German POW’S Connection to Kentucky

German POW’s Connection To Kentucky

By Dennis Keller

 It was WWII, a German soldier was ordered to retreat from the snows of Russia. As he and others started returning to Germany, other German soldiers in the rear would ask the retreating soldiers for the password. They did not know the current password, consequently they were fired upon by their own Army. This German soldier made it.

He was Herbert Jogerst. Arriving in Germany, his coal black hair turned white from fright. Shortly Jogerst was shipped to Africa and was captured in Casablanca by the English troops. As a POW he was shipped to Canada and then to Camp Breckenridge, near Morgantown, KY. As a captive he was restless, but to pass the time he began to sketch along with sculpturing. Prior to service he was a student at Strasbourg University, France, majoring in art. At Breckenridge the GI’s asked him to paint a mural in the dining room. He did, and it is on view today. Enter, Alfred Eisenstett, a journalist for Life magazine doing a story on POW’s. Eisenstett was Jewish, and prior to the war was a journalist for Berliner magazine in Berlin. Eisenstett met Jogerst and asked, “What are you going to do with over 300 paintings and sculptures”? Jogerst, replied, “Someday someone will take them from me”. Eisenstett, mentioned this in his Life story and thousands of readers volunteered to preserve Jogerst’s work. Life magazine elected to furnish 6 overseas trunks to send the material to Jogerst’ mother in Germany.

During the war years of 1943-1946, Father Peter Behrman, of St. Meinrad served as a chaplain to the German POW’s at Camp Breckenridge. St. Meinrad had stone and Father Behrman encouraged Jogerst to come to St. Meinrad and continue his art of sculpturing. Jogerst, as all soldiers wished, wanted to go home and returned to Germany. At home he found major destruction from the war plus no work. He wrote Father Behman that he would return to St. Meinrad. Reportedly, St. Meinrad sent Jogerst $100 and a one way ticket. Father Behrman & Jogerst were inseparable. Combined they did sculpture work in 28 states, creating statues, baptismal fonts and altars in sandstone and marble. Jogerst, occasionally returned to Germany for vacations, but always returned to the U.S. However, in 1962 he went back to Germany permanently. He died in 1993.

In 1993, tourists from Jogerst’s hometown, Waghurst, included his son, Elmar, and he got to see his father’s work for the first time. In St. Meinrad, he saw the three sculptures on the façade of the Abbey Church, one on St. Bede Hall and the Abbey Press. There is a 11 foot, 6,200 pound statue called, “Christ of the Ohio”, in Troy, IN, overlooking the Ohio River. We are aware of a statue he carved for Mr. Al Schneider founder of the Galt House, at Mr. Schneider’s home garden

The statues on the façade of the Abbey church, are made of Tennessee pink marble. The middle niche represents a seated Madonna, with child Jesus on her lap, the Child holds palm in the left hand, a globe surrounded by a cross. His right hand points to the Madonna, as to say; “Behold my Mother”. The statue in the left niche is an image of St. Benedict; the right niche is that of St. Benedict’s sister, St. Scholastica.

On St. Bede Hall, Jogerst, chiseled a figure of St. Benedict, the venerable patriarch and lawgiver of the monks. St. Benedict holds before him the Holy Rule. Below the figures of the Rule are Ecce Lex (Behold the law). The panel on the right shows the figure of a cowled monk at prayer, and below it, the Legend. The left panel is the figure of another monk, in work clothes, trimming stone for a building.

The sculpture at the Abbey Press is called, “Our Lady of the Press” and represents the commitment to the Christian family; she is flanked by St. Benedict, St. Scholastica and other figures holding books. All were done in limestone in the 20th century style.

Credits:

• Tonya Hartnett, Munich, Germany
• Franz Berger, Waghurst, Germany
• Father Cyprian Davis, Archivist, St. Meinrad Abbey, St. Meinrad, IN

The writer had met Mr. Jogerst two times. The first when Jogerst visited his father-in- law to deliver thanks from relatives in Waghurst for the Care Packages his in-law sent during WWII. The second encounter occurred when the author and his wife toured Europe and went to Waghurst to see the home of her grand-father. At that time they, also, saw the retired, Mr. Jogerst, who had returned to his home town.