Christian Herwartz

Christian Herwartz (1943–2022) was a German Jesuit and a representative of the worker-priest movement. After an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering at a shipyard in Kiel, he completed his secondary-school qualifications in 1969 and joined the Jesuit order. He studied philosophy in Munich and theology in Frankfurt. From 1978, he worked in Berlin as a lathe operator and warehouse worker. The hospitality he practiced with fellow Jesuits gave rise to “Exerzitien auf der Straße” (“Street Exercises”), a spiritual movement that crossed denominational, social and educational boundaries. Herwartz died in Berlin in 2022.