Fr. Berghold’s seminary in Graz, Austria to learn of his accomplishments

by Kevin Sweeney,

New Ulm Journal

New Ulm - People in New Ulm know about Rev. Alexander Berghold and the many contributions he made to the community as a pioneering priest.

Now, students at his old seminary in Graz, Austria, will have a reminder of how one of their own impacted the faith in Minnesota.

The Alexander Berghold Committee in New Ulm is commissioning a black plaque that will be installed at the seminary in Graz where Berghold was a student before coming to Minnesota. He was ordained in St. Paul and came to New Ulm as the first resident Catholic priest in New Ulm.

Berghold had a monumental impact on the city. He built the first Catholic church, the first Catholic school and the first hospital in New Ulm, and established 19 other parishes through southwest Minnesota, on into the South Dakota territory. In his spare time, he was an author and poet.

Members of the Berghold Committee met November 2 with Michael Mittendrein, who has been working on the Austrian end to bring about this recognition for the pioneering priest, to see the plaque design and celebrate the life and contributions of Berghold.

Denis Warta had suggested to the Berghold Committee that a plaque in Berghold's old seminary might be a fitting recognition. He recruited Mittendrein, an old friend from Austria, to be the contact on the European end.

Mittendrein found that the current hierarchy in Graz had little knowledge of Berghold's history and his impact on New Ulm, and little interest in receiving a plaque.

However, Mittendrein met Dr. Franz Leopold, Berghold's great-nephew, a priest who is 90 and still celebrates Mass every Sunday.

Leopold helped convince the seminary that a plaque in honor of Berghold would be fitting recognition and an inspiration for current students aspiring to the priesthood.

The plaque features an outline of the United States, with Minnesota and New Ulm marked. A picture of Berghold is centered above it. The images of the first hospital, Holy Trinity Church, Holy Trinity School, and the convent that Berghold founded are found in the corners. The wording re-counts special dates in the life of Berghold, and a short list of his accomplishments.

At the presentation luncheon November 2, presided over by Msgr. Douglas Grams, Vicar General of the Diocese of New Ulm, members of the committee recounted how Berghold had a special impact on New Ulm, building bridges with the Turnverein and others in town, who had come from Germany suspicious of the Church and determined to build their own society.

Vern Rippley, professor of German at St. Olaf College, has long been a student of Berghold's writing and his history. He spoke briefly about Berghold's later years when he returned to Austria.

"Shortly after reaching his destination, Berghold, always at ease with verse and rhyme, penned an 11-stanza German poem, in which the fifth reads in English, "From far away lands I turned the compass around, tired and sick, as a traveler back to my homeland, full of yearning for the desired peace. Now I stay in the beautiful garden, full of fruits and flowers of all kinds. And I am resting from the sorrows of my life near the house of my youth."

"Truly Father Alexander Berghold 'crossed boundaries,’" said Rippley, "a theme which thrusts across the frontiers of time from the instant of his death to the moment of ours."