Hugo Aufderbeck (23 March 1909 – 17 January 1981) was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

. He served as

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

in the

Episcopal Office An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ''*ebiscopus''/''*biscopus'', . It is the st ...

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 26,000 (2024).

Life

Early years

Aufderbeck was born in Hellefeld, a small village in the heart of the

Sauerland The Sauerland () is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of the States of Germany, German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited. ...

countryside, and located some 70 km (45 miles) to the southeast of

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

. He attended the local school and then studied

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for a year with his vicar, Dr. Josef Brill. His early years were spent in a Roman Catholic environment, but he then switched to secondary school, the humanist "Laurentian Gymnasium" in nearby

Arnsberg Arnsberg (; ) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Ho ...

. He concluded his secondary schooling in

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

, where he was able to board at the archbishop's boys' seminary (''"Seminarium Liborianum"''). It was in Paderborn, as a pupil at the city's "Gymnasium Theodorianum" Cathedral School, that on 8 March 1930 he successfully passed his school final exams. Remaining in Paderborn he now entered the episcopate's and studied

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

. This period also included two sabbatical semesters, in 1932/33, in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Then, from 1934 till 1936, he attended the Paderborn Catholic Priest Seminary. On 28 March 1936, in the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

, Archbishop Caspar Klein ordained Hugo Aufderbeck into the priesthood. Following his ordination Aufderbeck became a religious teacher in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

at the Franciscan Sisters'

Lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...

. In 1937 he began to study at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

for a higher level teaching qualification. This was cut short in 1938 when the course was closed under pressure from the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

. Aufderbeck now relocated to the eastern part of the large

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Paderborn () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Germany; its seat is Paderborn.

: he became vicar of the provost's parish of Saints Francis and Elizabeth in Halle, also becoming a student chaplain for the city.

Wartime

In 1940 he took on pastoral responsibilities for soldiers in the Halle region, having already since September 1939 been creating a "Soldiers' Circle", in which regular soldiers, regardless of rank, met together. Using the military mail service he had built up and sustained a massive correspondence, which by Easter 1945 and the end of the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

had involved several thousand soldiers. Mistrusted by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

, he was subject to house-searches and interrogation sessions, and by the end of the war at constant risk of arrest and punishment. During the

Aufderbeck was in contact with the resistance group around Prof. Theodor Lieser. As the end approached Halle was occupied by

US troops The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except the C ...

on 17 April 1945, and Theodor Lieser was installed by them as the city's Lord Mayor. Although Halle was liberated by Americans, by the time war ended zones of occupation had been agreed which placed Halle in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

in what remained of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and in July 1945 the Americans withdrew and were replaced by the

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. Both under US occupation and under the longer period of Soviet administration which followed, Aufderbeck focused on youth work. He was a member of the "Archbishop's Council for Imperiled Youth" (''"Erziehungsbeirats für gefährdete Jugendliche"'') and of the "Advisory Council for Public Youth Support". He was the

representative in liaison with the newly formed Free German Youth (FDJ / ''Freie Deutsche Jugend''). The FDJ was the youth wing of the recently renamed and reconstituted

ruling party The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...

in this part of Germany, which by the later 1940s was in the process of reverting to one-

party dictatorship A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

. In 1947 Aufderbeck was appointed by Wilhelm Weskamm, the episcopal commissioner (who later became the Bishop of Berlin) as the permanent representative of the Archbishop's Commission for Youth Work in the Province of Saxony. The context for these developments, and for much of Aufdebeck's subsequent career, was the political frontier which since 1945 had divided the eastern half of the Paderborn archdiocese from

itself. Although this secular border was initially thoroughly porous, it would become progressively less so after the reinvention, formally in October 1949, of the

as the new Soviet sponsored

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. Because of the way in which FDJ activity was ever more overtly blended into the increasingly ubiquitous political activity of the ruling SED (party), Aufderbeck's contacts with the FDJ were fairly soon abandoned.

Soviet occupation zone / German Democratic Republic

In 1948 Weskamm made Aufderbeck responsible for building up and directing spiritual support on behalf of the Archdiocesan Commission. The political division of Germany was becoming accepted as a permanent aspect of the post-war legacy. Within this political reality Aufderbeck and Weskamm, and then Weskamm's successor created an increasingly separate structure for the eastern part of the Paderborn archdiocese, and in the process constructed an important spiritual and administrative focus for the

church in the

. Of particular importance are Aufderbeck's efforts regarding liturgical renewal, the "priestless" offices in remoter areas, with Communion celebrated by members of the laity, and his work at preparing priests and believers for ideological confrontation with

Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. In 1955 he became a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Fulda Bishops' Conference of Pastoral Theologians in the German speaking lands. In 1956, at the invitation of the Trier based German Liturgical Institute, he took part in the first international Pastoral Liturgical Congress, held at

Assisi Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...

. In 1958 he was appointed a

Papal chamberlain A papal gentleman, formally a Gentleman of His Holiness, is a lay attendant of the pope and his papal household in Vatican City. Papal gentlemen serve in the Apostolic Palace near St. Peter's Basilica in ceremonial positions, such as escorting d ...

and in 1959 a Papal

Honorary Prelate A Prelate of Honour of His Holiness is a Catholic prelate to whom the Pope has granted this title of honour. They are addressed as Monsignor (typically abbreviated 'Mgr') and have certain privileges as regards clerical clothing.

. On 19 June 1962

The Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

appointed Aufderbeck

Titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''Arca in Phonicia'' and an

Auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

with his base in

. The sudden erection in August 1961 of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

had made it clearer than ever that the eastern part of the Paderborn archdiocese could no longer be administered from Paderborn. Aufderbeck received his episcopal ordination on 5 September 1962 from Archbishop of Berlin (later Cardinal) Alfred Bengsch.

Death

Aufderbeck became aware of his incurable cancer in 1977. He signed his last will on 15 December 1980. He died on 17 January 1981 in the

Catholic Hospital.

References