Schwester Theresia Dümmler FMA

Theresia Dümmler was born in Ensdorf near Amberg in the Upper Palatinate. Little is known about her childhood and youth, except that she had her first communion and confirmation at the age of 11. On January 29, 1926, she entered the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians (Don Bosco Sisters) in Eschelbach, Germany. She made her first profession two years later, in 1928, and was transferred to Jagdberg in Vorarlberg. She made her perpetual profession there in 1934 and moved to Gramatneusiedl in 1937, where she became superior. In Gramatneusiedl, the order ran a kindergarten, a sewing school and a boarding school.

Although forbidden, the sisters Theresia Dümmler, Margareta Hofmann and Sofia Pick give sewing and music lessons in a private home. This became known and on August 19, 1942, the police searched the house and interrogated the sisters. Sister Theresia Dümmler was summoned to the Gestapo in Vienna on August 21, 1942 and interrogated for two hours. They were accused of religiously influencing the people and the youth and of causing unrest among the population through their "clerical-propagandistic behavior." They were ordered to leave Gramatneusiedl within 10 days under threat of imprisonment and not to tell anyone in the population.

In order to escape the prison sentence, Sister Theresia Dümmler left Gramatneusiedl on 31 August 1942 and moved to Klagenfurt, where she remained until after the end of the war. After the war, the order's assets were restituted and Sister Theresia Dümmler returned to Gramatneusiedl in 1946 to rebuild the business, which she succeeded in doing. In 1947, she finally took Austrian citizenship. After a few stations, during which she was always a superior, she finally moved to Stams in 1970, where she remained until the end of her life. She died in Innsbruck at the age of 72. The credo of her life was: "I know whom I have believed..."