DDr. Jakob Weinbacher
Personalia
Born:
Died:
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Persecution:
Vienna
Memberships
Curriculum Vitae
Jakob Weinbacher attended grammar school in Baden and entered the Viennese seminary after graduating in 1919. He studied theology in Vienna and became active in the student fraternity Nibelungia in 1923. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1924, he also joined the young secondary school fraternity Vindobona I the following year.
After two years as a chaplain in Laa an der Thaya, he was appointed archbishop's ceremoniar to Gustav Cardinal Piffl (1864-1932) in 1926-1930. He then continued his studies, which he completed in Vienna in 1930 with a doctorate in theology and in Rome in 1932 with a doctorate in canon law. After his return from Rome, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer appointed him his secretary in 1933 and also appointed him cathedral preacher in 1934. He held both posts until 1950.
Jakob Weinbacher witnessed the storming of the archbishop's palace in Vienna by the HJ after the Catholic Youth's rosary celebration on October 7, 1938 in St. Stephen's Cathedral on October 8, 1938. Episcopal Vicar Dr. Karl Rühringer describes this event in the Wiener Kirchenzeitung of 10 July 2005, based on Jakob Weinbacher's eyewitness account.
Because Jakob Weinbacher was suspected of being a member of the monarchist resistance group "Hebra", but this could not be proven, he was interrogated and detained at the Vienna Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole from November 9, 1939 to December 18, 1939. As he could not be convicted of high treason, he was transferred to Parchim in Mecklenburg on May 27, 1940. There he was arrested again on February 4, 1943 and taken to prison together with Provicar Dr. Carl Lampert in Stettin (Pomerania, now Szczecin/Poland). He remained there until November 13, 1944, when Jakob Weinbacher was allowed to work as a pastor in a women's convent in Szczecin. At the turn of 1944/45, he was allowed to return to Vienna due to the death of his mother.
After the liberation of Vienna, he was prevented from being deported back to Stettin, Carinthia or southern Styria, as planned by the Gestapo.
On May 1, 1945, shortly before the end of the war, Jakob Weinbacher was appointed Caritas Director - a man "of the first hour in the reconstruction of Caritas of the Archdiocese of Vienna". On September 4, 1945, he was appointed Canon. After several years as Vicar General, he was appointed Rector of the Santa Maria dell'Anima College of Priests in Rome from 1952-1961. Cardinal Franz König (1905-2004) then brought him back to Vienna and again entrusted him with the office of Vicar General from 1961-1969. On June 4, 1962, John XXIII (1958-1963) appointed Jakob Weinbacher titular bishop of Thala and auxiliary bishop in Vienna; he was consecrated bishop in 1962 and also held the office of secretary of the Austrian Bishops' Conference until 1977.
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Multimedia
Citations
- Krause, Peter/Reinelt, Herbert/Schmitt, Helmut (2020): Farbe tragen, Farbe bekennen. Katholische Korporierte in Widerstand und Verfolgung. Teil 2. Kuhl, Manfred (ÖVfStG, Wien), p. 381/382.
