Alexander Falzmann

Alexander Falzmann , also Aleksander Falzmann (born August 24, 1887 in Łódź ; † May 4, 1942 in Dachau concentration camp ) was a Polish Protestant clergyman and pastor of Zgierz for many years .

Life

Alexander Falzmann was the son of the wealthy Łódź industrialist Alois Falzmann and his wife Emilia Groene. He attended the Łódź Humanistic Gymnasium. Because of the school strike in 1905, the school was closed by Russian authorities and Falzmann went to Kiev , where he lived with his sister and in 1907 took his Abitur. Since 1908 he studied at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Dorpat and at the same time practiced in the Protestant communities around Dorpat.

On September 1, 1912, he passed his last theological exams and was ordained pastor on the first Sunday of Advent of that year in the Łódź Evangelical Church of St. John by Superintendent General Juliusz Bursche . Falzmann stayed in the city of Łódź, where he got a position as vicar and in 1913 married Lucja Seiler; the son Karol was born from the marriage.

In 1914 Falzmann was elected pastor of the north-eastern Polish parishes of Pułtusk and Mława . After just one year (1915) he and his parishioners were deported by the Russian authorities to the interior of Russia , to Kharkov , and did not return to his homeland and his parish in Pultusk until 1918. Here he experienced considerable difficulties, because the parishioners were German-speaking and nationalist, while Falzmann supported Juliusz Bursche's equalization policy.

In 1920 the previous pastor of Zgierz , Karol Serini, resigned to become Professor of Evangelical Theology at the University of Warsaw , and Falzmann was elected pastor in the same year. Here, too, he soon encountered serious problems, because here, too, with around 1,500 of the city's 2,300 Lutherans, the majority of the congregation members were German-speaking and did not want a Polish-friendly pastor, although Falzmann had a perfect command of both languages ​​and the Poles only had one service a month. whereas there were three church services a month in German and Falzmann conducted the religion and confirmation classes for German children in their mother tongue.

During the church Makeup - Synod of 1922 until 1923 as Falzmann the function was one of the four secretaries, the nationality conflict intensified even more; but the church did not yet break up into two national churches. Falzmann's reputation as a friend of Poland was, however, strengthened among the Germans.

In the late 1920s, Falzmann developed a lively social activity in the community: Zgierz became the center of Gospel studies for all of Poland. The congregation maintained three diaconal institutions with an old people's home, orphanage and crèche. There was also a choir with a paid cantor .

In 1937 eight Polish and seven German synod delegates were to be elected from the ranks of the clergy. Falzmann became one of them. In 1938 he was appointed consistorial councilor. For his 50th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his work as a pastor, numerous representatives from the community and the city came, and Germans were not absent.

Everything collapsed on September 3, 1939: During an air raid by the German Air Force on Zgierz, the Protestant church and the rectory were destroyed. After the city was captured by German troops, Falzmann was imprisoned with a group of hostages in the Catholic Katharinenkirche, then released, arrested again on September 28 and imprisoned in the Gestapo prison in Łódź . At that time his son was already in the Oflag (camp for prisoners of war). In 1940 Alexander Falzmann was taken to Dachau concentration camp, then to Oranienburg concentration camp , then back to Dachau, which became a collection camp for clergymen of all denominations. Falzmann was transferred to the punishment company here and had to undergo a political interrogation every week.

At the end of April 1942, Alexander Falzmann was again severely interrogated by the political police, tortured and then thrown half-dead on the street. Catholic priests in the adjacent barrack took care of him. On May 4th, he was still too sick to work. It was thrown by the SS onto the wagon that was transporting the prisoners to be killed to the gas chamber. Knowing what to expect, he died of heart failure while driving. The urn with his ashes was not given to the family.

literature

• Joanna Korsan: Ks. Aleksander Falzmann. In: Zwiastun. Journal of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland, 2002.