Michael Buchberger

Buchberger (1928)

Buchberger (right) visiting Jakob Weis on the Western Front during the First World War

Michael Buchberger (8 June 1874, Jetzendorf - 10 June 1961, Straubing) was a Roman Catholic priest, notable as the seventy-fourth bishop of Regensburg since the diocese's foundation in 739.

Life

Buchberger was ordained as a Priest on 29 June 1900. In November 1923 Pope Piux XI promoted him to the rank of "Bishop" in the diocese Munich-Freising. On 24 January 1924 he was ordained as a Bishop by Cardinal Faulhaber. From 12 March 1928 until his death he was the Bishop of Regensburg.

He was an expert in Church history and did work as an editor for several encyclopidic books on this subject in which he also wrote articles himself. He was the editor of the Kirchliche Handlexikon from 1907 - 1912 and between 1930 and 1938 he was the editor of the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche which in 10 volumes contained 8000 articles.

In both publications he showcases "christian" antisemitism.^[1] Even in his own books he does show sympathy for this position.^[2][3] At no time and in no form did Buchberger oppose or speak out against the Third Reich.

After the war Buchberger was active in rebuilding the diocese. Immediately after the end of the war in 1945 95 charitable institutions were founded by him. In the following years 175 new churches were built on his initiative.

In 1950 on the occasion of the Christian Jubilee Pope Pius XII made him an Archbishop.

Buchberger was an Honorary Member of a Catholic Corporation (Katholische Studentenverbindung Südmark (Akademischer Görresverein) in Munich which is member of the Kartellverband katholischer deutscher Studentenvereine (KV).

Awards

• 1950: personal rank of archbishop by Pius XII
• 1953: Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband of the German Federal Republic

Bibliography

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz (1975). "Buchberger, Michael". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German) 1. Hamm: Bautz. col. 786. ISBN 3-88309-013-1.
• Josef Staber: Kirchengeschichte des Bistums Regensburg. Regensburg 1966. S. 200-205.

External links

• Works on and by Michael Buchberger in the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
• Entry for Michael Buchberger on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Image of Michael Buchberger

References

1. Thomas Breuer: Die Haltung der katholischen Kirche zur Judenverfolgung im Dritten Reich. (2003)
2. Othmar Plöckinger: Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers „Mein Kampf“ 1922-1945. Oldenbourg, München 2006, ISBN 3-486-57956-8 (, p. 291, at Google Books)
3. Antonia Leugers: Die deutschen Bischöfe und der Nationalsozialismus (II). 2006