page_title: Max Josef Metzger
section_title: Pacificism and Esperanto
hierarchical_section_title: Max Josef Metzger / Pacificism and Esperanto
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Gedenktafel, Max Josef Metzger, Willdenowstraße 8, Berlin-Wedding, Deutschland English: Memorial plaque, Max Josef Metzger, Willdenowstraße 8, Berlin-Wedding, Germany
context_page_description: Max Josef Metzger was a Catholic priest and leading German pacifist who was executed by the Nazis during World War II.
context_section_description: In 1916 Metzger published Frieden auf Erden (Peace on Earth), a pamphlet urging an end to war. He moved to Graz, Austria where he became secretary to the Catholic League of the Cross of Austria, an organization involved in educating people about the dangers of alcoholism. In 1918 he established the secular institute, the Mission Society of the White Cross.
  Metzger was also involved in establishing the German Catholics’ Peace Association which used Esperanto in its international contacts from 1918. In 1920 Metzger founded "Internacio Katolika" (IKA). From 1921 to 1924 Metzger edited the Esperanto magazine, Katolika Mondo (Catholic World), in Graz.
  In 1920 met with Pope Benedict XV, who encouraged him to work for disarmament in Europe. Strongly advocating the ecumenical idea of peace he soon became known as a leading German pacifist and Esperantist.
  In 1926 he re-located to Meiningen, where he and his community (now known as the Society of Christ the King) had been invited to staff and manage the Catholic Charities facility.
  In 1938, Metzger founded the "Una Sancta Brotherhood" a group devoted to the re-unification of the Lutheran and Catholic churches.
  After the rise to power of German dictator Adolf Hitler in 1933, Metzger was arrested several times by the Gestapo. In 1943, Metzger wrote a memorandum on the reorganization of the German state and its integration into a future system of world peace. When he tried to have this memorandum delivered to the Swedish Archbishop of Uppsala, Erling Eidem, Metzger was denounced by the courier. Metzger's memorandum never reached Uppsala. The courier was a female Gestapo agent, Swedish-born Dagmar Imgart, and Metzger was arrested on 29 June 1943.
  Metzger was tried by the German People's Court. The Judge-President of the court, Roland Freisler, said that people like Metzger should be "eradicated."  Metzger was sentenced to death and he was executed on 17 April 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden Prison.
caption: Memorial to Max Josef Metzger
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