Theodor Legge

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Theodor Legge

Theodor Legge (born January 24, 1889 in Brakel , † March 24, 1969 in Arnsberg ) was a German Catholic theologian , general secretary of the German Catholic Days and the diocese of Meissen and provost in Arnsberg.

Life

He grew up as the third of 10 children of the innkeeper and brewery owner Stephan Legge and his wife Therese, b. Nolte, in Brakel and graduated from high school Marianum in Warburg . He then studied Catholic theology at the University of Tübingen . There he was a member of the Catholic student union AV Guestfalia Tübingen . This was followed by a move to the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , where he received his doctorate with a thesis on the subject of " Fliers and pamphlets of the Reformation period in Westphalia (1523-1583) ".

In 1912 he received his first position as vicar in the parish vicarie Bommern near Witten . His term of office was interrupted by his service as a division pastor during World War I. In 1918 he became a pastor at the Sacred Heart congregation in Paderborn . In addition, he became general secretary of the German Katholikentag and, together with his older brother Petrus Legge, organized the 67th German Katholikentag in Magdeburg in 1928 . a. Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli , later Pope Pius XII, and the worker priest Carl Sonnenschein gave speeches. In 1931 he was also general secretary of the Academy of Boniface Unification in Paderborn. In 1932 he appointed the right-wing Catholic Emil Ritter to lead a working group on political issues, which then " positioned itself favorably towards the DNVP membership of Catholics ".

Official and residence of Legges after 1945, the former prelature in Arnsberg

After his brother Peter became Bishop of Meissen in September 1932 , Theodor became Secretary General of the diocese. In this function, he helped transfer a large amount of Reichsmark to the Netherlands , which was used to repay a loan taken out by his predecessors to finance important institutions of the diocese. Both were arrested on October 9, 1935 and taken to the Moabit remand prison . There he shared a cell with the later Federal President Heinrich Lübke for a few days. This was followed by a show trial on November 23, 1935 by the criminal chamber at the Berlin Regional Court , in which both brothers were convicted of " negligent currency shifting ". While Petrus Legge had to pay a fine of 100,000 Reichsmarks and then lost his bishopric for a few years, Theodor was imprisoned for four years. However , he was released early “on grace ”. The court had recognized as mitigating the penalty that Legge did not enrich himself, but undertook the transactions in favor of the diocese. The doctoral committee of the University of Munich, on the other hand, showed no mercy, but informed Legge in February 1939 that he had proven with the act that " despite his high level of education , he had not applied moral inhibitions to the laws passed to protect the German economy ( ...) which are already required of every national comrade . Therefore, the reasons that led to the merciful reduction of the sentence did not justify the retention of the doctorate. "

During the Second World War he was rector of the mother house of the Vincentine Sisters in Paderborn, whose reconstruction he initiated. In December 1945 he became provost at the provost and parish church of St. Laurentius in Arnsberg. There, after the reconstruction work in the provost community and after the establishment of the parish vicarie Heilig Kreuz, he campaigned for the pastoral interests of the Catholics belonging to the provost community in the new Gierskämpen district . In 1962, a plot of land in the old field was acquired to set up a community center. In October 1964, an old Wehrmacht barracks in Gierskämpen was rented and an emergency chapel was created there, from which the St. Norbertus community later emerged. The first mass was celebrated there at Christmas 1964. Legge then retired. In 1965 Clemens Brüggemann was appointed as the new provost of Arnsberg.

Awards

Fonts

  • Flyers and pamphlets from the Reformation period in Westphalia (1523-1583) , in: Editions 58–59 of Reformation History Studies and Texts, Verlag Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung , Paderborn 1933, 235 pp.

literature

  • Peter Bürger : Friedenslandschaft Sauerland: Antimilitarism and Pacifism in a Catholic Region , edition leutekirche sauerland, BoD - Books on Demand, 2016, ISBN 3739238488 , 9783739238487, 204 S., S. 143
  • Christoph Hübner: The Right-wing Catholics, the Center Party and the Catholic Church in Germany up to the Reich Concordat of 1933, A Contribution to the History of the Failure of the Weimar Republic , in: Contributions to Theology, Church and Society in the 20th Century No. 24, 875 pp. , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12710-5
  • Stefanie Harrecker: Degraded Doctors: The revocation of the doctorate at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich during the time of National Socialism , in: Contributions to the history of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich , Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2007, 409 pp.
  • Winfried Ortmann: Provost Dr. Theodor Legge (1889–1969), in: Achim Funder (Hrsg.), "... a highly respected parish ..." 150 years of Propstei St. Laurentius Arnsberg 1859 - 2009 in the life pictures of their pastors and provosts, Arnsberg 2009, p. 101-114
  • Petra Madeleine Rapp: The foreign exchange processes against Catholic members of the order and clergy in the Third Reich. An investigation into the conflict of German orders and monasteries in economic distress, the totalitarian exercise of power by the National Socialist regime and in the church struggle 1935/36, (diss.), Bonn 1981
  • Winfried Schwab: Legge, Theodor, in: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH, Nordhausen 2020, ISBN 978-3-95948-474-9 , Sp. 792-798.

Web links

credentials

  1. ^ Vezin, August: 100 years Tübinger Guestfalia, Cologne 1965, p. 404.
  2. ↑ Chronicle. In: Herz-Jesu-Witten.de. Catholic parish Herz-Jesu Witten-Bommern, accessed on December 19, 2017 .
  3. ^ Daniel Lorek: Rintelen, Friedrich Maria Heinrich, Dr. theol. University of Magdeburg , March 3, 2005, accessed on December 19, 2017 (biography).
  4. ↑ Hübner 2015, p. 754, note 453
  5. ^ Statement by his nephew Theodor Nolte on January 6, 2018
  6. ↑ Richard Breitman (ed.): Trial for foreign exchange offenses against the Bishop of Meißen, Peter Legge, before the 4th criminal chamber (1935, with photo). In: germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org. German Historical Institute Washington , accessed December 19, 2017 .
  7. ↑ UAM Sen.-II-184, opinion of the committee of February 15, 1939, quoted in after Harrecker 2007
  8. ↑ Death note "Prelate Dr. Theodor Legge ” , Arnsberg 1969
  9. ^ The parish of St. Norbertus. (No longer available online.) Catholic parish of St. Norbertus Arnsberg, archived from the original on November 22, 2017 ; Retrieved December 19, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pr-arnsberg.de
  10. ↑ Hans-Josef Becker : Obituary to Clemens Brüggemann , Paderborn, June 28, 2006 [1]


personal data
SURNAME Legge, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Brakel , Höxter district
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1969
Place of death Arnsberg