Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl SJ

Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl is one of twelve children born to the farming couple Peter and Theresia Barbara Schwingshackl at the Plonhof farm in Welsberg in the Pustertal valley in South Tyrol. Although the family is very religious, the father initially rejects young Johann Nepomuk's wish to become a priest. So he hired himself out as a farmhand, first on the family farm and later on another farm. However, eight of the twelve children entered the clergy as priests, missionary brothers or nuns.

In 1910, his desire to become a priest grew stronger again. The priest Josef Mitterrutzner gave him private lessons and Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl passed the entrance examination for the 6th grade of the state grammar school in Brixen. However, the outbreak of the First World War prevented him from taking the Matura. He was drafted in 1914 and was taken prisoner of war in Russia, where he continued to prepare for his A-levels with the help of teachers who were also prisoners of war. He came out of captivity in 1918, was immediately admitted to the Matura on the basis of his private studies in Russia and passed it in the same year.

Without first making contact with the Order of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits (SJ), he joined it on January 10, 1919 in St. Andrä in Lavanttal. From October 1920, he studied philosophy in Innsbruck for two years, then theology in Krakow for a year, but had to return to Innsbruck in 1923 for health reasons. He was ordained a priest in 1924 and completed his theological studies in 1926. In this year, he fell ill with tuberculosis and was convalescent.

Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl then worked at the Canisianum in Innsbruck and then at the religious house of St. Andrä in Lavanttal. In 1933, he returned to Innsbruck and worked as a missionary to the people. From 1936, he was stationed in the Jesuit residence in Vienna's first district.

There he also witnessed the downfall of free Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in March 1938. He immediately drew up a plan for how the Jesuits could oppose the National Socialist 'Volksabstimmung' of April 10, but his superiors did not support him. From May 1938, Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl was a convent priest in the Canisius House in Vienna's 10th district and church rector of St. Martin's in Alsergrund. During this time, he was intensively involved with National Socialism and openly criticized it in his sermons. In order to avoid imprisonment, Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl finally moved to the Jesuit residence in Steyr in October 1941 and became a pastor at the St. Raphael health resort in March 1942. In January 1943, he finally supported the parish of Schönau in the pastoral ministry.

Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl's anti-National Socialist sermons continue to cause offense among National Socialists, who constantly spy on him.

In a sermon, Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl described the war as a visitation from God that had befallen people because of their apostasy from God and pointed out that salvation from this trial was only possible by returning to God. As a result of this sermon, he was interrogated by the Gestapo on December 15, 1943. He was banned from speaking and ordered to pay a security deposit of 5,000 RM, as well as being stripped of his pastoral care for young people.

On February 14, 1944, the church rector of St. Raphael wrote to the Jesuit provincial asking him to warn Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl not to preach any more dangerous sermons. Unfortunately, this request came too late, as Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl was arrested by "Inspector Josef Grömer of the Gestapo Linz" on February 18, 1944 at 1:00 pm.

The main trial takes place on December 16, 1944 and the President of the People's Court, Roland Freisler, has announced his attendance in person. At the trial, the charge of defeating the military had to be dropped as the only witness did not appear. However, the statements made in the letter to fellow brother Engelbert Maas were enough for the notorious presiding judge to sentence Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl to death as a "state-destroying defeatist". A plea for clemency was also rejected.

On February 15, 1945, Johann Nepomuk Schwingshackl was taken to Munich-Stadlheim for execution. He was first placed in a three-person cell, where he assisted his fellow prisoners religiously, after which he was moved to a single cell. On February 25, 1945, his state of health worsened, especially as, in addition to his tuberculosis, he also suffered from intestinal bleeding. In the night from February 27 to 28, 1945, he died around midnight after receiving the anointing of the sick.

His body was first buried anonymously in the Munich city cemetery at Perlacher Forst. In 1946, the body was exhumed and buried in the monastery cemetery of the Berchmans-Kolleg in Pullach near Munich. In 1985, his mortal remains were laid to rest in the crypt of the Jesuit Church in Innsbruck (university church).