A choral work to honor chancellor konrad adenauer
The Choral Work Deutsche Messe: Die Rosen has been written as a tribute and memorial to Konrad Adenauer. It is dedicated to his memory as well as to the countless others for a better Germany that would arise out of the destruction of World War 2. Based around the settings of the parts of the Mass/Gottesdienst, it includes a text of the Chancellor. It has other of Christians who lived out the truth of their Christian calling, even to the sacrifice of their lives. They are the 'Roses'.
the achievement of adenauer
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer is regarded by many Germans as the greatest German of all German history, above composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, poets such as Goethe, scientists such as Einstein and Schweitzer, philosophers such as Marx and Kant and influential religious writers such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther.[1] While all of these personalities have more or less universal recognition, in universities and places of culture, much less is generally known outside Germany about the life and achievement of Konrad Adenauer.
[1] A TV program by ZDF set out to discover who German people of today regarded who were the Greatest Germans. The program was called Unsere Besten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsere_Besten#Top_10
[1] A TV program by ZDF set out to discover who German people of today regarded who were the Greatest Germans. The program was called Unsere Besten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsere_Besten#Top_10
post war germany
The City of Cologne after aerial bombardment of the Allies
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) had the unenviable task of taking responsibility for the leadership of the Germany that had been destroyed by the teachings and regime of Adolf Hitler, and of giving the country back its dignity, taking it once again into the fellowship of modern European nations. The country he inherited as its first elected post-war Chancellor could not have been in a worse state: it was literally covered in rubble after its aerial destruction by the Allied forces; it had been dramatically reduced in size and was now flooded with millions of German speaking refugees from all its former eastern territories.
German refugees after the end of World War II
 Children of the Holocaust
What is worse, it had to wake up to the terrible truths of the holocaust, the incarceration and murder of millions of its own population, and most significantly the murder of much of the Jewish population of Europe. Many thousands of the members of its defeated army were still imprisoned in Soviet Russia, and its shrunken post war landmass had been divided into two distinct political jurisdictions by the Soviet occupation of its eastern flank. This Eastern German territory was soon to become the separate socialist state of the German Democratic Republic, subject to Soviet domination.
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Divided Germany with East Germany and former Easter Territories
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To attempt to turn this country round, to restore its dignity, to atone for its sins, and to help it restore its crippled economy was effectively an impossible task, beyond any politician or political party, church, social movement or association. To attempt to return the country to is Christian philosophical and religious roots and to seek in the process to reconcile its divided Christian Catholic and Lutheran communities and to forge out of them a completely new united Christian Democratic party, and to attempt a reconciliation with the Jewish community that had been almost destroyed in the Holocaust would need something approaching the miraculous.
Konrad Adenauer would not be one to seek any personal credit for what was achieved in post war Germany. However, after suffering himself at the hands of the Nazis and effectively becoming a fugitive in his own country, he received a call then in his 70th year to help restore some order to the City of Cologne where he had formerly been Mayor. This call to serve was short-lived: he was soon dismissed unjustifiably for alleged incompetence by the occupying authorities and returned to his home and family in Rhöndorf, being forbidden henceforth to engage in any political activity.
Allied troops entering Cologne March 1945. Cologne Cathedral in background
the adenauer home in Rhöndorf
The Adenauer family Home in Rhöndorf, Bad Honnef
There he entered into a period of deep personal conviction that he was the man to try to turn Germany around. As soon as it became possible, he established himself, by appealing to both his seniority and years of political experience, as the leader of the newly formed inter-denominational Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From this time on, he was a ‘driven’ man, often uncompromising, sometimes intransigent and forceful but always determined that this lowest ebb for his beloved country would never be reached again. Against all the odds and expectations of the Occupying British, French and American authorities, he succeeded, and is now aptly called the ‘Father’ of modern Germany. It is therefore no wonder the German public view him so highly.
the forming of the christian democratic union - cdu
The Party he helped establish – with its sister party in Bavaria the CSU – has been dominant in Germany since the early 1950’s, having been in Government or Coalition for 48 of the 71 years since the founding of the Federal Republic in May 1949. His determination and vision was fundamental to the formation of the European Union, the historical reconciliation between Germany and France and the relationship he was able to forge between Germany and the new Jewish state of Israel through the extraordinary relationship he developed with its first Prime Minister, David ben Gurion.
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Chancellor Adenauer and President De Gaulle in Cathedral of Reims July 8 1962
Chancellor Adenauer meets Prime Minister David ben Gurion in Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York March 14th 1960. Picture alliance
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ADENAUER’S STAY AT MARIA LAACH MONASTERY
Maria Laach Benedictine Monastery
Where did Adenauer receive his conviction and his drive to restore his country? One might only surmise the factors that affected him, including his suffering during the war and having to escape possible deportation to Buchenwald Concentration camp and execution. One period however many biographers would highlight as being perhaps most significant. For a period of up to nearly a year during 1933, Konrad Adenauer, on the run from the Nazi authorities, became ‘Brother Konrad’, a lay member of the Benedictine monastery of Maria Laach in the Eifel Mountains south of Cologne.
