Border church
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Border churches were Protestant churches that were built after the Thirty Years' War in Saxon and Brandenburg towns, which were located in the immediate vicinity of the countries of Silesia and Bohemia affected by recatholicization . Protestant Silesians and Bohemians turned there, who from then on were denied the freedom to practice their religion in their homeland. They were mostly of simple construction, so that many no longer exist today.
Bohemia
The Habsburg dynasty claimed for itself what is known as the Reformation right in its own countries, based on the principle of cuius regio - eius religio , as laid down in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. That is, the prince determined the denomination of the subjects. Those who did not want to obey the power of law, the so-called dissidents, had to emigrate. In the Bohemian lands , the Habsburgs had not been able to enforce this principle before the Thirty Years' War; rather, Emperor Rudolf II had to grant the Protestants of Bohemia and Silesia the freedom to practice their religion in the letters of majesty of 1609. After the defeat of the estates in the Battle of White Mountain and the reconquest of Bohemia, Emperor Ferdinand II no longer felt bound by this promise and in 1621 the violent implementation of the Counter Reformation began in Bohemia .
In addition to emigration and conversion, the Protestant residents in the northern border regions had a third option to attend Lutheran services in neighboring Saxony and in neighboring Upper Lusatia . The village churches visited were often too small, so the Saxon electors and local landlords had the border churches built for the Bohemians. Not infrequently, going to the border churches was a preliminary step to emigration, because the Catholic authorities in Bohemia tried to prevent their subjects from leaving for Saxony by police means and the pressure on the Protestants increased over time.
A special feature was the Weigsdorf Church, which was a Saxon exclave in the Bohemian part of the village until 1848 ; despite restrictive measures, the Friedland rule could not prevent a large part of the inhabitants of the parish Bohemian villages from remaining Protestant.
Silesia
A very similar development took place two decades later in Silesia, when the Habsburgs again consolidated their power there towards the end of the Thirty Years' War and began the Counter-Reformation. On the borders of Lower Silesia with Neumark in Brandenburg and Upper Lusatia in Saxony, there were around 150 such refuge and border churches. With the extinction of the last Silesian Piasts (1675), there were no longer any Protestant territories within Silesia. Except in the three Silesian peace churches in Schweidnitz , Jauer and Glogau , which went back to a determination of the Peace of Westphalia , Protestants could only participate in religious services of their denomination abroad.
- Border churches on Brandenburg territory
in Neumark in Lips ( Lipno ), Drehnower Vorwerk ( Drzeniów ), Logau ( Łagów ), Rothenburg ( Czerwieńsk ), Stockvorwerk , Trebschen ( Trzebiechów ), in the Tschicherziger Oderwald ( Cigacice ) and Glauchower Oderwald ( Głuchów ).
- Border churches on Saxon territory
in Lower Lusatia in Christianstadt ( Krzystkowice ) on Bober and Jeschkendorf ( Jaszkowice ) near Sorau and in Upper Lusatia in Skerbersdorf and Podrosche on the Neisse, Halbau ( Iłowa ), Dohms and Schöndorf am Queis , Wingendorf ( Jałowiec ) near Lauban , Goldentraum ( Złotniki Lubańskie ), Friedersdorf am Queis ( Biedrzychowice ) and Nieder Wiesa (Wieża) am Queis.
- Border churches on Polish territory
in Schlichtingsheim ( Szlichtyngowa ), Schlemsdorf ( Szmezdrowo ) near Bojanowo and Unruhstadt ( Kargowa ).
- Border churches in the area of the Protestant principality Liegnitz-Wohlau
in Kriegheide ( Pogorzeliska ), Hummel ( Trzmielów ), Herrnlauersitz (Luboszyce) and Rützen (Ryczeń).
There was a Catholic counterpart to the border churches in the border area between the Duchy of Münster and the Republic of the Netherlands.
See also
literature
- Gerhard Eberlein: The Silesian border churches in the XVII. Century. In: Writings of the Association for Reformation History . Vol. 1901, pp. 31-64.
- Theodor Otto G. Wotschke: The border church in Weigmannsdorf. Your patrons and pastors. In: correspondence sheet d. Association f. Business of the Protestant Church of Silesia . Born in 1913, pp. 285-315.
- Günther Grundmann: The Protestant Church in Silesia. 1970, Frankfurt / Main.
- Ulrich Hutter-Wolandt: The border church in Podrosche. In: Schlesischer Gottesfreund 46 (1995), pp. 39–49.
- Alfred Schirge: Border churches and refuge churches of the 17th and 18th centuries in the Kurmark Brandenburg for Evangelicals in Silesia. In: Yearbook for Berlin-Brandenburg Church History 62 (1999), pp. 77–81.
- Reinhard Fritsch: The border church to Nieder-Wiesa . In: Schlesischer Gottesfreund , March / April 2001, pp. 19–21.
- Reiner Sörries: By the grace of the emperor - Protestant church buildings in the Habsburg Empire. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20154-8 , pp. 104-108.
- Lars-Arne Dannenberg , Matthias Donath , Eike Thomsen, [trans. Wojciech Wagner]: "Lord, God, you are our refuge for and for": border and refuge churches of Silesia. "W Tobie, Panie, moja ucieczka": Ślaskie kościoly graniczne i ucieczkowe. Via-Regia-Verlag, Olbersdorf 2012, ISBN 978-3-944104-01-0 .