Johann Konrad Maria Augustin Felix,

Graf (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "coun ...

von Preysing Lichtenegg-Moos (30 August 1880 – 21 December 1950) was a German prelate of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Considered a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism, he served as Bishop of Berlin from 1935 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

Early life and ordination

Preysing was born at the castle of Kronwinkel, near Landshut, to the nobles Kaspar von Preysing and his wife, Hedwig von Walterskirchen. His brothers, Albert and Joseph, also became priests. Konrad von Preysing attended a Landshut '' gymnasium'' before entering the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

in 1898. After studying at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

from 1901 to 1902, he forfeited a diplomatic career for an ecclesiastical one. He then obtained his doctorate in theology in 1913 from the

Theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

Faculty of Innsbruck, which he had entered in 1908. Preysing was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

to the priesthood on 29 July 1912.

Secretary to the Cardinal

Preysing served as

private secretary A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family. The role exists in ...

to Cardinal Franziskus von Bettinger, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, until 1916. As the Cardinal's secretary, he attended the 1914 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XV. Preysing did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising from 1916 to 1932. He was made a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

of the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

chapter on 1 April 1928, and an Honorary Chamberlain of His Holiness on 15 May 1914.

Nazi period

Bishop

On 9 September 1932, Preysing was appointed

Bishop of Eichstätt A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

by Pope Pius XI. He received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

on the following October 28 from Archbishop Jacobus von Hauck, with Bishops Matthias Ehrenfried and Sigmund Ow-Felldorf serving as co-consecrators, at

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese ...

. He was later named Bishop of Berlin on 5 July 1935, and installed on 31 August.

Resistance to Nazism

In 1933,

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

was appointed Chancellor of Germany. A stern opponent of the

Nazi regime 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 ...

, Preysing said "We have fallen into the hands of criminals and fools" when the

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featur ...

came to power. Preysing was one of the most firm and consistent of senior Catholics to oppose the Nazis, and was loathed by Hitler, who said "the foulest of carrion are those who come clothed in the cloak of humility and the foulest of these Count Preysing! What a beast!". Preysing opposed the appeasement attitudes of Cardinal

Adolf Bertram Adolf Bertram (14 March 1859 – 6 July 1945) was archbishop of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Early life Adolf Bertram was born in Hildesheim, Royal Prussian Province of Hanover (now Lower Saxony), ...

towards the Nazis. He spoke out in public sermons and argued the case for firm opposition at bishops' conferences. He sought to block the Nazi closure of Catholic schools and arrests of church officials. By early 1937, the church hierarchy in Germany, which had initially attempted to co-operate with the new government, had become highly disillusioned. In March, Pope Pius XI issued the ''

Mit brennender Sorge ''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep anxiety") ''On the Church and the German Reich'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)."Church and st ...

'' ("With burning concern") encyclical. The Pope asserted the inviolability of human rights and expressed deep concern at the Nazi regime's flouting of the 1933 Reich concordat, its mistreatment of Catholics and abuse of Christian values.Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p.58 The pope accused the government of "systematic hostility levelled at the Church" and of sowing "secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church". Preysing was part of the five-member commission that prepared the anti-Nazi encyclical. Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; pp.58-59Konrad Graf von Preysing
German Resistance Memorial Centre, Index of Persons; retrieved at 4 September 2013 In 1938, Preysing became one of the co-founders of the ''Hilfswerk beim Bischöflichen Ordinariat Berlin'' (Welfare Office of the Berlin Diocese Office). He extended care to both baptised and unbaptised Jews and protested the Nazi euthanasia programme. In 1940, Preysing ordered that prayers be offered in all of his

