P. Hadrian has arrived home.

On Friday evening, June 27, 2025 – on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – the following message arrived in Jablonec:

The Lord's decision remains forever; the plans of His heart endure through all generations:
He wants to redeem us from death and preserve our lives in times of famine. (Ps 33)
Introductory verse of the Holy Mass on the day of death, Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Fr. Hadrian (Gerhard) Lucke
born August 7, 1930, in Jablonec nad Nisou/Gablonz an der Neiße
died June 27, 2025, in Munich

Fr. Hadrian Lucke, whose full name was Gerhard Lucke, was born on August 7, 1930, in Jablonec nad Nisou. As the firstborn son of Alois and Marie Lucke, he grew up with his younger brother Fritz in a safe home environment – until tuberculosis shattered the family's happiness: his brother died in 1940, and a year later, their mother passed away. His father was conscripted into the army and remarried in 1943.
Gerhard survived the illness himself, but soon the war shattered the family background. In 1945, he narrowly escaped deployment to the front as a child soldier but was soon assigned to forced labor as unskilled help on a Czech farm. There he received – as he later recalled with gratitude – respect and closeness. The owners, a childless farming couple, even wanted to bequeath their farm to him. However, Gerhard had a different path in mind.
The expulsion of the German-speaking population in 1946 led him through Mecklenburg and Saxony-Anhalt into the Soviet occupation zone. In 1947, at the age of 16, he decided to flee to the West – a risky venture that he succeeded in only with the help of brave people. His goal was a seminary for late vocations of the Capuchins in Dillingen on the Danube. In 1950, he graduated there and then entered the novitiate in Lauffen as Frater Hadrian von Gablonz. Throughout his life as a "Bavarian Capuchin," he never forgot his Sudeten German origins.
He then studied in Eichstätt and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1956. As a young clergyman, he first served in Altötting. However, his exceptional talent for working with youth soon became apparent: in 1959, he became the prefect at the Seraphic Charity Organization in St. Ingbert, which he led until its closure in 1978. He then served as the master of clerics in Eichstätt, partly because his elderly parents lived there, whom he loved to care for. This was followed by further missions: he was a superior in Dillingen, a hospital chaplain in Munich-Nymphenburg, a prison chaplain, and the guardian of the religious house in Aschaffenburg. In 2001, he returned to Eichstätt and later moved to the newly established monastery in Ingolstadt. He loved riding a bicycle – later on his favorite tricycle – maintaining correspondence, keeping in touch with young and old, and sharing his experiences.
After the closure of the Ingolstadt monastery, he moved to Munich to St. Anthony's Convent in 2014. There he enjoyed living among his fellow brothers, praying, eating, joking, and sharing memories together. In February 2025, he had to move to the St. Krescencija nursing home next to the monastery. There, until the end, he enjoyed contact with his fellow brothers, relatives, and friends.
Father Hadrian was always attentive and approachable. His Sudeten German background merged with a broad perspective, enabling him to transform bitter experiences into compassion. He found joy in his relationship with relatives, to whom he could offer guidance and prayers.
He was a witness of the past century – not loud, but resolute. He was a man who, despite many crises, became a servant of reconciliation and retained a gentle sense of humor.
On the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2025 – June 27 – he was able to enter through the open doors into his Father's house in heaven. May the Lord grant him eternal rest.
The funeral will take place on Thursday, July 3rd at 8:45 am at the Capuchin cemetery of St. Anthony, followed by a requiem mass at the St. Krescencija home church in Munich. Let us thank him for all the good he has given us. May he rest in peace.

Capuchins from Munich of St. Anthony

The obituary with the above text in German thus arrived in the hometown of Fr. Hadrian on the very day of his death. Although much more could be said about him than is hinted at by the already unusually long text from the obituary, several additional things could be interesting, especially for the parishioners of Jablonec...

