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'{{short description|German Roman Catholic priest}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox saint | honorific_prefix = [[Beatification|Blessed]] |name = Gerhard Hirschfelder |image= Gerhard-Hirschfelder.jpg |caption = |birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|02|17|df=y}} |birth_place = [[Kłodzko|Glatz]], [[German Empire]] |death_date = {{death date and age|1942|08|01|1907|02|17|df=y}} |death_place = [[Dachau concentration camp]], [[Nazi Germany]] |titles = [[Martyr]] |venerated_in = [[Roman Catholic Church]] |feast_day = 2 August |attributes = |patronage = <!-- WARNING: patronages MUST CORRESPOND to a reliable secondary source, per WP:RS --> |beatified_date = 19 September 2010 |beatified_place = [[Münster Cathedral]], [[Germany]] |beatified_by = Cardinal [[Joachim Meisner]] }} '''Gerhard Hirschfelder''' (17 February 1907 – 1 August 1942) was a [[German people|German]] [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[priest]].<ref name=SQPN>{{cite web|url=http://catholicsaints.info/blessed-gerhard-hirschfelder/|title=Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder|publisher=Saints SQPN|date=10 June 2016|accessdate=13 February 2017}}</ref> He was a vocal critic of [[Nazism]] and used his sermons to condemn Nazi propaganda and other aspects of Nazism which drew suspicion on him from the authorities who monitored him and even interrogated him on occasion. He was a staunch supporter of the role of adolescents in the life of the Church and made them a focus in his pastoral activities. In his imprisonment he became a member of the [[Schoenstatt Movement]].<ref name=SEB>{{cite web|url=http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/95290|title=Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder|date=|publisher=Santi e Beati|accessdate=13 February 2017}}</ref><ref name=CS>{{cite web|url=http://www.cathstan.org/Content/News/Article/Martyred-German-priest-who-died-at-Dachau-beatified-at-Mass/2/2/4132|title=Martyred German priest who died at Dachau beatified at Mass|date=23 September 2010|publisher=Catholic Standard|accessdate=13 February 2017}}</ref> Hirschfelder's beatification drew intense support after the priest died and 10 000 signatures were put to a petition in a request for his beatification; the formal cause began in the late 1990s and he became titled as a [[Servant of God]]. The beatification was celebrated on 19 September 2010 in [[Münster]] with Cardinal [[Joachim Meisner]] celebrating on the behalf of [[Pope Benedict XVI]]. ==Life== [[File:Gedenktafel für Gerhard Hirschfeld in Telgte 01.JPG|thumb|160px|left|A commemorative plaque for Gerhard Hirschfelder in [[Telgte]], Germany, saying that Hirschfelder served here as a chaplain for the youth]] Gerhard Hirschfelder was born on 17 February 1907 as an illegitimate child to the unmarried Maria Hirschfelder.<ref name=SQPN/> He received his [[baptism]] on 19 February from Father Bertmann in the Assumption parish.<ref name=SEB/> He attended high school at the [[Kłodzko|Glatz]] school (where he graduated in 1926)) and then underwent his theological and philosophical studies at the [[University of Wrocław|University of Breslau]]. But his time there was often tarnished with the knowledge that he was an illegitimate child and he was sometimes ridiculed for that. Hirschfelder received his elevation into the [[diaconate]] on 29 December 1931 in the [[Wrocław Cathedral|Breslau Cathedral]] from Cardinal [[Adolf Bertram]]. He received his ordination to the priesthood on 31 January 1932 from Cardinal Bertram.<ref name=SQPN/> He celebrated his first [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] on 1 February 1932 in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in [[Długopole-Zdrój|Bad Langenau]]. He first served as a chaplain in a small parish until February 1939 when he was transferred to the [[Bystrzyca Kłodzka|Habelschwerdt]] parish. In July 1939 he was called to Glatz to work with adolescents and became a popular pastor and dominated his activism on the children and teenagers because he believed them to be the future of the Church.