Image panel «Open Letters» for Jakob Gapp at the Franziskanergymnasium Hall

The Marianist priest Jakob Gapp was executed on 23 August 1943 in the prison Berlin-Plötzensee because of his sharp criticism of National Socialism and was beatified in November 1996. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this event, the graduating class of the 1954 cohort of the Franziskanergymnasium Hall, on the initiative of Gerhard Rainer, commissioned the artist Ernst Friedrich to create a work of art for Father Jakob Gapp in the entrance hall of the school. In his four-part picture panel, Friedrich, with the assistance of his wife Eleonor, mounted a portrait of Gapp and excerpts from his "Confession" as well as from the death sentence against him. Excerpts from the Haydn Passion are to illustrate the extent of the suffering in Gapp's life and death. The Franciscan provincial Father Rupert Schwarzl and his predecessor Father Wolfgang Heiss, both graduates of the 1954 class, shaped the beatification ceremony on 3 July 2004.