Ignaz Demeter

Ignaz Anton Demeter (1 August 1773 – 21 March 1842) was a Roman Catholic priest, talented as a teacher and church musician, who served as the archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau from 1836 till his death five years later.

Life

Early years Ignaz Anton Demeter was born at Augsburg in the summer of 1773. His parents, Johann Nepomuk Demeter and his wife Eleonore were master-bakers. Ignaz Anton was the eldest of approximately twelve children, although five of his siblings died before reaching their first birthdays. His father, Johann Nepomuk Demeter was originally from Höchstädt an der Donau, across the river and then in the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg. His mother was from Augsburg.

Even as a teenager Demeter composed some music. He played the violin, 'cello and, more unusually, a double reed wind instrument, the bassoon. In addition to his activities as an instrumentalist he sang as a chorister at the cathedral. By imposing a structured approach and providing the teaching himself Demeter achieved remarkable improvements in the standard of education. On the musical front there had been a church choir of sorts since at least as far back as 1780, but Demeter's background at the Augsburg cathedral school and his intense musicality enabled him to transform the standard.

Rastatt The transformations achieved in his village parish did not go unnoticed, and in 1808, at the instigation of Vicar General von Wessenburg, Demeter was transferred to the parish of Rastatt, where he was also made a deacon and director of the newly organised Teaching seminary, along with other education related duties. The appointment required him to be based in Karlsruhe, and he stayed only a year before returning to his parish at Sasbach, but there is abundant evidence in the archives that his relations with the Grand Duke remained more than cordial up till the latter's death in 1830.

Freiburg The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg was created only 1821. The first archbishop, Bernhard Boll, summoned Demeter to join the Freiburg Cathedral chapter as a priest in 1833. There followed almost immediately a foretaste of the political ructions within the chapter which would be a feature, at Freiburg, of the final nine years of Demeter's life. Demeter moved to Freiburg accompanied by his nephew, the scholar-priest Adolf Pfister, whose support he valued. There was immediate uproar in the chapter and the local church news sheet sharply criticised the nepotism involved and Demeter's "nephew household" . Keen to avoid further difficulties for Demeter, Pfister left Freiburg, returning to live with his parents, and later securing an appointment as priest at Steinhofen (today subsumed into Bisingen).

As Minster priest he lost no time in updating the liturgy, which in 1833 was embellished with large amounts of flowery and sugary syntax, of which he purged it. Demeter had no academic training as a liturgical scholar, but he was a natural musician and a committed pastor with his body and soul. Within a year this sixty year old rural outsider had completely reworked the cathedral liturgy. Unsurprisingly his changes encountered stiff opposition from some of his fellow cathedral clerics. Demeter fought his corner, and when he warned against clerical egotism he probably had a point.

Archbishop Boll died in March 1836. The cathedral chapter had several candidates in mind to succeed him including, notably, Hermann von Vicari. Ignaz Anton Demeter himself had no wish to put his own forward. However, with no consensus forming round any of the existing candidates, Demeter was urged to stand for election by the secular authorities who strongly and repeatedly endorsed his candidature through a succession of elections. Eventually, on 11 May 1836, Ignaz Anton Demeter received the overall majority of votes required and was elected archbishop of Freiburg.

For his motto Demeter chose the somewhat portentous assertion "This will be the hour that brings me closer to death" . His incumbency as archbishop was characterised by strife.