assembly of the Catholic journeymen's associations on September 14th, 1864 in Würzburg , where a Catholic journeyman's association was founded on December 8th, 1853, based on Kolping's example. At the 17th General Assembly, which took place in Trier in September 1865, he was once again able to welcome the founder Adolph Kolping as host. Qualified in this way and familiar with the work of the association, Schäffer took up the post of General Praeses, which was immediately burdened by the German war between Austria and Prussia. Because the Catholic journeyman's associations had spread across all small-state borders since 1849, especially in German-speaking countries . After the war ended quickly, Schäffer was able to overcome national differences at a general assembly called in Cologne in autumn 1866 and restore the unity of the association. How many members were called to arms in this war and had to compete against each other is not documented. A few years later, around 15,000 members were drafted into military service in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.

Another challenge for Schäffer and the Catholic Journeyman's Association from 1872 was the Kulturkampf . After an assassination attempt on Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on July 13, 1874 in Bad Kissingen , he identified the assassin as an alleged member of the journeyman's association in Salzwedel . Although this suspicion was not confirmed, two days after the attack, Schäffer's and his vice-president's apartments were searched and the local journeyman's association in Berlin was temporarily dissolved.

In 1881 the Kolping Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Cologne, the Minorite Church, was finally confirmed as the Church of the Journeyman's Association and its General Praeses as its rector after decades of turmoil . The further years of Schäffer's life were mainly characterized by the commitment to social legislation that benefited both the workers and the craftsmen, but also by a clear demarcation of the association from social democratic ideas.

Sebastian Georg Schäffer published the first biography of Adolph Kolping, based on source material and his own experiences, in 1880, which appeared in eight editions by 1960.

Awards

During his time as General Praeses, Schäffer was also canon at the High Cathedral in Cologne .

In 1899 he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th class.

In Düsseldorf- Vennhausen a street is named after Schäffer.

Fonts

• Adolph Kolping the journeyman's father. A picture of life. Münster 1880, 2nd edition 1882 ( digitized ULB Münster )

literature

• Bernhard Ridder: Men of the Kolping Society. Kolping-Verlag, Cologne 1955, pp. 69-82.
• Franz Hubert Maria Schweitzer : General President Seb. Georg Schäffer. General Secretariat of the cath. Journeyman's Association, Cologne 1925.
• Robert Steimel: Cologne heads. Cologne 1958, Col. 351 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sybille Grübel: Timeline of the history of the city from 1814-2006. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. Volume 2, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 1225-1247; here: p. 1229.