Theodor Huerth

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Theodor Hürth (born May 18, 1877 in Aachen , † September 27, 1944 in Cologne ) was a Catholic clergyman and, as the longstanding General President of the Catholic Journeyman's Association and later International Kolping Society, the third successor to Blessed Adolph Kolping .

Cenotaph in the crypt of St. Martinus Church in Aldenhoven - two wooden crosses commemorate the former pastor Theodor Hürth from Aldenhoven
"Despite the hail of bombs, faithful to God's calling to death"

biography

Theodor Hürth was born in Aachen as the son of the architect Hermann Joseph Hürth and his wife Wilhelmine (née Fleischhauer). His younger brother was Franz Huerth , who later became a Jesuit and moral theologian . Theodor Hürth studied Catholic theology at the University of Bonn and received on 31 March 1900 along with 76 other deacons in the cathedral by Archbishop Hubertus Theophilus Simar the priesthood . From 1900 to 1902 he was chaplain at St. Andreas and St. Kunibert in Cologne. Then he was appointed local president of the Catholic journeyman's association in Cologne-Central. From 1914 to 1916 he took over the pastoral care of the war hospitals in Cologne. On January 7, 1916 named him Felix Cardinal Hartmann to pastor of St. Martin in Aldenhoven at Jülich . After the death of Franz Hubert Maria Schweitzer , the general assembly of the Catholic journeyman's association elected Hürth on October 21, 1924 as the new General Praeses. Shortly before his twentieth anniversary in this office, on September 27, 1944, he was killed in an Allied bombing raid on Cologne when he wanted to hurry from the basement of his apartment to the shelter of the journeyman's house in Cologne to provide spiritual support to the people there. The exequies for his funeral were held on October 2, 1944 by the Archbishop of Cologne, Joseph Cardinal Frings .

Act

During Hürth's tenure, the main phases of renewal and recovery of the Catholic Journeyman's Association took place after the First World War , in which around 60,000 of the 86,000 members were drafted into service at the front. Around 17,000 of these mostly young men, and thus around 20 percent of all members, lost their lives in the war. It was also important as an association to deal positively with the new form of democracy . A milestone in this endeavor was the 2nd International Journeyman's Day in Vienna in 1927 with the theme “Family, Democracy and Peace among Nations” . In just seven years, the Catholic Journeyman's Association was able to gain almost 44,000 members worldwide by 1929.

Hürth's term of office also experienced the conflict with National Socialism , which reached its first climax in June 1933 with the violent break-up of the 1st German Journeyman's Day in Munich by the SA . In this context, it was apparently Hürth himself who brought up the so-called Kolping legend, according to which Adolf Kolping founded the Catholic journeymen's association in 1849 against Karl Marx and his ideology. From autumn 1933 onwards, Hürth's cautious leadership spared the Catholic Journeyman's Association the fate of many other Catholic associations that had since been banned by the National Socialist regime. The journeyman's association was renamed the “German Kolping Family” and in the years to come had to limit its activities more and more to the religious and social area.

Theodor Hürth himself was under surveillance by the Gestapo and was reported several times for alleged "hate speech" , although the investigation never led to a trial.

Awards

On October 11, 1926 Theodor Hürth was due to his services by Pope Pius XI. appointed papal secret chamberlain .

Streets in the following cities were named after Theodor Hürth:

Aldenhoven (Düren district), Bielefeld , Dortmund , Iserlohn , Cologne-Deutz , Menden (Sauerland) , Meschede , Salzkotten , Schrobenhausen (Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district), Düsseldorf-Vennhausen and Hamburg-Langenhorn .

There are also “Theodor Hürth Houses” in Bielefeld, Düsseldorf-Vennhausen and Cologne-Deutz.

Fonts (selection)

  • Honor to God: A prayer book in the spirit of the liturgy for the members of Johannes Dahl's Catholic journeyman's association . (Preface: Theodor Hürth). J. Bercker, Kevelaer 1925.
  • Workshop of life. Gesellenvereinsverlag, 2nd edition 1934.
  • God's workshop of life. Kolping-Verlag, 4th edition Cologne 1936.
  • Men before God. Herder-Verlag, Freiburg 1941.

Literature (selection)

  • Ulrich von Hehl : priest under Hitler's terror. A biographical and statistical survey. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 3rd edition Paderborn 1996, Bd. I, Sp. 738.
  • Bernhard Ridder: Men of the Kolping Society. Kolping-Verlag, Cologne 1955, pp. 94-104.
  • Robert Steimel: Cologne heads. Cologne 1958, column 201.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Death note for Theodor Hürth on www.rhein-erft-geschichte.de, seen on July 27, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Huerth, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman and General Praeses of the International Kolping Society
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1944
Place of death Cologne