The Lucke family in front of their new family home at Družstevní Street No. 25 on “Porschberg” in Jablonec nad Nisou. Daddy Alois, next to him Gerhard, mother Maria, and younger brother Fritz. Mother was the daughter of Jablonec's Christian politician, Anton Biemann, who was a member of the city council and chairman of the finance committee since 1923. His successful tenure as deputy mayor ended with the rise of the Sudeten German party to power in 1937.

The younger generation does not know Fr. Hadrian, but thanks to his frequent trips to his "old homeland," he was known to many of our parishioners, especially in the 1990s and around the turn of the millennium. An article entitled "How the Lord God Called Me" was published in the magazine Tarsicius in 2001, where he sheds light on some moments of his life's journey. After the borders opened in 1990, Fr. Hadrian tried to accompany the excursions of the natives into the Jizera Mountains every year. Great assistance in his travels to Bohemia, especially in later years when his physical strength waned, was provided by his relatives Christina and Joachim Neumann from Erfurt. For the trips he spiritually accompanied, he always "borrowed" one of our churches, where he celebrated a German mass; for example, in Rýnovice, Rádlo, Mšené, Lučany, Rychnov, Joseph's Valley, Janov, and elsewhere. He enjoyed going to Hejnice, where he several times concelebrated at the traditional expats' pilgrimage mass on the original date of the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on July 2nd. He had a special relationship with the pilgrimage church of St. Joseph in Kittel, which was linked to part of his family. He organized a financial collection for its renovation.

However, we could also encounter him at services in Jablonec. At the cemetery in Huta, he blessed the Czech-German monument commemorating the destroyed coexistence of local families. He himself was baptized in the church of St. Anne, where he also served at the altar, and his father played the organ. He was probably the last clergyman connecting pre-war Jablonec with the present. His remarkable life experiences were blessed in a special way: unlike many of his German contemporaries, he experienced human treatment and compassion during forced post-war labor on the farm in Bořkov near Semily. František Novotný, a Czech farmer to whom he was assigned, treated him not only as a family member but even allowed him to visit relatives in Jablonec without any official formalities, despite the certain risk. An attitude that was not at all common at that time towards Germans.

Fifteen-year-old Gerhard Lucke after the war at the Novotný farm in Bořkov near Semily.
This stage of life ended in the summer of 1946.

Not only this experience led Hadrian to become a messenger of reconciliation between Germans and Czechs. He operated in this regard not only during his priestly vocation but was also elected as a spiritual advisor of the German organization Ackermann-Gemeinde (Oráčova obec), which has been striving for good relations between Czechs and Germans, as well as other European nations afflicted by the plague of hatred in the 20th century.

At the Capuchin seminary or gymnasium in Dillingen an der Donau 1947, 4th from the left in the back row.
Here he was finally able to complete his education.

With fellow brothers in Eichstätt 1953, second from the right on the top row

Hadrian's first mass after his ordination in Eichstätt took place on Sunday, July 1, 1956, in the unfinished church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Neugablonz. His involvement in spiritual service as a man from the "old homeland" attracted exceptional attention and drew not only his own parishioners from Neugablonz, i.e., compatriots from Bohemia (Landsleute), but also from the nearby city of Kaufbeuren and from many more distant communities. The influx of guests was so large that they couldn't even fit into the spacious nave of the future church. The rarity of the moment was further emphasized by the presence of Capuchin Heinrich Suso Braun, a renowned Austrian radio preacher, who gave the inaugural sermon. He particularly addressed the issue of homeland, a topic still painful for many exiles in the mid-1950s and complicated by political developments. According to him, true and deepest homeland is only with God Himself and in His safety. The life task of a priest is with God's help to lead people there. The priest's work is to build bridges even where human imperfection and failure prevail. Father Braun referenced the pain regarding the birthplace of the celebrant and mentioned his own sermon in the Jablonec church in 1932.