 Fr Ildefons Herwegen, Abbot of Maria Laach Monastery
He had been friends from childhood with Fr Ildefons Herwegen who was the Abbot of the Monastery for they had been classmates in the same Catholic school of Apostelgymnasium in Cologne. Adenauer decided to write to him on 17 April 1933 asking him if he could find some ‘bodily and spiritual refreshment’ at the Abbey with a stay of one or two months [1]. The Abbot replied saying he was welcome to come at any time. He arrived at the abbey a few days later, on 20th April, and was to stay there hidden away from the authorities for over 8 months until he left in early January 1934.
The Apostle High School Cologne
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Konrad Adenauer at Maria Laach
Being a political activist and a deep family man, this was not an easy time for him to be in such seclusion and isolation, away from his family. He wrote:
"After all the experiences of the past few weeks, yesterday, the silence and loneliness plummeted down on me with overwhelming force despite the beauty of nature and the magic the fruit bloom in the huge monastery garden. "[2] |
ADENAUER’S RETREAT.
Maria Laach Monastery Library
According to his son Max, Adenauer would normally indulge for relaxation in reading thrillers and detective novels. [1] There were no such books or distractions in the Maria Laach Monastery Library which was full of historical and theological works. Probably for the first time in his active life he had the opportunity to read and reflect on some deeper theological and philosophical issues, and to immerse himself in history and in the writing of Church leaders and theologians.
[1] Charles Williams ibid. p. 221 interview with Max Adenauer.
[1] Charles Williams ibid. p. 221 interview with Max Adenauer.
rerum novarum: on the condition of working classes pope leo xiii
He was particularly attracted to the Papal encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI which spoke of social and political matters. Rerum Novarum, on the Condition of the Working Classes of Pope Leo XIII set out a new political vision which avoided all the fallacies of both right wing and the class struggle of left wing political thinkers. Instead it focused on the role of the individual at the heart of society and politics and on the need for justice, living wages and a preferential option for the poor who were ‘tossed about helplessly and disastrously in conditions of pitiable and undeserved misery’.[1]
[1] Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum, On the Condition of the Working Classes 1891 Catholic Truth Society 1983 p.2
[1] Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum, On the Condition of the Working Classes 1891 Catholic Truth Society 1983 p.2
Quadragesimo Anno, reconstruction of the Social Order pope pius xi
Quadragesimo Anno, on the reconstruction of the Social Order written 40 years later by Pope Pius XI, expounded these matters further showing how the state should ‘do all those things that belong to it alone because it alone can do them: directing, watching, urging, restraining, as occasion requires and necessity demands. [1] Adenauer’s biographer Charles Williams stated that it was no exaggeration to say that Adenauer found in these writings ‘an echo of what he as a Catholic…instinctively felt and also a theoretical and authoritative underpinning to the practical policies which he was to espouse in the future. [2]
[1] Pope Pius XI Quadragesimo Anno, on the reconstruction of the Social Order Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1931 p.428
[2] Williams, Charles Adenauer ibid p.221
[1] Pope Pius XI Quadragesimo Anno, on the reconstruction of the Social Order Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1931 p.428
[2] Williams, Charles Adenauer ibid p.221
'I AM A GARDENER' : THE INSPIRATION OF THE MARIA LAACH GARDENS
The Gardens at Maria Laach
His stay at Maria Laach also gave him another passion: the gardens of the monastery gave him a great love of nature and particularly of roses. Nature was his teacher in his political life. As he recounted to his son Paul who became a Catholic priest and Monsignor, to ‘ Save and rescue people and fatherland...I'm a gardener who sows, cares and tends and lets grow. That's how I do it in politics.[1]
[1] Original text: Partei! Volk und Vaterland retten..ich bin Gartner,der sat, hegt und pflegt und wachsen laast. So such in Politik. Trinkspruch: Auf unser Volk. From Küsters Hanns Jurgen Konrad Adenauer – Der Vater, die Macht und das Erbe Das Tagebuch des Monsignore Paul Adenauer 1961-1966 Ferdinand Schöningh © 2017 p.132 Translation: Andrea Henkelmann.
the gardens at RHÖNDORF
Adenauer in his garden at Rhöndorf.
