Augustin Rösch
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Augustin Rösch (11 May 1893 – 7 November 1961) was a German Jesuit, Provincial, and significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. Active in the
Kreisau Circle The Kreisau Circle (German: ''Kreisauer Kreis'', ) (1940–1944) was a group of about twenty-five German dissidents in Nazi Germany led by Helmuth James von Moltke, who met at his estate in the rural town of Kreisau, Silesia. The circle was com ...
German Resistance group, he was arrested in connection with the 1944 July Plot to overthrow Hitler, but survived his imprisonment.


Life

Rösch was born in Schwandorf and entered the Jesuit order at the age of 18. During World War I, he was drafted into the army and fought at
Verdun Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...
. He was ordained as a
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...
in 1925. Together with Otto Faller, he headed the Stella Matutina (Jesuit School) in various leadership positions from 1925 until 1935. In 1935 he was named Jesuit Provincial, a post which he occupied to the end of "the
Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
" in 1945. He appointed Alfred Delp to be his representative at the resistance meetings. After the failed coup against Hitler, he went into hiding in a farm. He was found, arrested, tortured and brought to the Dachau concentration camp. Sent to interrogation to Berlin, he was freed in light of the advancing
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
of the Soviet Union. After the war until his death, he was heading the Bavarian
Caritas Internationalis Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Collectively and individually, their missions are to work to build a bet ...
from 1947 to 1961.Bleistein Chapters 4-5


See also

*
Jesuits and Nazi Germany At the outbreak of World War II, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) had some 1700 members in Nazi Germany, divided into three provinces: Eastern, Lower and Upper Germany. Nazi leaders had some admiration for the discipline of the Jesuit order, but op ...


Notes


Sources

* Augustin Rösch, Roman Bleistein (Hg.): ''Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus,'' 1985, * Hans Niedermayer: ''Augustin Rösch: ein Mann des Widerstands im Dritten Reich. Jahresbericht Dom-Gymnasium'', Freising, 1994/95, S. 8-24 * Roman Bleistein: Augustin Rösch. ''Leben im Widerstand. Biographie und Dokumente.'' Frankfurt a. Main 1998, in: Theologische Literaturzeitung, Ausgabe 125, 2000 S. 182-184, {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosch, Augustin 1893 births 1961 deaths 20th-century German Jesuits People condemned by Nazi courts People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Roman Catholics in the German Resistance German resistance members