Cyrill Methodius Association
The Cyrill-Methodius-Verein eV ( Upper Sorbian , abbreviation TCM ) is one of the Sorbian associations with the largest number of members and is based in Bautzen . The association founded in 1862 is a union of Catholic Sorbs; The aims of the association are to spread the Christian faith in the Sorbian people, to represent Sorbian interests within the Catholic Church and to promote the culture of the smallest Slavic people. The association is a member of Domowina , the umbrella organization of Sorbian clubs and associations.
organization structure
The association has personal and corporate members. Associated corporations also make a contribution to the TCM for each of their individual members. Currently (2007) the following organizations belong to the TCM: The Sorbian Association of the Parish of Wittichenau Bratrowstwo , the Church Choir Crostwitz, the Singing Association of the Parish Ralbitz Lilija , the Sports Association Crostwitz and the Sorbian Scouts.
Several sections have been formed for the various activities of the association. In addition to the aforementioned corporations, there is a Music Section and a Religious Literature Section. The latter gives u. a. the Sorbian church newspaper Katolski Posoł published . The internationally active aid organization Die Lausitz hilft , which has given preference to people in need in Eastern Europe since 1990 , also forms its own section .
The chairman is (2007) the Bautzen pastor Veit Scapan (Sorb. Wito Sćapan ). The association is represented by Thomas Retschke (Sorb. Tomaš Rječka ) on the national board of the Sorbian umbrella organization Domowina .
Club history
Inspired by the Cyrillo-Methodian movement among the Catholic Czechs, who in 1862 celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of the Slav apostles Cyril and Method in the Great Moravian Empire in Velehrad, Moravia, Pastor Michał Hórnik and some like-minded people founded the Saint Cyril on December 13, 1862. Methodius Association. At that time it was believed that the Moravian mission had broadcast as far as Lusatia and that the Sorbs had thus come to Christianity through Cyril and Method. On this basis the Catholic Sorbs saw themselves as part of the great Christian Slavic family of peoples. Even if it later turned out that the Sorbs were proselytized by the diocese of Meißen , the worship of Cyril and Methodius was maintained, and in this way expressed the bond with the other Slavic peoples.
The main aim of the association was the publication of Catholic literature in Sorbian from the beginning. The first issue of the church newspaper Katolski Posoł appeared in January 1863. In addition, the association published prayer books and various individual writings with religious content as well as the Krajan book calendar.
Politically, TCM was close to the Catholic center in the Wilhelmine Empire . Before 1918, the Posoł regularly called for the election of the center candidates and he supported the center's policy against Bismarck in the Kulturkampf . The conservative attitude of the association was largely shaped by its chairmen, who always came from the circle of Sorbian clergymen who belonged to the Bautzen cathedral chapter.
Soon after its foundation, the TCM also cooperated with the non-denominational scientific association of the Sorbs, the Maćica Serbska . In the 90s of the 19th century, the TCM founded its own printing company, which was later located in the Wendisches Haus on Lauengraben in Bautzen, built in 1904 .
In the conflict between a part of the Catholic Sorbs and the Meißen bishop Christian Schreiber , the leadership of the TCM tried to take a mediating and moderating position in the years 1923–1929.
From 1933 the association came under pressure from the National Socialists, who worked towards a ban on the Sorbian association. This was issued in 1937 and came into force in 1939, with the Nazis expropriating the association's own printing works and the association's assets. The Katolski Posoł was the last Sorbian-language newspaper to be banned in July 1939.
After the Second World War, the Soviet occupying power and the socialist regime of the GDR refused to allow the Cyrill Methodius Association to be re-admitted. Only the Katolski Posoł could appear again from 1950. The Catholic Church took the place of the association as licensee and publisher. In order to circumvent the ban on private associations in the GDR, the Cyrill Methodius Work (Sorbian: Zjednoćenstwo Cyrila a Metoda ) was founded as an episcopal work in the diocese of Dresden-Meißen . The work should serve to involve Sorbian lay people more closely in pastoral work in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council .
After the political change, the TCM was finally founded again in January 1991 as an independent association. At around the same time, the association's relief efforts for people in need in Eastern Europe began; Since 1995, these aid and donation campaigns have mainly been concentrated in Bosnia. In January 2000 the sports club Crostwitz (Sorb. Sportowa jednotka Chrósćicy ) was founded as an independent club in the TCM.
literature
- Siegmund Musiat: Sorbian, Wendish associations. 1716-1937. A manual. (= Writings of the Sorbian Institute 26). Bautzen 2001. pp. 146-148, ISBN 3-7420-1835-3 .
- Rudolf Kilank: The Cyrill Methodius Association. In: One Church - Two Peoples. German, Sorbian and Latin source texts and contributions to the history of the Dresden-Meißen diocese from the re-establishment from 1921 to 1929. Ed. Dieter Grande and Daniel Fickenscher. Bautzen u. Leipzig 2003. pp. 579-581. ISBN 3-7462-1642-7 u. ISBN 3-7420-1926-0 .