Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl Territorialis Praelatura Schneidemuhlensis Prälatur Schneidemühl(in German) Prałatura Pilska(in Polish) | |
|---|---|
 Holy Family Church inPiła (former Co-Cathedral) | |
| Location | |
| Country | Germany Poland |
| Territory | Posen-West-Prussia,Lauenburg and Bütow Land,Starostwo of Draheim |
| Ecclesiastical province | Eastern Germany |
| Metropolitan | Breslau (Wrocław) |
| Deaneries | 8 |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 9,601 km2 (3,707 sq mi) |
Population
|
|
| Parishes | 74 (as of 1930) |
| Information | |
| Rite | Latin Rite |
| Established | 1 May 1923 |
| Dissolved | 1972 |
| Co-cathedral | Co-Cathedral of the Holy Family in Schneidemühl (Piła) |
| Secular priests | 123 (as of 1930) |
TheTerritorial Prelature of Schneidemühl orTerritorial Prelature of Piła (German:Freie Prälatur Schneidemühl,Latin:Territorialis Praelatura Schneidemuhlensis,Polish:Niezależna Prałatura Pilska) was aRoman Catholicterritorial prelature in firstGermany (Nazi Germany as of 1933) and thenPoland. It covered the territory of thePrussianProvince of theFrontier March of Posen-West Prussia, but also the territories of theLauenburg and Bütow (Lębork and Bytów) Land and the formerStarostwo of Draheim (Drahim), which were parts of theProvince of Pomerania at the time. It was named after its seat inSchneidemühl (Piła) and belonged to theEastern German Ecclesiastical Province under theBreslau/Wrocław Metropolia since 1930.
Following the restoration of independentPoland followingWorld War I, it regained the bulk of the territories of theArchdiocese of Gniezno-Poznań (until 1946 inpersonal union) and theDiocese of Chełmno annexed byPrussia in thePartitions of Poland, however, small portions remained within Germany after 1919 and 1920. On 1 December 1920 ArchbishopEdmund Dalbor of Gniezno-Poznań appointed an archiepiscopal delegate with the powers of avicar general for the five concerneddeaneries with 45parishes and 80,000-100,000 Catholic faithful. BishopAugustinus Rosentreter of Chełmno objected to separate his three eastern deaneries located in the historicalLauenburg and Bütow Land andStarostwo of Draheim, with about 40,000 Catholic parishioners.[1]
Nevertheless, theHoly See disentangled these deaneries of Chełmno in 1922 and subordinated them to the archiepiscopal delegate seated inTütz (Tuczno). On 1 May 1923 the Holy See united the concerned deaneries to form the newApostolic Administration of Tütz.[2] The Holy See entrustedprotonotaryRobert Weimann (1870–1925) with the Administration Apostolic of Tütz.[3]
On 6 July 1926Maximilian Kaller succeeded Weimann. On Kaller's instigation the seat of the Administration was moved from Tütz toSchneidemühl (Piła) in 1927, where Kaller then took on the local parish.[3] Schneidemühl had become the capital ofFrontier March of Posen-West Prussia Province, when theFree State of Prussia had reorganised its dissected remnants of the formerProvinces of Posen and ofWest Prussia as aprovince of their own on 1 July 1922.[4]
Following the 1929PrussianConcordat, concluded between theNuncio to Prussia,Eugenio Pacelli, and the Free State, the administration was elevated toTerritorial Prelature within the newEastern German Ecclesiastical Province under theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Wrocław on 13 August 1930. The prelates were not to be consecrated as bishops. Kaller was elevated to be the first prelate.
In 1930 Kaller foundedKatholischer Siedlungsdienst (Catholic Colonisation Service) in Berlin and entrustedLudwig Sebald Polzin (1892–1964) with its management. During his term the colonisation service bought and parcelled manor estates and founded new settlements inAdlig Rose,Bärenwalde (Bińcze),Barkenfelde (Barkowo),Eckartsberge (Kolno),Falkenwalde (Sokole), Marienthal,Paradies (Paradyż),Philipshof,Sampohl (Sąpolno),Schlichtingsheim (Szlichtyngowa), andSchmirtenau (Śmiardowo). Later in 1930 Kaller was consecrated in Schneidemühl's Holy Family Concathedral bishop of his newDiocese of Warmia, then moving to its diocesan seat in Frauenburg (Frombork).
