The Wendish Research Exchange - Pech, Edmund: The Church Life of Lutheran Sorbs in Silesia during the Weimar Republic

Lětopis Abstract 2016 1: Pech, Edmund: The Church Life of Lutheran Sorbs in Silesia during the Weimar Republic

During the Imperial period the Sorbian language was exposed to extensive repressive measures in the ecclesiastical province of Silesia. Together with other measures, the ban on confirmation instruction in Sorbian by the Lutheran Consistory in Breslau was a contributory factor. It was possible for this restriction to be lifted after the First World War. In addition, the pastors and cantors received supplementary payments from 1920 onwards, called a “Wend allowance,” to compensate them for the additional linguistic burden. At the beginning of the 1920s there were 17 parishes within the Lutheran Consistory in Silesia, in which sermons were still delivered in Sorbian. However, the increasing lack of Sorbian candidates for ecclesiastical office presented a large problem. The number of new Sorbian pastors went down significantly despite financial subsidies from the Lutheran Consistory in Breslau for Sorbian language courses and grants for theological students. At the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s a large number of Sorbian Lutheran pastors in Prussian Upper Lusatia were in line for retirement, without it being possible to find suitable new Sorbian candidates for the positions, which became vacant.