Karl Leisner

In 1934, Karl Leisner began his theological studies in Münster in order to become a priest. Impressed by his leadership qualities, the Bishop of Münster, Mgr Clemens August von Galen, appointed him diocesan leader of Catholic youth. Karl spared no effort to protect the youth from National Socialist ideology. In 1936-1937, he had to perform his compulsory labor service (Reichsarbeitsdienst). Despite the formal prohibition by the Nazi authorities, he managed to organize Sunday Mass for his fellow workers. This boldness drew the attention of the Gestapo, who searched his parents' house in 1937 and seized his diaries. On March 25, 1939, the Feast of the Annunciation, Karl Leisner was ordained a deacon by Mgr von Galen. Shortly after, during a medical examination, he was diagnosed with severe pulmonary tuberculosis. He was sent for treatment to the sanatorium in Sankt Blasien, in the Black Forest. It was there in November 1939, upon learning of the failure of Georg Elser's assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler in Munich, that he let slip a regret: "Schade!" (What a pity!). Denounced, he was arrested by the Gestapo on November 9, 1939.

After his arrest, Karl Leisner began a long Way of the Cross through the prisons of Freiburg im Breisgau and Mannheim. In March 1940, he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, then transferred on December 14, 1940, to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was registered under prisoner number 22356. He was assigned to Block 26, reserved for imprisoned priests. At Dachau, despite the inhumane living conditions and the brutal resurgence of his tuberculosis, Karl maintained a contagious joy that earned him the nickname "angel of consolation" among his fellow inmates. He managed to have his guitar sent to him to enliven the evenings and support the morale of the prisoners. A member of the Schoenstatt movement, he founded the first Schoenstatt group in Dachau within the camp with Father Josef Fischer, and became friends with the movement's founder, Father Joseph Kentenich, who was also interned. In 1944, Karl's health declined rapidly and he was confined to the camp infirmary. It was then that Bishop Gabriel Piguet of Clermont-Ferrand, arrested by the Nazis, arrived at Dachau. The imprisoned priests then conceived the daring plan to ordain Karl as a priest before his death. Thanks to the complicity of a young postulant-nurse, Josefa Mack, who smuggled the holy oils, the authorization letters from the Bishop of Münster, and the liturgical vestments into the camp, the ceremony was prepared in the greatest secrecy. The prisoners themselves fashioned the bishop's crosier, ring, and mitre in the camp workshops. On December 17, 1944, the third Sunday of Advent, Bishop Gabriel Piguet clandestinely ordained Karl Leisner as a priest in the chapel of Block 26. On December 26, 1944, the feast of Saint Stephen, the new priest celebrated his first and only Mass.

After the liberation of the Dachau camp by Allied troops in the spring of 1945, a dying Karl Leisner was transported to the Sisters of Mercy sanatorium in Planegg, near Munich. He spent his final weeks there in prayer and the offering of his life. He passed away on August 12, 1945, at the age of 30. His remains were first buried in Kleve, then transferred in 1966 to the crypt of St. Victor's Cathedral in Xanten. Recognized as a martyr of the faith by the Catholic Church, Karl Leisner was beatified on June 23, 1996, by Pope John Paul II during a solemn ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, alongside Father Bernhard Lichtenberg. His liturgical feast is set for August 12, the day of his birth into heaven.

The spirituality of Karl Leisner is deeply marked by his love for Christ and his Marian devotion, nurtured within the Schoenstatt movement. From his youth, he wrote in his diary this motto that would guide his entire existence: "Christ, you are my passion." His spiritual journal bears witness to a constant inner struggle to conform his will to that of God, combining personal discipline, a zest for life, and inherited charity. His legacy lies in his testimony of reconciliation and forgiveness amidst the horrors of the concentration camps. His final words written in his diary summarize the culmination of his path to holiness: "Bless also, O Lord, my enemies!" He remains today a model of faith, hope, and commitment for the youth of Europe.