Rupert Mayer
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Rupert Mayer (born 23 January 1876 in Stuttgart; died 1 November 1945 in Munich) was a Jesuit priest and a leading figure of the Catholic resistance in the Third Reich in Munich.
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[edit] Life
Rupert Mayer studied philosophy and theology in Freiburg, Munich and Tübingen. He was, among other things, a member of A.V. Guestfalia Tübingen and K.D.St.V. Aenania München, two Studentenverbindungen that belong to the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen. In 1899, he was ordained a priest and joined the Society of Jesus in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, Austria (then Austria-Hungary) in 1900. From 1906, he moved about Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands as a People's Commissioner. From 1914, he was a chaplain at the front in the First World War. In 1916, he lost his left leg after it was injured in a grenade attack. He was the first chaplain to win the Iron Cross. He worked managing a clerical retreat, as a preacher, and as of 1921 as a leader of the Marian Congregation in Munich. In 1937, he found himself in "protective custody" for six months, and for seven months after that, he was in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released from there on the condition of a broad ban on preaching. Until his death in 1945, he lived in Ettal Monastery.
He died on his feet on 1 November 1945 of a stroke, while he was celebrating Mass, in Munich. Rupert Mayer was first buried at the Jesuitenfriedhof in Pullach. Due to the increasing visits of pilgrims the remains have been moved to Munich in 1948 and were reburied in the Unterkirche of the Bürgersaalkirche.
[edit] Protest against the Nazis
Rupert Mayer spoke out against anti-Catholic baiting campaigns and fought against Nazi church policy. He preached that man must obey God more than men. His protests against the Nazis landed him several times in Landsberg prison and in Sachsenhausen concentration camp under the Kanzelparagraphen, a series of 19th-century laws that forbade the clergy to make political statements from their pulpits. From late 1940, he was interned in Ettal Monastery, mainly because the Nazis were afraid that he would die in the concentration camp, and thereby become a martyr.
Rupert Mayer resolutely spoke out against the Nazi régime's evil in his lectures and sermons. Before the Sondergericht – one of Adolf Hitler's "special courts" – he declared "Despite the speaking ban imposed on me, I shall preach further, even if the state authorities deem my pulpit speeches to be punishable acts and a misuse of the pulpit."
His time in prison and the concentration camp had taken its toll, as had the enforced inactivity while under house arrest at Ettal.
[edit] Rupert Mayer's legacy and honours
In 1954, the Cartell Rupert Mayer (CRM) was founded. It was a further development of the first Christliche Loge (CL) founded in Munich in 1946. The mediaeval Dombauhütten Logen may be considered its forerunner.
Rupert Mayer was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 May 1987 in Munich.
Furthermore, in Pullach, Bavaria, a public school, a Realschule and a Gymnasium bear his name.
