Sigismund Waitz

Archbishop Dr. Sigismund Waitz (portrait of Peter Thaler - between 1935 and 1941)

Sigismund Waitz as Bishop of Brixen (1913)

Support for the Anschluss of Austria (1938)

Graves of the Archbishops Rieder and Waitz

Sigismund Waitz (born May 29, 1864 in Brixen , South Tyrol ; † October 30, 1941 in Salzburg ) was auxiliary bishop of Bozen-Brixen , apostolic administrator of Innsbruck-Feldkirch and archbishop of Salzburg.

Life

Waitz was ordained a priest on May 29, 1886. On May 9, 1913, he was appointed auxiliary bishop in Bressanone and titular bishop of Cibyra . On June 8, 1913, he was ordained a bishop by the Bishop of Brixen Franz Egger . Co- consecrator was the Bishop of Trento Celestino Endrici . From 1921 to 1938 he was Apostolic Administrator of Innsbruck-Feldkirch . On January 27, 1935, he became Archbishop of Salzburg , which he remained until his death.

With his social pastor's letter “Teachings and instructions of the Austrian bishops on contemporary social issues” from 1925, Waitz pioneered the encyclical “ Quadragesimo anno ” by Pope Pius XI. In 1925, Bishop Sigismund Waitz warned of the "global danger of greedy, usurious, unbelieving Judaism, whose power has increased tremendously".

Both in his time in Brixen and after the fall of the monarchy, Waitz was politically very active and is referred to as one of the fathers of the authoritarian Christian corporate state ( Austrofascism ). As an antithesis to the paramilitary republican Schutzbund , he suggested the creation of a paramilitary Christian social " home guard" early on.

As Archbishop of Salzburg , Waitz devoted himself to questions of social misery and high unemployment. He took a negative attitude towards the emerging National Socialism and remained emphatically aloof even during the rule of National Socialism in Austria .

In addition to his membership in the CV at AV Austria Innsbruck since 1924, Waitz was since 1925 a member of the KDB Vindelicia Innsbruck in the RKDB (today in the ÖCV ) as well as an honorary member of the KSTV Rhenania-Innsbruck in the KV / ÖKV . In 1934 he was a founding member of the K.Ö.L. Austria Salzburg in the "Academic Association of the K.Ö.L.".

Archbishop Waitz was buried in the crypt of Salzburg Cathedral .

literature

• Hans Jablonka : Waitz, bishop under Kaiser and Hitler . Wiener Dom-Verlag, Vienna 1971.
• Sigismund Waitz. Pastor, theologian and prince of the church , ed. by Helmut Alexander. Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2010, ISBN 978-3-7022-3070-8 .
• Ekkart Sauser :  WAITZ, Sigismund. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 160-163.

Web links

Commons : Sigismund Waitz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Sigismund Waitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Sigismund Waitz on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Birthplace and history of Sigismund Waitz

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Report about Waitz in the program Unser Land on RAI Südtirol on May 29, 2014
2. ^ Andreas Gottsmann: Ludwig von Pastor and Enrico Sibilia - Diplomacy in the service of Catholic Austria . In: Maddalena Guiotto, Wolfgang Wohnout (ed.): Italy and Austria in Central Europe in the interwar period / Italia e Austria nella Mitteleuropa tra le due guerre mondiali . Böhlau, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-205-20269-1 , p. 292 .
3. ↑ Fritz Aldefeld (ed.): Total directory of RKDB Neuss 1,931th
4. ↑ Carl Prämaßing: Federal brothers in the episcopate. In: Faith Faith, the Emperor and the Land. 80 years of the Academic Association of Catholic-Austrian Landsmannschaften. Ed .: Gregor Gatscher-Riedl. Self-published, Vienna 2013, p. 23-24 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Ignatius Rieder	Archbishop of Salzburg 1934–1941	Andreas Rohracher
Ignatius Rieder	Primate Germaniae 1934-1941	Andreas Rohracher
---	Apostolic administrator of Innsbruck-Feldkirch 1921–1938	Paulus Rusch
Franz Egger	Vicar General of Feldkirch 1913–1921	---