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

's churches for thirty Confessing Church clerics who were arrested in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. While Preysing was protected from Nazi retaliation by his position, his cathedral administrator and confidant Bernard Lichtenberg, was not. Lichtenberg served at St. Hedwig's Cathedral from 1932, and was under the watch of the Gestapo by 1933, for his support of prisoners and Jews. He became a confidante of Bishop von Preysing from 1935. He ran Preysing's aid unit, the ''Hilfswerke beim Bischöflichen Ordinariat Berlin'', which secretly gave assistance to those who were being persecuted by the regime. From 1938, Lichtenberg conducted prayers for the Jews and other inmates of the concentration camps, including "my fellow priests there". For preaching against Nazi propaganda and writing a letter of protest concerning Nazi euthanasia, he was arrested in 1941, sentenced to two years penal servitude, and died en route to Dachau Concentration Camp in 1943. Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p.60Bernhard Lichtenberg
German Resistance Memorial Centre, Index of Persons; retrieved at 4 September 2013 Following Lichtenberg's arrest, Margarete Sommer reported to Preysing. While working for the Welfare Office, Sommer coordinated Catholic aid for victims of racial persecution – giving spiritual comfort, food, clothing, and money. She gathered intelligence on the deportations of the Jews, and living conditions in concentration camps, as well as on SS firing squads, writing several reports on these topics from 1942.Margarete Sommer
German Resistance Memorial Centre, Index of Persons; retrieved at 4 September 2013 A January 1941 letter from Preysing to Pope Pius XII indicated that he was aware of the dire situation of European Jews and that he had been seeking help from the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

on the question. In a sermon in March 1941, Preysing reaffirmed Pius XII's opposition to the killing of the sick or otherwise infirm on either economic or eugenical grounds. Preysing also worked with leading members of the resistance

Carl Goerdeler Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (; 31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945) was a monarchist conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime. He opposed some anti-Jewish policies while he held office and was ...

and

Helmuth James Graf von Moltke Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (11 March 1907 – 23 January 1945) was a German jurist who, as a draftee in the German Abwehr, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He w ...

. Presying's Advent Pastoral Letters of 1942 and 1943 on the nature of human rights reflected the anti-Nazi theology of the

Barmen Declaration __NOTOC__ The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the de ...

of the Confessing Church, leading one to be broadcast in German by the BBC. Preysing had contact with 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.Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p.161 Preysing later admitted that

Hans Globke Hans Josef Maria Globke (10 September 1898 – 13 February 1973) was a German administrative lawyer, who worked in the Prussian and Reich Ministry of the Interior in the Reich, during the Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism and wa ...

had become an official of the Interior Ministry through the German episcopate in order to serve as an agent for the German Resistance. In 1944, Preysing met with and gave a blessing to Claus von Stauffenberg, in the lead up to the July Plot to assassinate Hitler, and spoke with the resistance leader on whether the need for radical change could justify tyrannicide. Despite Preysing's open opposition, the Nazis did not dare arrest him and several months after the end of the war he was named a cardinal by Pope Pius XII.

Post-war period

Stamps of Germany (Berlin) 1980, MiNr 624

Cardinal

Pope Pius XII created Preysing

Cardinal Priest A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Col ...

of '' S. Agata de' Goti'' in the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church * Consistor ...

of 18 February 1946; Angelo Roncalli, the nuncio to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and also the future Pope John XXIII, provided Preysing with the money for the trip to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. At the ceremony, when another new cardinal remarked that their red hats would be suspended in their cathedrals following their deaths, Preysing responded, "Your Eminence forgets that I have no roof", as St. Hedwig's Cathedral had been bombed during

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 opposing ...

Anti-Communist

Preysing denounced the East German Communist National Front, which subsequently called him a "gladiator for

American imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conques ...

".TIME Magazine
"The Hunt"
m 27 February 1950

Death

Preysing died in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

at age 70. He was buried in St. Hedwig's cemetery on 28 December 1950, but his remains were later transferred to the crypt of St. Hedwig's Cathedral on 12 February 1968.

Notes

References

External links

Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Preysing, Konrad von 1880 births 1950 deaths 20th-century German cardinals Counts of Germany Roman Catholics in the German Resistance People from Landshut People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Roman Catholic bishops of Berlin Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII German anti-communists Burials at St. Hedwig's Cathedral Clergy from Munich 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Germany