Adenauer brought his love of gardening to his home in Rhondorf. On a diary made by Fr Paul on the Saturday 16th June 1962 he gives the entry:
'It's finally summer this week. The Tamarisk on the stairs blooms splendidly. Father gives me a test every day to see if I know its name. The roses are finally coming into bloom, and in the evening, when father comes home, around 8.45 pm, we eat outside in the moonlight by the side of the running well . First of all the fountain is turned and afterwards the latest lilac is observed and smelled. Then a game of almost an hour starts, and in between we breathe the wonderful, fragrant forest air, look over the Rhine Valley at the lights to Godesberg or watch the moon as it draws its path along the road.'
'It's finally summer this week. The Tamarisk on the stairs blooms splendidly. Father gives me a test every day to see if I know its name. The roses are finally coming into bloom, and in the evening, when father comes home, around 8.45 pm, we eat outside in the moonlight by the side of the running well . First of all the fountain is turned and afterwards the latest lilac is observed and smelled. Then a game of almost an hour starts, and in between we breathe the wonderful, fragrant forest air, look over the Rhine Valley at the lights to Godesberg or watch the moon as it draws its path along the road.'
Küsters Hanns Jurgen Konrad Adenauer – Der Vater, die Macht und das Erbe Das Tagebuch des Monsignore Paul Adenauer 1961-1966 Ferdinand Schöningh © 2017 p.152
DEUTSCHE MESSE: DIE ROSEN
Adenauer alone cannot be lauded for the amazing restoration of Germany in the post war period. Many heroes and heroines laid down their lives in sacrifice for a new Germany, also living out the call of their consciences. Such personalities were Fr Max Josef Metzger who was executed for his work for Christian unity who was the founder of the Una Sancta brotherhood which inspired the founding of the CDU. [1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the pastor of the Lutheran Confessing Church who refused the attempt of Hitler to take over the running of the Lutheran Church. Fr Rupert Mayer was a Catholic priest and Jesuit whose protests against the Nazis landed him several times in Landsberg prison. Sister Edith Stein was the Jewish philosopher who became a convert to Catholicism and a Carmelite nun who was subsequently murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp. These and many others people of conviction of all religious traditions and none, pointed the way in the wilderness of the Third Reich to a renewal that would take place after many of them had died or had been executed for their courage and principle.
[1] https://cormacoduffy.weebly.com/post-war-developments-of-una-sancta.html
[1] https://cormacoduffy.weebly.com/post-war-developments-of-una-sancta.html
the 'roses' l-r Fr max Josef Metzger, Sister edith stein, dietrich bonhoeffer, fr rupert mayer, chancellor konrad adenauer
The work ‘Deutsche Messe: Die Rosen’ is dedicated to all these ‘roses’ whose courage and principle also helped to shape post-war Germany, but principally to the memory of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, affectionally known as ‘Die Alte ‘ the ‘elder’. According to the British Politician Roy Jenkins he was ‘ "the oldest statesman ever to function in elected office’.[1] He led Germany from his 75th year until his 86th year, and effectively rescued Germany from its own destruction and helping it under subsequent leaders to attain the dignity of being a compassionate, egalitarian and visionary country, with a successful economic system and with the second highest trade surplus in the world [2], and a bulwark of the European Union project.
[1] Roy Jenkins (2011). Portraits and Miniatures. A&C Black. p. 56.
[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/256642/the-20-countries-with-the-highest-trade-surplus/
[1] Roy Jenkins (2011). Portraits and Miniatures. A&C Black. p. 56.
[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/256642/the-20-countries-with-the-highest-trade-surplus/
Adenauer photo by Yousuf Karsch.
a memorial for the chancellor
Deutsche Messe: Die Rosen is a tribute to him and his faith in Christ which indeed was his foundation both as a person, a father and a politician: it was a faith which helped him to surmount the impossible obstacles he experienced at the end of World War II and help revive Germany to be the model modern state and world leader it is today.
Photo credits where known: Adenauer photo DPA/Nan.Ch Roses Commons Wikimedia German refugees DW.com Holocaust children Wikimedia/US Holocaust Memorial Museum Divided Germany The duran.com Adenauer Haus Commons Wikimedia.org De Gaulle and Adenauer Bundesregierung.de Maria Laach photo Youtube Ildefons Herewegen Portal Rheinische Gesichte (Abt Herewegen Institute Maria Laach) Adenauer at Maria Laach Maria Laach.de Maria Laach Library Twitter.com Gardens Wikitour Rhondorf flowers Facebook and European Garden Heritage Network Political poster of CDU Wikipedia Adenauer and Rose European Parliament 2018. German translations with help from Andrea Henkelmann, Meitingen
Adenauer picture by Yousuf Karsch used with permission © Yousuf Karsh http://karsh.org
Adenauer picture by Yousuf Karsch used with permission © Yousuf Karsh http://karsh.org