The Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl or Territorial Prelature of Piła (, , ) was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

territorial prelature A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

in first

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

(

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

as of 1933) and then

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 ...

. It covered the territory of the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

Province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia, but also the territories of the Lauenburg and Bütow (Lębork and Bytów) Land and the former Starostwo of Draheim (Drahim), which were parts of the Province of Pomerania at the time. It was named after its seat in Schneidemühl (Piła) and belonged to the

Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province This list refers to the Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces in Germany and the organisational changes between 1821 and 1994. The territorial changes through and after the Napoleonic Wars determined much of ...

under the Breslau/Wrocław Metropolia since 1930.

History

Following the restoration of independent

following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, it regained the bulk of the territories of the

Archdiocese of Gniezno The Archdiocese of Gniezno (, ) is the oldest Latin Catholic archdiocese in Poland, located in the city of Gniezno.

-Poznań (until 1946 in

personal union A personal union is a combination of two or more monarchical states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent in ...

) and the

Diocese of Chełmno In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

annexed by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

in the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

, however, small portions remained within Germany after 1919 and 1920. On 1 December 1920 Archbishop Edmund Dalbor of Gniezno-Poznań appointed an archiepiscopal delegate with the powers of a

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

for the five concerned

deaneries A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a ...

with 45

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es and 80,000-100,000 Catholic faithful. Bishop Augustinus Rosentreter of Chełmno objected to separate his three eastern deaneries located in the historical

Lauenburg and Bütow Land Lauenburg and Bütow Land ( or , , ) formed a historical region in the western part of Pomerelia (Polish and papal historiography) or in the eastern part of Farther Pomerania (German historiography). It was composed of two districts centered on th ...

and Starostwo of Draheim, with about 40,000 Catholic parishioners. Tuczno zamek 2005-05

Nevertheless, the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

disentangled these deaneries of Chełmno in 1922 and subordinated them to the archiepiscopal delegate seated in Tütz (Tuczno). On 1 May 1923 the Holy See united the concerned deaneries to form the new

Apostolic Administration An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

of Tütz.Cf. . The Holy See entrusted

protonotary A prothonotary is the "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine Empire, from Greek ' ''protos ...

Robert Weimann (1870–1925) with the Administration Apostolic of Tütz.Georg May, ''

Ludwig Kaas Ludwig Kaas (23 May 1881 – 15 April 1952) was a German Roman Catholic priest and politician of the Centre Party during the Weimar Republic. He was instrumental in brokering the Reichskonkordat between the Holy See and the German Reich. ...

: der Priester, der Politiker und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz'': 3 vols., Amsterdam: Grüner, 1981-1982 (=Kanonistische Studien und Texte; vols. 33–35), vol. 1, p. 175. . On 6 July 1926 Maximilian Kaller succeeded Weimann. On Kaller's instigation the seat of the Administration was moved from Tütz to Schneidemühl (Piła) in 1927, where Kaller then took on the local parish. Schneidemühl had become the capital of Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia Province, when the

Free State of Prussia The Free State of Prussia (, ) was one of the States of the Weimar Republic, constituent states of Weimar Republic, Germany from 1918 to 1947. The successor to the Kingdom of Prussia after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, it cont ...

had reorganised its dissected remnants of the former Provinces of Posen and of

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and from 1878 to 1919. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, formed from Royal Prussia of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonweal ...

as a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of their own on 1 July 1922. Following the 1929 ''Prussian

Concordat A concordat () is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 Nuncio to Prussia, Eugenio Pacelli">Apostolic Nuncio to Prussia">Nuncio to Prussia, Eugenio Pacelli, and the Free State, the administration was elevated to Territorial Prelature within the new

under the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wrocław The Archdiocese of Wrocław (; ; ; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in the city of Wrocław in Poland. From its founding as a Diocese, bishopric in 1000 until 1821, it was under the Arch ...

on 13 August 1930. The prelates were not to be consecrated as bishops. Kaller was elevated to be the first prelate. In 1930 Kaller founded ''Katholischer Siedlungsdienst'' (Catholic Colonisation Service) in Berlin and entrusted Ludwig Sebald Polzin (1892–1964) with its management. During his term the colonisation service bought and parcelled manor estates and founded new settlements in Adlig Rose, Bärenwalde (Bińcze), Barkenfelde (Barkowo), Eckartsberge (Kolno), Falkenwalde (Sokole), Marienthal, Paradies (Paradyż), Philipshof, Sampohl (Sąpolno), Schlichtingsheim (Szlichtyngowa), and Schmirtenau (Śmiardowo). Later in 1930 Kaller was consecrated in Schneidemühl's Holy Family Concathedral bishop of his new

Diocese of Warmia The Archdiocese of Warmia (, ) is a Latin Church Metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland. The archbishop has his Cathedral archiepiscopal see: Bazylika Archikatedralna Wniebowzięcia NMP i św. ...

, then moving to its diocesan seat in Frauenburg (

Frombork Frombork (; ) is a town in northern Poland, situated on the Vistula Lagoon in Braniewo County, within Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, it has a population of 2,260. The town was first mentioned in a 13th-century document. In the ...

). In 1930 the new prelature comprised 74 parishes with 123 priests dispersed in four separate

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

s, on the German side of the border to the Polish Voivodeships of Poznań and of 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 eight

seated in Betsche (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 and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in the west and north. While the Apostolic Administration did not dispose of an efficace administration, the Prelature had a

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistor ...

consisting of five persons, with a

(Msgr. Johannes Bleske) and an

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

(Erich Klitsche) since 1930. On 25 February 1931 Franz Hartz succeeded Kaller as prelate. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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 the

Reichsarbeitsdienst The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major paramilitary organization established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the Economy of Nazi Germany, German economy, militarise the wo ...

