Ferdinand Piontek

Ferdinand Nikolaus Andreas Piontek (born November 5, 1878 in Leobschütz ; † November 2, 1963 in Görlitz ) was the vicar capitular of the Archdiocese of Wroclaw , whose jurisdiction only extended to the part of the archdiocese west of the Oder and Neisse rivers, based in Görlitz and titular bishop of Barca in Libya .

Life

Tomb of the bishop in Görlitz

Ferdinand Piontek came from an Upper Silesian family. He spent his childhood in Leobschütz and then from summer 1889 in Ratibor , where he attended the royal high school from 1890. After graduating from high school, he studied philosophy and Catholic theology at the University of Breslau from 1899 to 1902 . After the preparation time in the Prince Bishop Seminary , he was on 20 June 1903 by Wroclaw archbishop , Cardinal Georg Kopp , together with his friend Joseph Wittig , for priests ordained .

During his first chaplain activity in Berlin-Weissensee , he wrote his dissertation , which he in 1907 Theological Catholic Faculty of the Wroclaw to doctor of theology doctorate was. From 1906 to 1910 he was chaplain in Lichterfelde and then from 1910 to 1921 pastor in Köslin / Western Pomerania . There he was also the military chaplain for the Köslin and Belgard garrisons . In 1921 he became the Breslau cathedral capitular and cathedral preacher and received a council position in the vicariate general and in the consistory .

After he had been committed to the Boniface Society for a long time , he became its diocesan director in 1923. From 1928 to 1936 he was also the curator of the Province of Silesia for the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary and the Poor School Sisters . In 1931 he was appointed pastor of the cathedral in Breslau by Adolf Cardinal Bertram and received on November 26, 1933 from Pope Pius XI. bestowed the title of House Prelate of His Holiness . In 1936 he became administrative director of the vicariate general and in 1939 cathedral dean .

By order of the Secret State Police , he had to leave Breslau in early February 1945. He went to the monastery of the Magdalenerinnen in Lauban , from which he had to flee after three weeks because of the war events. He experienced the end of the war in Leitmeritz in northern Bohemia . From there he went on June 1, 1945 via Görlitz and Liegnitz to the destroyed Breslau, which he only reached after 42 days. Since the incumbent Archbishop , Adolf Cardinal Bertram, died on July 6th, the Wroclaw Cathedral Chapter elected Ferdinand Piontek, who was still absent and who spoke Polish, as Chapter Vicar of the Archdiocese of Wroclaw on July 16th. Piontek learned of his election upon his arrival on July 23 and was sworn in the next day. Since nine members of the chapter, including the provost Blaeschke and the Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ferche , were in Wroclaw, Chapter meetings were held regularly to the reoccupation of the archbishop's chair to prepare.

On August 12, 1945, however, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond , appeared in Wroclaw and called on Piontek - citing alleged Vatican special powers - to resign from the office of capitular vicar for the diocesan areas east of the new Oder-Neisse border . At the same time, Hlond divided the diocese into three administrative districts: Breslau, Oppeln and Landsberg an der Warthe . As early as August 15, 1945, he appointed three administrators who were appointed to their office with effect from September 1 of that year. As it turned out later, Hlond's special powers did not refer to the formerly German dioceses, so that they had no basis under canon law . The measures implemented by Hlond were never officially recognized by the Vatican.

Piontek remained in Wroclaw as he should be available to support the newly installed administrator Karol Milik . He also took care of the remaining German priests and believers and of the dissolution of the German diocesan administration. To strengthen Piontek's position, Pope Pius XII awarded him on February 28, 1946 . the rights of a resident bishop. Nevertheless, he decided to leave Breslau on July 9, 1946 on a refugee train, as the number of German priests and their congregations was decreasing. He lived in Peine for a few months in order to better organize a new field of activity for the priests of the Archdiocese of Breslau, who were still subordinate to him despite his flight and expulsion.

In March 1947 he settled in Görlitz, where a branch of the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Breslau had been set up since October 1945, and took up his position as vicar of the capitular for the remaining German areas of the Archdiocese of Breslau west of the Oder-Neisse border, which he divided into six Deaneries broken down. Despite the difficult ecclesiastical political situation in the former Soviet occupation zone , he was able to found the Bernardinum seminary and the catechist seminars in Görlitz and Cottbus in Neuzelle as early as 1948 .

On his 50th anniversary as a priest in 1953, Ferdinand Piontek received the right to bear the bishop's staff and to give the episcopal blessing. After he had been appointed titular bishop of Barca in Libya on May 23, 1959, the Meißen bishop Otto Spülbeck ordained episcopal on June 24, 1959 . Co-consecrators were the auxiliary bishops Alfred Bengsch from Berlin and Friedrich Maria Rintelen from Magdeburg .

On the occasion of Piontek's diamond jubilee as a priest, Pope Paul VI. on July 9, 1963 the honorary title of Papal Assistant to the Throne .

Ferdinand Piontek died on November 2nd, 1963 and was buried in the canon crypt of the Görlitz Church of St. James .

Fonts

• The Catholic Church and the Heretical Acts of the Apostles up to the end of the 6th century. A contribution to the history of literature . In: Max Sdralek , Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, Vol. 6, Breslau 1908, 1–71
• The three distinctive features of the Silesian diaspora . In: Ostdeutsches Pastoralblatt 1. 1930, 331 f.
• Chronicle of the family of the freight forwarder Ferdinand Piontek in Ratibor (Upper Silesia) . Wroclaw 1931
• Pastoral Words and Pastoral Letters, Bishop Dr. Ferdinand Piontek . Cologne 1961

literature

• Józef Pater: The resettlement of Lower Silesia in the context of the re-establishment of the diocese of Breslau from 1945 to 1951 . In: Cultures in Encounter. Collegium Pontes , Wrocław · Görlitz 2004, ISBN 83-7432-018-4
• Josef Negwer: Chapter Vicar Dr. Ferdinand Piontek 50 years as a priest . In: Day of the Lord No. 25/26, 1953, p. 103
• Georg May : Chapter Vicar Ferdinand Piontek , Siegburg 2001, Verlag Franz Schmitt, ISBN 978-3-87710-264-0
• Konrad Hartelt: Ferdinand Piontek (1878–1963): Life and work of a Silesian priest and bishop , research and sources on the church and cultural history of East Germany, Volume 39, Cologne / Weimar 2008, Böhlau Verlag, ISBN 978-3-412-20143- 2
• Thomas R. Elßner: A hundred years ago - Ferdinand Piontek's ordination to the priesthood in Breslau: A station on the way from Leobschütz to Görlitz , in: Stadtverwaltung Görlitz (ed.): Görlitzer Magazin , 16/2003, ISSN  1439-2690 .
• Bernd Schäfer:  Piontek, Ferdinand . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Thomas R. Elßner:  PIONTEK, Ferdinand. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 23, Bautz, Nordhausen 2004, ISBN 3-88309-155-3 , Sp. 1102-1111.
• Gerhard Scheuermann: Das Breslau-Lexikon, Volume 2. Laumann-Verlag, Dülmen 1994, ISBN 3-87466-157-1 , pp. 1238-1240.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ferdinand Piontek in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Ferdinand Piontek on catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 1953 , Città del Vaticano 1953, p. 1106.
2. ↑ AAS 55 (1963), n. 13, p. 784.

predecessor	Office	successor
none ( Adolf Cardinal Bertram ), ( Archbishop of Breslau )	Chapter Vicar of the Archbishop's Ordinariate Breslau / Görlitz Branch, later Archbishop's Office Görlitz 1946–1963	Gerhard Schaffran