Willibald Strohmeyer

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Willibald Strohmeyer (born July 6, 1877 in Mundelfingen , † April 22, 1945 in Münstertal / Black Forest ) was a Roman Catholic German clergyman and local researcher .

Life

After studying in Freiburg, Strohmeyer was ordained a priest on July 2, 1902 in St. Peter's Monastery . He worked first in Säckingen, then as vicar in Freiburg

From April 28, 1910 he was pastor of St. Trudpert in the Münstertal / Black Forest ; From 1924 to 1931 he was also the first general superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph who settled in the Münstertal at his instigation in 1920, and from 1939 also dean of the Neuchâtel dean's office . His endeavors to resettle Benedictine monks in the St. Trudpert monastery were unsuccessful, however.

In the Münstertal he also enjoys high recognition for his extensive work as a local chronicler with numerous publications on local history.

Memorial plaque to Willibald Strohmeyers in the St. Trudpert cemetery in Münstertal / Black Forest

Shortly before the end of the Second World War , on April 22, 1945, for no apparent reason, he was taken from the rectory by an SS commando after the Sunday service , initially deported to Münsterhalden , robbed and then shot in the neck; his body could only be found after two weeks . She was buried on May 9, 1945 in the Münstertal cemetery at St. Trudpert Monastery. He is revered today as a Catholic martyr .

The fatal shots were fired on the orders of the SS men ( Perner group after their leader Heinrich Perner), a deserted French Foreign Legionnaire , nothing further is known about his whereabouts; the German main defendant was sentenced in 1948 to death, but his sentence in 1949 commuted to life imprisonment and in 1957 for parole suspended. The second defendant was sentenced to ten years in prison, but was later pardoned and released in November 1953.

Commemoration

In the birthplace of Hüfingen -Mundelfingen ( Schwarzwald-Baar district ) a street bears Willibald Strohmeyer's name; A leisure home of the Catholic deanery in Breisach-Neuchâtel was also named after him ( Dekan-Strohmeyer-Haus ).

Willibald Strohmeyer Memorial Chapel on the Heubronner Eck

In 1947 the dean-Strohmeyer- (memorial) chapel was built from granite stones of the sloped Schlageter memorial in Schönau in the Black Forest on the site of his murder on the Heubronner Eck, 1,000 meters above sea level, in his memory . On August 31, 1947, it was inaugurated by the then Freiburg Archbishop Conrad Gröber ; In 2011 it was completely renovated by the voluntary Münstertäler working group Strohmeyer-Kapelle . A memorial service takes place here on May 1st every year.

In 1965 a memorial plaque was placed on the St. Trudpert cemetery wall in honor of Strohmeyer. Franz Gutmann's panel shows several wolves threatening a lamb.

In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Pastor Willibald Strohmeyer into the German martyrology of the 20th century as a witness of faith .

Fonts

  • The golden clock of the last prelate of St. Trudpert / The city of Münster near St. Trudpert / The St. Trudpert monastery in the Peasants' War . In: Heimatgeschichtliche Erzählungen Volume III. Preßverein Staufen n.d. 75 pages.
  • The Abbots of the St. Trudpert Monastery , in: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 61 (1933).
  • The Abbots of the St. Trudpert Monastery - continued , in: Freiburg Diocesan Archive 63 (1935).
  • The abolition of the St. Trudbert monastery in 1806 , in: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 64 (1936).
  • The conventuals of the St. Trudpert Monastery , in: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 67 (1940).
  • The political fate of the monastery and the rule of St. Trudpert over the centuries , in: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 60 (1932), pp. 168–238.
  • The founders and governors of the St. Trudpert Monastery. The medieval falsification of documents , in: Freiburg Diocesan Archive (1926).

literature

  • Bernd Braun: Willibald Strohmeyer (1877-1945) - a priest from the Münstertal as a martyr of the last hour , in: Angela Borgstedt u. a. (Ed.): Proved courage. Resistance biographies from the southwest (= writings on political regional studies of Baden-Württemberg , published by the State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg, vol. 46), Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 9783945414378 , pp. 165–175.
  • Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 284–287.
  • LG Freiburg i.Br., June 10, 1948 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German convictions for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Vol. II, edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1969, No. 62, pp. 571–617, shooting of two deserted German soldiers and a pastor because of derogatory words about the German war situation .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f badische-zeitung.de , Lokales, Münstertal , May 5, 2010, Eberhard Groß: Shortly before the end of the war: SS men shoot pastors (December 28, 2011)
  2. ↑ a b badische-zeitung.de , Lokales, Münstertal , December 24, 2011, Manfred Lange: A place of silence and prayer (December 28, 2011)
  3. ↑ a b badische-zeitung.de , September 10, 2013, Dorothee Philipp: Staufen: Unique and uncomfortable (September 28, 2013)


personal data
SURNAME Strohmeyer, Willibald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Mundelfingen
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1945
Place of death Münstertal / Black Forest