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Two Jubilees of Warsaw Lutherans, 1881 and 1931
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2024
Abstract
The Lutheran minority in Warsaw celebrated the 100th anniversary of its magnificent classicist church in 1881, under Russian rule, when the parish was predominantly culturally German; and the 150th anniversary in 1931/2, during the Second Polish Republic, when the clergy were to a large extent Polish-speaking. This article compares these two jubilees to show acts of commemoration as a tool, steering religious bonds and social identification, whether or not consciously. It highlights the social, ‘terrestrial’ aspects of the functioning of confessional minorities, showing how the community was constantly reinvented through common memory.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2024
Footnotes
The paper was written with funding from the National Agency for Academic Exchange: project title: ‘Historical Ontology of Urban Space’, project no. PPI/APM/2019/1/00053/U/00001
References
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21 The Kollegjum Kościelne (original spelling) was a body of lay members who supervised all the practical, organisational aspects of the parish. It was divided into departments supervising finance, schools etc.
22 M. Kuc-Czerep, Niemieckojęzyczni mieszkańcy Warszawy: droga do obywatelstwa w osiemnastowiecznej Rzeczypospolitej [German-speaking inhabitants of Warsaw: the path to citizenship in the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth], Warszawa 2021, 217–18, 221.
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25 L. Jenike, Kronika Zboru Ewangielicko-Augsburskiego w Warszawie: 1782 do 1890 [Chronicle of the Lutheran parish in Warsaw: 1782 to 1890], Warszawa 1891, 54.
26 The fates of many of them were carefully collected and documented by T. Świątek: see, for example, Rody warszawskie [Warsaw families], Warszawa 2007.
27 ‘Untitled’, in Tygodnik Illustrowany xiii/315, 7 Jan. 1882, 10.
28 There is still relatively little literature on the issue of rationalism, or liberalism in theology, a doctrine stemming from the Enlightenment and embraced in Germany by, among others, Friedrich Schleiermacher, as propagated in the Kingdom of Poland. Attention has been given more to the issue of religious awakenings in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries in Germany. Thus the nineteenth-century press can still be treated as a valuable contribution: R. Gundlach, ‘Dom miłosierdzia’ [House of mercy], Zwiastun Ewangeliczny i/8, 3/15 Aug. 1898, 176–81.
29 T. Stegner, Pastorzy Królestwa Polskiego na studiach teologicznych w Dorpacie w XIX wieku [Pastors from the Kingdom of Poland studying theology in Dorpat in the nineteenth century], Warszawa 1993.
30 L. Otto, ‘Historya Zboru Ewangelicko-Augsburskiego Warszawskiego do r. 1793’ [History of the Lutheran parish in Warsaw till 1793], Zwiastun Ewangeliczny ii (1804). The article was published in episodes throughout the year.
31 On the place where the church stood in Warsaw in the nineteenth century and its surroundings, with several Lutheran institutions located nearby, see A. Łupienko, ‘Ewangelicki zakątek w dziewiętnastowiecznej Warszawie: nieruchomości parafii św: Trójcy wokół placu Ewangelickiego’ [An Evangelical corner in nineteenth-century Warsaw: real estate of the parish of the Holy Trinity around Evangelical Square], Kronika Warszawy i (2017), 49–70, at <https://warszawa.ap.gov.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/KW-1-2017>pdf.
32 [L. Otto], ‘Stuletnia rocznica poświęcenia kościoła pod wezwaniem Trójcy świętej w Warszawie’ [100th anniversary of the consecration of the Holy Trinity church in Warsaw], Zwiastun Ewangeliczny xx/4, 19/31 Jan. 1882, 75–8 at p. 75.
33 Jenike, Kronika zboru, 53.
34 Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych [Central Archive of Ancient Acts] (hereinafter cited as AGAD), Akta Kollegium Kościelnego Zboru E-A Warszawskiego [Acts of the parish council of the Lutheran parish in Warsaw], Wydziału Kasowego [Cashier's Dept.], sygn. 921.
