Anton Sawatzki

Anton Stephan Sawatzki (born December 23, 1873 in Pollnitz , † October 12, 1934 in Danzig ) was vicar general in the diocese of Danzig and a leading politician of the Center Party in West Prussia and the Free City of Danzig .

Work as a clergyman

Anton Sawatzki, who was a Catholic denomination, was the son of the landowner Franz Sawatzki. He attended grammar school in Konitz and passed the Abitur there in 1895. He then studied philosophy and theology at the Pelplin seminary . He was ordained a priest on April 1, 1899 and then worked as a vicar in Flatow and Dirschau . On March 19, 1901 he became the parish administrator in Pollnitz. On July 2, 1906, he was called to serve as pastor in the second largest city parish in Gdańsk, St. Joseph .

At the same time he was district president of the Catholic workers' association, and in October 1907 he was the founder of the association of Catholic business assistants and female employees. He built up a network of Catholic kindergartens in the city and in 1920 became dean of the Deanery of Danzig 1 in Kulm .

Political work

Anton Sawatzki was a member of the center and was chairman of the center party in the West Prussian province from 1908 to 1918 . In 1919 he became a member of the Prussian state constitutional assembly . He then belonged to the Prussian state parliament .

The separation of Danzig from the German Reich against the will of the population as the " Free City of Danzig " without a vote led to his departure from the Prussian state parliament. Instead, he became a member of the State Council in 1920 , then elected to the constituent assembly of Danzig, where he was a leader and successfully advocate for the implementation of the demands of the center (denominational schools, no separation of state and church, religious instruction, church tax) in the constitution of the Free City of Danzig a. He then belonged to the People's Day , which elected him as an honorary senator to the Senate of the Free City. He was a member of the Senate from 1920 to September 1933, making him the only Senator to belong to all the Senates of the Democratic period. On September 21, 1933, he resigned from his seat.

As chairman of the supervisory board of Hansa-Bank he worked from 1921 to 1927 and was responsible for the rise of the bank - as well as its failure.

literature

• Stefan Samerski : The Catholic Church in the Free City of Danzig, 1991, ISBN 3412017914 , pp. 47–52
• Stefan Samerski (editor): The Diocese of Danzig in Life Pictures: Ordinaries, Auxiliary Bishops, Vicars General, Apostolic Visitators 1922/25 to 2000, 2003, ISBN 9783825862848 , pp. 55–56 online