<ref name=SQPN/><ref name=SEB/> [[File:Czermna-Grab-Hirschfelder-1.jpg|thumb|240px|left|His grave in Tscherbeney, now Czermna in Poland]] He worked with adolescents and discouraged them from joining the [[Hitler Youth]] movement and from being influenced by all the Nazi propaganda circulated at the time. He criticized Nazism in his sermons and was denounced as a result of this. In late July 1941 he condemned the destruction of Christian images and said: "He who tears from the heart of young people their faith in Christ is a criminal" and for this was arrested within a week on 1 August when he was taken to the Glatz prison.<ref name=SQPN/> It was there at that prison that he wrote an intense and deep memoranda on the [[Stations of the Cross|Via Crucis]] and a series on the [[Pauline epistles|Pauline letters]] as well as on the priesthood and marriage.<ref name=CS/> He was sent straight to the [[Dachau concentration camp]] in mid-December 1941 (without a trial) where he received the prisoner number 28927; he arrived there on 27 December. While in Dachau he became a member of the [[Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement|Schoenstatt Movement]].<ref name=CS/> Hirschfelder was imprisoned in block 26/3 alongside the [[Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate|Oblate of Mary Immaculate]] priest Engelbert Rehling who said he was "almost timid" in his disposition as well as being quite humble. Hirschfelder died on 1 August 1942 due to starvation coupled with acute [[pneumonia]] he had contracted. His remains were cremated and buried some weeks later though recovered; his official cause of death was never disclosed. His grave is located in the Tscherbeney cemetery (now Czermna in Poland). ==Beatification== There were 10 000 signatures collected asking officials in Münster and [[Rome]] to begin the cause for beatification.<ref name=SEB/> The beatification process opened in the Münster diocese in a diocesan process from 18 September 1998 until its closure in March 1999 though the formal introduction to the cause came under [[Pope John Paul II]] on 19 December 1998 once the [[Congregation for the Causes of Saints]] issued the "[[nihil obstat]]" and titled Hirschfelder as a [[Servant of God]]. The C.C.S. later validated this process on 15 October 1999 and received the [[Positio]] in 2002. Theologians approved the cause on 2 October 2009 as did the C.C.S. on 9 February 2010. [[Pope Benedict XVI]] approved that Hirschfelder died "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith) on 27 March 2010 and thus approved the beatification. Cardinal [[Joachim Meisner]] presided over the beatification on the pope's behalf in the [[Münster Cathedral]] on 19 September 2010 with about 4000 people in attendance. The previous week on 13 September saw the pope reference the late priest to the German ambassador at [[Castel Gandolfo]] as one of hundreds of priests killed in concentration camps during [[World War II]]. Archbishop [[Erwin Josef Ender]] attended the beatification as did [[Dominik Duka]] and Bishop Felix Genn of Münster.<ref name=SEB/> Meisner said in his remarks that Hirschfelder placed his trust in "the power of faith".<ref name=CS/> The current [[postulator]] for the cause is Dr. Andrea Ambrosi. ==See also== {{Portal|Saints|Biography|Catholicism|Germany|World War II}} * [[Priest Barracks of Dachau]] * [[Kirchenkampf]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [http://newsaints.faithweb.com/year/1942.htm Hagiography Circle] * [http://catholicsaints.info/blessed-gerhard-hirschfelder/ Saints SQPN] * [https://zenit.org/articles/priest-martyr-of-dachau-beatified/ Zenit] * [http://www.kaplanhirschfelder.de/ Kaplan Gerhard Hirschfelder] * [http://www.hirschfelder-stiftung.de/ Stiftung Kaplan Gerhard Hirschfelder] {{Commons category|1=Gerhard Hirschfelder}} {{Canonization}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirschfelder, Gerhard}} [[Category:1907 births]] [[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century venerated Christians]] [[Category:Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI]] [[Category:Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Germany]] [[Category:German people who died in Dachau concentration camp]] [[Category:German anti-fascists]] [[Category:German beatified people]] [[Category:Martyred Roman Catholic priests]] [[Category:People from Kłodzko]] [[Category:Roman Catholics in the German Resistance]] [[Category:University of Breslau alumni]] [[Category:Venerated Catholics]] [[Category:Deaths by starvation]] [[Category:20th-century German Roman Catholic priests]]'