Nikolaus Groß
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Blessed Nikolaus Gross |
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|---|---|
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| Layman; Martyr | |
| Born |
30 September 1898 Niederwenigern, Hattingen, German Empire |
| Died | 23 January 1945 (aged 46) Plötzensee prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 7 October 2001, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 15 January |
| Attributes | Palm |
Blessed Nikolaus Gross (German: Groß) (30 September 1898 – 23 January 1945) was a German Roman Catholic. Gross first worked in professions requiring skilled labor before becoming a coal miner like his father while joining a range of trade union and political movements. But he soon settled on becoming a journalist before he got married while World War II prompted him to become a resistance fighter in the time of the Third Reich; he should be noted for his anti-violent rhetoric and approach to opposing Adolf Hitler. He was also one of those implicated and arrested for the assassination attempt on Hitler despite not being involved himself.
His cause for sainthood saw it acknowledged that Gross had died in 1945 "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith) which allowed for Pope John Paul II to preside over the beatification for the murdered journalist on 7 October 2001 in Saint Peter's Square.
Nikolaus Gross was born in Niederwenigern on 30 September 1898 to a miner; he was baptized on 2 October and he attended the local Catholic school from 1905 until 1912.
Gross first worked in a plate rolling mill as a grinder (1912-15) and then as a coal miner like his father before him from 1915 until 1920. In June 1917 he joined the Christian Mineworkers' Trade Union and in 1918 joined a Christian political movement. On 6 June 1919 he joined the Saint Anthony's Miners' Association.
He furthered his education in evening courses at the Volksverein für das katholische Deutschland and in 1920 gave up his job as a miner and worked for the Christian Mineworkers' Trade Union ("Gewerkverein Christlicher Bergarbeiter") in Oberhausen in a secretarial role from July 1920 until June 1921. From July 1921 until May 1922 he was an assistant editor at the union newspaper known as the "Bergknappen" in Essen. From June 1922 until October 1922 he was a trade union secretarial worker in Waldenburg in Lower Silesia and afterwards in Zwickau and then at (December 1924 to December 1926) Bottrop. In January 1927 he changed jobs to become the assistant editor at the Westdeutsche Arbeiterzeitung which was the organizational organ of the Katholische Arbeitnehmer-Bewegung ("Catholic Workers' Movement" or K.A.B.) before soon becoming the general editor in 1929. The Westdeutsche Arbeiterzeitung stood out as a paper that was critical of the Nazis. After the elections in March 1933 the paper was banned for three weeks. In the beginning of 1935 the paper bore the name Kettelerwacht and was banned once and for all on 19 November 1938 but he continued to publish an underground edition to expose the lies of propaganda. Gross took over the leadership of the Düsseldorf K.A.B. for its secretarial worker had been called into the Wehrmacht. His activities were linked with travels which would be a help to him in his upcoming resistance activities. He also represented the K.A.B. at Catholic conferences.
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