Protestantism in Poland

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The Protestantism in Poland , with about 110,000 members today a small minority.

Protestant churches and communities

There are the following Protestant churches and communities in Poland (as of 2012):

as well as other communities.

history

The history of Protestant Christians in Poland describes the development in the territory of the respective Polish state. The Protestant areas of Pomerania and Silesia are therefore not taken into account for the period up to 1945.

Spread of Protestantism in the 16th century

Jan Łaski , the most important Polish reformer
Edict of Tolerance of 1573

The first Lutheran sermons were probably given in Danzig as early as 1518 . Reformation ideas spread in Poland mainly in the cities of Royal Prussia and Greater Poland , and were initially supported by the bourgeoisie, scholars, individual nobles and parts of the common population. They were linked to criticism of social grievances and the clergy in the country. Under King Sigismund I , the spread was made more difficult by several edicts, as he strictly adhered to the Catholic faith. In 1535 , Grand Master Albrecht was the first sovereign to introduce the Reformation in the monastic state of Prussia , which was a feudal part of the Polish crown .

The new King Sigismund II August was much more open to religious freedom from 1548, so that numerous nobles now openly professed Protestantism. In Lithuania and Lesser Poland , numerous nobles adopted the Reformed (Calvinist) denomination and founded communities on their estates. Even Anabaptists and Bohemian brothers settled in the Kingdom of Poland. Socinian and Arian congregations also emerged . In 1555 there was a union synod of Reformed and Bohemian Brethren in Kozminek ; the union was soon followed by the Lutherans. Overall, however, there was no lasting agreement.

The Reformation ideas promoted the spread of the Polish and Lithuanian written language, since the preachers used the mother tongue of the believers. In 1553 the New Testament appeared in Polish, in 1561 the translation of the Confessio Augustana and in 1563 the entire Bible ( Brest Bible or Radziwill Bible). With Mikołaj Rej a Polish-language literature emerged.

The Protestant nobles achieved a majority in the Sejm , which was reflected in the laws on freedom of printing and religious freedom, the abolition of church censorship and the church courts. However, they did not succeed in persuading the king to convert to the evangelical faith. Its liberal stance, however, meant that in the 16th century, unlike in other European countries, there were no violent religious conflicts in Poland-Lithuania.

The Confederation of Warsaw passed an edict of tolerance in 1573, which guaranteed all persons in Poland-Lithuania free religious practice and equal rights. Today this is considered an outstanding testimony to religious tolerance policy.

Counter-Reformation 1575–1795

The kings Stephan Báthory and Sigismund III. promoted the Counter Reformation between 1575 and 1632 . It was largely borne by the Jesuits .

A law of 1717 severely restricted the practice of religion and civil rights for non-Catholic Christians in Poland-Lithuania. In 1720 Protestant clergymen and citizens were executed in Thorn. Further laws were passed in 1730 and 1734.

After King Stanisław II ascended the throne in August 1764, Protestants increased their efforts to achieve equality in the republic, supported by the Protestant states of Prussia, Sweden, Denmark and England, as well as by the Russian Tsarina Catherine II demanded these rights for the Orthodox minority as well. In 1767 the Protestant Confederation of Thorn and the Confederation of Sluzk were formed by Protestant and Orthodox nobles from the Lithuanian part. In 1768 the treaty of Warsaw was passed by the Sejm , which guaranteed an extensive free practice of religion in Poland-Lithuania. However, this resulted in fierce resistance from the Catholic side, especially in the Confederation of Bar , which sometimes used violent action against Protestants.

Poland at the time of partition 1795–1918

From 1772 to 1795 Poland was partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austria. In the Prussian provinces of West Prussia and Posen the Protestant Church became an important institution, also due to the influx of many Germans.

In 1888 the church agenda was published by the Warsaw Evangelical-Augsburg Consistory , and in 1891 the entire agenda was published in Polish. In 1920 the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Warsaw was founded.

Second Polish Republic 1919–1939

After the First World War , the Protestant parishes of the former Ecclesiastical Province of Poznan , which had previously belonged to the Old Prussian Uniate Regional Church , became independent as the Uniate Evangelical Church in Poland ( Kościół Ewangelicko-Unijny w Polsce ) under General Superintendent Paul Blau . The Uniate Evangelical Church opposed the state-imposed attempt to subordinate the church to the Warsaw Consistory.

The old Prussian parishes in the Pomeranian Voivodeship joined this Uniate Evangelical Church in 1923 with 290,470 members (as of 1936) and based in Posen.

Immigrant Polish-speaking Lutherans from parts of Poland that previously belonged to Russia and Austria founded individual Lutheran parishes in Bromberg, Dirschau, Gdingen, Graudenz, Posen and Thorn, which belonged to the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland and were in friendship with the Old Lutherans who gave them hospitality granted in their churches.

The Old Lutherans, who formerly belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia , in the Polish territory assigned to the former provinces of Posen and West Prussia, around 4,000 mostly German-speaking members, formed the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poland in 1920 (Kościół Ewangelicko-Luterański w Polsce; from 1926 Evangelical Lutheran Church in western Poland / Kościół Ewangelicko-Luterański w Polsce Zachodniej as opposed to the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland). German-speaking Lutheran Poles from Galicia who moved to Poznan and Pomerania and formerly Russian Poles often joined the Old Lutherans.

