14 Facts About Alfred Delp

Falsely implicated in the failed 1944 July Plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, Delp was arrested and sentenced to death.

Alfred Delp was born in Mannheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, to a Catholic mother Maria, nee Bernauer and a Protestant father Johann Adam Friedrich Delp.

Thereafter, Alfred Delp's youth was moulded mainly by the Bund Neudeutschland Catholic youth movement.

In 1935, Alfred Delp published his Tragic Existence, propagating a God-based humanism and reviewing the existentialism of Martin Heidegger.

In 1937, Alfred Delp was ordained a Catholic priest in Munich.

Alfred Delp had wanted to study for a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Munich, but he was refused admission to the university for political reasons.

Alfred Delp was then assigned as rector of St Georg Church, part of Heilig-Blut Parish in the Munich neighbourhood Bogenhausen.

Alfred Delp preached both at Heilig-Blut and St Georg, and secretly helped Jews who were escaping to Switzerland through the underground.

Alfred Delp's role was to explain Catholic social teaching to the group, and to arrange contacts between Moltke and Catholic leaders, including Archbishop Konrad von Preysing of Berlin and Bishop Johannes Dietz of Fulda.

Alfred Delp was arrested in Munich on 28 July 1944, although he was not directly involved in the plot.

On 8 December 1944, Alfred Delp had a visit from Franz von Tattenbach SJ, sent by Rosch to receive his final vows to the Jesuit Order.

Accordingly, the body of Alfred Delp was cremated and his ashes disposed of in an unknown location near Berlin.

Alfred Delp's name was included among the almost other 900 Catholics in a list of people having suffered a violent death for adherence to the Christian faith, published in 1999 as Zeugen fur Christus.

Alfred Delp is best known for his writings that were smuggled out of prison.