Theodor Hartz

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Theodor Hartz SDB (born January 2, 1887 in Lutten , Goldenstedt , † August 23, 1942 in the Dachau concentration camp ) was a German religious ( Salesian Don Bosco ) and martyr.

Life

Theodor Hartz was the child of a large family of small farmers in Oldenburg. His parents were Johann Theodor Hartz and Anna Maria, geb. Kroger.

The sources are very sparse when he was young. What is certain, however, is that he attended elementary school in his home village and then went to the Antonianum grammar school in Vechta , where he acquired the so-called "one-year-old", now known as secondary school . Since he wanted to be a Salesian of Don Bosco and a priest, he went to the Salesian high school in Penango in Italy after primary school . There he made his first profession in 1908 . According to the philosophical - theological studies he was on 9 August 1914 in Foglizzo for ordained priests . After returning from Italy, he first came to the branches in Vienna and Ensdorf before taking over the management of the St. Johannes-Stift branch in Essen-Bochold , which had existed in Essen-Bochold since 1924 . He was director of this house almost continuously until 1938. In 1927 he laid the foundation stone for today's old building, which was inaugurated on February 12, 1928.

As early as 1933 he protested against the assaults by the Hitler Youth against the home group of the New Germany Federation . Since then he has been followed by the Gestapo . The attempt to accuse him of foreign exchange offenses or sabotage by the Winter Relief Organization in 1935 failed. His participation in the Cologne Diocesan Synod in 1937 was also followed with suspicion.

In September 1938 Hartz came as the successor to Johannes Lechermann as director of the Order University in Benediktbeuern . Here, too, the Gestapo observed the new director, especially since he made no secret of his opposition to National Socialism in the first two years of the war, when many young Salesians who studied in Benediktbeuern were drafted and fell.

Hartz returned to Essen-Borbeck after two years in August 1940. There, however, the mail was intercepted and the telephones tapped with the aim of collecting material for the closure of this branch. House searches and interrogations took place in rapid succession, and finally Father Wilhelm Winkels and Father Alfred Tebben were arrested, both of whom came to the trial after eight to nine weeks in prison. They were sentenced to a sentence for purchasing shoes without a coupon, which, however, had already been served with their pre-trial detention. Although or precisely because Hartz opposed this creeping attempt by the National Socialists to break the strong position of the Salesians in church youth work in Essen-Borbeck, the Gestapo confiscated the Salesians' house and property on August 5, 1941. They had to leave the city of Essen within a few hours, with a residence offer for the Salesianerhaus in Helenenberg. Theodor Hartz and his fellow brothers went there, but refused to integrate into the Helenenberg house. He continued to describe himself as the director of the Essen house. Since he also made this public to benefactors in circulars, he was arrested on April 14, 1942 in Helenenberg. He was sent to the Trier Regional Court Prison without charge or trial.

On June 5, 1942, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin ordered “ protective custody ” and transfer to the Dachau concentration camp for “circumventing the collection law by disseminating circulars that were detrimental to the state and dulling the people” . He had been detained there since June 26, 1942, in Priest Block 26 . Theodor Hartz was unable to cope with the strains of imprisonment and died of exhaustion on August 23, 1942.

The urn with the ashes of his body was to be buried in his hometown. However, since the local priest refused to bury a concentration camp prisoner, after lengthy negotiations he was buried in the Salesians' crypt in Essen-Borbeck in September 1942 .

Commemoration

A memorial stone on the St. Johannes Bosco Church in Essen-Bochold reminds of Hartz. The street on which the branch is located bears his name, as does a street in Goldenstedt.

In front of the Don-Bosco-Gymnasium in Essen-Bochold, a stumbling block for Theodor Hartz was laid on May 22, 2018 .

In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Father Theodor Hartz as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

  • Helmut Moll , (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume II, pp. 1027-1029.
  • Maurus Münch: Among 2579 priests in Dachau , Trier (2) 1970
  • Georg Söll: The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) in the German-speaking area 1888-1988 , Munich 1989
  • Johannes Wielgoß: Theodor Hartz. In: Vera Bücker: Nikolaus Groß. Worker leaders - resistance fighters - witnesses of faith. How should we stand before God and our people? LIT-Verlag, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-8258-5680-1 , p. 224ff. online at nikolaus-gross.com

Web links

credentials

  1. ^ Theodor-Hartz-Strasse, 45355 Essen
  2. ^ Theodor-Hartz-Strasse, 49424 Goldenstedt
  3. ↑ Two new stumbling blocks in Borbeck keep memories alive ; In: Lokalkompass from May 23, 2018; accessed on June 7, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Hartz, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartz, Theodor SDB
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Salesian Don Bosco (SDB) and victim of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Lutten
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1942
Place of death Dachau concentration camp