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36 On the conservationist agenda in the Russian partition see Łupienko, A., ‘Architectural heritage and nation building in the Kingdom of Poland and Galicia before 1914’, in R. Kusek and J. Purchla (eds), Heritage and society, Kraków 2019, 233‒48Google Scholar at pp. 239–40.
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39 [Otto], ‘Stuletnia rocznica’, 78.
40 L. Otto, Kazanie w dniu pamiątki obchodu stuletniej rocznicy poświęcenia kościoła Trójcy Świętej [The sermon on the day of centennial celebration of the consecration of the Holy Trinity church], Warszawa 1882, 6.
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43 Stegner, Ewangelicy warszawscy, 127.
44 J. Kłaczkow, Kościół Ewangelicko-Augsburski w Polsce w latach 1918–1939 [Lutheran Church in Poland in 1918–1939], Toruń 2017, 31.
45 E. Kneifel, Geschichte der Evangelisch-Augsburgischen Kirche in Polen [History of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland], Roth bei Nürnberg [1962], 206–13. For a more balanced view on the issue see B. Krebs, Nationale Identität und kirchliche Selbstbehauptung: Julius Bursche und die Auseinandersetzungen um Auftrag und Weg des Protestantismus in Polen, 1917–1939 [National identity and ecclesiastical self-assertion: Julius Bursche and the disputes about the mission and path of Protestantism in Poland, 1917–1939], Neukirchen-Vluyn 1993.
46 ‘Das 150-jährige Jubiläum der Einweihung der ev.-luth. Kirche in Warschau’ [The 150th jubilee of the consecration of the Lutheran church in Warsaw], Hausfreund: Evangelischer Volks-Kalender für das Jahr 1933, xlix, Warsaw 1933, 65–71 at p. 67.
47 Luckily, a major refurbishment of the church building had taken place not long before, in 1900, which was followed by the installation of new, modern church organs. See ‘Sprawy warszawskie’ [Warsaw affairs], Zwiastun Ewangeliczny iii/2, 3/15 Feb. 1900, 53.
48 AGAD, Akta Wydziału Kościelnego, sygn. 453, 97. The cost would be 30,000 złotys: ‘150-lecie Kościoła’ [150th anniversary of the church], Głos Ewangelicki xii/50, 13 Dec. 1931, 2.
49 ‘Upominek jubileuszowy’ [Jubilee souvenir], Zwiastun Ewangeliczny xii/18 (1932), 144.
50 For example, ‘W 150-ą rocznicę poświęcenia kościoła Ewang.-Augsburskiego w Warszawie, 1781–1931’ [At the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the Lutheran church in Warsaw, 1781–1931], Głos Ewangelicki xiii/19, 8 May 1932, 2–4; ‘Jubileusz Kościoła Ewang.’ [Church jubilee], Tygodnik Ilustrowany lxxiii/20, 14 May 1932, 321.
51 ‘Echa obchodu 150-letniego jubileuszu Kościoła ew. augsb. w Warszawie’ [Echoes of the 150th anniversary of the Lutheran church in Warsaw], Głos Ewangelicki xiii/20, 15 May 1932, 2–3.
52 J. Bursche, ‘Mowa na 150-lecie kościoła naszego w Warszawie’ [Speech for the 150th anniversary of our church in Warsaw], Glos Ewangelicki xiii/24, 12 June 1932, 1–2, reprinted in A. Łupienko (ed.), Juliusz Bursche myśli, działalność dziedzictwo [Juliusz Bursche: thoughts, activity, legacy], Warszawa 2023, 122–5.
53 Kneifel, Geschichte, 255–8.
54 Zygmunt Michelis, ‘W obliczu jubileuszu’ [Facing the jubilee], Zwiastun Ewangeliczny xii/19, 8 May 1932, 145–6.
55 Kłaczkow, Kościół Ewangelicko-Augsburski, 156–69.
56 This term was used in E. Zerubavel, Time maps: collective memory and the social shape of the past, Chicago 2004, 39–40.
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