Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin

Coordinates: 52°30′57″N 13°23′41″E / 52.5158°N 13.3947°E / 52.5158; 13.3947
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Archdiocese of Berlin

Archidioecesis Berolinensis

Erzbistum Berlin
St. Peter the Apostle
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
ArchbishopArchbishop Heiner Koch
Auxiliary BishopsMatthias Heinrich
Vicar GeneralThomas Przytarski
Map
Website
erzbistumberlin.de
St. Hedwig's Cathedral

The Archdiocese of Berlin (

archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The archepiscopal see is in Berlin
, with the archdiocese's territory extending over Northeast Germany.

As of 2004, the archdiocese has 386,279 Catholics out of the population of Berlin, most of

Hither Pomerania
, i. e. the German part of Pomerania. This means that a little over 6% of the population in this area is Roman Catholic. There are 122 parishes in the archdiocese.

The current archbishop is Heiner Koch, formerly Bishop of Dresden, who was appointed by Pope Francis on Monday, 8 June 2015, to replace

Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki
, who had earlier been named Archbishop of Cologne.

History

The affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in the

Electorate of Brandenburg
in 1539 and the conversion of the majority of the inhabitants had made the area a Catholic diaspora.

Before the Reformation the westernmost territories of the Berlin diocese were in ecclesiastical respect part of the

Conversion of Pomerania
.

In 1125 Bolesław Wrymouth established the new

Diocese of Lubusz (Lebus) seated in Lubusz (Lebus), with its diocesan territory comprising the Lubusz Land (Land of Lebus), then part of the Polish reign, on both banks of the Oder.[8]
Lebus' diocesan area later formed the southeastern part of the Berlin diocese.

In the late 16th and the 17th centuries the competent dioceses of Brandenburg, Cammin, Havelberg, Lebus, and Roskilde had been secularised, the few Catholics in the area were pastored by the Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern Missions (for the dioceses of Brandenburg, Havelberg and Lebus since 1670; for those of Cammin and Roskilde as of 1688). The Holy See considered the former sees as sedes impeditae. In memory of them, Berlin's archdiocesan coat-of-arms combines the symbols of the dioceses of Brandenburg, Cammin, Havelberg and Lebus.

Treaty of Wehlau
).

Many Roman Catholic dioceses and other jurisdictions had borders deviating from the political boundaries often changing with the many wars in Central Europe. This led to the situation where parts of one diocese or jurisdiction lay in different countries. The territory of pre-1815 Brandenburg (thus without

Breslau's Prince-Episcopal Delegation for Brandenburg and Pomerania

By the Bull "De salute animarum" the other parts of Brandenburg and the Province of Pomerania, except for the districts of

Diocese of Culm), were subordinated to Breslau's jurisdiction as an episcopal delegation in 1821, ending the mandate of the Vicariate Apostolic there. The jurisdiction was titled the Prince-Episcopal Delegation for Brandenburg and Pomerania (German: Fürstbischöfliche Delegatur für Brandenburg und Pommern), since Emanuel von Schimonsky was invested to Breslau's see as prince-bishop in 1824.[13]

In 1821 the Delegation district comprised altogether six established Catholic parishes:.[14]

  • Berlin: St. Hedwig parish, established in 1745, first Roman Catholic mass in 1719,
  • Frankfurt upon Oder
    : Holy Cross parish, established in 1789, first Roman Catholic mass in 1786,
  • Potsdam: Ss. Peter and Paul parish, established in 1789, first Roman Catholic mass in the same year,
  • Spandau: Ss. Peter and Paul parish on Gewehrplan, Haselhorst, established in 1723, first Roman Catholic mass in 1722,
  • Stettin: St. John the Baptist parish, established in 1722, first Roman Catholic mass in 1717,[15]
    and
  • Stralsund: Holy Trinity parish, established in 1784, first Roman Catholic mass in 1761.[16]

Breslau's Prince-Bishop

Jauernig
, where he died on 20 October 1881.

So Pope Leo XIII appointed as his successor Robert Herzog (1882–86), till then Prince-Episcopal Delegate for Brandenburg and Pomerania and provost of St. Hedwig's Church in Berlin. Prince-Bishop Herzog made every endeavour to bring order out of the confusion into which the quarrel with the State during the immediately preceding years had thrown the affairs of the diocese.

Establishment of the Berlin Diocese

According to the

Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl
(German: Prälatur Schneidemühl).

In 1930 the Berlin diocese comprised an area of 60,258 km2 with 531,744 Catholics, making up 7.3% of the total population. They were pastorally served by 262 diocesan priests within 149 parishes and chapels of ease.[9]

After World War II Berlin's diocesan territory east of the

East Brandenburg and central and Farther Pomerania) – with 33 parishes and chapels of ease – came under Polish control. Most of the parishioners and priests there had either fled the invading Soviet Red Army
or were subsequently expelled by Polish authorities.

Cardinal

: Administracja Apostolska Kamieńska, Lubuska i Prałatury Pilskiej).

