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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2024
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.
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
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6 T. Blackshaw, Key concepts in community studies, Los Angeles, Ca–Boston 2013, 7.
7 See a brief overview of the term in Claval, P., ‘Changing conceptions of heritage and landscape’, in N. Moore and Y. Whelan (eds), Heritage, memory and the politics of identity: new perspectives on the cultural landscape, Aldershot–Burlington, Vt 2008, 85–93Google Scholar at p. 86.
8 For heritage studies, for example, Gregory, A., Brian, G. and Turnbridge, J. F. (eds), Pluralising pasts: heritage, identity and place in multicultural societies, London‒Ann Arbor, Mi 2007Google Scholar. See also Cohen, Symbolic construction, 77.
9 Sutcliffe, A., Maerker, A. and Sleight, S., ‘Introduction: memory, public life and the work of the historian’, in A Sutcliffe, A. Maerker and S. Sleight (eds), History, memory and public life: the past in the present, Abingdon 2018, 1–25Google Scholar at p. 3.
10 This is the result of a new perspective in the age of globalisation and new waves of migration, as in J. Clifford, The predicament of culture: twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art, Cambridge, Ma 1988. See also S. Malešević, ‘Identity: conceptual, operational and historical critique’, in Haugaard and Malešević, Making sense of collectivity, 195–215.
11 For an overview of the cultures and identities in Central Europe, their heterogeneity and dynamics see Feichtinger, J. and Cohen, G. B. (eds), Understanding multiculturalism: the Habsburg Central European experience, New York 2014CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially the introduction.
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15 A good English-language overview of the Reformation's fate in the region is M. Ptaszyński, ‘The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’, in H. Louthan and G. Murdock (eds), A companion to the Reformation in Central Europe, Leiden 2015, 40–67.
16 The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth served as one of the most important religious and cultural borderlands in Europe, consisting of Roman Catholic, Uniate and Orthodox milieux, and as such was often described as a separate region of East-Central Europe. For an overview of the history of the region see J. Kłoczowski and H. Łaszkiewicz (eds), East-Central Europe in European history: themes and debates, Lublin 2009.
17 As it is framed in Bucur and Wingfield, ‘Introduction’, in Staging the past, 1.
18 The issue of the material heritage of secular architectural monuments and their centuries-long impact on ethnic-national identification has recently been brilliantly shown for Scotland in Glendinning, M. and MacKechnie, A., Scotch baronial: architecture and national identity in Scotland, London 2019CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Damjanović, D. and Łupienko, A., Forging architectural tradition: national narratives, monument preservation and architectural work in the nineteenth century, New York–Oxford 2022CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 J. Wijaczka, ‘Luteranizm w Koronie od 1517 do 1795 r.’ [Lutheranism in the Polish part of the Commonwealth from 1517 to 1795], in J. Kłaczkow (ed.), Kościoły luterańskie na ziemiach polskich (XVI–XX w.), I: W czasach Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów [Lutheran Churches in the Polish lands in the fifteenth-twentieth centuries, I: In the age of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth], Toruń 2012, 13–88 at pp. 50–6.
20 On the architecture of the church and its architect see M. I. Kwiatkowska, Kościół Ewangelicko-Augsburski [Lutheran church], Warszawa 1982, 159–62; J. K. Kos, ‘Kościół Świętej Trójcy – projekt i jego realizacja’ [Holy Trinity church – design and its execution], in K. Guttmejer (ed.), Ewangelicki kościół Świętej Trójcy w Warszawie [Holy Trinity Lutheran church in Warsaw], Warszawa 2017, 29–54; and M. Kwiatkowski, Szymon Bogumił Zug, architekt polskiego oświecenia [Szymon Bogumił Zug: an architect of the Polish Enlightenment], Warszawa 1971, 159–62.
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.
23 Ibid. 36–90.
24 On the history of the parish in the nineteenth century see T. Stegner, Ewangelicy warszawscy, 1815–1918 [Warsaw Protestants, 1815–1918], Warszawa 1993.
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.
35 [Otto], ‘Stuletnia rocznica’, 76.
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.
37 [Otto], ‘Stuletnia rocznica’, 77.
38 Jenike, ‘Kronika zboru’, 167.
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.
41 On the pogrom years see Klier, J. D., Russians, Jews, and the pogrom crisis of 1881–1882, Cambridge–New York 2011Google Scholar. See also Norberg, J., Open: the story of human progress, London 2020 (ebook), 733Google Scholar.
42 AGAD, Akta Wydziału Kościelnego [Church Dept.], sygns 453, 42–3. On the pogrom in Warsaw see Alina Cała, Asymilacja Żydów w Królestwie Polskim (1864–1897) [The assimilation of Jews in the Kingdom of Poland (1864–1897)], Warszawa 1989, 151–72. See also K. Kijek, A. Markowski and K. Zieliński (eds), Pogromy Żydów na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku, II: Studia przypadków (do 1939 roku) [Pogroms against Jews in Polish territories in the 19th and 20th centuries, II: Case studies (until 1939), Warszawa 2019.
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.
57 Cohen, Symbolic construction, 99.
58 Harvey, D. C., ‘The history of heritage’, in B. J. Graham and P. Howard (eds), The Ashgate research companion to heritage and identity, Aldershot 2008, 22Google Scholar.
59 Moore, Visions of culture, 253–4. On the generational differences in interpreting seemingly the same rituals see M. Busteed, ‘“Forced to trouble the next generation”: contesting the ownership of the Martyrs Commemoration Ritual in Manchester, 1888–1921’, in Moore and Whelan, Heritage, 69–82.