Florian von Stablewski

Florian von Stablewski, Archbishop of Gniezno and Posen

Florian von Stablewski (also Florian Oksza Stablewski ) (born October 16, 1841 in Fraustadt ; † November 24, 1906 in Poznan , buried in Poznan Cathedral ) was a Catholic priest, leading Polish politician in Prussia, Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznan and Primate Poloniae .

Origin and education (1841–1866)

His parents, Onufrius von Stablewski, petty nobility from the old family Oksza, and Emilia nee. Kurowska, enabled him to go to higher school at the Maria Magdalena grammar school in Poznan and at the grammar school in Tremessen. In 1861 he graduated from high school.

Between 1861 and 1863 Stablewski completed philosophical-theological studies at the spiritual seminary in Poznan and at the University of Munich . In 1866 he received his doctorate as Dr. theol. and was ordained priest in Gnesen.

Priest in the Province of Poznan (1866–1876)

As vicar, he was a pastor in Schrimm , where he also taught religion and Hebrew at the grammar school. In 1873 he lost this teaching post because he refused, in accordance with the instructions of his archbishop, to give religious instruction to Polish students in German. It was a consequence of the Kulturkampf (1871–1878) in Prussia that would shape his further life as a priest and politician.

He then became provost in Wreschen , where, in addition to his pastoral duties as a pastor, he also looked after and helped to shape commercial cooperatives. He organized the Volksbank (Bank Ludowy) in Śrem as a credit association (savings and loan fund). During this time he also renovated his parish church.

Poznan politician and member of the Prussian state parliament of Berlin (1876-1891)

In 1876 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Prussian state parliament in Berlin in the constituency of Schrimm - Schroda - Wreschen . There he sat as a speaker of the Polish faction of Polish as a language of instruction in schools in the province of Posen and spoke initially even for the restoration of Poland in the borders of 1772 ( first division ), resulting in the loss of the provinces of Posen and Prussia West Prussia means would have.

In the Kulturkampf, his Polish faction (Kolo Połskie) worked closely with the growing center (Catholic faction until 1870), the party of Ludwig Windthorst and Paul Majunke , who campaigned for the rights of the Church in the Empire in both the Prussian state parliament and the German Reichstag. They fought against state interference under the government of Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , who was supported by a national liberal-conservative majority in the Reichstag. Because of this, numerous clerics took on imprisonment and exile, even the two archbishops of Prussia, Mieczysław Halka Ledóchowski in Posen and Paulus Melchers in Cologne. Bismarck accused the center of allying itself with the "enemies of the empire" of the Poles, Alsatians, Guelphs and Danes against government policy.

After Bismarck was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II , Propst Stablewski was appointed Archbishop of Poznan and Gniezno by the Pope under Chancellor Leo von Caprivi at the end of 1891 , with the title of "Primate of Poland", which the government forbade him to lead. As a Pole, he succeeded his German predecessor Julius Dinder (1886–1890). This was seen as a concession by the Prussian state to the church.

During Caprivi's chancellorship (1890-1894), the Prussian government pursued a course of "reconciliation" between church and state, especially towards the Polish population, which secured the support of the Polish faction (aristocratic party) for some laws in the Reichstag. On the other hand, after the abolition of some Kulturkampf laws, the government made further concessions to the Poles in terms of school, language and cooperative associations.

Aristocratic Archbishop and Social Bishop under Wilhelm II (1891–1906)

Florian von Stablewski as the primate of Poland in legate purple

As Archbishop Florian von Stablewski remained above all a man of the Church under the political conditions in Prussia, which continued to be difficult for Catholics and Poles. He renovated the cathedrals in Poznan and Gniezno, expanded the seminary in Poznan and ensured that his candidates for priesthood received a modern education. He also expanded the Diocesan Museum. In Poznan he founded the weekly Przewodnik Katolicki (Katholischer Wegweiser) and the St. Adalbert publishing house, which opened a number of branches in Poland.

According to the social encyclical Rerum novarum of Pope Leo XIII. He promoted not only religious, but also especially the cooperative associations of his clergy and parliamentary colleagues, which primarily served economic, social or cultural purposes. For the Poles he became the leading figure in the Catholic social movement (Polish: "ruch patronacki"). He worked in the Wilhelmine German Empire half a century after Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler as social bishop.

