Father Odo | |||||
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Carl Alexander of Württemberg (in the middle) with his brothers and sisters in 1903
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Born | 12 March 1896 Stuttgart |
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Died | 27 December 1964 Altshausen |
(aged 68)||||
Burial | Abbey of St. Martin, Weingarten, Württemberg | ||||
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House | House of Württemberg | ||||
Father | Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg | ||||
Mother | Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria | ||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
Occupation | Benedictine monk |
Full name | |
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Carl Alexander |
Carl Alexander Herzog von Württemberg (Father Odo OSB) (12 March 1896 – 27 December 1964) was a member of the House of Württemberg who became a Benedictine monk. ("Herzog von Württemberg" is German for "Duke of Württemberg".) During, and following, the Nazi era he provided aid to refugees, Jews, and prisoners of war, and was reported for these activities to the Nazi rulers of Germany.
Carl Alexander was the third (and youngest) of the sons of Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria. He also had four younger sisters. He was taught at home, and attended high school after 1914.
In World War I he fought on the Western Front and in Italy. Following the German Revolution of 1918–1919 he resigned, as captain, from active military service, and within a few months became a postulant at the Abbey of St. Martin in Beuron. He entered the novitiate in 1920 as "Brother Odo", taking vows in February 1921. His father succeeded a distant cousin as head of the House of Württemberg in October of that same year. Brother Odo was ordained a priest in 1926. In the summer of 1930, Father Odo was sent to the Abbey of St. Martin, in Weingarten, not far from Castle Altshausen. He held several offices in the monastery, and was active with Catholic youth organizations. In this position, and based also on his family's conservative Catholicism, he was involved in opposition to National Socialism as early as 1933, and was interrogated by the Gestapo several times.
He left the abbey and traveled to Württemberg in 1934. The Nazis expelled Father Odo from Germany in 1936, and he took refuge in monasteries in Switzerland and Italy. In Switzerland, he founded International Catholic Refugees and traveled through Europe.