User:Thomas Sauvegue/Thaddeus (Thaddäus) Brunke

Thaddeus (Thaddäus) Brunke OFM (Order of Friars Minor) was a German Franciscan presbyter. (* 21. Januar 1903 in Harburg/Elbe; † 5. August 1942 at KZ Dachau) Born in Hamburg-Harburg along the southern banks of the Elbe River and died on August 5, 1942 at Dachau Concentration Camp. His secular name was Wilhelm Johannes Josef Brunke. He is a Roman Catholic Martyr (Martyrologium Germanicum) from the Nazi era.

Life

Wilhelm Brunke grew up in Harburg/Elbe River near the Northern German city of Hamburg. On March 28, 1923 he became a member of the Franciscan Thuringian Province (Thuringia) and was given the religious name Thaddeus (German: Thaddäus). After novitiate training in Salmünster he concluded his initial formation with a profession of solemn vows on March 29, 1924. Afterwards, he prepared for final vows with the ceremony taking place on April 23, 1927 in the friary of Frauenberg in Fulda. He completed his studies in philosophy at the College of the Franciscan Province Thuringia in Sigmaringen-Gorheim. He continued his studies of theology at the friary of Frauenberg, where he was ordained as a priest on April 7, 1929.  

Thaddeus was appointed chaplain at the Franciscan parish of St. Boniface Church in Mannheim-Wohlgelegen for ten years. As chaplain in his parish, he worked especially diligently with local youth to keep their Christian faith strong and to resist political indoctrination. In August 1939, the Franciscan provincial leadership of Thuringia assigned him the responsible position of guardian at the friary of Frauenberg. As the superior of the large monastic community at Frauenberg, he was responsible for securing food supplies for the entire staff in order to keep monastic life going during the early part of WWII. The Nazis, in 1936, passed a law which forced farmers to report and hand over all food and livestock production to the local government. As a consequence, it made charitable food donations to monastic communities expressly unlawful. The Franciscans were thus no longer able to actively seek charity nor collect alms. For centuries, the Franciscan friars, had relied on charity from farmers and the surrounding community of the monastery for their existence. The law was a first attempt to make Christian monastic life impossible by withdrawing its very basics for survival. In order to keep the religious community still alive, and at the same time to circumvent the law of the Nazis, Christian farmers had secretly brought food donations directly to the monastery. However, the Nazis had caught up with the practice, and the truck of a farmer was confiscated by the Gestapo (Secret State Police) at Kassel on November 30, 1940. The Gestapo search of the monastery was swift. Resulting in the taking of possession of livestock and eggs which were considered not only excess but unlawful by the Nazis. The Franciscan provincial superior, Vinzenz Rock, had previously warned father Thaddeus about accepting and storing food supplies on the premises in order not to violate the new law, and to prevent the Gestapo from using it as an excuse for intervening. The Franciscan Thuringia provincial leadership therefore dismissed Thaddeus Brunke as guardian of the friary Frauenberg in Fulda on December 9, 1940, in order to prevent the final closing down of the monastery. Ironically, although Thaddeus had taken sole responsibility for violating the Nazi Law, the Gestapo still closed the monastery under such a pretext by force on December 14, 1940.

Thaddeus Brunke had been sent to the Franciscan monastery in Salmünster December 9 by his superior. The Gestapo at Kassel arrested him there on December 14, 1940. On December 18, at the special decree of Detective Inspector Georg Wilimzig of the Gestapo Kassel, he ordered Thaddeus' detainment to the concentration camp at Breitenau. On December 26, 1940 he was taken there until May 13, 1941. After nearly five months at Breitenau concentration camp, he was taken to Dachau concentration camp on May 16, 1941.

According to a statement by his fellow prisoner in Dachau, Josef Albinger, Brunke was popular with the imprisoned priests for his altruism and self-sacrifice. For the few approved masses at the concentration camp, he created sheet music of Gregorian chants for use during the services at the Priest Block at Dachau. During the brief period of privileged treatment in the Spring and Summer of 1942, the clergymen of "Block 26" had joined forces to counteract the stupidity and cruelty of the camp, and to jointly initiate a new spiritual endeavor, as his fellow inmate Franz Sales Hess reported. The large scale sheet music of the Gregorian chants, reproduced by Thaddeus entirely from memory of the old convent practices, were still in use until the camp was liberated by the US Army on 29 April 1945. Sadly however, Thaddeus Brunke had weakened severely by starvation and hard labor, to the point that he suffered a stroke in June and died from the second on the morning of August 5, 1942.

Acknowledgement

Stolperstein in Mannheim

The Franciscan provincial superior, Vinzenz Rock wrote in retrospect about Brunke's "sacrificial death for the Frauenberg": It was correct that the Guardian had declared himself as the sole responsible in the matter to the Gestapo. Due to his admirable courage he saved the lives of his fellow friars. However, the superior also knew that he and the confreres of the provincial Franciscan leadership "failed, because we did not do anything to help him. [...] May the dear God abundantly reward his sacrificial death for the Frauenberg in heaven."

In Mannheim, a memorial plaque was laid in front of St. Boniface's Church, in Mannheim-Wohlgelegen to commemorate chaplain Thaddeus Brunke for his courage in resisting the Nazi terror and his devotion to the Christian faith. Another memorial plaque was laid in front of his birth place, Maretstraße 45, Hamburg-Harburg / Elbe, in Northern Germany.

Sources

• Emmanuel Dürr: Pater Thaddäus (Wilhelm) Brunke. In: Helmut Moll (Hrsg.): Zeugen für Christus. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhunderts. Schöningh, Paderborn 1999, ISBN 3-506-75778-4, Bd. 2, Pages 746–747.
• Eike Lossin. Katholische Geistliche in nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-4413-7.

Weblinks

• Die Seligen des KZ Dachau
• Erzbistum Köln: Zehn Franziskaner als Märtyrer – Thaddäus Brunke
• Zwölf Jahrhunderte kirchlicher Tradition im Erzbistum Hamburg – Vitrine 5: Thaddäus Brunke
• Deutsche Biografie
• Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
• Stolpersteinverlegung in der Neckarstadt: Thaddäus Brunke
• Gedenkstätte KZ Breitenau, Seite 10

[[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:1903 births]] [[Category:People from Harburg (district)]] [[Category:Martyrs]] [[Category:People who died in Dachau concentration camp]] [[Category:German resistance members]] [[Category:Nazi Germany and Catholicism]] [[Category:20th-century Roman Catholic priests]]