The 17 evangelical parishes of the ecclesiastical province of Silesia in Eastern Upper Silesia , ceded in 1922 , formed the Uniate Evangelical Church in Polish Upper Silesia ( Kościół Ewangelicko-Unijny na Polskim Górnym Śląsku ) with around 30,000 members and its headquarters in Katowice . Previously to the Evangelical Church A. u. H. B. in Austria belonging parishes in Poland formed the Evangelical Church A. u. H. B. in Lesser Poland ( Kościoł Ewangelicki Augsburskiego i Helweckiego Wyznania w Małopolsce ) with three Lutheran regionally responsible and one Reformed seniorate and under a superintendent, most recently Theodor Zöckler , with a total of 33,000 members. In 1923, the mostly Polish-speaking Lutherans of the Kraków area and the Polish part of the Teschener Land converted to the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland.

In the 1920s, the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland had about 400,000 members, about 1.3 percent of the Polish population at the time.

The general superintendent of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church Juliusz Bursche (around 1938)

In 1939 the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland was divided into 118 parishes with 40 affiliated churches. There were 179 pastors in office, and as religion teachers a. a. 41 clergy were also active. There were ten dioceses headed by the senior as spiritual leader.

The Second World War interrupted the process of church stabilization. About 30 percent of the Protestant clergy in Poland were killed in the concentration camps and prisons, including the long-time superintendent Juliusz Bursche .

People's Republic of Poland 1945–1990

Due to the emigration of the German population from the western areas of Poland, the proportion of the Protestant population in Poland fell considerably. In the newly acquired regions of Silesia, East Prussia and Pomerania, most of the Protestant church buildings were converted into Catholic churches and redesigned from the inside according to a Catholic appearance and Roman regulations.

Until the 1970s, the commitment to Protestant denominations resulted in considerable social disadvantages. Last but not least, this was one of the reasons for the continued resettlement.

Republic of Poland since 1990

The relationship between the state and the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland is regulated by a law that was passed by the Polish Parliament on May 13, 1994.

literature

  • Lorenz Hein: Italian Protestants and their influence on the Reformation in Poland during the two decades before the Sandomir Consensus 1570 , Brill, Leiden 1974, ISBN 978-9-00403-893-6
  • Eduard Kneifel : The development and growth of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland 1517-1939 . Vierkirchen, 1988. DNB 881495409 ( PDF, 14 MB )
  • Eduard Kneifel: History of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland . Niedermarschacht 1964 DNB 452466342 ( PDF; 17.3 MB )
  • The fate of the Polish dissidents from their earliest origins to the present day. 2 volumes. Hamburg 1770. ( Google book )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Główny Urząd Statystyczny : Mały rocznik statystyczny Polski 2012 [ Small Statistical Yearbook of Poland 2012 ]. Zakład Wydawnictw Statystycznych, Warszawa, 2012, ( PDF, 13.7 MB ). Pp. 134-135
  2. ↑ On the Reformation in Poland see currently Jacek Wijaczka: Poland . In Helga Schnabel-Schüle (Ed.): Reformation. Historical and cultural studies manual . 2017. pp. 273-281
  3. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 2. Gütersloh 1999, p. 254.
  4. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Hauschild: Textbook of Church and Dogma History. Volume 2. Gütersloh 1999, p. 255.
  5. ↑ Lorenz Hein: Italian Protestants and their influence on the Reformation in Poland during the two decades before the Sandomir Consensus 1570 , Brill, Leiden 1974, ISBN 978-9-00403-893-6
  6. ↑ Olgierd Kiec: kościoły ewangelickie w Wielkopolsce wobec kwestii narodowościowej w latach 1918 - 1939. Upowszechnianie Nauki Oswiata, Warsaw 1995, ISBN 83-85618-21-X (German: . The Protestant churches in the province Poznań 1918-1939 Translated by Siegfried Schmidt , In: Sources and studies. German Historical Institute Warsaw / Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie , Volume 8, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04030-0 , p. 85).
  7. ^ A b c Eduard Kneifel: History of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. Self-published, Niedermarschacht 1964, p. 17.
  8. ↑ Olgierd Kiec: kościoły ewangelickie w Wielkopolsce wobec kwestii narodowościowej w latach 1918 - 1939. Upowszechnianie Nauki Oswiata, Warsaw 1995, ISBN 83-85618-21-X (German: . The Protestant churches in the province Poznań 1918-1939 Translated by Siegfried Schmidt , In: Sources and Studies. German Historical Institute Warsaw / Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie , Volume 8, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04030-0 , p. 37).
  9. ↑ Olgierd Kiec: kościoły ewangelickie w Wielkopolsce wobec kwestii narodowościowej w latach 1918 - 1939. Upowszechnianie Nauki Oswiata, Warsaw 1995, ISBN 83-85618-21-X (German: . The Protestant churches in the province Poznań 1918-1939 Translated by Siegfried Schmidt , In: Sources and Studies. German Historical Institute Warsaw / Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie , Volume 8, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04030-0 , pp. 33f.).
  10. ↑ Olgierd Kiec: kościoły ewangelickie w Wielkopolsce wobec kwestii narodowościowej w latach 1918 - 1939. Upowszechnianie Nauki Oswiata, Warsaw 1995, ISBN 83-85618-21-X (German: . The Protestant churches in the province Poznań 1918-1939 Translated by Siegfried Schmidt , In: Sources and Studies. German Historical Institute Warsaw / Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie , Volume 8, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04030-0 , p. 21).
  11. ↑ Law of May 13, 1994 on the Relationship of the State to the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in the Republic of Poland