The Real Cardinal Innitzer 1938

A scene from the film the Cardinal.  Cardinal Innitzer is played by the all time greatest actor, Josef Meinrad.



Realising his epic mistake at welcoming in the Nazis, he preaches that Catholics have only one Führer and His Name is Jesus.

Interestingly while it certainly does not excuse the original mistake, Cardinal Innitzer was from the Sudetenland, the German speaking part of Czechoslovakia that Hitler claimed- in fact, mostly Austrians from the days of the Empire.

When the Catholic youth of Vienna were the Catholic youth of Vienna.

It is my firm belief that the subsequent trashing of the Cardinal Innitzer's palace scarred Cardinal König, who was his chaplain, for life and influenced the Council - the determinant of Austrian church policy since has been not to get their property done over by anti-clericals of which there are many of a rather vicious kind in Austria.

And Innitzer in his last days, Corpus Christi 1955.  The organised marching is by Student Associations in their official uniform.


And for those that understand German, the great film Bockerer- this and ten other parts on Youtube- gives a good idea of life at the time.

Comments

The_Editrix said…
Thank you for reminding me and hopefully introducing some who didn't know it to a real treat. Der Bockerer is one of the most humane and touching films ever made about that time in history.

"Ihr Blatt, Rosenblatt."