Lutheran Parishes in 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

1782 – 1790 S. v. Friedrich CERULI
1790 – 1798 Samuel KARSTADT
1801 – 1818 Johann Christoph RÖSSNER
1819 – 1859 Karl Benjamin BRAUMÜHLER
1859 – 1875 August Heinrich WOLLEYDT
1875 – 1881 Paul Guntbert Christian BAUMANN
1882 – 1885 Adrian SCHULZ
1886 – 1899 Karl Gustav BAUER
1899 – 1910 Alexander BERGENGRÜN
1914 – 1917 Ludwig HAENSCHKE

Evangelical Congregations in Nemirow Parish

Bandyschewka (a mill town)
Banduschewka
Beloje
Bortniki
Brailow
Bratzlaw
Chmelnik
Choschtschewata
Derebtschik
Derebtschin / Chutor Derebtschin (a Gut)
Dshurin (renters colony in Ujesd Jampol)
Fedorowka
Jampol Podolski
Kaljatinka
Kamenka (renters colony in Ujesd Olgopol, with a church school)
Kapustjani
Komargorod (a Gut)
Kowalewka
Krasnodol / Krasnodolja (land owner colony in Ujesd Jampol with a chapel and church school)
Ladischin
Medshibosh (military camp)
Michalewka
Mohilew / Mogilew Podolski
Moina (renters colony in Ujesd Balta with a chapel and church school)
Nemertschi
Nemirow (in Ujesd Braslaw, with a church school)
Obuchow
Pissarewka
Proskurow
Sjatkowtzi / Kjatkowtzi
Shmerinka
Sitkowtzi
Sobolewka (cloth making colony)
Sutisk
Trostjanez (cloth making colony)
Tschetschelnik
Tschernewtzi
Tschernjatin
Tultschin
Winniza
Woimowtzi
Wolotschysk (border town)
Woronowitza

 

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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

1806 – 1818 Johann Christoph RÖSSNER
1830 – 1839 Karl Benjamin BRAUMÜHLER
1852 – 1863 Gustav WINTER
1863 – 1864 vakant (served by Pastor WOLLEYDT from Nemirow)
1864 – 1868 Franz Emil HACKMANN
1868 – 1869 vacant (served by Pastor WOLLEYDT)
1869 – 1875 Karl BALSON
1875 – 1881 vakant (served by Pastor BAUMANN from Nemirow)
1882 – 1885 Karl Julius JOHANSEN
1885 – 1887 vakant (served by SCHULTZ und BAUER from Nemirow)
1887 – 1926 Nikolaus Adolf TOMBERG
1926 – 1932 vacant (served by the organist Oswald EXNER)

 

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.

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