Eduard Müller

On August 27, 1940, Father Eduard Müller began his pastoral ministry as an assistant vicar (Adjunkt) at the Sacred Heart Parish (Herz-Jesu-Kirche) in Lübeck. There, he joined two other young vicars, Johannes Prassek and Hermann Lange. Eduard Müller dedicated himself primarily to the pastoral care of children and young people, as well as to accompanying the companions of the Kolping Association. His pastoral style, characterized by a friendly, simple, and non-authoritarian approach, earned him great popularity among the local youth. In 1941, he led the parish youth in transforming an old coal cellar located under the church into a welcoming meeting room. His activities, particularly the excursions organized on Sunday mornings after Mass, were in direct competition with the mandatory gatherings of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend), which tried in vain to win him over to its cause. Although he considered himself 'apolitical,' Eduard Müller was actively involved in spiritual resistance against the National Socialist regime. Together with his colleagues Johannes Prassek and Hermann Lange, he participated in discussion circles where the political situation and military events were addressed. Together, they clandestinely copied, duplicated, and distributed the sermons of the Bishop of Münster, Mgr. Clemens August von Galen, who vigorously denounced the euthanasia program for disabled people carried out by the Nazi regime. They also kept themselves informed by listening to British radio broadcasts.

In Lübeck, a deep ecumenical friendship, unprecedented for the time, developed between the three Catholic priests and the Lutheran pastor of the Lutherkirche, Karl Friedrich Stellbrink. United by their Christian faith and their shared rejection of the barbarity of Nazism, they shared spiritual writings and sermons.

The decisive turning point occurred after the bombing of Lübeck by the Royal Air Force on the night of March 28 to 29, 1942. During his Palm Sunday sermon, Pastor Stellbrink described this destruction as a "judgment of God," which led to his immediate arrest by the Gestapo. The police investigation quickly revealed his close ties with the Catholic priests of the Sacred Heart parish.

Father Johannes Prassek was arrested on May 18, 1942, followed by Father Hermann Lange on June 15, and finally Father Eduard Müller on June 22, 1942. Imprisoned for more than a year, they were brought before the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) convened in Lübeck in the summer of 1943. At the end of the trial (from June 23 to 25, 1943), the four clergymen were sentenced to death for "undermining military morale, sedition, aiding the enemy, and listening to foreign radio broadcasts." The pleas for clemency submitted by their bishop, Mgr. Wilhelm Berning, were rejected by the Nazi authorities.

On November 10, 1943, they were transferred to the Holstenglacis prison in Hamburg. They were executed there by decapitation (guillotine) at three-minute intervals. Witnesses reported that the blood of the four martyrs mingled on the ground, thus sealing their ecumenical unity in suffering. The body of Eduard Müller was cremated at the Neuengamme concentration camp and his ashes were scattered.

The beatification process for the three Catholic priests (Johannes Prassek, Hermann Lange, and Eduard Müller) was officially opened in 2004 at the initiative of the Archbishop of Hamburg, Mgr. Werner Thissen. On July 1, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing their martyrdom in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith). The solemn beatification celebration took place on June 25, 2011, on the Paradeplatz, in front of the Sacred Heart Church in Lübeck. It was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Benedict XVI. During this ceremony, a solemn and official tribute was also paid to the Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, in the presence of the Lutheran Bishop of Hamburg and thousands of faithful from both denominations, giving the event a historic ecumenical dimension.

The spiritual legacy of Eduard Müller and his companions, known as the "Lübeck Martyrs," rests on the testimony of a faith lived in unity and freedom of conscience in the face of dictatorship. Pope Benedict XVI praised their friendship as an "impressive testimony of the ecumenism of prayer and suffering."

Until his execution, Eduard Müller maintained a deep inner peace, testifying to his absolute fidelity to Christ. The motto shared by the martyrs, "To Christ, our King, eternal fidelity!," summarizes their ultimate spiritual commitment.

Today, the former coal cellar of the Sacred Heart Church in Lübeck, which Eduard Müller had set up with the youth in 1941, has become a crypt and a memorial dedicated to their memory. In 2012, the Archdiocese of Hamburg created the "Lübeck Martyrs Foundation" in order to perpetuate their message of faith, tolerance, and Christian unity.