Eugen Bolz

Infobox Officeholder
name = Eugen Bolz


imagesize =
small

caption =
order = 5th State President of Württemberg
term_start = 1928
term_end = 1933
predecessor = Wilhelm Bazille
successor = Wilhelm Murr
birth_date = December 15, 1881
birth_place = Rottenburg am Neckar, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
death_date = January 23, 1945 (aged 63)
death_place = Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Third Reich
constituency =
party = Centre Party
spouse = Maria Hoeneß (m. 1920)
children = 1
profession =
education =
religion = Roman Catholic


footnotes =

Eugen Anton Bolz (15 December 1881 – 23 January 1945) was a German politician and a member of the resistance to the Nazi régime.

Life

Born in Rottenburg am Neckar, Eugen Bolz was his parents' twelfth child. His father, Joseph Bolz, was a salesman. His mother was Maria Theresia Bolz (née Huber). Bolz studied law in Tübingen and there became a member of A.V. Guestfalia Tübingen, a catholic student fraternity or Studentenverbindung, which belonged to the "Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen". Not long after finishing his studies in Bonn and Berlin, he latched onto politics as a career and joined the Centre Party, which he represented in the Reichstag from 1912 to 1933, and from 1915 to 1933, also in the Württemberg "Landtag". In Württemberg, he became Justice Minister in 1919 and Interior Minister in 1923.

Bolz married Maria Hoeneß from Ulm in 1920. The couple would have one daughter.

At the time when the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Bolz was Württemberg's "Staatspräsident" – the first Catholic to hold the position in predominantly Protestant Württemberg – and also Interior Minister. Since he was an adherent of Catholic social teaching, which made no secret of its loathing for the Nazis, it was no surprise that Bolz was one of the new régime's greatest opponents. Owing to this, he was forced from office early in 1933 and wound up spending several weeks in a concentration camp. Led by the party whip, Bolz's party approved the new "Ermächtigungsgesetz" ("Enabling Act") on 23 March 1933, even though it weighed heavily on their conscience.

After being released from the concentration camp, Bolz moved back to Beuron, near Ulm. There, he forswore politics for a while, busying himself mainly with economic issues, papal social encyclicals, and Catholic Action. During this time of involuntary retirement, he sometimes did work as a tax advisor, and he always knew that the Gestapo were watching him.

In late 1941 and early 1942, he came into contact with the resistance circle about Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. Bolz readily declared that he would like to take over a ministerial post in the new government after Hitler was overthrown. Goerdeler put him down as Culture Minister in the cabinet that he foresaw having to put together. Among other things, this would have meant that Bolz would be taking Goebbels's place.

However, on 20 July 1944, Goerdeler's plan fell apart when Claus von Stauffenberg's attempt to kill Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia failed. Bolz was arrested on 12 August 1944, and on 21 December, he was sentenced to death at the German "People's Court" ("Volksgerichtshof"). He was beheaded at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on January 23, 1945.

There is a memorial to Eugen Bolz in the form of a bronze plaque at the house where he was born, at Königstraße 53 in Rottenburg am Neckar. It bears, among other things, the Latin inscription "TIMOR DOMINI INITIUM SAPIENTIAE" — "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". The grammar school that he went to is now called the "Eugen-Bolz-Gymnasium". A Catholic private school in Bad Waldsee and a "Realschule" in Ellwangen – both in Baden-Württemberg – are also named for him. One of the sitting rooms at the Baden-Württemberg "Landtag" is named after him. In downtown Stuttgart, at the "Königsbau", stands a monument to Eugen Bolz.

In 2004, a new bell at the church where Bolz was baptized, St. Moriz in Rottenburg am Neckar, was named after him. Many other buildings, streets and squares in Germany are likewise connected with the name Eugen Bolz.

Eugen Bolz Study Endowment

Since 1994, there has been an "Eugen Bolz Study Endowment" ("Studienstiftung Eugen Bolz"). This endowment is for study and education, and is closely associated with the "Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen" (CV). It affords students an education in democracy and civics.

Quotes

* "Politics is nothing other than practically applied religion."
* "Given the Nazis' reign of terror, I demanded that God's law stand above state law."

Literature

* "Christentum und Politik. Dokumente des Widerstands" by Joachim Köhler, 1996 Thorbecke-Verlag Sigmaringen, ISBN 3-7995-4083-0
* "Eugen Bolz und die Krise des politischen Katholizismus in der Weimarer Republik" by Joachim Sailer, bibliotheca academica Verlag, ISBN 3-928471-09-0
* "Eugen Bolz (1881 - 1945)" by Rudolf Morsey, in: Jürgen Aretz / Anton Rauscher (Hg.), "Zeitgeschichte in Lebensbildern", Bd. 5, Mainz 1982
* "Eugen Bolz. Württembergischer Minister und Staatspräsident" by Joachim Köhler, in: Michael Bosch / Wolfgang Niess (Hg.), "Der Widerstand im deutschen Südwesten 1933-1945", Stuttgart 1984
* "Eugen Bolz" by Max Miller, 1951 Schwabenverlag
* "Staatspräsident Dr. Eugen Bolz als Mann u. Staatsmann" by Alois Dangelmaier, 1948 Schwabenverlag
* "Leben und Martyrium unseres Staatspräsidenten Dr. Eugen Bolz" by Wilhelm Kohler, 1947 Ackermann Verlag

External links

* [http://www.ebg.tue.bw.schule.de/eug_bolz/e_bolz.htm Documentation about Eugen Bolz] (from a project at the Eugen-Bolz-Gymnasium, Rottenburg)
*
* [http://www.seanet.com/~pfitech/BolzEulogy.zip Image of Eugen Bolz' eulogy, ZIP file, in German] (courtesy of Philip Fenner)
* [http://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe_mit-e.php?id=21 German Resistance Museum, Berlin, page on Bolz, in English]

Sources

* [http://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe-e.php?id=21 Brief biography of Eugen Bolz]
* [http://www.lpb.bwue.de/aktuell/puu/2_94/widerstand.pdf Eugen Bolz's activities] (scroll down to page 7)
*Linked German article