Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin
Archdiocese of Berlin Archidioecesis Berolinensis Erzbistum Berlin | |
---|---|
St. Peter the Apostle | |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Archbishop | Archbishop Heiner Koch |
Auxiliary Bishops | Matthias Heinrich |
Vicar General | Thomas Przytarski |
Map | |
Website | |
erzbistumberlin.de |
The Archdiocese of 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
The current archbishop is Heiner Koch, formerly Bishop of Dresden, who was appointed by Pope Francis on Monday, 8 June 2015, to replace
History
The affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in the
Before the Reformation the westernmost territories of the Berlin diocese were in ecclesiastical respect part of the
In 1125 Bolesław Wrymouth established the new
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.
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
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
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
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
Cardinal
On 27 June 1972, however, – in response to West Germany's change in
Modern and contemporary history of the Archdiocese
In 1972 the German part of the Archdiocese of Breslau was also reconstituted as the exempt
In 2011,
Ordinaries
- Christian Schreiber (13 August 1930 appointed – 1 September 1933 died)
- Nikolaus Bares (27 October 1933 appointed – 1 March 1935 died)
- Konrad Cardinal von Preysing Lichtenegg-Moos (5 July 1935 appointed – 21 December 1950 died)
- Wilhelm Weskamm (4 June 1951 appointed – 21 August 1956 died)
- Julius August Cardinal Döpfner (15 January 1957 appointed – 3 July 1961 appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising)
- Alfred Cardinal Bengsch (16 August 1961 appointed (later had the personal title of Archbishop) – 13 December 1979 died)
- Joachim Cardinal Meisner (22 April 1980 appointed – 20 December 1988 appointed Archbishop of Cologne)
- Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky (28 May 1989 appointed – 24 February 2011 retired)
- Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki (2 July 2011 – 20 September 2014 installed Archbishop of Cologne)
- Heiner Koch (appointed 8 June 2015, installed on 19 September 2015)
Prince-Episcopal Delegates for Brandenburg and Pomerania
The delegate was combined in
- 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
- Joseph Ahrens
- Eva-Maria Buch
- Alfred Delp
- August Froehlich, priest active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, protector of Polish forced laborers, martyred in the Dachau concentration camp
- Romano Guardini
- Paul Lejeune-Jung
- Bernhard Lichtenberg, blessed priest and theologian, active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations
- Josef Lenzel, priest active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, helped the Polish forced laborers, martyred in the Dachau concentration camp
- Michael Graf von Matuschka
- Max Josef Metzger
- Herbert Simoleit
- Margarete Sommer, awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations
- Carl Sonnenschein
- Maria Terwiel
- Albert Willimsky, priest active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, protector of Polish forced laborers, martyred in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
- Josef Wirmer
References
- Archdiocese of Mainztill 968 and then of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, which had more suffragans too.
- Archdiocese of Lund.
- ISBN 978-3-356-01044-2.
- ISBN 3-931185-07-9
- ^ Kołobrzeg had initially been a suffragan, among others, of the Archdiocese of Gniezno.
- ^ Since 1972 there has been the Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg recalling the latter name.
- ^ L. Fabiańczyk, Apostoł Pomorza, s. 38.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Cf. article Geschichte on Diözesanarchiv Berlin, retrieved on 3 April 2010.
- ^ Breslau had initially been another of Gniezno's suffragans.
- Schaumburg-Lippe.
- ^ The Duchy of Racibórz itself had been transferred from Poland to Bohemia in 1327.
- 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.
- ISBN 3-412-04100-9.
- 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.
- ISBN 3-8334-1292-5
- ^ Paulus Episcopus servus servorum Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam: Constititio Apostolica Vratislaviensis - Berolinensis et aliarium, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 64 (1972), n. 10, pp. 657seq.
- ^ Luxmoore, Jonathan (1 March 2018). "One of Germany's oldest dioceses to reduce parishes by 80 per cent". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
- ^ "Erzbistum Berlin: Weihe des Bistums a die heiligsten Herzen Jesu und Mariä".
- ^ Cf. "Johann Ambrosius Taube", in: Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen, Friedrich August Schmidt (ed.), vol. 1 (1824), pp. 821seq.
- ^ 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.