List of superintendents general in Gdansk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This list of general superintendents in Gdansk shows the offices of spiritual leaders for the Lutheran and later administratively uniate Evangelical Church with its seat in Gdansk from 1566 to 1945. This changed its name several times. The area of ​​responsibility also changed, often in connection with political changes.

Note on the official titles and areas

With the development of the Lutheran Church of Danzig, the preachers of the churches formed a collegial body called the Spiritual Ministry (EE Spiritual Ministry of the Augsburg Confession in Danzig) and elected a senior from among their number , who was, however, only primus inter pares . Until 1793 the sphere of activity of the spiritual leaders was limited to the city and the rural area of ​​the Regia Civitas Gedanensis , the Polish royal city of Danzig . Until 1807 Danzig belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia , was independent again until 1813 as the Republic of Danzig , but then came to the Prussian province of West Prussia . With the 1817-powered Union Lutheran and Calvinist (Reformed) Church communities in a management unit, the 1821 Evangelical Church in Prussia called regional church , was the ecclesiastical province of West Prussia.

Seal of the Consistory of West Prussia in Danzig

Spiritual and administrative management was now with the consistory established in Danzig in 1816 , but there was no West Prussian office of spiritual director. The district president in Danzig chaired the consistory, as it was also responsible for school supervision. However, the king appointed the previous senior of the ecclesiastical ministry as consistorial councilor in the new consistory. It was not until 1829 that the office of general superintendent was established for the ecclesiastical provinces , but in 1831 the ecclesiastical province of West Prussia , like the political province in 1829, was merged with that of East Prussia to form the ecclesiastical province of Prussia. The consistory in Danzig was abolished in 1832 and responsibility was transferred to the one in Königsberg in Prussia. In 1830 the Reformed St. Petri Pauli Church in Danzig joined the regional church.

In 1883 a general superintendent was appointed separately for West Prussia, but until the Church Province of West Prussia and the Danzig Consistory were restored three years later, he was in Königsberg in Prussia . Since 1845 the consistories were no longer responsible for school supervision (this was incumbent on the provincial school college), so that the Danzig consistory was now an institution of the regional church alone.

In 1920 the Church Province of West Prussia dissolved. The Danzig Consistory and the office of General Superintendent remained, but their jurisdiction was now limited to the Protestant parishes that were united in the Regional Synodal Association of the Free City of Danzig . Church communities in southwestern and eastern West Prussia that remained near Germany were transferred to the new ecclesiastical province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia and the ecclesiastical province of East Prussia . The member communities in the newly created Pomeranian Voivodeship joined the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland.

In 1933, German Christians overthrew the general superintendent with their majority in the Danzig regional synod and appointed a successor, now in accordance with the Führer principle as a bishop with the right to issue instructions. After the German annexation of Danzig in 1939, the old Prussian regional church created a new administrative area for the affiliated parishes , the church area Danzig-West Prussia , territorially identical to the new Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia . Danzig Consistory and the Bishop were given responsibility for the enlarged area of ​​office. They took over the parishes of the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland located in Pomerania , which as the Uniate Evangelical Church in Wartheland was now solely responsible for the Warthegau.

In March 1945 the Danzig Consistory moved its seat to Lübeck, the bishop fled to Göttingen. Senior Consistorial Councilor Gerhard Gülzow set up the aid center at the Evangelical Consistory in Gdańsk for surviving refugees and displaced persons in Lübeck . As a result of the flight, murder and expulsion of most of the Protestants, most of the Protestant parishes in the church area perished and their real estate was mostly expropriated. Spiritual leadership for an official area of ​​Protestant parishes no longer exists in Gdansk today, but in Sopot , where the Lutheran diocese of Pomerania-Greater Poland maintains a bishopric.

Spiritual leaders

Seniors of the Ministry of Spirituality in Gdansk

General superintendent for West Prussia

Spiritual leader of the Gdansk National Synodal Union

Bishop of the church area Danzig-West Prussia

  • 1940–1945: Johannes Beermann

literature

  • Heinz Neumeyer: Danzig. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (36 vols.), De Gruyter, Berlin 1997-2007, vol. 8: "Chlodwig" - "Dionysius Areopagita" (1981), ISBN 3-11-008563-1 , pp. 353-357.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Czesław Biernat, guide through the holdings up to 1945 / State Archives Danzig = Przewodnik po zasobie do 1945 roku / Archiwum Państwowe Gdańsku , General Directorate of the State Archives of Poland (ed.), Stephan Niedermeier (ex.), Munich: Oldenbourg , 2000 (= writings of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History; Vol. 16), p. 228. ISBN 3-486-56503-6 .
  2. ^ A b Heinz Neumeyer: Danzig. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (36 vols.), De Gruyter, Berlin 1977-2007, vol. 8: "Chlodwig" - "Dionysius Areopagita" (1981), ISBN 3-11-008563-1 , pp. 353-357, here p. 356.
  3. ^ Paul Tschackert:  Taube, Emil Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 420.
  4. ↑ Czesław Biernat, guide through the holdings up to 1945 / State Archives Danzig = Przewodnik po zasobie do 1945 roku / Archiwum Państwowe Gdańsku , General Directorate of the State Archives of Poland (ed.), Stephan Niedermeier (ex.), Munich: Oldenbourg, 2000 ( = Writings of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History; Vol. 16), p. 229. ISBN 3-486-56503-6 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Heinz Neumeyer: Danzig. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (36 vols.), De Gruyter, Berlin 1977-2007, vol. 8: "Chlodwig" - "Dionysius Areopagita" (1981), ISBN 3-11-008563-1 , pp. 353-357, here p. 357
  6. ^ Liliana Lewandowska : Between Lutheran Orthodoxy and Pietism in Danzig at the end of the 17th century. In: Documenta Pragensia. XXXIII. 2014. pp. 483–505, here pp. 502f. Note 82 PDF , the appointment led to protests, so the length of the term of office is uncertain