Pastoral care for expellees and emigrants

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The supra-diocesan pastoral care of expellees and emigrants of the German Bishops' Conference provided pastoral and religious-cultural support for expellees , emigrants and ethnic repatriates with a Roman Catholic creed in Germany . The different spiritual and spiritual traditions of the areas of origin should be preserved. The pastoral care of displaced persons should also promote reconciliation between displaced persons and expellees on the basis of Christian faith and contribute to raising awareness of the injustice of every displacement.

Against the background that there are fewer and fewer first-generation displaced persons, the German Bishops' Conference decided in 2011 to phase out the cross- diocesan special pastoral care in 2016. Even at this point in time, it was hardly possible to find suitable candidates as visitors, so that some posts remained vacant. At first it remained unclear whether there would still be a bishop for expellees after this date. This means that pastoral care for expellees at the level of the German Bishops' Conference comes to an end after more than 70 years. However, the dioceses are free to continue pastoral care for displaced persons at their level. The Erfurt auxiliary bishop Reinhard Hauke remains the representative for pastoral care for expellees.

history

After the Second World War , around 12 to 14 million Germans were expelled from eastern Germany , Russia, Czechoslovakia and their traditional settlement areas in former Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary in eastern and south- eastern Europe by 1950 . In the following decades there were more than four million repatriates and ethnic German repatriates , of whom more than 650,000 were Catholics after the fall of the Wall . Bishops of expellees and visitors were appointed to look after these Catholics:

Bishops of expellees

On June 24, 1946, the Ermländer Bishop Maximilian Kaller by Pope Pius XII. Appointed special commissioner for the expellees . He described himself as a "home bishop" and called on the expelled Ermländer to accept the loss of their home country and to integrate into their new home without reservation. Kaller was supposed to look after the Catholic priests who had also fled, as well as the next generation of priests, in order to ensure pastoral care in the diaspora. He was also given responsibility for the church aid center in Frankfurt. At the same time, the Pope appointed the Archbishop of Cologne , Joseph Cardinal Frings, to be the high protector of the entire refugee problem , whose tasks were to mediate between the occupation authorities, the church and politics.

After the death of Kaller, the Limburg bishop Ferdinand Dirichs was his successor as papal commissioner for the pastoral care of expellees . In 1948, the Catholic Refugee Council was founded to support the Commissioner's work . Due to the political changes, the Pope decided to drop the addition papal . The prelate Franz Hartz , who succeeded him in 1948, was merely a representative of the Fulda Bishops' Conference ; he held this office until his death in 1953. His successor as the representative for the pastoral care of expellees was the Würzburg Bishop Julius Döpfner . After his appointment to Berlin , the Hildesheim bishop Heinrich Maria Janssen was from 1957 to 1983 the commissioner for pastoral care for displaced persons and refugees . From 1983 to 2009, Auxiliary Bishop Gerhard Pieschl from the Diocese of Limburg was the representative of the German Bishops' Conference for Catholic refugee, expellee and resettler pastoral care . The current bishop of the expellees is the Erfurt auxiliary bishop Reinhard Hauke .

Areas of origin of the displaced persons and resettlers and the visitors and agents deployed for this purpose

General Vicariate Branitz

  • until 1947: Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Martin Nathan from Olomouc (born November 11, 1867 - January 30, 1947 in Troppau ), previously pastor in Branitz , from 1924 as vicar general in Branitz.
  • 1947–1955: Canon Emil Komarek († June 20, 1955), former pastor of Katscher .
  • 1955–1962: official representation by the grand dean of Glatz, Franz Monse (* July 11, 1882; † February 24, 1962).
  • January 19, 1963–1983: Prelate Eduard Beigel († December 7, 1984 in Eschershausen ), until the expulsion of the former pastor of Sauerwitz , as canonical visitor for the General Vicariate Branitz (office established on November 30, 1962 by decree of Josef Cardinal Frings based on apostolic power). Beigel was a member of the German Bishops' Conference, but had no jurisdiction over the priests who remained incardinated in the Diocese of Olomouc and were there as priests outside the diocese.
  • 1983–2009: Prelate Wolfgang Grocholl as canonical visitor for the priests and believers of the German part of the Archdiocese of Olomouc ( General Vicariate Branitz ) who live in the area of ​​the German Bishops' Conference. No jurisdiction was associated with this office, but Grocholl became a member of the German Bishops' Conference. The vocation was linked to the hope of giving new impulses for the pastoral care of the displaced and establishing contacts with the church in the Branitz region. This mainly meant the diocese of Opole , to which the now extinct Vicariate General Branitz belongs, as well as the young diocese of Ostrau-Troppau , with which common roots exist.
  • In 2010 the office was transferred to the visitor for Breslau, Branitz and Glatz , who is now responsible for all expelled Silesian Catholics.