, the colonisation service was gradually usurped by the Nazi party and Polzin temporarily taken into

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

arrest in 1935, while the Nazis fought the Catholic youth organisations. Hartz1

In early 1945 Prelate Hartz fled – like many other parishioners too – the invading

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and stranded in

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

by the end 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 ...

. 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 to

Allied-occupied Germany The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, Nazi Germany was stripped of its sov ...

in the years between 1945 and 1948 in accordance with the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

. Polzin, who served as priest in Rokitten (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. Cardinal

August Hlond August Hlond, SDB (5 July 1881 – 22 October 1948) was a Polish Salesian prelate who served as Archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno and as Primate of Poland. He was later appointed Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and was made a cardinal of ...

, 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 1945 Edmund Nowicki (1900–1971) with effect of 1 September as administrator for the Prelature and the Diocese of Berlin east of the

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

. Nowicki was titled ''Administrator of Kamień, Lubusz and the Prelature Piła'' (), seated in

Gorzów Wielkopolski Gorzów Wielkopolski (), often abbreviated to Gorzów Wlkp. or simply Gorzów (formerly ), is a city in Geography of Poland, western Poland, located on the Warta, Warta River. It is one of the two principal cities and seats of the Lubusz Voivodes ...

. The anti-clerical communist government under

Bolesław Bierut Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of History of Poland (1945–1989), communist-ruled Poland from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 ...

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 of

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

. In the same year the Schneidemühl Consistory, whose members then lived in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

, then – following

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

– elected Polzin capitular vicar for the vacant see, confirmed by the Holy See on 20 October 1953. In 1956 Teodor Bensch (1903–1958) was appointed administrator of Kamień, Lubusz and the Prelature Piła, succeeded by Józef Michalski (only 1958), and again by Administrator Wilhelm Pluta (1910–1986), Bishop of the titulature of Leptis Magna, serving as administrator until 1972. After Polzin's death the Schneidemühl Consistory had elected Wilhelm Volkmann capitular vicar in 1964, holding that position until 1972.Sabine Voßkamp, ''Katholische Kirche und Vertriebene in Westdeutschland: Integration, Identität und ostpolitischer Diskurs 1945-1972'', Stuttgart:

Kohlhammer Verlag W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-la ...

, 2007, (=Konfession und Gesellschaft; vol. 40), p. 395. . With the reorganisation of the church administration in western Poland in 1972 the Prelature of Piła was dissolved and its diocesan area divided between the Dioceses of Gorzów (since 1992 Zielona Góra-Gorzów) and of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg. The Holy See established the office of a Visitator 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 by Wolfgang Klemp in the years 1982 to 1997. Currently, Lothar Schlegel is entrusted the visitation of the diocesans of Danzig (Gdańsk), Warmia and Schneidemühl living in Germany.Cf
"Zum Geleit", signed by Lothar Schlegel as Visitator Ermland - Danzig - Schneidemühl, subsequent to the Rahmenprogramm (framework programme)
of a pilgrimage, on
''Apostolischer Visitator Ermland''
(official website), retrieved on 13 May 2011. In Fulda former Schneidemühl diocesans run the ''Heimatwerk 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.

Leadership

Administrators of Tütz

*1923–1925: Protonotary Robert Weimann (1870–1925), already archiepiscopal delegate since 1920 *1926–1930: Administrator Maximilian Kaller (1870–1947)

Prelates of Schneidemühl

*1930: Prelate Maximilian Kaller, advanced to Bishop of Ermland *1931–1953: Prelate Franz Hartz (1870–1953)

Capitular Vicars of Schneidemühl

*1953–1964: Ludwig Sebald Polzin (1892–1964) *1964–1972: Wilhelm Volkmann

Apostolic Administrators and Vicars of Kamień, Lubusz and the Prelature of Piła

*1945–1951: Administrator Edmund Nowicki (1900–1971), deposed and banished by

government *1951–1952: Vicar Tadeusz Załuczkowski *1952–1956: Vicar

Zygmunt Szelążek Zygmunt, Zigmunt, Zigmund and spelling variations thereof are masculine given names and occasionally surnames. It has the same etymology as the Germanic name Zigmund. People so named include: Given name Medieval period * Sigismund I the Old (1467� ...

*1956–1958: Administrator Teodor Bensch (1903–1958) *1958: Jozef Michalski *1958–1972: Administrator Wilhelm Pluta (1910–1986), advanced to Bishop of Gorzów

Apostolic Visitators for the exiled Schneidemühl diocesans

*1972–1982: Paul Snowadzki *1982–1997: Wolfgang Klemp *1997–present: Msgr. Lothar Schlegel

Literature

* ''Die Apostolische Administratur Schneidemühl. Ein Buch für das katholische Volk'', Franz Westpfahl (ed.), Schneidemühl: Verlag des Johannesboten, 1928. * ''Kirchliches Handbuch für das katholische Deutschland'', Amtliche Zentralstelle für Kirchliche Statistik des Katholischen Deutschlands (ed.), Cologne: Bachem, 1909–1943, here: vol. 20 '1937/1938' (publ. 1937), vol. 21: '1939/1940' (publ. 1939) and vol. 22 '1943' (publ. 1943).

External links

* Michael Rademacher
"Die Freie Prälatur Schneidemühl"
on
''Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte von der Reichseinigung 1871 bis zur Wiedervereinigung 1990''
retrieved on 23 January 2013

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneidemuhl, Prelature Of Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Poland Christian organizations established in 1923 Religious organizations disestablished in 1972 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 20th century Territorial prelatures