Wilhelm Zirkelbach

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Wilhelm Zirkelbach (born August 18, 1911 in Bad Kissingen ; † January 6, 1997 there ) was a Roman Catholic clergyman and politician. In 1960 it caused a scandal that attracted nationwide attention.

Life

Zirkelbach was a contentious and committed clergyman and politician. He was ordained a priest in 1935 . From 1936 to 1938 he was a chaplain in his hometown Bad Kissingen. During this time of National Socialism , he was interrogated by the police "because of club work" , books and documents were confiscated from him and his mail and telephone were monitored.

From 1939 to 1950 he was pastor of St. Stephen's Church in Sonneberg ( Thuringia ). On September 19, 1945, Zirkelbach and other well-known citizens called for the establishment of a local and district group of the CDU . On February 2, 1949, Sonneberg went from the Diocese of Würzburg to the newly founded Episcopal Commissariat in Meiningen , whose procurator Zirkelbach became. One of his confirmands and acolytes in Sonneberg was the later Bad Kissingen city pastor and dean Georg Hirschbrich .

In the years 1950 to 1960 he was pastor of the parish St. Kilian in Haßfurt and dean of the country chapter . There he tried to liven up the Kolping events during the carnival season with humorous interludes, and in 1951 founded a carnival club that soon called itself "Elf Wise Bunnies" and still exists today. At Easter 1960, Zirkelbach celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination.

At that time, he served as parish priest and dean Haßfurter both CSU - council deputy of the district Haßberge . As number 28 on the CSU list, he was elected second in the district council. But "just at Pentecost he had to lose his spiritual standing in the lowlands of party politics," as Der Spiegel put it on June 15, 1960. At the end of the scandal, the Archbishop of Bamberg, Josef Schneider, even demanded an internal justification from “the overzealous pastor” . Zirkelbach was in personal union as a Catholic politicians and priests all processions canceled - except Corpus Christi and the processions in favor of the land and field economy - and at times even the ringing of church bells refrain. With this ban on procession, the CSU MP wanted to demonstrate against those five Catholic city ​​councilors from the SPD and the electoral community who had elected the convert and SPD candidate Alfons Schwanzar , who had converted to Protestantism, as deputy mayor of the 70 percent Catholic city. Zirkelbach justified his ban and his protest as "pastoral responsibility for our church" and wrote to the five city councilors that with their election they had "also caused their pastor and Catholic pastor of this community - honored by them for the anniversary - ... a great pain". On the following Sunday he criticized Schwanzar's election in three masses and even in the children's church service from the pulpit: "Those who elect converts do not need processions."

As a result of this scandal, Zirkelbach was transferred and from 1961 to 1982 he was the parish priest and dean of the Herz-Jesu parish in Bad Kissingen , one of the largest parishes in the Diocese of Würzburg. In this office, on June 5, 1967, he laid the foundation stone for the new construction of the Catholic parish church of St. Burkard in Oerlenbach . Around 1980 he was also the parish administrator in Arnshausen .

Zirkelbach has been addressed as Monsignor since the 1980s .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich von Hehl : Priest under Hitler's Terror , publications of the commission for contemporary history, Volume 37, Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-7867-1152-6 ( excerpt ).
  2. ↑ Ralf Thomas Baus: The Christian Democratic Union of Germany in the Soviet Occupied Zone 1945 to 1948 , Research and Sources on Contemporary History, Volume 36, Verlag Droste, 2001, ISBN 3770018842 or 9783770018840, page 165 ( excerpt )
  3. ↑ Würzburger Diözesangeschichtsblätter , Volumes 62–63, Würzburger Diözesangeschichtsverein, Würzburg 2001
  4. ↑ Die Elf Weisen Hasen, Homepage ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) 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.11-weise-hasen.de
  5. ↑ Born in Silesia, Alfons Schwanzar , who married a Protestant, converted to Protestantism himself and had his two children baptized as a Protestant, was promoted to the city council in 1958, was chairman of the local SPD association from 1960 to 1972, and was a member of the SPD from 1960 to In 1990 he joined the district council, was second mayor from 1960 to 1972 and first mayor of the city of Haßfurt from 1972 to 1978.
  6. ↑ Schwanzar's misstep , in: Der Spiegel from June 15, 1960
  7. ^ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Haßfurt Social Democrats have been around for 100 years@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.spd-hassfurt.de
  8. ↑ Stefan Geiger: Church consecration took place 40 years ago , in: Main-Post from October 10, 2008
  9. ↑ Alfred Saam: The history of the parish of Stangenroth from 1792-1984 , Burkardroth 2010 ( PDF file )
personal data
SURNAME Zirkelbach, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman Catholic clergyman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Kissingen
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1997
Place of death Bad Kissingen