Archdiocese of Wroclaw

Diocese of Warmia

Vicariate General of the County of Glatz

  • 1938–1962: Grand Dean Franz Monse (* July 11, 1882 - † February 24, 1962).
  • 1962–1977: Grand Dean Prelate Leo Christoph as canonical visitor .
  • 1977–1983: Grand Dean Prelate Paul Sommer.
  • September 22, 1983 to 2012: Grand Dean Prelate Franz Jung as canonical visitor .
  • Afterwards the office passed to the visitor for Breslau, Branitz and Glatz , who is now responsible for all expelled Silesian Catholics.

Free Prelature Schneidemühl in the border region of Posen-West Prussia

  • until 1952: Prelate nullius (= is not subject to an episcopal jurisdiction, one speaks here of exemt , ie "excluded") Franz Hartz.
  • 1953–1965: Vicar Capitular Prelate Ludwig Polzin.
  • 1965–1972: Vicar Capitular Prelate Wilhelm Volkmann .
  • 1972–1982: Prelate Paul Snowadzki.
  • 1982–1997: Prelate Wolfgang Klemp († January 5, 1997), Fulda as Apostolic Visitator of the priests and believers of the Free Prelature Schneidemühl .
  • 1999–2010: Spiritual Councilor Bertold Grabs as a visitor for the priests and believers from the Free Prelature Schneidemühl .
  • 2010–2011: Msgr. Lothar Hans Peter Schlegel as visitator for the Catholics from the Free Prelature Schneidemühl and the Diocese of Danzig .

Archdiocese of Gdansk

Danube Swabia

Carpathian Germans

  • 1967–1973: Dean Josef Pöss († February 22, 1973 ), survivor of the Glaserhau massacre as the first spokesman for the Carpathian German priests and believers .
  • 1973–1987: Spiritual Counselor Josef Maday († May 31, 1987 ).
  • May 5, 1988 - ????: Msgr. Ernst Tatarko. (December 8, 1914 - August 5, 2013)
  • 1999–2004: Julius Groß SDB as visitor for Carpathian Germans .
  • April 1, 2005: Spiritual councilor Johann Kotschner as a visitor for Carpathian Germans .
  • Office taken up by the visitor for the Sudeten Germans and Carpathian Germans .

Russia ( Russian Germans )

  • In 1965 Nikolaus Pieger was appointed pastor of the Catholic Russian-Germans .
  • 1977–1988: Pastor Peter Macht in the pastoral care office of the German Bishops' Conference for German Catholics from Russia .
  • 1990–200 ?: Father Eugen Reinhardt SVD as a visitor for the Germans from Russia .
  • since 2007: Alexander Hoffmann.

Sudetenland ( Sudeten Germans )

  • 1959–1974: Prelate Karl Kindermann
  • 1974–1985: Apostolic Protonotary Prelate Karl Reiss.
  • 1986–1992: Prelate Karl Braunstein.
  • 1992–1993: Pastor Friedrich Berger.
  • 1993 - ????: Father Norbert Schlegel O. Praem. (* March 9, 1940 in Allenstein ; † August 29, 2009) as a visitor for Sudeten Germans .
  • Office taken up in the Visitator for the Sudeten Germans and Carpathian Germans (currently Monsignor Pastor Dieter Olbrich).

