Erwin Gatz (1975-2010)

Erwin Gatz (born 1933 in Aachen, died 2011 Maastricht) contributed to the Institute's high academic reputation through his major publishing projects (Bishop's Encyclopaedia, Diocesan Encyclopaedia, History of Church Life in Germany, Church History Atlas) and was able to support numerous young scholars during their Roman study visits.

Erwin Gatz studied theology and history at the universities of Bonn, Munich and Aachen from 1953 to 1961 and was ordained priest in Aachen on 12 March 1960. In 1961, as a student of Hubert Jedin, he received his doctorate from the Catholic Theological Faculty. He then worked for a decade as a pastor in the diocese of Aachen and habilitated in 1970 in Medieval and Modern Church History in Bonn as a student of Eduard Hegel. From 1971 to 1975 he was an academic councillor at the Institute for Church History of the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Bonn.

During his time as Rector of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows of Campo Santo Teutonico, as Rector of the priests’ college there and Executive Director of the RIGG (1 July 1975 to 31 December 2010), he was able to develop a wide-ranging research activity on the church history of Central Europe with numerous collaborators. This was achieved in close connection with the regents of the German-speaking seminaries and Catholic faculties. In this context, he held regular authors' conferences as a new initiative, which in turn benefited the RQ. Also new were the Rome seminars offered for decades at the Gregoriana for German-speaking freesemester students (this tradition has been continued by Heid at the Angelicum since 2005). Gatz also took up the tradition of religious education Rome seminars begun by Rector August Schuchert, Engelbert Kirschbaum S.J. and Ludwig Voelkl.

The priests’ college as a place of study benefited in many ways from the education-oriented house management through lectures, excursions, book presentations and other activities. On 04.05.2009 Prof. Gatz was conferred the dignity of Apostolic Protonotary. On 17 January 2011, he returned to his hometown of Aachen. On 8 May he died suddenly during an excursion in Maastricht.

His grave is on the Campo Santo Teutonico not far from the church entrance, next to the grave of Stephan Ehses.

Literature:

C. Brodkorb, Erwin Gatz (1933–2011) Leben und Werk im Überblick, in: C. Brodkorb / D. Burkard (Hg.), Neue Aspekte einer Geschichte des kirchlichen Lebens. Zum 10. Todestag von Erwin Gatz (Regensburg 2021) 19–50.

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Category: Former Directors