Thomas Nörber

Thomas Nörber, portrait by Wilhelm Kuntzemüller

Archbishop Thomas Nörber, picture from the obituary in the " City of God " , born in 1920

Thomas Nörber (born December 19, 1846 in Waldstetten ; † July 27, 1920 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was Archbishop of Freiburg from 1898 to 1920 .

Life

Thomas Nörber was the second of seven children of the master tailor Gottfried Nörber and his wife Magdalena, née Herold. After his ordination on July 24, 1870, he was sent to various vicar positions. He worked at the Jesuit Church in Mannheim until 1889 and was then transferred to Seckach as parish administrator and to Hardheim a year later . In September 1888 he was transferred to Lichtental , still only as a parish administrator , primarily because his already unstable health had suffered greatly from the strenuous work in Hardheim. In the summer of 1889 he was finally awarded the parish of the Tiergarten near Oberkirch . Admittedly, he did not stay in the Renchtal for long, because as early as April 3, 1891, in accordance with the pleading and urging of the nuns of the Holy Sepulcher in Baden-Baden , he became priest in Baden-Baden. There he received the news on August 2, 1898 that the cathedral chapter had elected him archbishop and Pope Leo XIII. had confirmed the appointment.

Thomas Nörber's choice was not only very surprising for him and his contemporaries, as he had been a simple pastor, completely unknown to the public, whose health was considered poor. There are indications that the Baden state wanted to exert influence in the appointment of the new archbishop and that the ailing simple pastor was therefore chosen. Thomas Nörber was enthroned on September 29, 1898, consecrator was the Mainz Bishop Paul Haffner , assisted by Auxiliary Bishop Justus Knecht and Bishop Dominikus Willi from Limburg. From the first day of his term in office, however, the new archbishop seized the government with a strong hand.

Between 1903 and 1906 he pushed through the construction of the office building in Freiburg . Numerous churches were also built during his reign, new parishes and trustees and, on January 23, 1902, the city deans of Freiburg , Karlsruhe and Mannheim . In addition, a pension fund for the clergy was established, the deaneries received uniform chapter statutes and the implementation of parish and church visits was reorganized. In 1911 the Missionsinstitut was founded on his initiative, today's pastoral office, and he was involved in the final institutionalization of the German Caritas Association and the establishment of the Freiburg Diocesan Caritas Association. In 1916 he founded the Konradsblatt magazine, the archdiocese's official press organ. He died, almost to the day, 22 years after his election and was buried in front of the sacramental altar in the right aisle of the Freiburg Minster .

literature

• Hans-Peter Fischer: The Freiburg archbishopric elections in 1898 and the episcopate of Thomas Nörber: a contribution to diocesan history. Freiburg i. Br. / Munich: Alber, 1997. ISBN 3-495-49941-5 .
• Christoph Schmider : The Freiburg bishops: 175 years of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. A story in pictures of life . Freiburg i. Br .: Herder Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3-451-27847-2 .
• Christoph Schmider: The "eternal chaplain": Archbishop Thomas Nörber (1846–1920). In: Konradsblatt v. March 10, 2002 online resource ( Memento of May 22, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
• Gustav Stezenbach: Archbishop Dr. Thomas Nörber from Freiburg: His life and time; A memory book. Freiburg i. Br .: Press Association, 1920.

Web links

• Literature by and about Thomas Nörber in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Thomas Nörber on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Speeches by Thomas Nörber in the Baden State Parliament in the digital collections of the Baden State Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Catholic city dean of Freiburg: We about us . Online at www.katholische-kirche-freiburg.de. Retrieved April 5, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Georg Ignaz Comp	Archbishop of Freiburg 1898 - 1920	Karl Fritz