Johann Alois Fietzek

Johann Nepomuk Fietzek

Johann Nepomuk Alois Fietzek (Polish Jan Nepomucen Alojzy Ficek , also known under the names Ficek , Fiecek , Fietzeck ; born May 9, 1790 in Groß Döbern ; † February 18, 1862 in Deutsch Piekar ) was an Upper Silesian Catholic priest, benefactor and social activist, Champion of the temperance movement and polonizer.

Life

ancestry

He was the tenth of sixteen children of farmer Joseph Fietzek and his wife Maria (née Pampuch). The family was deeply Catholic. His father actively supported Polish emissaries who came to Silesia from Poland at the time of the Kościuszko uprising (1794), and cultivated Polish national consciousness.

education and study

In 1807 he entered the Oberglogau teachers' seminar, where after two years he acquired the teacher's decree with distinction. He then became an assistant teacher in Krapitz . Soon, however, he felt the call to a spiritual career, in which both his older brother, Sebastian, who was already a priest, and his uncle, Dr. Simon Sobiech, who headed the Episcopal Alumnate in Wroclaw , gave encouragement. He could always rely on her help. Therefore, in 1812 he first enrolled at the Royal Catholic High School in Opole . In 1814 he began studying Catholic theology (at the academic seminar of the Matthias Gymnasium ) in Breslau . Because of the outbreak of war against Napoleon , he feared to be drafted into the Prussian army, broke off his studies in Wroclaw and went to Cracow (at that time a neutral " Republic of Cracow "), where he started studying at the seminary thanks to the support of Dean Włodarski from Groß Stein of the Order of Missionaries (Latin: Congregatio Missionis).

Priestly career

On July 19, 1817, Fietzek was ordained a priest by the then Krakow Bishop Jan Paweł Woronicz - who later became the Primate of Poland and Archbishop of Warsaw. He then became vicar in Czeladź (Diocese of Krakow) in the Russian Congress Poland , where he particularly looked after the neglected young people. But thanks to the intercession of the dean Włodarski from Groß Stein he was allowed to return to Upper Silesia , where he became pastor in Ziemientzitz in 1820 . The Prussian province of Silesia was almost congruent with the Catholic diocese of Breslau .

By resolution of the Vicariate General in Breslau on March 4, 1826, Fietzek first moved to Deutsch-Piekar as administrator and curator of the Sanctuary of Mary before he officially took over the provost office there. Again he was involved in the welfare, where he was to remain despite new offices throughout his life. The reconstruction of the Marian sanctuary there became his life's work. In 1834 he was appointed Dean of Bytom and in 1835 Commissar of Pless and Bytom. In 1838, the Breslau bishop Leopold von Sedlnitzky promoted him to the canon of honor of Breslau, which was an important honor. He received further honors and indulgences from Pope Pius IX. during his trip to Rome in 1854.

His last years

Fietzek stayed in his parish in Piekar until his death, although he would have had good opportunities for advancement. He saw his personal vocation in strengthening the Catholic faith and the Polish language in Upper Silesia, which he did very successfully. Among his acolytes he chose the particularly hard-working and talented ones in order to enable them to go to higher education or to study. Many of them became priests and teachers thanks to his help (also financial). Until then, there were hardly any people with a higher education among the Upper Silesian autochthons. In 1854 Fietzek made a pilgrimage to Rome with the Breslau bishop Förster , where he was met by Pope Pius IX. received great support and numerous privileges for his projects. There he also made new contacts with polonophiles, from whom he hoped to gain support for his work and his pupils. He was extremely well connected and maintained his connections through numerous letters that were misplaced after his death. At the end of his life, Pastor Fietzek increasingly suffered from poor health and asthma. Numerous spa stays did not bring any lasting improvement either. When Fietzek died on February 16, 1862, it became clear how much he had been valued during his lifetime: over 100 priests from home and abroad as well as thousands of believers gave him the last escort.

Benefactor in Piekary

In 1826 Fietzek was transferred to the parish of Deutsch-Piekar . Pastor Fietzek gained great recognition for his aid initiatives in nursing during the epidemics of cholera (1830) and typhus (1848). When a cholera epidemic broke out in his parish in 1830, he interrupted his spa stay in Solec and gave all his savings to care for the sick parishioners and orphans, for whom he also collected money. It was his idea to set up and run a permanent aid and care service in Piekar, because epidemics were common back then.

Temperance movement

As a talented preacher, Fietzek was always able to win over large numbers of people for his ideas. In general, he was considered the ideal of a socially committed Catholic priest in the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul . The increasing impoverishment of the common population at the time of the emerging industrialization did not leave it untouched. He saw a cause for this in moral decline and alcoholism . Because the excess potatoes and grain were fermented into high-proof schnapps and sold to the precarious (in contrast to other products and food) on credit. At that time, the sales of schnapps grew four times faster than that of beer. Alcohol consumption became so prevalent that in Upper Silesia there was one pub for every 150 inhabitants, which made the poor even poorer. The fact that the distilleries belonged predominantly to Protestant Germans and the pubs to the Jews contained dangerous social explosives.

