History of Lutheran Parishes in Podolia
Quick Jump Down To The Parishes:
Nemirow • Dunajewzy
The Lutheran Parishes of Podolia
(Courtesy of Richard Benert)
The Parish of Nemirow (1782)
This parish covered all of Podolia except for the Parish of Dunajewzy, which was formed in 1864. It was established in 1782 by Graf Vinzent Porocki, the Polish Lord of the Royal Chamber (Kronkammerherr). A church was built by 1801, but it, along with the rectory and school, was destroyed by fire in 1811. The fire also destroyed much of the town. Recovery was difficult and the population (largely cloth and leather workers) declined to a low of 65. Even the pastor lived elsewhere for a time. A new rectory was built in 1821, followed by a new brick church in 1842, built by Graf Boleslaw Potocki. The cantorate then burned down in 1870, and was rebuilt, with donations from Graf Stroganow and the Consistory’s Sustentation Fund, in 1881.
In 1846 a brick church was built in Kamenka (about 60 miles from Nemirow) by the family of the dying General Fieldmarshal Wittgenstein, who was subsequently buried there. It was renovated in 1901 by Prince Wittgenstein, its patron.
As of 1905, this parish served approximately 2,000 ethnic German parishioners.
The Pastors of Nemirow Parish
S. v. Friedrich Ceruli, 1784-1788
Samuel Karstadt, 1790-1798
Johann Christoph Rössner, 1801-1818
Karl Benjamin Braumühler, 1875-1881
August Heinrich Wolledyt, 1859-1875
Paul Guntbert Christian Baumann, 1875-1881
Adrian Schulz, 1882-1885
Karl Bauer, 1886-1899
Alexander Bergengrün, 1899-1910
Ludwig Haenschke, 1914-1917
Evangelical Congregations in Nemirow Parish
Bandyschewka (a mill-town)
Derebtschin (a Gut)
Dshurin (rental colony in uezd Jampol)
Kamenka (rental colony in uezd Olgopol) (had a church-school)
Komargorod (a Gut)
Krasnodol (landowner colony in uezd Jampol) (had a chapel and church-school)
Medshibosh (military camp)
Mohilew
Moina (rental colony in uezd Balta) (had a chapel and church-school)
Nemirow ( uezd Braslaw) (had a church-school)
Shmerinka
Sobolewka (cloth-making colony)
Trostjanez (cloth-making colony)
Winniza
Wolotschysk (border town)
The Parish of Dunajewzy (1864)
This parish lay in the uezd Uschiza and Kamenez. Early in the 19th century, German artisans settled in Dunajewzy, about 20 miles from Kamenez. They were served by the pastor from Nemirow. Following the Polish uprising of 1831, General-Adjutant Graf Krassinske acquired 35 cloth-workers and their families from Posen, Brandenburg, Silesia, Saxony and Württemberg on the promise of a church and a pastor for themselves. Hindered in his plans, he sold Dunajewzy to a Polish nobleman, Bronislaw Stibinewski. The purchase price included 13,000 Rubles for the construction of a church and rectory. Forced by the law to honor his contract, Stibinewski did build the church and became its patron. After seven years of work, it was dedicated in 1866. It seated 520. By decree of the Minister of the Interior, Dunajewzy, along with the neighboring city of Kamenez-Podolsk, became an independent parish in 1864. A rectory was completed in Dunajewzy in 1870. A stone church seating 150 was built in Kamenez-Podolsk in 1900. Altogether there were about 1,000 parishioners in this parish in 1904. About 900 lived in Dunajewzy, 150 in Kamenez-Podolsk, and about 14 in the town of Gorodok. The parish’s church-school was in Dunajewzy.
Pastors of Dunajewzy Parish:
Johann Christoph Rössner, 1806-1818
Karl Benjamin Braumühler, 1830-1839
Gustav Winter, 1852-1863
vacant--served by Pastor Wolleydt from Nemirow, 1863-1864
Franz Emil Hackmann, 1864-1868
vacant--served by Wolleydt, 1868-1869
Karl Balson, 1869-1875
vacant--served by Pastor Baumann from Nemirow, 1875-1881
Karl Julius Johansen, 1882-1885
vacant--served by Pastors Schultz and Bauer from Nemirow, 1885-1887
Nikolaus Adolf Tomberg, 1887-1926
vacant--served by organist Oswald Exner, 1926-1932
Note: Nearly all this information is taken from Die Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinden in Russland. Eine historisch-statistische Darstellung, ed. by the Central Committee of the Sustentation Fund for the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches in Russia, (St. Petersburg, 1909), pp. 225-229. The pastors after 1909 are listed in Hugo Karl Schmidt, Die evangelisch-lutherische Kirche in Wolhynien (Marburg, 1992), pp. 73-74.