Thomas Pöschl

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Thomas Pöschl

Thomas Pöschl (born March 2, 1769 in Höritz , Bohemia; † November 15 or 17, 1837 in Vienna ) was a Catholic clergyman , chiliast and sectarian whose christological-ecclesiological mysticism led to the emergence of an enthusiastic millenarian movement whose followers followed him Pöschlians were called and who believed in an imminent end of the world .

Youth and education

Thomas Pöschl's father was a carpenter. The mother raised the boy very religiously and made him familiar with the ways of thinking of religious mysticism at an early age. After attending grammar school in Linz, he studied theology in Linz and Vienna from 1782. In 1796 Pöschl was ordained a priest and in the same year became a cooperator (parish vicar) in Braunau am Inn . After he had also worked as a vicar in other places, he was appointed beneficiate cooperator and catechist in Braunau am Inn in 1804. One source also refers to him as the principal of the local school.

Execution of Palms

Execution of Johann Philipp Palms with representation of the clergy present

An important turning point in Thomas Pöschl's life was the execution of the Protestant bookseller Johann Philipp Palm from Nuremberg. He had circulated an anti-Napoleonic book on Germany in its deep humiliation , which called for resistance to the French occupation. Since he was not prepared to betray the text authors, a French court martial sentenced him to death despite petitions. The execution was to take place on August 26, 1806 in Braunau am Inn. Since there was no Protestant clergyman far and wide, the Catholic parish vicar Pöschl had to escort him to the execution. The shooting of Palms took place under macabre circumstances and deeply disturbed Pöschl. He became convinced that humanity was completely corrupted and that the Last Judgment would soon fall upon people. People should therefore repent for the salvation of their souls . When working through the events, he formulated a political "doctrine of the devil" with Napoleon as the living devil and his followers as the devil's children, which quickly gained popularity due to the general displeasure with the foreign occupation. The further claim that Pöschl became melancholy due to Palm's death, which did not take place immediately, cannot be proven to this day, nor can it be used as a basis for his later mysticism .

In addition to the intense feelings of hatred of Napoleon, his passionately delivered sermons led some to perceive him as a saint and others as a madman.

Relationship with mystics

Pöschl exchanged his thoughts in the field of mysticism with Martin Boos , Johannes Goßner and Ignaz Lindl as well as Jakob Salat . His ideas soon went beyond their views and aspirations. In the circle around the "Swabian mystics" he was friends with the pastor Johann Langenmayer . In 1808, Langenmayer put him in touch with Michael Sailer and his works. He also met with the Graz canon and revival preacher Engelbert Maurer , who saw the indwelling of Christ in people's hearts through faith and the cleansing of Christians through repentance as a revival to new seriousness . Pöschl later used these views in his revelations. When he went public with it in 1814, both Langenmayer and Boos broke off contact with him.

Forcibly transferred to Ampflwang

Pöschl increasingly used the anti-Napoleonic devil theme in his penitential sermons and in religious instruction. There was unrest among the population. Personal hostility led to a lawsuit at the Braunau regional court. In April 1812, Pöschl took part in an exorcism event in Langenmayer's house. He protested against the transfer, which the church administration then announced. Finally, in October 1812, he was forcibly transferred to Ampflwang in the Hausruckviertel (deanery Vöcklabruck) (because of his “exaggerated nature”) .

Pöschl was also able to win the trust of the population at his new place of employment in the Hausruckviertel as vicar and gather a number of followers around him and captivate them with new revelations. Magdalena Sickinger, shopkeeper and sister of the Ampflwang pastor Schlichting, played a special role. As her confessor, Pöschel introduced her to mystical writings that strongly influenced her later “visions”. In February 1812 she reported to him that she had received revelations in which she foresaw the end of the world and in which the amalgamation of Judaism and Christianity and the beginning of the millennial kingdom played a role (records about this in Pöschl's hand are printed in Mastiaux's literary newspaper 1822, nos. 86, 87).

After further revelations, Pöschl interpreted the visions of his medium Magdalena Sickinger in Im January 1814 as a commission to appear in public. He combined the contents of Sickinger's revelation with the mystical ideas of Maurer, Boos and others. He thus triggered a movement of penance, which led to the intervention of the Austrian state and church authorities. After he had initially been placed under the supervision of the dean "Freindaller" by Vöcklabruck and whose attempts to bring him to reason failed, he was taken to the priestly house in Salzburg in March 1814.