The concept

Fietzek's approach as a "teetotaler" was not based on taking alcohol away from addicts without replacement, but instead fought against alcohol abuse, while moderate consumption of beer and wine was tolerated. In doing so, he built on the religiosity of the simple population with a special revival of the cult of Mary. This was obvious insofar as Deutsch Piekar was a traditional Marian pilgrimage site. First, the population should be sensitized with sermons and moral literature. The free time gained should be used sensibly in charitable, non-profit, charitable or religious associations and the money saved on alcohol should be invested in interest and spent on useful things and education. Pastor Fietzek initiated or founded numerous associations, congregations (e.g. Hedwig's Congregation) and brotherhoods (e.g. Mariana Society), some of which still exist today.

Most recently, he relied on social control and psychological pressure. Committees made up of local dignitaries patrolled the pubs, the pastor spoke to the drinkers about their problem, and children were encouraged to ape and make fun of them. The Catholic priests of the Fietzek style cultivated a lively exchange of ideas and writings and formed a cross-border network: Fietzek corresponded actively with the Irish Capuchin Theobald Mathew and the pastor Johann Seling from Osnabrück. He also made contacts - albeit less often - across denominational boundaries.

Impact on the economy and the state

It was time when the churches - not just the Catholics - declared war on alcohol. The teetotaler movement was thus a compelling reaction to the side effects of ruthless Manchester capitalism, but - in contrast to the labor movement - without questioning the social system and rebelling against the authorities. Rather, it was hoped for political and administrative support from the state. Initially, the state behaved cautiously to reserved, because the decline in alcohol consumption was unfavorable for tax revenue. In 1844 alone, 18 distilleries closed in the province of Silesia, 108 were shut down, which is why annual schnapps production fell by around 45,000 buckets. In the following year, 85 distilleries closed and 206 were shut down, which meant a production decrease of 48,000 buckets of alcohol. The tax collapse due to Fietzek's sobriety campaign of 1845 was put at 254,484 thalers. The less aggressively approached breweries also suffered from the campaign: 20 of them had to close in 1844 and 185 in the following year.Fietzek also called for higher taxation on alcohol, higher requirements for the innkeepers and higher prices for distilling and serving licenses, which should reduce tax losses what the tax authorities liked again. The success of the teetotaler movement has resulted in fewer drunk people on the streets, a significant decrease in work-related accidents and a decrease in alcohol-related crime. That convinced the authorities. The Breslau bishop von Diepenbrock , who distinguished himself through his social commitment, praised the project and its initiator.

The big campaign

Fietzek was a gifted preacher who hardly anyone could resist. Already at the beginning of his big campaign in the years 1844 to 1847, after the inauguration mass for Maria Lichtmess in 1844, after Pastor Brzozowski had preached the sermon, 1161 men and 1042 women wanted to join the abstinence society. After six more weeks the society had over 30,000 members and after two years over 200,000. The pilgrims coming to Deutsch Piekar brought the idea to their home communities, so that the big abstinence campaign not only reached all of Silesia, but also Lesser Poland, Galicia, Wartheland, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Hungary. Together with his fellow priests (including Pf. KJ Equard from Scholkowitz, Pf. Stefan Brzozowski, and others) he went to a retreat across the country as a guest preacher. He spoke to hundreds of thousands of believers. Since the abstinence movement went hand in hand with the strengthening of the Catholic faith and missionary activity spurred on by the movement's successes, he earned the nickname "Apostle Silesia" (Polish: "Apostoł Śląska"). The great sobriety campaign only stalled when a cholera epidemic broke out in 1847 and high-proof alcohol was touted as an effective antidote. This ended the campaign, but the temperance movement continued and in a modified form even to this day.

Marienkirche

Pilgrimage basilica of the Holy Mother of God and St. Bartholomew the Apostle

His material legacy, which still exists today, is the new building of the Marienkirche in Deutsch Piekar . He had been working on this project since around 1842, which involved great efforts to obtain permits and funds. Most of the money (75,000 thalers) came from the sale of shares for five thalers "with a heavenly dividend", which was an absolute novelty in the field of church building financing, because until then one usually turned to a wealthy donor who had the building of a church financed out of pocket. The church was then practically the private property of the founder.

