Georg Ratzinger
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- For the 19th century politician see Georg Ratzinger
Reverend Monsignor Georg Ratzinger (born January 15, 1924) is a German Catholic priest and musician, well known as the elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI.
Ratzinger was born in Bavaria to Joseph Ratzinger, Sr., a police officer. Early in his life he showed musical talent, playing the church organ already at the age of 11. In 1935 he entered the minor seminary in Traunstein and had professional musical instruction there. In 1941 he encountered for the first time the choir of the Regensburger Domspatzen, whose musical director he was to become later, when they performed in Salzburg on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mozart's death.
In summer 1942 Georg Ratzinger was drafted to the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and the same autumn to the German Wehrmacht. In 1944 he was wounded in battle in Italy. At the end of World War II, he was a POW of the U.S. Army in the vicinity of Naples, but was released, and arrived at home in July of 1945.
In January 1946 he entered, together with his brother Joseph (later Pope Benedict XVI), the seminary of the archdiocese of Munich and Freising to study for the priesthood. At the same time he pursued his musical studies. He was ordained priest, together with his brother, in 1951, by Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber and afterwards studied Church Music in Munich, while serving in different priestly functions for the diocese.
He completed his studies in 1957 and became chorus director in his home parish in Traunstein. In February 1964 he was made musical director, Domkapellmeister, at St. Peters Cathedral in Regensburg, thereby becoming the chorus master of the Cathedral Choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen.
As "Cheef" of this world-renowned boys and men's choir, Ratzinger oversaw the recording of numerous master pieces (e.g. J. S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio, J.S. Bach: Mottetes, H. Schütz: Psalms of David), vibrant concert tours (among others to the U.S., Scandinavia, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and the Vatican; and a tour through Germany every year), and liturgical activities of the choir.
In 1967 he was named papal chaplain and in 1976 papal honorary Prelate. In that year the choir also celebrated its 1,000th anniversary. In 1977 Georg Ratzinger conducted the Domspatzen at his brother Joseph's consecration as Archbishop of Munich and Freising. They sang in honor of Queen Elizabeth II at her state visit in 1978, and at Pope John Paul II's visit in Munich in 1980; they also gave a concert for the state guests at the NATO summit in 1982 under the auspices of then German president Karl Carstens. In 1981 Georg Ratzinger was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1994, Georg Ratzinger was named a papal protonotary. The same year he retired from his post and lives now as a canon in Regensburg. In 2005, during a visit to his brother in Rome, worrying symptoms of heart failure and arrhythmia led to a brief admission at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic.
His grand uncle was the German politician Georg Ratzinger.
