WILHELM EMMANUEL FREIHERR VON KETTELER,(1811-1877) made his
national debut in 1848, and in the following decades became the
leading Catholic social
thinker in Germany. Born to a district
administrator and estate owner in Westphalia, Ketteler completed
his university studies and entered the Prussian civil service in
1835. Three years later, he left state service when the Berlin
government took police action against the Catholic church
hierarchy, in particular Cologne's archbishop. The "Cologne
Troubles Kölner Wirren" marked the onset of a
Catholic revival in Germany, which inspired men such as Ketteler
to take up the Cathol
ic cause. Ketteler studied theology in
Munich, the intellectual hub of the revival, and upon completing
his studies, was ordained and returned to Westphalia to serve as
a parish priest.
In 1848, Father Ketteler was elected to the Frankfurt national assembly. In Frankfurt he joined the Catholic club, whose members were trying to utilize the democratic rights and freedoms to strengthen the influence of the Catholic church and to enshrine freedom of the church in any future constitution of t he Reich. Ketteler was anti-absolutistic, he rejected the aims of the progressive, liberal and democratic camps and advocated a greater Germany under the Hapsburg monarchy. His activities as a deputy were insignificant, but his public eulogy for two deputies assassinated during the September uprising in Frankfurt made him a national figure. In this famous oration honoring General Hans von Auwerswald and Prince Felix Lichnowsky, Ketteler lashed out against progressive ideology for its departure fr om Christian principles, blaming it for the senseless massacre, and warning of its deleterious effects on the people. In October 1848, his oratorical skills galvanized the general assembly of Pius Associations, renamed the Catholic Association of Germany (Katholischer Verein Deutschlands). In this national Catholic assembly, Ketteler put forth a Christian social mission in the modern world, calling on Catholics to respond to the so-called "Social Question," the socioeconomic dislocati on caused by early industrialization. He further articulated the social question in a series of sermons delivered at Mainz cathedral during the 1848 Advent season and subsequently published.
Ketteler's speeches and sermons in 1848 were the prelude to the Catholic-social movement in modern Germany, known as Social Catholicism. Ketteler argued that the social question was the essential problem of the time. Seeing the connection between revolution and religious indifference, he produced a romantic-patriarchal critique of capitalism. Appealing to the social conscience of believers and basing his arguments on the Thomistic theory of property, Ketteler called for increased charitable activity. His social program did not encompass any material demands in the interests of working people, the poor, and the needy, which was commensurate with his lack of insight into the concrete living conditions of the different social strata. His program was essentially designed to strengthen the powe r of the Catholic church and give it exclusive authority in moral and ethical matters. Thus, the effects of his endeavors for the social question during the revolutiona and the following years were considerable.
In January 1849, with the failure to establish a greater Germany
under Austrian leadership, the Catholic Club dissolved and
Ketteler left Frankfurt to become provost in Berlin. He was
later elected Bishop of Mainz, due to the direct interference of
the Roman Curia.
As bishop, he began his career as
a prominent figure in political Catholicism, in the course of
which he became the most important German Catholic social
reformer of the nineteenth century. After the onset of workers'
agitation led by Ferdinand Lassalle, Ketteler again took up the
social question and in 1864 published his programmatic study The
Workers' Question and Christianity. From then on he displayed
greater socio-political versatility in discussions with liberals
and socialist workers, es
pousing workers' rights and legislation
to protect the trade union movement. Ketteler's social thought
had a profound impact on Pope Leo XIII and his encyclical Rerum
novarum which laid the foundation of modern Catholic social
teaching.
Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler. Kritische Ausgabe der Werke
und Briefe. Erwin Iserloh and Christian Stoll (eds.)
(1977).
Ludwig Lenhart. Bischof
Ketteler. 3 vols., Mainz
1966-68.
Paul Misner. Social Catholicism in Europe from the Onset of
Industrialization to the First World War. (1991).
Jonathan Sperber. Popular Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century
Germany. (1984).
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/kettler.htm) on
October 22, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1999, 2004 James Chastain.
Rolf Weber(edited by Eric Yonke)
Bibliography