Georg Michael Pachtler

Georg Michael Pachtler SJ (14 September 1825 – 12 August 1889) was a German Jesuit priest, theologian, and pedagogue. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Annuarius Osseg and Georgios Michalov.

Life

Born in Mergentheim, Württemberg, Pachtler attended grammar schools in Bad Mergentheim and Rottweil, where he lived in the dormitory. He then studied theology and philology at the University of Tübingen for four years, during which time he was a pupil at the Wilhelmsstift. In 1848 he was ordained a priest in Rottenburg am Neckar. As a diocesan priest he was first pastor in a village and from 1850 chaplain and preceptor in Weil der Stadt. Later he continued his studies of philology at the University of Munich and passed the state examination there. In 1854 he became a teacher at a grammar school in Ellwangen, and in 1855 he was transferred to Riedlingen as chaplain and preceptor.

In 1856 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Gorheim Monastery in Sigmaringen, which at that time had been left to the Jesuits for their use. After its completion he taught younger brothers of the order and studied further theology and philosophy. From 1864 to 1869, he was a teacher of classical languages at the Jesuit grammar school in Feldkirch. During this time he was field chaplain of the Vorarlberg Provincial Rifles in the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 and military chaplain of a detachment of Tyrolese volunteers in the papal army from 1869 to 1870.

After his return he participated in the reorientation of the journal of the German Jesuits Stimmen aus Maria Laach ("Voices of Maria Laach"; after 1914 Stimmen der Zeit, "Voices of the Times") and became first editor in 1871. Afterwards he worked among other things as pastor with factory workers in Essen. In 1872 he was expelled after the enactment of the Jesuit Law and worked mainly in Austria and in houses of the German Province of the Order in Limburg in the Netherlands. He was primarily active as a journalist, but also gave retreats for priests and lay people.

Writings

In his works, Georg Michael Pachtler dealt with liturgical, pedagogical, educational and socio-political problems and issues, as well as topics concerning Freemasonry, liberalism, the labor movement and militarism. In the process, he also wrote some polemical works.

His 1854 Meßbuch für das katholische Pfarrkind ("Missal for the Catholic Parishioner"), along with Christoph Moufang's Officium Divinum, is considered a predecessor to Anselm Schott's missal and a contribution to the use of the German language in the liturgy.

In Ellwangen in 1867, he wrote the treatise Das Telegraphieren der alten Völker ("Telegraphing of the Ancient Peoples"), in which he deals with the history of message transmission.

After his stay in Rome in 1869/1870, he dealt intensively with the Roman Question and published several articles on it in Stimmen aus Maria Laach. In his book Die internationale Arbeiterverbindung, published in 1871, he dealt with the history and work of the International. From 1872 to 1878 he published the Catholic calendar Der Hausfreund. On Freemasonry he published, among others, the books Der stille Krieg der Freimaurerei gegen Thron und Altar. Nach Dokumenten (1873) and Der Götze der Humanität oder das Positive der Freimaurerei. Nach Dokumenten (1875).

After publishing the series of articles Die Reform unserer Gymnasien (1879/1880 in Stimmen aus Maria Laach, 1883 as a book), he attracted the attention of German educationists, and he was invited to become a contributor to the "Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica", published in Berlin under the editorship of Karl Kehrbach. He contributed four volumes (II, V, IX, and XVI of the series, 1887–94), the last being edited by Father Bernhard Duhr, S.J., after the author's death. Pachtler's volumes form the standard work on the educational system of the Jesuits; it is entitled: Ratio Studiorum et Institutiones Scholasticae Societatis Jesu, per Germaniam olim Vigentes.

The work contains the official documents of the society which have reference to education, parts of the constitutions, decrees of the legislative assemblies of the order, ordinances of generals, reports of official visitations, the various revisions of the Ratio Studiorum, schedules of study, disciplinary regulations, directions for the training of teachers, and treatises of private individuals which explain the practical working of the system. Much of the material had never been published before.

Through his book Der europäische Militarismus ("European Militarism"), published in 1876, he is considered a founder of the critique of militarism.

Works

• Biographische Notizen über Seine Durchlaucht den hochseligen Prinzen Alexander zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, Bischof von Sardica (1850)
• Die Hymnen der katholischen Kirche. Im Versmaße übersetzt (1853)
• Meßbuch für das katholische Pfarrkind (1854)
• Das Buch der Kirche vom Palmsonntage bis zum weißen Sonntage. Oder die Karwoche und Osterwoche mit allen ihren gottdienstlichen Handlungen (1854)
• Des Pater Alexandre de Rhodes aus der Gesellschaft Jesu Missionsreisen in China, Tonkin, Cochinchina und anderen asiatischen Reichen. Aus dem Französischen von Georg Michael Pachtler (1858)
• Das Christenthum in Tonkin und Cochinchina, dem heutigen Annamreiche, von seiner Einführung bis auf die Gegenwart. Nach der französischen Ausgabe bearbeitet von Georg Michael Pachtler (1861)
• Das Telegraphieren der alten Völker (1867)
• Acta et decreta sacrosancti et oecumenici Concilii Vaticani (1871; editor)
• Die internationale Arbeiterverbindung (1871)
• Der Hausfreund. Katholischer Kalender (1872–1876; editor)
• Der stille Krieg der Freimaurerei gegen Thron und Altar. Nach Dokumenten (1873)
• Der Götze der Humanität oder das Positive der Freimaurerei. Nach Dokumenten (1875)
• Der Hammer der Freimaurerei am Kaiserthrone der Habsburger (1875; as Annuarius Osseg)
• Der europäische Militarismus (1876; as Annuarius Osseg)
• Der liberale Nationalitäten-Schwindel und der Einheits-Staat. Ein Mahnwort an die Völker Deutschlands und Österreichs (1876; as Annuarius Osseg)
• Die geistige Knechtung der Völker durch das Schulmonopol des modernen Staates (1876; as Annuarius Osseg)
• Die geheime Werkstätte der polnischen Erhebung von 1830. Mit Streiflichtern auf Rußland und Frankreich (1877; as Georgios Michalov)
• Das göttliche Recht der Familie und der Kirche auf die Schule. Ein Wort an die Christen Deutschlands (1879)
• Die Reform unserer Gymnasien (1883)
• "H. Schliemanns Ausgrabungen in Troja". In: Stimmen aus Maria Laach 26 (1884; pp. 141–59 and pp. 241–62).
• Ratio studiorum et institutiones scholasticas Societatis Jesu per Germaniam olim vigentes collectae, concinnatae, dilucidatae. 4 volumes (= Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica. Volume 2, 5, 9 and 14; as editor). Hofmann: Berlin.
  • 1: Ab anno 1541 ad annum 1599 (1887)
  • 2: Ratio studiorum ann. 1586. 1599. 1832 (1887)
  • 3: Ordinationes Generalium et ordo Studiorum generalium ab anno 1600 ad annum 1772 (1890)
  • 4: Complectens monumenta quae pertinent ad gymnasia, convictus (1600–1773) itemque ad rationem studiorum (anno 1832) recognitam. Published by Bernhard Duhr (1894)
• Die Ziele der Sozialdemokratie und die liberalen Ideen (1892)

References

• Lauchert, Friedrich (1907). "Georg Michael Pachtler". In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). 53. Duncker & Humblot: Leipzig, p. 166.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  The entry cites:
  • Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, XXXVII (1889);
  • Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, XVI, introduction.

External links

• Works by Georg Michael Pachtler at Gallica
• Works by Georg Michael Pachtler at German National Library