In 1894, influential Poznan landowners ( from Hansemann , Kennemann , Tiedemann ; spoken Polish abbreviation HKT or “HaKaTa”) founded the “Association for the Promotion of Germanness in the Ostmarken” ( Ostmarkenverein ) to promote the settlement of German farmers by buying up Polish goods. This was done with state support from the Royal Prussian Settlement Commission . This intensified national tensions again. The struggle for language, school and land continued stubbornly. In the process, contrary to the Prussian policy of Germanization, a self-confident Polish society developed beyond all conventional class boundaries.

Up until the turn of the century, the archbishop had good contacts with the Protestant President Hugo von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff , a compatriot from Poznań and a fellow nobleman , in his negotiations with the Prussian authorities . Its foreign officials, as Prussian civil servants, treated the churchman's concerns in a formally correct manner, but politically distanced. As a result of the continued Germanization measures undertaken by the Minister of Education, Konrad Studt (from 1899) under Reich Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow , the Prussian school authorities frequently had conflicts with the Polish population. The archbishop was expected to oblige his clergy to show political restraint, something that was legally required of them by pulpit paragraph . Only occasionally was he able to present his concerns to Wilhelm II personally.

Even during the school strikes by Polish parents and students who opposed the suppression of native-language Polish religious instruction from schools (1901 and 1906/7), the archbishop sought to ease the pressure of the Prussian authorities by petitioning the government. After all, he managed to get Polish religious instruction officially approved in addition to school in church and at home. In his last pastoral letter of October 8, 1906, he proclaimed: "At the moment there is nothing left for us to do but, united in the common heartache, to supplement religious instruction in school with one in church and in the house."

Florian von Stablewski also advocated compromises on the Polish question. As a parliamentarian, he repeatedly took up the complaints of Poles against the infringement of their national rights, but at the same time spoke out in favor of "joining Prussia and against any rapprochement with Russia." In contrast to the later MP Wojciech Korfanty (from 1903), he did not advocate the separation of Upper Silesia from the German Empire.As a Prussian-Polish nobleman (Schlachta), the archbishop maintained a loyal attitude to the Prussian monarchy.

Despite his efforts to achieve a compromise, there was criticism of him from both sides, from the Berlin government and the press close to it on the one hand and especially from zealous Polish national patriots on the other, who no longer wanted to be Prussian subjects or German citizens, but citizens of a reunified Poland, the should arise again independently of all three partitioning powers (Russia, Austria, Prussia-Germany).

Death certificate of Florian von Stablewski

The archbishop died on November 24, 1906. He was buried next to his predecessor Julius Dinder . His sarcophagus in the crypt of the Poznan Cathedral stands today between that of his predecessor and his successor.

The compensatory Florian von Stablewski was the last Poznan Archbishop of the long period of peace before the First World War; for Prussia and the Pope did not agree on his auxiliary bishop Edward Likowski as his successor until 1914.

Sarcophagus in Poznan Cathedral

Appreciation of the services of the Archbishop

When asked about Archbishop Stablewski's success, his Polish biographer, the church historian Śmigiel, answered (in the afterword):

“The historiography of the communist era claims that he was a loyalist reconciliation politician, although this policy would not have had the slightest chance either on the side of the Prussian government or on the Polish side. The archbishop pursued a policy of permanent intervention and protests; he has defended the 'acquis', which has been diminishing from year to year; his response to pressure from the political authorities was inevitably defensive.

The archbishop could not break with the government for two reasons:

1. because of the consequences on the ecclesiastical-religious level;
2. out of obedience to the instructions of the Apostolic See of 1902, which did not want a public appearance that would have disturbed the population.

On the one hand, the archbishop could not break with the government, but on the other hand he could not rule against the will and opinion of the people, who wanted to see in him not only a shepherd, but also a statesman and hetman who effectively supported the national movement. Here lies the root of the division that has arisen between the shepherd and the sheep.

By not publicly engaging in religious education as a mother tongue until the circular of October 8, 1906, Stablewski actually did a great service to the Polish people.

Thanks to his work and that of his clergy, the Poles have improved the 'acquis'. The Archbishop defended the Polish language, stimulated the development of the Polish press and promoted Polish publishing. He contributed to the development of the Polish church and trade associations as well as the workers' associations.

