Gordian Landwehr

Father Gordian Landwehr (born Hermann Landwehr: 30 December 191211 June 1998) was a German Dominican friar and, for over a decade, the Prior of the St. Albert Dominican Monastery in Leipzig. According to at least one source he was the most high-profile Roman Catholic priest in the German Democratic Republic.

Biography Provenance and early years Gorgian Landwehr was born fourth of the twelve children of Heinrich and Anna Landwehr. Heinrich Landwehr was a businessman-trader in Lohne, a small industrial town between Bremen and Osnabrück in the north-west of Germany. The family were deeply religious. He became aware very early on of war crimes committed in the Soviet Union by German soldiers. In his autobiography, which appeared in 1995, he wrote of the mass murder of Jews, because of which his medical unit had not handed Jewish servicemen over to Nazi paramilitary (SS) units accompanying the army. But he would nevertheless bitterly reproach himself that he did not have the courage to protect more people from National Socialist savagery. He took the opportunity to learn Russian. In Minsk, where he was stationed for some time, and the surrounding area, where Catholicism remained (discreetly) the religion of a significant minority, he frequently celebrated Mass with congregations that included both local worshippers and off-duty German soldiers: this was strictly forbidden by the German military.

By the end of 1944 the German army was being relentlessly pursued back towards Germany by then Soviet army. Early in 1945 Gordian fled with other German soldiers and civilians from Gdingen to Denmark where, by the time the war ended, he had become a prisoner of war. In the Autumn/Fall of 1945 he was moved to a British prisoner of war camp by Lütjenburg, near the coast north of Hamburg. In May 1946, after approximately a year of captivity, he was able to return to his monastery at Düsseldorf where he quickly built a name for himself as a particularly effective priest.

In summer 1951 work began on the construction of what became the St. Albert parish church in Leipzig-Wahren. It was the first new church to be built after the war in Saxony.

The approach of the East German ruling party to organised religion was not as relentless as that of sister parties in some of the other Soviet Bloc socialist states. Nevertheless, the ruling parties could not be expected to welcome signs that a church organisation might be presenting itself as an alternative source of ideas or influence. Father Gordian Landwehr's popularity as a preacher did not go unchallenged in the media. An article appeared in the Sächsische Zeitung describing Landwehr as a "NATO preacher in the robes of a Jesuit" ("Natoprediger im Jesuitengewand"). Landwehr's opposition to the destruction of the church was widely supported, and a number of students and concerned citizens ended up in prison following street protests against it: Gordian Landwehr again remained at liberty, however. The redevelopment for which the church had been destroyed finally got under way in 1973 and was completed in 1978. Meanwhile, the venue for father Gordian's sermons to the students and other young people was switched to the city's Protestant St. Nicholas Church, one of the largest churches in Saxony and in the public eye during the late 1989 as the focus of the Monday demonstrations that adumbrated East Germany's return to democracy.

Ecumenist While welcoming the changes that led to political reunification in 1990, the changes to which Father Gordian became particularly committed during the 1970s were those involving Christian unity. His practical co-operation with pastors from the Protestant churches in Leipzig was a practical demonstration of this. He was always happy to accommodate and Protestant pastors who asked to join the St. Albert Monastery for spiritual retreats and ecumenical training sessions. After reunification he received the Order of Merit ("Großes Verdienstkreuz"), and was honoured with a laudatory address from the Minister-President of Saxony, Kurt Biedenkopf. In his brief reply Landwehr referenced the harmony between the church bells of the great Protestant parish church and those at his own catholic St. Albert Monastery: "There would be real harmony only if a centuries old yearning could finally be fulfilled: Christian unity in the world".

Later years Father Gordian gave up his parish responsibilities in Leipzig-Wahren on health grounds in 1987, and in 1991 leadership of the St. Albert Monastery passed to a younger generation. After this partial retirement he nevertheless continued to preach at St. Albert and to other Catholic congregations in the city. Commentators assert that his longstanding fearless preaching, and his refusal to "keep out of politics" where the theme of a sermon incorporated political issues, made him an important prophet for the leaders and participants in the "Peaceful Revolution" of 1989/90.