Ringeisen Relatives
Pauline
Ringeisen-Spring (Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.) has
set up a genealogy site. Have a look - and
participate in the exchange of Ringeisen
information (new site since March 2004!):
"The Ringeisen Family Association Website"
Certainly one of the most famous Ringeisens,
Dominikus Ringeisen was a priest who
founded an institution for severely handicapped
people in the Swabian town of Ursberg. This is
all the more remarkable as he lived in the 19th
century. His achievements as a pioneer of care
for the handicapped were specially honored in
1999, when the Deutsche Bundespost issued
a special stamp in his memory. (The "Deutsche
Bundespost" link takes you to a short biography
of Dominikus Ringeisen and a technical
description of the stamp.)
There is a very informative site of the Dominikus-Ringeisen-Werk
(Kloster Ursberg), but I'm afraid there's
no English version (see English
biography below). If you do understand a
bit of German, go ahead and click on the stamp.
And here is another web site dedicated to Dominikus Ringeisen's life and
work, at the homepage of the Congregation
of St. Joseph, which he founded. This page
contains three photographs of Dominikus, for
example the one below.
The
"Biographisch-Bibliographische
Kirchenlexikon" contains a biographical entry
on Dominikus Ringeisen, which I've translated
into English:
RINGEISEN, Dominikus, catholic priest,
born 6 December 1835 in Unterfinningen (near
Dillingen/Donau), son of a small farmer; died 4
May 1904 in Ursberg, situated between Krumbach
and Thannhausen, aged 69. - After his ordination
in 1864 he began as a chaplain in Frankenried
near Kaufbeuren, seven years later he became a
priest in Obergünzburg (also near
Kaufbeuren), where he stayed for eleven years. He
collected 200.000 Marks for a new hospital
building there. - In 1882 he was transferred to
the convent of Franciscan nuns at Kaufbeuren,
where he worked as confessor and teacher of
religious studies. When 46-year-old Monika
Seemüller, a farmer's daughter from
Schlingen near Wörishofen, donated a
handsome sum of money, Ringeisen bought the then
secularized convent of Ursberg, on 24 February
1884. After lots of negotiations with officials,
Ringeisen obtained permission for the foundation
of his Ursberg Institutions as early as 24 August
1884. His institutions were soon to become the
leading nursing home for the mentally
handicapped, the deaf and dumb, the blind and the
physically handicapped. Based on his unusual love
for humankind, a will of iron, deep trust in God
and also great organisational skills in matters
of financial politics, Dominikus Ringeisen
continued his work and extended it by buying
additional buildings.
- In 1885 he acquired the former
seminary in Pfaffenhausen in order to set up an
institution for the
blind;
- in 1897 he bought the land of the
former Cistercian monastery of Bildhausen in
Lower Frankonia in order to accommodate
discharged prisoners - today Ursberg's biggest
branch, with a home for handicapped men and
women.
- In 1901 he bought a castle in
Grönenbach near Memmingen and turned it
into a school for the learning-disabled; it was
dissolved fifty years later and turned into a
home for handicapped women plus workshops for
them.
- In 1891 Ringeisen had acquired the
mineral spring of Krumbach, and in 1895 the
hamlet of Percha on Lake
Starnberg.
- In 1897, a factory for the production
of chip baskets was added to the Ursberg
institutions, situated in Karlshuld; here
Ringeisen intended to give families a chance to
settle down. This part of his enterprise had to
be abandoned in 1920.
- After his death, Holzen monastery with
a nursing home for the old were added, and also
Breitenbrunn.
In
1888 Ringeisen took over the parish of Ursberg.
On 19 March 1897 he could celebrate the
foundation of his St. Joseph's Congregation with
the reception of 155 young sisters. With their
help he wanted to make charges "good and happy
people" by loving care, education, instruction
and work therapy. Dominikus Ringeisen died on 4
May 1904, a true Christian and a true believer,
full of God-given benevolence.
My link with Dominikus: My grandfather and
Dominikus had the same great-great-grandfather
(Johann Ringeisen of Finningen); their
great-grandfathers were
stepbrothers.
A click on the map below takes you to a large map of Germany which shows you where in Germany there are people called "Ringeisen".
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