LEISNER, KARL FRIEDRICH WILHELM MARIA, BL.

Priest, martyr; b. Feb. 28, 1915, Rees am Niederrhein, Westphalia, Germany; d. Aug. 12, 1945, Planegg (near Munich). Karl's parents, Wilhelm Leisner and Amalie Falkenstein, moved to Kleve in 1921, where he attended the local public school. He studied philosophy and theology at the Borromeo College in Münster (1934–36); theology at Freiburg in Breisgau (1936–37) and Münster (1937–39). While at the university, his bishop commissioned him as diocesan leader of youth groups from 1934 to 1936. To circumvent Nazi control, Karl taught his charges the catechism on excursions. His education was interrupted for six months in 1937 by mandatory national agricultural service in Sachsen and Emsland. During this period he again opposed Nazi regulations by organizing Sunday Mass for fellow workers. Leisner entered Münster's diocesan seminary in 1938 and was ordained deacon March 25, 1939 by Bishop Clemens Augustinus Graf von Galen.

While recuperating from tuberculosis in the sanitarium at St. Blasien, Schwarzwald, he was arrested Nov. 8, 1939, for offhandedly expressing regret that an assassination attempt against Hitler had failed. He was held in the prison of Freiburg from 1939 to 1940, then incarcerated in Mannheim's prison. After Mannheim, he was taken to the concentration camps at Sachsenhausen and Dachau Dec. 24, 1940. On Dec. 17, 1944, French Bishop Gabriel Piguet of Clermont-Ferrand secretly ordained Leisner to the priesthood at Dachau. Father Leisner furtively celebrated Mass for the first and only time on Dec. 26 in the barrack's chapel. Dachau was liberated by Allied troops May 4, 1945. Leisner, suffering the effects of tuberculosis and imprisonment, died a few months later at the age of 30 in a sanitarium at Planegg near Munich.

In 1966 his body was exhumed from his grave in Kleve and placed in the Martyrs Crypt in the Xanten cathedral. His cause was opened in Rome March 15, 1980. Among the documents examined were his diary with entries from March 23, 1927 through July 25, 1945, and about 130 substantial letters, which provide insight into his spirituality. He was beatified June 23, 1996, by John Paul II during his third pastoral visit to Germany.

Bibliography: Christus meine Leidenschaft, Karl Leisner, sein Leben in Bildern und Dokumenten, ed. w. haas (Kevelaer 1985); Karl Leisner: Mit Christus leben. Gedanken für jeden Tag, ed. w. haas (Kevelaer 1979). o. cesca, Castelo no tormenta, Carlos Leisner (Santa Maria, Brazil 1963). c. feldmann, Wer glaubt, muss widerstehen: Bernhard Lichtenberg-Karl Leisner, 3d ed. (Freiburg 1996). r. lejeune, K. Leisner: Wie Gold geläutert im Feuer (Strassburg 1988). o. pies, Stephanus heute, Karl Leisner, Priester und Opfer. (Kevelaer 1951). j. schmiedl, Karl Leisner: Leben für die Jugend (Vallendar-Schönstatt 1996). L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 26 (1996) 1–3.

[k. i. rabenstein]