Franz Hülskamp
Franz Hülskamp (14 March 1833 – 10 April 1911) was a German Roman Catholic priest, theologian, politician, editor, literary and political organizer in various Catholic associations and the German Center Party.
Biography
Franz Hülskamp was born in Essen. Hülskamp came from a poor background as the son of the weaver Gerhard Hülskamp. After two years of preparation by the village clergyman, he was able to attend the Gymnasium Carolinum in Osnabrück from 1849 to 1852 and then studied theology, history and literature in Münster, Munich and Bonn until 1858, where he became a member of the Unitas student association after ordination in 1859. He was very active in the resulting association and was instrumental in the founding of Unitas-Münster in 1859. The academic meetings of the Unitas association resulted in the founding of the review journal Literarischer Handweiser in 1862 with Hülskamp and Hermann Rump as editors, which earned him the designation "dictator of Catholic literature." He was also a co-founder of the family journal Hausschatz.
For his achievement in translating and editing the Universal History of the Catholic Church by the Frenchman René François Rohrbacher, the theological faculty of the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg awarded him a doctorate in theology honoris causa in 1868. However, he did not receive the desired teaching position at a university in Prussia. At the end of 1869 he was appointed president of the Heerde Foundation, a family alumnate for students at the Gymnasium Paulinum, which he remained until his death.
In 1868, Hülskamp was elected secretary of the Pius Association. Furthermore, Hülskamp was a founding member of the Görres Society and from 1894 chairman of the Westphalian group of the Augustinus-Verein. In the Westphalian Center Party he played an important role until 1906 without holding any special offices, and in 1870 he co-authored the Soest Program for the party, which became decisive for the further development of political Catholicism in Germany. In 1886, he became Papal Privy Chamberlain and later acted as House Prelate. Until his death in 1911, he also supported Hedwig Dransfeld in the editorial work of the journal Die christliche Frau (The Christian Woman) of the German Catholic Women's Association.
References
- Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz, "Franz Hülskamp". In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). 2. Hamm: Bautz (1990), pp. 1125–26.