Fietzek did not want to make himself dependent on anyone and the church should belong to the "people of God". Project financing through shares only became popular with industrialization. It also offered a fairly high level of transparency, which was important to the busy pastor. But this new type of church funding was by no means undisputed. Without the free work of countless voluntary construction workers, however, the project would hardly have been feasible. In addition, he demanded a vow of abstinence from all those involved in the construction as well as participation in church services and prayers, because his aim was to revive the Catholic faith and to strengthen the bond of the parishioners with the priest and the church to be built. These methods are still practiced today.

Despite all the quarrels, the construction of a neo-Romanesque basilica based on a design by Daniel Grötschel around the medieval wooden church from 1303, which had become too small due to the growing number of pilgrims, began in 1842. The old church was used continuously until August 30, 1846 in order not to interrupt the pilgrimage business, which was supposed to generate the money for the construction. To make matters worse was the fact that the Prussian building authorities requested changes to the project, which Fietzek did not want to go into. Since he was unable to assert himself through official channels, he turned directly to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV , who approved his project without any compromises. To this day, the three-aisled neo-Romanesque basilica with its two 70 meter high baroque towers is the most famous landmark of the city. From there you can see Czestochowa , the center of the Marian cult in Poland, which at that time was abroad (Congress Poland). An originally planned bridge that would connect its two towers and form the letter "M" from them was not built.

High altar of the church with the image of Our Lady of Piekar

The medieval wooden church from the early 14th century was used until August 30, 1846, while the walls of the new basilica were already being raised around it. Then the old wooden structure was taken apart. Only the altar from the 17th century, in front of which the Polish King Jan III. Sobieski prayed for victory on the way to Vienna , which was besieged by Turks.

Despite all difficulties, the new pilgrimage church was consecrated on August 22, 1849 by the Breslau bishop Melchior von Diepenbrock to the Holy Mother of God and St. Bartholomew. The project was financed mainly from donations (because the shares were never actually intended as a financial investment), the timber was donated by the local industrialist, Count Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck , and the bishop contributed the rest of the money. He also donated a valuable monstrance from Matin Vogelhund's goldsmith's workshop in Neisse to the new church . He had bought this from the secularized fortune of the Opole Jesuits for 600 thalers.

A pilgrimage center was part of the basilica from the beginning. To this day, Deutsch Piekar is the second most important Silesian Marian pilgrimage site after Czestochowa . After Pastor Fietzek's death, further extensions followed. On December 1, 1962, Pope John XXIII. the pilgrimage church to the rank of " basilica minor ". In 1983 Pope John Paul II visited the Sanctuary of the Virgin Mary and gave her the title: "Mother of Justice and Social Love", which should have been entirely in the spirit of Pastor Fitzeck.

Polonizer

Fietzek was a citizen of Prussia all his life. But since he came from a family that felt a part of the Polish people, it was his great concern to awaken and spread the Polish national consciousness among his compatriots. Even when Frederick William IV (King of Prussia) visited the sanctuary , who was well disposed towards him, he gave a sermon during Holy Mass that was understood by those present to be Polish-patriotic. a. because they remember the visits of the kings of Poland, Jan III. Sobieski and August II remembered. In fact, there was a numerically strong ethnic group living in Upper Silesia at that time, who used a dialect similar to the Polish language, but without identifying with the Polish state, which did not exist in the 19th century either. Poland disappeared from the maps after three partitions in the 18th century. However, Silesia did not belong to it, but to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation .

Reading room

In 1840 Pf. Fietzek founded a public reading room, which was equipped with around 3000 (mostly Polish) titles and current newspapers from all Polish areas, e.g. B. "Przegląd Poznański" from Poznan or "Przyjaciel Ludu" from Leszno . Together with his friends from the priesthood in Upper Silesia (Andrzej Peterek, Stefan Brzozowski, Józef Laxy, Antoni Stabik, Bernard Purkop, Perzych), he published his "Katholisches Wochenblatt" (Polish: Tygodnik Katolicki) as the press organ of his Marian Society, the first newspaper, the aimed at the simple Polish-speaking population.

Publishing activity

The newspaper could not last long due to a lack of regular subscribers, but it had a lasting effect and paved the way for other Polish print products. He also had numerous small pamphlets with folk literature, advice, moral sermons and teaching essays as well as hymn books, calendars, saints' stories and prayer books printed in Polish. Two more printing works were later opened in the city.

With the strong support of Pastor Fietzek, Teodor Heneczek was able to set up a print shop opposite the basilica in 1847. Fietzek supplied him with orders for Polish-language printed matter (e.g. for hymn books, prayer books, folk literature, guides, calendars, missionary writings, Catholic and moralistic magazines, e.g. "Tygodnik Katolicki" (Catholic weekly paper), published 1848–1850). It was the first printing house in Piekar and the second Polish-language printing house in Upper Silesia. Two more printing works were later established. Over time, Fietzek's publishing activities began to awaken and strengthen Polish national consciousness.