In 1930 the new prelature comprised 74 parishes with 123 priests dispersed in four separateexclaves, on the German side of the border to the PolishVoivodeships of Poznań andof Pomerania. Visiting the parishes in the different exclaves was a tiresome effort. In 1933 the prelature comprised 9,601 km2 with 135,310 Catholic parishioners among 427,522 inhabitants. It was divided into eightdeaneries seated inBetsche (Pszczew),Bomst (Babimost),Deutsch Krone (Wałcz),Flatow (Złotów),Fraustadt (Wschowa), Lauenburg in Pomerania (Lębork),Schlochau (Człuchów) and Schneidemühl.
Neighbouring dioceses were Chełmno in the northeast, Poznań in the east and south, Breslau in the south andBerlin in the west and north. While the Apostolic Administration did not dispose of an efficace administration, the Prelature had aconsistory consisting of five persons, with avicar general (Msgr. Johannes Bleske) and anofficial (Erich Klitsche) since 1930. On 25 February 1931Franz Hartz succeeded Kaller as prelate.
During theGreat Depression Polzin organised "Katholischer Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst" (Catholic Volunteer Service), an employment-creation measure financed by the prelature. Soon after the Nazi takeover the volunteer service was confiscated by theReichsarbeitsdienst, the colonisation service was gradually usurped by the Nazi party and Polzin temporarily taken intoGestapo arrest in 1935, while the Nazis fought the Catholic youth organisations.
In early 1945 Prelate Hartz fled – like many other parishioners too – the invadingSovietRed Army and stranded inFulda by the end ofWorld War II. In March 1945 the area became eventually again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which remained in power for several decades. The new authorities expelled most of the remaining and surviving German population toAllied-occupied Germany in the years between 1945 and 1948 in accordance with thePotsdam Agreement. Polzin, who served as priest inRokitten (Rokitno) since 1936, was expelled on 22 June 1945. Stranded in Berlin he organised the "Katholischer Flüchtlingsdienst" (Catholic Refugee Service), taking care of the destitute refugees and expellees.
CardinalAugust Hlond, arrogating his special papal plenipotentiary power to reorganise the Polish episcopate, also appointed apostolic administrators for the former German dioceses now under Polish rule. Although Hartz had not resigned, Hlond appointed on 15 August 1945Edmund Nowicki (1900–1971) with effect of 1 September as administrator for the Prelature and the Diocese of Berlin east of theOder. Nowicki was titledAdministrator ofKamień,Lubusz and the Prelature Piła (Polish:Administrator Kamieński, Lubuski i Prałatury Pilskiej), seated inGorzów Wielkopolski. The anti-clerical communist government underBolesław Bierut deposed and banished Nowicki from the administration in 1951. Thus Vicar Tadeusz Załuczkowski replaced him, followed by Vicar Zygmunt Szelążek in 1952.
Prelate Hartz died in 1953 in Hüls, a locality ofKrefeld. In the same year the Schneidemühl Consistory, whose members then lived in theFederal Republic of Germany, then – followingcanon law – elected Polzincapitular vicar for thevacant see, confirmed by the Holy See on 20 October 1953.[2] In 1956Teodor Bensch (1903–1958) was appointed administrator of Kamień, Lubusz and the Prelature Piła, succeeded by Józef Michalski (only 1958), and again by AdministratorWilhelm Pluta (1910–1986), Bishop of the titulature of Leptis Magna, serving as administrator until 1972.
After Polzin's death the Schneidemühl Consistory had electedWilhelm Volkmann capitular vicar in 1964, holding that position until 1972.[5] With the reorganisation of the church administration in western Poland in 1972 the Prelature of Piła was dissolved and its diocesan area divided between theDioceses of Gorzów (since 1992 Zielona Góra-Gorzów) andof Koszalin-Kolobrzeg.
The Holy See established the office of aVisitator Apostolic for the diocesans of the Prelature of Schneidemühl exiled in today's Germany.Paul Snowadzki was appointed first visitator in 1972 (till 1982), succeeded byWolfgang Klemp in the years 1982 to 1997.[5] Currently,Lothar Schlegel is entrusted the visitation of the diocesans ofDanzig (Gdańsk), Warmia and Schneidemühl living in Germany.[6] In Fulda former Schneidemühl diocesans run theHeimatwerk der Katholiken aus der Freien Prälatur Schneidemühl e.V. (Homeland endowment of the Catholics from the Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl), an association occupied with the history, culture and legacy of the prelature and its diocesans.