Klaus Mayer (24 February 1923 – 16 December 2022) was a German Roman Catholic priest in the

Diocese of Mainz The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...

and was an .

Biography

Mayer was born in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

on 24 February 1923. Due to his half-Jewish heritage from his father, Karl Jakob Mayer, he received severe persecution from the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

. His father emigrated to Argentina in 1933, though he stayed in Germany with his mother, Emmi Meisinger. He found refuge at the Ettal Monastery, where he attended secondary school. After the abbey closed in 1942, he graduated from the

Rabanus-Maurus-Gymnasium The Rabanus-Maurus-Gymnasium is a classical '' gymnasium'' school in the Neustadt district of Mainz. Subjects The Rabanus-Maurus-Gymnasium is a classical school. The first foreign language taught is Latin and the second is English. Later, three ...

. He was not admitted to any universities and narrowly escaped deportation in February 1945. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Mayer entered the and was ordained a priest by Bishop of Mainz Albert Stohr on 30 July 1950 at the

Mainz Cathedral , native_name_lang = , image = Mainzer Dom nw.jpg , imagesize = , imagelink = , imagealt = , caption = , pushpin map = , pushpin label position = , pushpin map alt = , pushpin mapsize = , relief = , map caption = , iso regi ...

. He subsequently worked as a chaplain in

Büdesheim Büdesheim is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in ...

Seligenstadt Seligenstadt is a town in the Offenbach (district), Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt (region), Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Seligenstadt is one of Germany's oldest towns and was already of great importance in Carolingian ...

, and

Oppenheim Oppenheim () is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is a well-known wine center, being the home of the German Winegrowing Museum, and is particularly known for the wines from the Oppenheimer Krötenbru ...

. He was appointed pastor of a church in

Gau-Bickelheim Gau-Bickelheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Gau-Bickelheim lies south of ...

, where he served for six years. From 1965 until his retirement in 1991, he was pastor of the Collegiate Church of St. Stephan in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

and played a key role in the reconstruction of the church, which had sustained damages during World War II. In 1973, Mayer asked Jewish artist

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

to create new windows for the church in an attempt to reconcile relations between Germany and the Jewish people. After the artist's death in 1985, the windows were completed by Charles Marq. Aside from the Mainz Cathedral, the windows became the most popular religious attraction in the city. He wrote the four-volume collection ''Die Chagall-Fenster zu St. Stephan in Mainz'' and his own memoir in 2007, titled ''Wie ich überlebte. Die Jahre 1933–1945''. Until 2019, he held public lectures about the windows several times a month. Mayer died in Mainz on 16 December 2022, at the age of 99.

Works

* ''Die Chagall-Fenster zu St. Stephan in Mainz'' ** ''Der Gott der Väter. Das Mittelfenster'' (1993) ** ''"Ich stelle meinen Bogen in die Wolken." Die flankierenden Mittelfenster'' (1994) ** ''Herr, mein Gott, wie groß bist du!. Die seitlichen Fenster'' (1994) ** ''Die Himmel der Himmel fassen dich nicht. Die Querhausfenster. Brief an meinen Freund'' (1995) * ''Psalmen in Bildern'' (1995) * ''Traumbilder'' (1997) * ''St. Stephan in Mainz'' (2001) * ''Zeitzeugenbericht von Monsignore Klaus Mayer'' (2004) * ''Wie ich überlebte. Die Jahre 1933–1945'' (2007)

Documentary

* ''Die Chagall-Fenster in Mainz'' ( SWR Fernsehen, 2007)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Klaus 1923 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic priests 21st-century Roman Catholic priests Clergy from Darmstadt German people of Jewish descent Roman Catholics in the German Resistance Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres