KIRCHESCH, FRANZ. - German economist and sociologist, born at Wissen an der Sieg on 2 March 1873, died at Mayen on 11 Sept. 1931. Ordained priest in 1898, he was parish priest at Müllenbach from 1901 and director of the Ständehaus at Mayen from 1912. Having come to know, during his ministry, the misery and poverty of the worker of his time, K. devoted himself entirely to the work of deproletarianization, seeking through the decentralization of production to ensure young artisans the possibility of establishing an independent life.
To this end he also fought for the corporate order, and in his Ständehäuser he demonstrated in practice the advantages of the cooperative system. Great was his concern for the revival of the practice of charity, in which he saw the most suitable remedy for those who did not trust the social policy of the State. For this purpose he founded the Gesellschaft der göttlichen Liebe and in the journal Die göttliche Liebe he sought to disseminate his principles, especially concerning the just wage and the social function of property. Before his death he received the solemn confirmation of his concerns in the encyclical Quadragesimo anno.
Writings: various articles in Göttliche Liebe (1911-13), Ständeordnung (1906-14), Katholisch-soziale Friedensblätter (1913-14), Christliche Demokratie (of which he himself was editor, 1919-31).
Jaroslav Škarvada