THREATS IN A GENTLE SKY When Joseph was two years old, the family packed their bags for a new destination: Tittmoning, a small village on the Austrian border: “Tittmoning remains my childhood’s land of dreams. There is the big, even majestic, town square with its noble fountain surrounded by the proud old houses of burghers,” the pope would remember with emotion. For now, the small child, who has just barely begun to walk, stares in wonder at the Christmas shop windows glowing in the night, “like a wonderful promise.”6 However, a voiceless menace hovered over this joyful and gentle sky: “But we also sensed that our happy childhood world was not set in a paradise. Behind the beautiful façades much silent poverty was concealed.… The political climate had visibly intensified. The Nazi party gained ever stronger ascendancy…. We could very clearly sense the immense anxiety weighing [Father] down.”7 As a policeman, Joseph Ratzinger opposed the Brown shirts on several occasions, building himself a perilous reputation in the region as an anti-Nazi. For the security of the family, a change of scenery became preferable; thus, at the end of the year 1932, the Ratzingers moved to Aschau, a large, quiet village on the river Inn. Little Joseph was a bit disappointed. Fortunately, a Bavarian pub brought joy to the town and, in the garden of the new house, a great lawn sprawled, along with a carp pond in which he would almost drown while playing. The nex t yea r, in Janua r y 1933, Hindenburg handed over his powers as Chancellor of the Reich to Hitler. The net was closing. In Aschau, the schoolchildren had to march through the village in line under a sinister rain, and from now on, Georg and Maria were required to participate in the parades of the new “Hitler Youth.” “It mortified my father to have to work now for a government whose representatives he considered to be criminals…. As far as I can see, the sole result of the new regime, during the four years we spent here, was the practice of spying and informing on priests who behaved as ‘enemies of the Reich.’ It goes without saying that my father had no part in this. On the contrary, he would warn and aid priests he knew were in danger.”8 6 Milestones, p. 10. 7 Ibid., p. 12. 8 Ibid., p. 14. In 1932 the Nazis are about to take power. The Ratzinger family prudently moves to Aschau. On January 30, 1933, Hindenburg resolves to name Hitler chancellor. At Potsdam, in March, the two men exchange handshakes during the opening ceremony of the Reichstag. Members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) fill the street, here in 1930. Joseph encounters them many times because of his job. In 1929 the family moves to Tittmoning, whose castle had been one of the residences of the prince archbishop of Salzburg. © Shutterstock © 2011 by Michael Hesemann, Shutterstock, Leemage B E N E D I C T X V I the man 10 • BENEDICT XVI BENEDICT XVI • 11
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