Radicalization of supporters

From his exile in Salzburg, Pöschl often wrote to his “Pöschlians” in Ampflwang, but radical fanatics kept them distancing themselves from his ideas. The original enthusiasm soon took on an increasingly wilder character and finally culminated in excesses and acts of violence in an Ampflwang farmhouse around Holy Week 1817, on March 20 or 31. Several people who were accused of being possessed by the devil were slain in order to rid them of their alleged error. Followers also offered to sacrifice themselves, as they were convinced of the resurrection after three days. The Austrian military arrested 86 people that night and brought them to court, which, however, acquitted the ringleaders of the charges of manslaughter on the grounds of insanity.

When Pastor Pöschl heard of the atrocities of his followers, he distanced himself and expressed his disgust. However, he did not comply with the request to renounce his teachings and those derived from the Sickinger revelations as an error. Therefore declared mentally ill, he spent the last twenty years of his life in the priest's hospital in Vienna, where he died in 1837.

Aftermath

Enthusiastic and sectarian movements from that time in the Würzburg area were associated with the Pöschlians, but other sources describe this as unjustified. A generation later, Pöschl had followers, not only in Bohemia, but also in Baden, Franconia and Hesse (Frankfurt), while in 1831 about fifty emigrated to Louisiana , where they tried unsuccessfully to found a commune. Although they called themselves "Pöschlians", they had no direct relationship with the movement's founder.

Even today, what happened back then still impresses people, including the Austrian filmmaker Cajetan Jacob , who incorporated the events of Thomas Pöschl and Magdalena Sickinger into a fictional lesbian love story in his feature film “The False Heart” (2012) . After additional information about the film, the connection Ampflwanger = Pöschlianer in the Hausruckviertel is still up to date.

literature

Web links

Commons : Thomas Poschl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Thomas Pöschl In: Napoleonic era: from the Bastille to Waterloo (German)
  • The shooting of Johann Philipp Palm in 1806 In: Epoch Napoleon: from the Bastille to Waterloo (German)
  • Georg Loesche: Poeschl in: CCEL the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College (English)
  • The Scientific Library Budweis (CZ): website (Czech)
    • In it article about Thomas Pöschl and his place of birth digitized (Czech)
      • In it reproduction of the contribution by Johann Dolezal (Prof. from Vienna): The religious founder Pöschl from Höritz . Article on the 100th anniversary of Pöschl's death in the German-language Budweiser Zeitung of November 17, 1937, No. 89, pp. 2-4 (German)
      • In it reproduction of the article by Peter Barden: Pöschl, Thomas in the BBKL (German)
      • In it reproduction of the article by Wilibald Böhm: Höritz - Thomas Pöschl and his followers in the German-language Budweiser Zeitung, 1945, No. 7, p. 7 (German)
      • In it reproduction of the article by Fritz Huemer-Kreiner: Thomas Pöschl, world priest, founder of the Pöschlian sect named after him , contribution to the 130th anniversary of death, reproduction Böhmerwäldler Heimatbrief, 1967, No. 11, pp. 379–381 (German)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h see literature Heinrich Reusch: Pöschl, Thomas In: ADB
  2. ↑ a b c d e see literature Peter Barden: Pöschl, Thomas in the BBKL with online excerpt in the web link of the Scientific Library Budweis (CZ)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f see web link Thomas Pöschl In: Epoche Napoleon
  4. ↑ a b c see web link Loesche: Poeschl In: CCEL the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
  5. ↑ see entry The execution of Johann Philipp Palms on the website of the Evangelical Church AB Braunau am Inn
  6. ↑ Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach , Biographischer Nachlaß II, 75 and others
  7. ↑ Information about the film The False Heart on the GROUP's website: filmkunst
  8. ↑ Reference to the name Ampfelwanger = Pöschlianer
personal data
SURNAME Pöschl, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Catholic theologian and founder of a sect
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1769
PLACE OF BIRTH Höritz , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1837
Place of death Vienna