Wilhelm Offenstein
Wilhelm Offenstein (born July 2, 1889 in Linden ; † February 26, 1964 in Hildesheim ) was a German theologian and politician (center).
Live and act
Empire and Weimar Republic
Wilhelm Offenstein was born as the third and youngest child of the worker Johann Offenstein and his wife Auguste Huke. In his youth Offenstein, whose father died in 1899 and his mother died in 1903, attended the elementary school in Linden near Hanover and, with the support of his headmaster, the Kaiserin Auguste-Viktoria Gymnasium in the same city, where he graduated from high school in 1909. At the suggestion of his home pastor Wilhelm Maxen , Offenstein then studied theology at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg im Breisgau , where he became a member of the Catholic student association WkSt.V Unitas-Freiburg. Because of his outstanding achievements, the bishop of his homeland, Adolf Bertram , sent him to Rome as an alumne to the Collegium Germanicum and the Gregoriana in the winter semester of 1909 . Offenstein received his doctorate there in 1911. phil. and with the grade summa cum laude 1915 Dr. theol. He was ordained priest on August 15, 1914 in the Church of San Pastore by Basil Cardinal Pompilj, the Pope's vicar general for the Diocese of Rome. From 1915 Offenstein took part in the First World War as a chaplain . From February 15, 1916 to January 31, 1918 he was deployed as a division pastor on the Western Front, then as a military and hospital chaplain in Berlin.
After the end of the war, Offenstein was briefly engaged as cathedral lecturer and Konviktsinspektor in Hildesheim before he went to Göttingen as a chaplain in 1920. With effect from April 1, 1924 he was given leave of absence by Bishop Joseph Ernst to work as a consultant at the Central Office of the Catholic School Organizations in Germany in Düsseldorf. At the end of 1925 Offenstein became pastor of St. Bonifatius in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg . In 1928, at the request of his diocese leadership, he moved as the new pastor for the industrial workers' community of St. Benno to Hanover-Linden, where he was particularly interested in educational and charitable work. Since 1923/24 Offenstein was regularly nominated as a candidate for the center for the Prussian state parliament .
During the time of the Weimar Republic Offenstein began to be more politically active. The Catholic Center Party served as an organizational forum . With the Reichstag election of September 1930 , Offenstein entered the Reichstag as a candidate for the center for constituency 16 (southern Hanover-Braunschweig) . After his mandate was confirmed in the following three Reichstag elections, Offenstein was a member of the Reichstag for almost three years until the November 1933 election.
Nazi period (1933 to 1945)
During his time as a member of the Reichstag, Offenstein voted, among other things, for the Enabling Act introduced by the Hitler government in March 1933, which formed the legal basis for the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. After the National Socialist " seizure of power ", Offenstein came into the regime's line of fire because of his earlier work in the Center Party and because of the anonymous defamation of being of Jewish origin. In the years up to 1945 he was exposed to constant harassment and harassment. His appointment to the reign of the seminary in 1935 was prevented by the state as a result. As the successor to Otto Seelmeyer, who was arrested for alleged foreign exchange offenses, Offenstein was appointed vicar general of the Diaspora diocese of Hildesheim by Bishop Joseph Machens on March 14, 1936 . In the same year he was also appointed cathedral vicar in Hildesheim. In the following years Offenstein devoted himself in particular to the task of expanding pastoral care in the rapidly growing cities of Salzgitter and Wolfsburg.
In recognition of his achievements, Offenstein was honored with the title of Dome Lord in 1942 and was given the title by Pope Pius XII. appointed papal house prelate - the appointment as cathedral chapter had previously been prevented by the German government in 1940.
Late years (1945 to 1964)
In 1946, after the Second World War, the long-planned appointment of Offenstein as cathedral capital was finally carried out. In the following years Offenstein worked primarily on the expansion of the diocesan structures and the integration of immigrant refugees from the former German eastern regions into the communities of his diocese. Overall, the number of Catholics in his area of responsibility grew from 263,800 before the war to 669,500 in 1949.
After the death of Bishop Machens on August 14, 1956, Offenstein held the office of capitular vicar during the period of the Sedis vacancy . On May 9, 1957, he was confirmed as Vicar General by Machen's successor, Bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen . Before his retirement in December 1960, Offenstein was still involved in the preparation for the Lower Saxony Concordat. In his old age, Offenstein was awarded the medal of the State of Lower Saxony for his lifetime achievement. After his death in February 1964, he was buried in the St. Anne's cemetery at Hildesheim Cathedral.
Fonts
- Official edicts and ordinances on parents' councils , 1926.
- The fight for the Reich School Act 1928.
literature
- Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , p. 265.
- Renate Kumm: The Diocese of Hildesheim in the post-war period. Investigation of a diaspora diocese from the end of the Second World War to the Second Vatican Council (1945 to 1965). Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, Hannover 2002, pp. 34–35.
Web links
- Literature by and about Wilhelm Offenstein in the catalog of the German National Library
- Wilhelm Offenstein in the database of members of the Reichstag
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Burr (Ed.): UNITAS manual . tape 1 . Verlag Franz Schmitt, Siegburg 1995, p. 351 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Offenstein, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German theologian and politician (center), MdR |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 2, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Linden trees |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 26, 1964 |
| Place of death | Hildesheim |