Polish educational society

In 1847 he founded a company in Piekar with the aim of promoting the Polish language locally. The settlement of the Galician Jesuits in Upper Silesia , which Pastor Fietzek endeavored to achieve for several years, brought about a further surge in polonization, which finally happened in 1848. The well-educated religious, mostly coming from the Polish aristocracy , spoke the standard Polish language in contrast to the local population and their pastors. Her commitment as a guest preacher meant that churchgoers from then on spoke more Polish and no longer their own dialect or German.

Services

In 1842 or 1846 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV honored Pastor Fietzek with the Third Class Red Eagle Order .

Works (selection)

• Jan Aloyzy Ficek: "Wiadomość krótka o kościele i obrazie cudownym NP Maryi", Piekary Wielkie 1849.
• Jan Aloyzy Ficek: "Książeczka jubileuszowa", Piekary Wielkie 1849.
• Fietcet (Archpriest, also written Fietzek): Handbook of the by Sr. Holiness, Pope Pius IX. established brotherhood of temperance. Wroclaw 1852.
• Mluvnický přehled němčiny s priklady z prakse nemocenských pojištoven: Sest. z různých učebnic a mluvnic / Jan Ficek, V Písku [Pisek]: Novotný 1942.

literature

• D. Gacek, D. Pietrucha: Piekary Śląskie i okolice - przewodnik historyczno-krajoznawczy . Miejskie Centrum Informacji i Turystyki w Piekarach Śląskich, Piekary Śląskie 2007, ISBN 978-83-926448-0-4 .
• Father, Mieczysław: Słownik biogradiczny katolickiego duchowieństwa śląskiego XIX i XX wieku . Księgarnia Św. Jacka, Katowice 1996.
• Szramek, Emil: Piekary - Pamiątka koronacji cudownego obrazu Matki Boskiej Piekarskiej . Piekary 1925.
• Wycisło, Janusz: Ks. Jan Alojzy Ficek: Zarys działalności religijno-duszpasterskiej . Instytut Śląski, Katowice 1992.
• Drobny, Stanisław: Ks. Aloyzy Jan Ficek, Reprint artykułów z czasopisma "Skarb Rodzinny" 1920–1922 . Katowice 1996.

Web links

• History of the basilica on piekary.pl
• ks. Jan Ficek - aktywista ruchu trzeźwości
• Conference report on the topic: "Between ecclesiastical discipline and social demands. The pastoral clergy in the confrontation with the trends of the 19th century - using the example of Prussian dioceses"
• Information about Tygodnik Katolicki
• JM Seling - a man with a sense of social mission
• [1]
• Historical architects in Silesia
• Information about Father Fietzek on the website of his parish in Piekary
• http://www.viaf.org/processed/DNB%7C126467781 - Wrong!

Individual evidence

1. ↑ M. Pater: Ficek (Fiecek, Fietzek) Jan Alojzy Nepomucen, in: Słownik biograficzny katolickiego duchowieństwa śląskiego XIX i XX wieku; Katowice 1996, p. 101
2. ↑ Information about Pf. Fietzek on the website of his parish in Piekary ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Article from the Oberglogauer local newspaper ZG ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ http://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-4441 Contribution by Michael Hirschfeld in: Conference report on the topic: "Between Church Discipline and Social Claims. The Pastoral Clergy in Disputes with the Times of the 19th Century - on Example of Prussian Dioceses "
5. ↑ Information about the movement of temperance brought into being by Pf. Fietzek, from the contents of issue No. 47
6. ↑ Piotr Frączak on Pf. Fietzek sighted on May 16, 2015
7. ↑ Piotr Frączak on Pf. Fietzec sighted on May 16, 2015
8. ↑ Information about the life and work of Pf. Fietzek ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ section on Pf. Fietzeks (Polish: ks. Jan Alojzy Ficek) campaign against alcohol abuse
10. ^ Pf. Fietzek - activist of the sobriety movement
11. ↑ Article by Krzysztof Garnczarczyk in the journal "Gwarek" from July 31, 2013 ( memento of the original from June 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Piotr Frączak on Pf. Fietzek sighted on May 16, 2015
13. ↑ Article by Krzysztof Garnczarczyk in the journal "Gwarek" from July 31, 2013 ( memento of the original from June 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ Jarosław Myśliwskiin Gwarek ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated June 30, 2011  
15. ↑ Press Information about Pf. Fietzecķ, spotted on June 8, 2015
16. ↑ History of the Basilica on piekary.pl
17. ↑ Piotr Frączak on Pf. Fietzek, sighted on May 16, 2015
18. ↑ The Upper Silesian language, also known as "Schlunsakisch" or "Wasselponisch", has some characteristics of an independent language, although strong influences from Polish, Czech and German are certainly the most noticeable.
19. ↑ Information about Pf. Fietzek on the website of his parish in Piekary ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.