On 27 June 1972, however, – in response to West Germany's change in

Diocese of Gorzów) and the Farther Pomeranian diocesan area (becoming the new westerly Diocese of Szczecin-Kamień and the easterly Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg).[17]

Modern and contemporary history of the Archdiocese

In 1972 the German part of the Archdiocese of Breslau was also reconstituted as the exempt

Diocese of Dresden-Meißen
.

In 2011,

Rainer Maria Woelki as Archbishop of Berlin and made him a cardinal shortly afterward. In 2012, the Archdiocese announced major structural revisions, merging parishes into larger clusters known as "pastoral areas".[18] In August 2020, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of its existence, the Archdiocese consecrated itself to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.[19]

Ordinaries

Prince-Episcopal Delegates for Brandenburg and Pomerania

The delegate was combined in

provostry
of St. Hedwig's in Berlin.

  • 1821–1823 – Johann Ambros(ius) Taube (Silesia, *1778 – 22 April 1823*, Berlin),[20] provost of St. Hedwig since 1810
  • 1824–1826 – Hubert Auer (Bingen, *1 May 1780 – 17 February 1838*, Trier)
  • 1827–1829 – Nikolaus Fischer as administrator per pro
  • 1829–1836 – Nikolaus Fischer (*1791– 18 April 1858*, Frankenstein in Schlesien)
  • 1836–1849 – Georg Anton Brinkmann (Billerbeck, *15 October 1796 – 7 May 1856*, Münster in Westphalia)
  • 1849–1850 –
    Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler
  • 1850–1859 – Leopold Pelldram (Schweidnitz, *3 May 1811 – 3 May 1867*, Trier)
  • 1860–1870 – Franz Xaver Karker
  • 1870–1882 – Robert Herzog (Schönwalde bei Frankenstein, * 17 February 1823 – 26 December 1886*, Breslau)
  • 1882–1888 – Johannes Baptist Maria Assmann (Branitz, *26 August 1833 – 27 May 1903*, Ahrweiler)
  • 1889–1897 – Joseph Jahnel (*1834–1897*, Berlin)
  • 1887–1905 – Karl Neuber (*1841–1905*)
  • 1905–1920 – Carl Kleineidam (Hohengiersdorf, *1848–1924*, Giersdorf)
  • 1920–1929 – Josef Deitmer (Münster in Westphalia, *12 August 1865 – 16 January 1929*, Berlin)
  • 1929–1930 – Christian Schreiber, Bishop of Meissen, as administrator of the future diocese of Berlin[21]

Famous people of the Berlin Archdiocese

References

  1. Archdiocese of Mainz
    till 968 and then of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, which had more suffragans too.
  2. Archdiocese of Lund
    .
  3. .
  4. ^ Kołobrzeg had initially been a suffragan, among others, of the Archdiocese of Gniezno.
  5. ^ Since 1972 there has been the Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg recalling the latter name.
  6. ^ L. Fabiańczyk, Apostoł Pomorza, s. 38.
  7. ^ Lebus had initially been suffragan, among others, of the Archdiocese of Gniezno till 1424. After Lubusz Land had been taken over by Brandenburg in 1248, the diocese switched from Gniezno to Magdeburg in 1424.
  8. ^ a b Cf. article Geschichte on Diözesanarchiv Berlin, retrieved on 3 April 2010.
  9. ^ Breslau had initially been another of Gniezno's suffragans.
  10. Schaumburg-Lippe
    .
  11. ^ The Duchy of Racibórz itself had been transferred from Poland to Bohemia in 1327.
  12. ex officio a seat in the Prussian House of Lords and the Silesian Parliament in Opava, but not a territory of secular rule, as used to be the case with earlier prince-bishops
    .
  13. .
  14. curacies in Pomeranian villages of prevailing Catholic population: Augustwalde (a part of today's Szczecin), Blumenthal (a part of today's Ferdinandshof), Hoppenwalde (a part of today's Eggesin), Louisenthal and Viereck
    .
  15. ^ Paulus Episcopus servus servorum Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam: Constititio Apostolica Vratislaviensis - Berolinensis et aliarium, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 64 (1972), n. 10, pp. 657seq.
  16. ^ Luxmoore, Jonathan (1 March 2018). "One of Germany's oldest dioceses to reduce parishes by 80 per cent". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Erzbistum Berlin: Weihe des Bistums a die heiligsten Herzen Jesu und Mariä".
  18. ^ Cf. "Johann Ambrosius Taube", in: Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen, Friedrich August Schmidt (ed.), vol. 1 (1824), pp. 821seq.
  19. ^ Cf. "Berlin, Bistum" in: Visitatur Breslau: Schlesien in Kirche und Welt, Lexikon B. Retrieved on 21 April 2010.

Further reading

  • Bilger, Waltraud; Hanky, Dieter (1997). Erzbistum Berlin 1930–1996: Daten, Fakten, Zahlen (2nd, revised and ext. ed.). Berlin: Pressestelle des Erzbistums Berlin.
  • Jablonski, Leo (1929). Geschichte des fürstbischöflichen Delegaturbezirks Brandenburg und Pommern. 2 vols. Breslau.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Vol. 1: Die äußere Entwicklung; vol. 2: Die innere Entwicklung.

52°30′57″N 13°23′41″E / 52.5158°N 13.3947°E / 52.5158; 13.3947