Hans Anscar Reinhold

Hans Anscar Reinhold
September 9, 1897 - January 26, 1968

Hans Anscar Reinhold was born in Hamburg, Germany on 1897 September 9. His parents placed great import on a good education and put effort into finding a good school for their children. Consequently, their son attended a public school with Lutheran affiliations, rather than the local private Catholic school. After discovering an interest in languages, history, art, and architecture, Reinhold's indifference to his early education turned to hard work and success. During World War I Reinhold served on the Russian front and in army intelligence translating English and French codes.

Following the Great War, Reinhold studied at the University of Freiburg where he read The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini. Reinhold marks this reading as a turning point in his life that gave him a more positive attitude towards Catholic teaching. In 1920 Reinhold entered the Jesuit seminary at Innsbruck. While at the monastery at Maria Laach in 1922, Reinhold had his first experience with the dialogue Mass and was impressed by the participation of the people in celebrating the Mass. In 1923 he studied at the University of Westphalia and followed it by a year and a half at the University of Münster and the diocesan seminary at Osnabrück.

Reinhold was ordained to the priesthood on 1925 December 19 at Osnabrück. His first assignment was in Niendorf where he introduced the dialogue Mass to the congregation. In 1929 he was assigned to be the priest for a mission to German Catholic seamen. The Seaman's Apostolate operated out of Bremerhaven until 1933 when Reinhold moved to Hamburg. Reinhold served in this capacity for six years and was an instrument in founding the International Council of the Apostolate of the Sea 1930. It was in this post that Reinhold connected the work of liturgical reform with social justice.

As Hitler and the Nazis took power in Germany in the 1930s, Reinhold's criticism of the government put him at risk with the Gestapo. Reinhold left Germany in 1935 and eventually settled in New York City where he worked for the Catholic section of the Protestant Refugee Committee. After brief service teaching in Rhode Island, Reinhold moved to Seattle, Washington in 1938 to be the port chaplain. He eventually received an assignment in a Yakima, Washington church, and in 1944 became the pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Sunnyside, Washington. Also in 1944 Reinhold became a United States citizen.

Reinhold left Washington in 1956 because of difficulties with his health and with Bishop Joseph Dougherty of Yakima. He moved to Pittsburgh and worked under Bishop John Wright, where he was permitted to speak and write. In 1957 Reinhold was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's Disease. Reinhold died in Pittsburgh on 1968 January 26.

Reinhold dedicated much of his adult life to liturgical reform. He emphasized celebration of Mass on the parish level, focusing on the spiritual importance of the liturgy, not just its literary, musical, artistic, and historical features. Reinhold was the author of seven books, among them The American Parish and the Roman Liturgy (1958), Bringing the Mass to the People (1960), and Liturgy and Art (1966). From 1938 to 1957 Reinhold wrote "Timely Tracts," a popular column in Orate Fratres (now Worship), a leading magazine of the American liturgical reform movement. He also wrote articles for Commonweal and various other publications.

Tribute from the John J. Burns Library, Boston College University Libraries.