Słonowice (german: Groß Schlönwitz)''Ortsnamenverzeichnis der Ortschaften jenseits von Oder und Neiße'' by M. Kaemmerer is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Kobylnica __NOTOC__ Gmina Kobylnica is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Słupsk County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the village of Kobylnica, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Kobylnica, which lies approximately south-west of Sł ...

, within Słupsk County,

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomorskie Region, or Pomerania Province (Polish: ''Województwo pomorskie'' ; ( Kashubian: ''Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò'' ), is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The ...

, in northern Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Kobylnica, south-west of Słupsk, and west of the regional capital

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

History

For the history of the region, see

History of Pomerania The history of Pomerania starts shortly before 1000 AD with ongoing conquests by newly arrived Polans rulers. Before that, the area was recorded nearly 2000 years ago as Germania, and in modern-day times Pomerania is split between Germany and Pol ...

. Słonowice is served by the Słonowice (PKP station), which had been built in the 19th century to serve the estate of Groß Schlönwitz, then the property of the von Blumenthal family, who inherited it from Valeska von Krockow, wife of Herrmann von Blumenthal. During the 1930s the estate was 90% owned by Professor

Albrecht von Blumenthal Albrecht von Blumenthal (10 August 1889 – 28 March 1945) was a Prussian landowner, Classicist and Nazi supporter. Early life Albrecht von Blumenthal was born in Staffelde in Vorpommern, the son of Rittmeister Vally von Blumenthal and Corn ...

, 10% by his brother Robert, who resided there. The estate became an outpost of the secret education of pastors for the Nazi-opponent fraction of the united

Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Pr ...

, represented by the

Confessing Church The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German E ...

and its brethren councils, persecuted by the Nazis during the struggle of the churches. After the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

had closed the preacher seminary in Stettin-Finkenwalde in autumn 1937, in December the same year the brothers Albrecht and Robert von Blumenthal permitted its lecturer, the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to use the local vicarage as an illegal seminary (Sammelvikariat). The pastors of Groß Schlönwitz and neighbouring villages supported the education by employing and housing the students as vicars in their congregations.''Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pfarrer, Berlin-Charlottenburg 9, Marienburger Allee 43: Begleitheft zur Ausstellung'', corr. a. ext. ed., Kuratorium Bonhoeffer Haus (ed.), Berlin: Erinnerungs- und Begegnungsstätte Bonhoeffer Haus, ²1996, p. 51. No ISBN. In summer 1939 the seminary could move to Sigurdshof, an outlying estate (Vorwerk) of

von Kleist The House of Kleist is the name of an old and distinguished Pomeranian Prussian noble family, whose members obtained many important military positions within the Kingdom of Prussia and later in the German Empire. Notable members *Henning Alexan ...

family in Wendisch Tychow. There the

shut down the seminary in March 1940. The manor house of Groß Schlönwitz burned down by chance in 1939. The place after the war lies in Poland. It was overtaken by communists who incorporated the estate into the Sysewice Agricultural State Kombinat (German: Zitzewitz Kombinat). The Vicarage and church are still to be seen; the latter, now Catholic, contains a painting of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a Christ-figure.

References

Villages in Słupsk County {{Słupsk-geo-stub