Cross-diocesan organization of the Catholic pastoral care for expellees and expellees until its dissolution at the end of 2016

In 1998 there was a comprehensive reorganization of the Catholic repatriate and expellees 'pastoral care, which lost the apostolic addition and is now part of the German Bishops' Conference. The following are currently appointed to the pastoral care of refugees and expellees in Germany:

At the end of 2016, the supra-diocesan pastoral care for displaced persons and resettlers ended. The offices of visitor for the expelled Catholics were abolished. Bishop Hauke, however, remains in charge of pastoral care for expellees. However, the dioceses and parishes can still offer services or pilgrimages for displaced persons.

literature

  • Bendel, Rainer : The Acceptance of Displaced Persons in Catholic South and Southwest German Diaspora Areas . In: Pilvousek, Josef (Ed.): Admission - Integration - Beheimatung . Refugees, displaced persons and the "arrival society" . Lit Verlag , Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-643-10264-5 , pp. 61-85.
  • Bendel, Rainer (Ed.): Displaced persons find a home in the church. Integration processes in divided Germany after 1945 . Böhlau Verlag , Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20142-5 .
  • Vosskamp, ​​Sabine: Catholic Church and Expellees in West Germany. Integration, Identity and Eastern Political Discourse 1945 to 1972 . Kohlhammer Verlag , Stuttgart 2007, also Diss. Univ. Duisburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-019967-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Lehmann: Press report by the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Dr. Karl Lehmann, following the autumn general assembly from September 21 to 24, 1998 in Fulda: 5. Pastoral care for expellees . September 25, 1998. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  2. ↑ Norbert Block: Special pastoral care is still required . May 8, 2015. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ jjo, KNA : Bishops' Conference ended - more money for refugees . September 22, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  4. ↑ The information on the bishops of expellees and the list of visitors are taken from: Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Church and Home. The Catholic pastoral care for expellees and resettlers in Germany , Bonn, 1999, p. 57 f.
  5. ↑ On his work in the last two years of his life as a special papal representative, cf. Penkert, Alfred : You came out of the great tribulation. East Germans, especially those from Warmia, refugees and displaced persons in correspondence with Bishop Maximilian Kaller from 1945–1947 . Bischof-Maximilian-Kaller-Stiftung, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-937966-73-0 .
  6. ↑ An outline of his activities can also be found in Brahtz, Werner Ch .: Bishop Maximilian Kaller (Ermland). Papal special envoy for refugees from the east . In: Bendel, Rainer; Janker, Stephan M. (Ed.): Displaced Catholics. Impetus for upheavals in church and society? . LIT Verlag, Münster 2005, pp. 149–158, ISBN 3-8258-5959-2 .
  7. ↑ cf. Karp, Hans-Jürgen : On the status of historical research on Maximilian Kaller (1880–1947) . In: Bendel, Rainer (ed.): Displaced persons find a home in the church . Böhlau, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20142-5 , pp. 107-118.
  8. ↑ On September 8, 2007 , the Institute for the History of the Diocese of Münster, in cooperation with the Historical Association for Warmia , organized a scientific conference on Kaller's role as the papal special representative for the displaced Germans .
  9. ↑ cf. Lang, Karolina: Regional versus national identity? On the question of identity and homeland constructions of the Ermländer in western post-war Germany up to 1960 . Verlag Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-922857-45-7 , in particular the chapter Die Ära Kaller , pp. 37-49.
  10. ↑ cf. Voßkamp, ​​2007, p. 94 ff.
  11. ↑ cf. Brzoska, Emil: Apostolic Visitator of the Breslau Diocesans in the Federal Republic of Germany: Content and Limits of his Office, Cologne: Apostolic Visitator of the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Breslau in the FRG, 1973 (16 pages).
  12. ↑ Portrait and curriculum vitae .
  13. ↑ Ermlandfamilie: Kapitularvikare and visitators .
  14. ^ Prelate Johannes Bieler has died .
  15. ↑ Danzig old visitor Bieler has died.
  16. ↑ Prelate Josef Mayer stop in Hungary Yearbook 20 (1992).
  17. ^ Südwest Presse Online: TA Monsignore Ernst Tatarko Westerstetten - Obituaries - Südwest Presse Online. Retrieved December 13, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Assistance for refugees and displaced persons on the website of the Ackermann parish in the diocese of Würzburg . Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. 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. Retrieved August 18, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ackermann-gemeinde.bistum-wuerzburg.de
  19. ^ Website of the Catholic pastoral care center for Catholic Germans from Russia and the other CIS countries.
  20. ↑ jjo, KNA : Bishops' Conference ended - more money for refugees . September 22, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2017.