Józef Berger (14 March 1901 – 11 June 1962) was a Polish Lutheran pastor, theologian and politician from the region of Trans-Olza,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. He was a member of the

Polish People's Party The Polish People's Party (, PSL) is a conservative political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Its history traces back to 1895, when it held the name People's Party, although its name was changed to the pre ...

, a political party active amongst middle-class Lutherans of the Polish minority in interbellum Czechoslovakia.

Biography

In 1920 Berger graduated from Juliusz Słowacki Polish Grammar School in Orlová, and in 1924 from the Theological Faculty of the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

, where he studied the Protestant theology. He was actively engaged in the life of the Polish community in Trans-Olza. It was mainly thanks to him that the new Lutheran church was built in 1932 in Czeski Cieszyn. From its foundation in 1922, he was one of the leading activists of the

in Czechoslovakia. After the annexation of the Trans-Olza region to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1938, President Ignacy Mościcki named him a deputy of the Silesian Parliament, where Berger was a deputy until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During the Nazi occupation he was interned in the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. From 1945 to 1952, he worked as a pastor at the Lutheran church in

Český Těšín Český Těšín (; ; ) is a town in Karviná District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. Český Těšín lies on the west bank of the Olza (river), Olza river, in the heart of the historical ...

. On 25 June 1950 he was elected a superintendent of the Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession. In 1952, Berger was designated a professor of systematic theology at the Theological Academy in Modra near Bratislava and moved permanently to Bratislava. Berger was also active in the tourist and skiing organizations of the Polish minority in Czechoslovakia. In his free time, he also enjoyed painting, covering mostly the landscapes of his native region.

Biography

References

Further reading