MORE CONNECTIONS- IN LENT

In doing research in our previous blog about Bl. Nikolaus Gross, I discovered SERVANT OF GOD EUGEN BOLZ.  Interestingly enough he was the uncle of one of our dear friends in the Vatican, Cardinal Augustin Mayer, OSB (Abbey at Metten) and his sister, who once stayed at our Abbey in CT.

Born in Rottenburg am Neckar in1881 of a Catholic family, Eugen was his parents' twelfth child.  His father Joseph Bolz was a salesman, his mother was Maria Theresia Bolz (née Huber). He joined the Windhorstbund, the youth organization of the Center Party, at an early age.

He studied law in Tubingon and in 1919  became Württemberg's minister of justice, and a few years later was appointed minister of the interior. He was married to Maria Hoeness, with whom he had a daughter.

 In 1928, the center-right coalition elected him president of Württemberg. Eugen supported the policies of Reich Chancellor Heinrich Brüning*, but he underestimated the NSDAP's political goals in late 1932 and only clearly spoke out against Hitler in early 1933.

 On March 11, 1933 the National Socialists dissolved his government. In June 1933 Eugen himself was taken into "Schutzhaft" ("protective custody") for several weeks. In spite of this, he maintained contact with his political friends from the disbanded Center Party, the outlawed Social Democratic Party, and the earlier liberal German State Party.

Later he also volunteered to work with Carl Goerdeler and was to be given the office of a minister following the coup attempt of July 20, 1944. Eugen Bolz was arrested on August 12, 1944. He was sentenced to death by the People's Court on December 21, 1944, (Photo to right) and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on January 23, 1945.

 One wonders if he knew Bl. Nikalaus Gross and how many other "holy" people in prison?

*(Another connection- When the mother one of our nuns at Regina Laudis died I went with her to her family home in Vermont. Her father annd I got along very well and before I left to return to the Abbey, he told me I could have anything in the house I wanted.  I chose a very small metal placque on the wall, not knowing the value to the family.  It was given to them by ex-Chancellor Bruning  when he stayed with them after fleeing Nazi Germany. I hade the medal for years turning it over to a younger nun when I came west to OLR.)