Father Engelmar was born in Greifendorf in 1911. At the age of 18 he entered the seminary of the Mariannhill Missionaries in Reimlingen. He spent his student days in Würzburg, was ordained to the priesthood in 1939 and spent 1940 as parish priest in Glöckelberg.
In a letter from Dachau to his sister, he wrote: “Whatever we do, whatever we want, is surely simply the grace that carries us and guides us. God’s almighty grace helps us overcome obstacles … love doubles our strength, makes us inventive, makes us feel content and inwardly free. If people would only realise what God has in store for those who love him!” He also wrote from this hell of suffering: ‘Even behind the hardest sacrifices and worst suffering stands God with his Fatherly love, who is satisfied with the good will of his children and gives them and others happiness.’