With his consent, the Polish clergy could become MPs and defend Polish interests. He organized the Jubilee of St. Adalbert , who attracted a great deal of Poles. He increased the number of clergymen - promoters of the Poles, introduced a new style of training and work of the clergy, in the direction of social work. The various social activities have contributed to strengthening the national activities. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See A. Kwilecki Tab. Pp. 289/90
2. ↑ See Tab. 1: The Polish parliamentary group in the Prussian House of Representatives from 1863 - 1913, s. Pfeiffer 96. Until 1893 the aristocrats had the majority in the Polish faction.
3. ↑ Cf. Pfeiffer 97 ff .: The politics of the "do-ut-des" and the end of the era of reconciliation.
4. ↑ The clergy in the Polish-settled areas were particularly affected by the loss of religious school supervision and their transfer to Prussian school inspectors in the district towns. See also JK Hoensch pp. 230–235 and L. Trampe II, pp. 308–309.
5. ↑ See Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Hugo von The province of Posen was considered by the higher officials as “Prussian Siberia”, and they wrote crude rhymes for the district towns like “Are you coming to Samter - damned, in Schrimm, you’re bad, Rogasen is to Lawn, in Wreschen, they will thrash you ”.
6. ↑ See Korth p. 162, Eno Meyer p. 96; In 1901, 21 parents took part in the local “Wreschen riots” or the “small school strike” of the schoolchildren, who were then sentenced by the court to prison terms of up to one year. In contrast, the "Great School Strike" in 1906/7 more or less affected the provinces of Posen and West Prussia - at the end of 1906 after the archbishop's death, as many as 61,000 cases. But this time the school administration was able to sit out the student strike with the help of mere school sentences. See especially L. Trampe, Vol. II, pp. 354 to 370
7. ↑ See Meyers Konversationslexikon, vol. 19, p. 886 (supplement from 1891/92).
8. ↑ See R. Meißner's criticism from a pan-German point of view, especially Meißner 30-32.
9. ↑ K. Śmigiel (1993) pp. 213/15 of the German summary.
10. ↑ See K. Śmigiel (1993) p. 215. See also Śmigiel (1993) p. 210 with references to the sources of his work: Diözesanarchive Posen / Gnesen, Secret State Archive Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin, Political Archive of the Foreign Office in Bonn and Federal Archives; Dept. Potsdam.

literature

• Biographical handbook for the Prussian House of Representatives: 1867–1918 . Edited by Bernhard Mann with the assistance of Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne, Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-5146-7
• Rudolf Korth: The Prussian school policy and the Polish school strikes. A contribution to Poland policy of the Bülow era, Holzner, Würzburg 1963, pp. 125–129, DNB 452542987 , (= Marburger Ostforschungen , Volume 23, also a dissertation at the University of Göttingen , Philosophical Faculty, December 11, 1958 DNB 480765227 ).
• Andrzej Kwilecki: Wielkopolskie rody ziemianskie ; Poznańskie Publishing House, Poznań 2010, ISBN 978-83-7177-786-8
• Eugeniusz Ochowiak: Florian Stablewski. In: Wielkopolski Słownik Biograficzny, Warszawa - Poznań 1981
• Piotr Nitecki, Biskupi Kościoła w Polsce w latach 965 - 1999, Warszawa 2000.
• Witold Jakóbczyk, Przetrwać nad Wartą 1815-1914; Part 55 of the cycle Dzieje narodu i państwa polskiego , Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1989
• Karl Buchheim: History of the Christian Parties in Germany ; Kösel-Verlag , Munich 1953
• Jörg K. Hoensch: History of Poland, Stuttgart: Ulmer 1998, 3rd ed.
• Enno Meyer: Basic features of the history of Poland ; Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1977, 2nd edition, ISBN 978-3534043712
• R. Meißner: The Polish School Children Strike in the Light of Truth ; Lissa: Friedrich Ebbekes 1907
• Wilhelm Münstermann: The Prussian-German Poland policy of the Capriv era and German public opinion. Dissertation, University of Münster 1936
• Hans Pfeiffer: The Polish nobility and the Prussian Poland policy from 1863 to 1894. Dissertation University of Jena 1939
• Albert S. Kotowski: Between State Reason and Patriotic Love. The Polish parliamentary group in the German Reichstag 1871-1918 . Düsseldorf: Droste 2007, ISBN 978-3770052820
• Kazimierz Śmigiel: Florian Stablewski. Arcybiskup gnieźnieński i poznański 1841-1906. Prymasowskie Wydawnictwo Gaudentinum, Gniezno 1993.
• Kazimierz Śmigiel: Słownik biograficzny arcybiskupów gnieźnieńskich i prymasów Polski ; Poznań 2002
• Ludwig Trampe: East German Kulturkampf Volume 1 + 2, T. Weicher publishing house
  • Vol. I: Sprachenkampf und Sprachrecht, 1908
  • Vol. II: East German racial struggle, 1907

Web links

Commons : Florian Stablewski  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry about Florian von Stablewski on catholic-hierarchy.org