KOLPING, ADOLF. - Priest, organizer of the first Catholic workers' associations in Germany, called for this reason the Gesellenvater, b. at Kerpen (Cologne) on 8 Dec. 1813, d. at Cologne on 4 Dec. 1865. Forced by poverty into the trade of shoemaker, he had the opportunity to know at close hand the spiritual and temporal needs of young workers, to whom he was later to devote his whole life.
At the age of 24 he decided upon the ecclesiastical career; ordained in 1845, he was sent as curate to Elberfeld, where a Jünglingverein had recently been founded, which soon became the Kath. Gesellenverein, with the aim of helping young workers to form the men of tomorrow, skilled craftsmen, sincere Catholics, irreproachable fathers of families. K. took charge of it, was elected its president in 1847, animated it with his zeal and perfected its program. He had understood how, in order to raise the level of the working class and transform it into the maker of a new social world, it was necessary to instill in its members not only religious principles, but also to give them the means to perfect themselves ever more in their own trade, in such a way as to assert themselves and also take on positions of leadership. To achieve the goal better, the "unions" had to multiply throughout working-class Germany. Meanwhile he resolved to begin with Cologne, a great industrial center. There he was appointed in 1849 as assistant pastor at the cathedral and immediately established a "union" there, which soon succeeded in having its own premises and in opening a hostel in which to lodge workers who were traveling. Energetic and indomitable, a good speaker and popular writer, he spread his idea in pamphlets and undertook many journeys through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, speaking of it everywhere. Success was not lacking, for at his death the "Gesellenverein" numbered about 400 and they multiplied further, winning the sympathy even of various countries in America.
He wrote: Der Gesellenverein und seine Aufgabe (1851); Für ein Gesellenhospitium (1852) and, in order to cooperate in wholesome popular reading, a substantial series of counsels, exhortations and stories, distributed as appendices in various newspapers and in his annual Kolpingskalender.
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