Theodor Averberg

Theodor Averberg (SVD) (* December 12, 1878 in Everswinkel , † July 31, 1973 in Everswinkel) was a Catholic priest and member of the religious order of Steyler Missionaries . He was initially sent by his order to New Guinea as a missionary . After he was unfit for the tropics due to illness, he worked as a mission preacher and pastor in Germany. Because of his decisive sermons and statements against National Socialism , he was persecuted by the Nazi regime and held as one of the oldest protective prisoners in the pastors' block of the Dachau concentration camp from 1943 to 1945 .

Family, school and studies

Theodor Averberg was the son of the married couple Joseph Averberg and Josefa geb. Benkmann. His parents ran the Averberghof in Everswinkel as farmers. After his primary school years in the elementary school of his hometown, he first attended the Dionysianum high school in Rheine and finally the high school in Steyl , where he was accepted by Arnold Janssen on April 14, 1896 . He completed his studies in theology , philosophy and mission sciences at the training facility of his order, the St. Gabriel Theological University , located in the Lower Austrian community of Maria Enzersdorf ( Mödling district ) near Vienna .

Missionary and development worker

On February 24, 1905 , Theodor Averberg was ordained a priest in Maria Enzersdorf.

Arnold Janssen sent him in 1905 together with two other fathers to set up a mission station in New Guinea . On June 21, 1905, Averberg was embarked in Genoa and arrived after a six-week voyage in the Holy Spirit Mission of the Steyler Mission in German New Guinea . As the son of a farmer, Father Theodor Averberg was employed there - in addition to his missionary work - by the Apostolic Prefect Eberhard Limbrock , primarily for the construction of the mission plantations and the training of local plantation workers. Limbrock sent him to the USA from 1910 to 1912 to get to know the latest methods of cultivating cotton and rice , to supplement his own knowledge of agriculture and then to oversee the Steyler Mission's cotton and rice cultivation project in New Guinea. The transition from German colonial administration to Australian military administration in autumn 1914 also brought the rice-growing project in Danip near Alexishafen to a standstill. In 1925 Theodor Averberg fell seriously ill with malaria . Since he was almost completely blind as a result of this tropical disease , he returned to Europe after working abroad for 20 years. After his arrival in Germany, his eyesight was restored through multiple operations, but Theodor Averberg no longer achieved the health stability of being fit for the tropics .

Pastor in Germany

After his return to New Guinea or his assignment in another mission area of ​​his order were no longer possible, Father Averberg took on various tasks in the German branches of his order: in Sankt Augustin near Siegburg, in the Paulushaus in Bottrop and in Blankenstein near Hattingen . He works as a mission preacher, hospital chaplain and as a temporary pastor in various Catholic parishes .

Persecution by the National Socialists

Theodor Averberg took a clear stand against the National Socialist ideology in his sermons . In his home parish in Everswinkel, the local village policeman protected him by warning him of impending interrogation and recommending that he subsequently change the manuscripts of the sermons he had already given. When Father Averberg held a sermon in the church in the neighboring town of Ottmarsbocholt , who blamed the National Socialists for the increase in divorces, he was called to the Gestapo in Münster for interrogation and then sent to the local court prison.

Registration card of Theodor Averberg as a prisoner in the National Socialist concentration camp Dachau

After spending two months in prison, he began his detention in the Dachau concentration camp on July 30, 1943 . There, Father Averberg received prisoner number 50,046. Because of his age and previous illnesses, the sixty-five year old was one of the most vulnerable among the prisoners in the pastor's block. However, to supplement the meager prison food, he received food parcels from his home community. In addition, his fellow prisoners stood by him in a special way. After he was initially assigned to the “ Plantage ” work detachment by the camp administration because of his agricultural knowledge , the Benedictine Father Augustin Hessing, who was active in research, gave him an easier detachment in the agricultural research station. Later he was kept busy inside the camp with cleaning and patching tasks. Because of a specific violation of the camp rules, Theodor Averberg had to reckon with a punishment of 25 double blows with the bull pizzle. Probably he would not have survived this punishment if his fellow inmates had not managed to hide him from the kapo responsible for uncovering the violation .

On the evening of April 26, 1945 - three days before the arrival of the American troops at the Dachau concentration camp - the seventy-year-old and around 6,000 prisoners were driven by the SS on a death march towards the Ötztal Alps , on which a large number of prisoners were exhausted and Killing by the guards. Theodor Averberg escaped this fate because on the first night of the march a group of already released priests under the direction of the Jesuit Otto Pies - disguised as SS men - managed to get older and sick prisoners, mainly priests, out of the march column onto a truck to load and take them to freedom.

After the liberation

First Theodor Averberg found acceptance and care with the nuns in Adelshofen near Fürstenfeldbruck . There he was able to gather his first strength after the rigors of the camp detention and the evacuation march. In May 1945 he returned to Westphalia to his parents' farm in Everswinkel to relax further. After recovering from the acute consequences of his imprisonment in a concentration camp, he worked as a pastor in St. Mary's Hospital in Lünen until 1961 . Because of the physical strain and his own need for treatment, the eighty-three-year-old moved to the St. Vitus Hospital in Everswinkel, where he continued to do pastoral care until his death in 1973.

Fonts

• A start-up in Matuka . In: Steyler Missionsbote , vol. 36 (1909), pp. 169–170.
• Sketches and pictures from the South Seas - mission . In: Steyler Missionsbote , vol. 35 (1908), pp. 90-92.
  • Part 3. A visit to the St. Anna Mission Farm
• Under the Kanaks . In: Steyler Missionsbote , vol. 51 (1923), pp. 4–5.
• What the Papuan eats . In: Stadt Gottes , vol. 58 (1935), p. 506.
• Fishing by the Papuans in New Guinea . In: Stadt Gottes , vol. 47 (1924), pp. 140–142.
• On wet paths . In: Stadt Gottes , vol. 51 (1928).

literature

• Bruno Hagspiel SVD: Along the Mission Trail . Vol. 3: In New Guinea . Mission Press SVD, Techny, Illinois 1926, 132-138.
• Christian Frieling: Theodor Averberg . In: Ders .: Priest from the diocese of Münster in the concentration camp. 38 biographies . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 1992, ISBN 3-402-05427-2 , pp. 72-73.
• Eike Pies (ed.): Father Dr. Otto Pies SJ (1901–1960) - His life in pictures, personal testimonies and eyewitness reports , Verlag Dr. Eike Pies, Dommershausen-Sprockhövel 2011, ISBN 978-3-928441-82-7 .
• Paul B. Steffen: AVERBERG, Theodor SVD (1878–1973). New Guinea pioneer and concentration camp prisoner in Dachau . Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL), Vol. 34 (2013), ISBN 978-3-88309-766-4 , Sp. 53-60.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bruno Hagspiel SVD: Along the Mission Trail . Vol. 3: In New Guinea . Techny 1926, pp. 132-138.
2. ^ Paul Steffen : Beginning of the mission in New Guinea . Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1995, pp. 241–245.
3. ^ Christian Frieling: Priest from the diocese of Münster in the concentration camp . Münster 1992, p. 72.
4. ^ Christian Frieling: Priest from the diocese of Münster in the concentration camp . Münster 1992, p. 73.
5. ↑ The Bell , February 22, 1965.
6. ↑ The Bell, August 2, 1973.