In 1970 in St. Ingbert (in Saarland)

Fr. Hadrian was distinguished not only by his interest in music (he played the guitar himself and accompanied liturgy for the youth), but also, which is less common among priests, by his interest in literature. His inner relationship with the now nearly forgotten, once most famous writer from the Jablonec area, the "poet of the Jizera Mountains" Gustav Leutelt, is evidenced by a homily he delivered on May 28, 1989, in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Neugablonz during the 35th association meeting of compatriots from the Jizera Mountains. In this discourse, he touched upon three areas that he deemed important and inspiring: the writer's relationship to creation, his relationship to other people, and also his relationship to the temples of the homeland. In this author's work, entirely "non-church," Fr. Hadrian finds many positive moments. The homily was so successful that it was published as a preface to the last volume of collected works of Gustav Leutelt, published in Germany in the late 1980s.

In the procession during the 60th anniversary of priestly ordination at the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
in Neugablonz on July 3, 2016. Priests from left: Redemptorist Fr. Hans Schalk,
Fr. Hadrian, Fr. Antonín Kejdana, Fr. Thomas Hagen – pastor in Neugablonz (photo by Harald Langer)

In 2016, Fr. Hadrian celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of his priestly ordination in the place of his first mass, in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Neugablonz. The festive mass was attended by a small delegation from Jablonec, and the celebrant was co-celebrated by Father Antonín Kejdana from Ruprechtice, a strong advocate for reconciliation of historical grievances and pains, who also befriended Hadrian.

Fr. Hadrian Lucke and Fr. Antonín Kejdana

Despite differences in order regulations, they were united not only by a shared religious brotherhood with St. Francis of Assisi but also by their joyful and positively inclined nature and genuine concern for people, their lives with joys and difficulties. Today, both brothers undoubtedly rejoice with Him whom they loved and to whom they dedicated their lives. In response to the news of Fr. Hadrian's death, one of the German parishioners noted: "He was a quiet man, but full of strength."

Fr. Hadrian on his tricycle in the garden of the Munich St. Anthony's monastery in June 2023.

The Fourth Commandment

Whether we like it or not, childhood influences us throughout our lives. And those who once stood by our cradle accompany us throughout our lives – even more so in old age than in youth. I am already over 80 years old, but no one is as close to me as they are.
There is my dear mother, who was called to God very early. When she died, I was still a child. Before her death, I asked her if she would still be my mother at God; I did not want to have any other mother than her. There is my father, who had to go to war when my mother was terminally ill, but God granted him a long life, and I stood on my own two feet thanks to his manliness, despite all the tensions that often exist between father and son. There is my little brother, who once declared that he would live longer than I, and who died still a child. There is my father's uncle, who always saw me as the child of his beloved sister and who remained a true friend to me throughout my life. There is my paternal grandmother, with whom I so enjoyed going to church during World War II and who consciously or unconsciously prepared me for the path to priesthood. I thank God that my relatives took care of me and did not send me to an orphanage when my father, mother, and brother were no longer here. How they feared for me! Nothing was allowed to happen to me. I had to find the right path in life. I had to rid myself of my bad habits. After the war, I had to complete my education, which was no longer possible in my native land. It would have been wrong if I had not advanced beyond being a street sweeper. Here I also want to thank my father's second wife, who herself had to leave school at twelve. When I then found the path to priesthood, my uncle wrote to me that it was the culmination of my deceased mother's thorny life journey. When as Christians we one day must depart, it will mean for us meeting our Lord Jesus Christ. He invited us to the wedding feast of eternal life. We look forward to meeting again with those who provided us with home and safety here on earth.

(Text of Hadrian Lucke from the end of 2011)

For Fr. Hadrian Lucke, a mass will be celebrated at the dean's church in Jablonec nad Nisou on Friday, July 4, 2025.

Text: (besides the obituary): Borek Tichý
Photography: from the archive of Borek Tichý, unless otherwise stated

The obituary in German / Czech as a pdf.