Hermann Lange (16 April 1912 – 10 November 1943) was a Roman Catholic priest and martyr of the Nazi period in Germany. He was guillotined in a Hamburg prison by the Nazi authorities in November 1943, along with the three other
Lübeck martyrs. Lange was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011.
[Three priest-martyrs of Nazis beatified in Germany](_blank)
Catholic News Agency; 25 June 2011
Lange along with two Catholic priest colleagues –
Johannes Prassek and
Eduard Müller – along with Lutheran Pastor
Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, spoke publicly against the Nazis – initially discreetly – distributing pamphlets to friends and congregants.
[Beatification Of WWII Martyrs Divides Lutherans, Catholics](_blank)
Huffington Post; By Omar Sacirbey; 20/6/2011 They copied and distributed the anti-Nazi sermons of Bishop
Clemens August von Galen
Clemens Augustinus Emmanuel Joseph Pius Anthonius Hubertus Marie Graf von Galen (16 March 1878 – 22 March 1946), better known as ''Clemens August Graf von Galen'', was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Catholic Church ...
of Münster.
Then, following a March 28, 1942 RAF air raid, after which Stellbrink tended wounded, he delivered a Palm Sunday sermon which attributed the bombing to divine punishment. Stellbrink was arrested, followed by the three Catholic priests, and each were sentenced to death. The mingling of the blood of the four guillotined martyrs has become a symbol of German
Ecumenism
Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...
.
See also
*
Lübeck martyrs
*
Kirchenkampf
''Kirchenkampf'' (, lit. 'church struggle') is a German term which pertains to the situation of the Christianity in Germany, Christian churches in Germany during the Nazi Germany, Nazi period (1933–1945). Sometimes used ambiguously, the term ma ...
*
Catholic Church and Nazi Germany
Popes Pius XI (1922–1939) and Pius XII (1939–1958) led the Catholic Church during the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Around a third of Germans were Catholic in the 1930s, most of whom lived in Southern Germany; Protestants dominated the n ...
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lange, Hermann
1912 births
1943 deaths
German anti-fascists
Martyred Roman Catholic priests
German beatified people
Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era
Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI
German people executed by Nazi Germany
People executed by Nazi Germany by guillotine
20th-century German Roman Catholic priests
Roman Catholic priests executed by Nazi Germany