Georg Ratzinger

Georg Ratzinger PA (15 January 19241 July 2020) was a German Catholic priest and musician, known for his work as the conductor of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the cathedral choir of Regensburg. He was the elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI. Their great-uncle was the German politician Georg Ratzinger.

Early life and military service Ratzinger was born in Pleiskirchen, Bavaria, to Joseph Ratzinger Sr. (1877–1959), a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger, née Peintner (1884–1963). In 1935 he entered the minor seminary in Traunstein and had professional musical instruction there. In 1941 he encountered for the first time the choir of the Regensburger Domspatzen, which he would later direct, when they performed in Salzburg on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mozart's death.

During World War II, in the summer of 1942, Ratzinger was drafted to the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the same autumn to the Wehrmacht. At the end of the war, he was a prisoner of war of the U.S. Army in the vicinity of Naples, but was soon released and arrived home in July 1945.

Education and ordination In January 1946, he and his brother Joseph entered the seminary of the archdiocese of Munich and Freising to study for the priesthood. At the same time he pursued his musical studies.

In 1977 Ratzinger conducted the Domspatzen at his brother Joseph's consecration as Archbishop of Munich and Freising. They sang in honor of Queen Elizabeth II at her state visit in 1978, and at Pope John Paul II's visit to Munich in 1980. The Regensburg Diocese said that a former singer came forward with allegations of sexual abuse in the early 1960s, predating Ratzinger's tenure from 1964 to 1994.

Ratzinger admitted slapping pupils in the face. He commented: "At the start, I also slapped people in the face, but I always had a bad conscience".

A lawyer commissioned by the choir to look into the accusations concluded that over 200 young singers were abused to various degrees, with at least 40 of the cases involving sexual violence, and that he must assume that Ratzinger had known. A report in 2017 faulted Ratzinger "in particular for 'looking away' or for failing to intervene" and also stated that, "with a high degree of plausibility", between the years 1945 and 1992, 547 boys were victims of physical or sexual abuse, or both.

Later life Ratzinger retired from his position as director of the choir in 1994 and was made canon in Regensburg on 25 January 2009. In 2005, during a visit to his brother in Rome, symptoms of heart failure and arrhythmia led to a brief admission at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic.

On 29 June 2011, Ratzinger celebrated 60 years as a priest and gave an interview on the topic, during which he noted that during the ordination ceremony, "My brother was the second to youngest, though there were some who were older." He also noted that "I have the stole and the cassock from that day". He celebrated his 90th birthday in 2014 with Benedict XVI in the Vatican. His birthday party was organized by Vatican journalist Michael Hesemann and the guests included American religion journalist Lauren Green, who played the piano, Georg Gänswein and Gerhard Ludwig Müller.

Illness and death On 18 June 2020, Ratzinger was reportedly "seriously" unwell while his brother Benedict XVI visited him in Regensburg. He died two weeks later on 1 July 2020, aged 96.

Honours and awards

Black Wound Badge (1944) Honorary citizen of Castel Gandolfo (2008) Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2009) Pontifikalvesper of Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg Cathedral (2009) Award of the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra (2010)