Polish traditions in Catholic churches of the Ruhr area

Ruhr-Polish pastoral care in conflict
 

The pastoral ministry saw a huge social challenge in the large influx of religious immigrants. After all, the life of miners and steelworkers was characterised by hard and dangerous work in shift operations, by often insufficient living conditions, by the feeling of being uprooted, and by loneliness in the vast tumult of the dirty and poisoned urban landscape. The local population especially distrusted the new arrivals from Poland, accusing them stereotypically of foolish behaviour, carelessness, mendacity, laziness and alcoholism. The colourful clothing of Polish women was considered tasteless and their housekeeping as disorderly.

Around 1900, especially in the northern Ruhr area, there were essentially “Polish mines” in which Polish-speaking miners made up more than 50 % of the labourers. This meant that Polish dominated in numbers in some church parishes, for example in the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Bottrop [ . ], which was met with irritation from residents who had lived there a long time. Polish majorities in elected church committees were ignored or sabotaged. Established church associations resisted accepting foreign-speaking new citizens. This is also one of the reasons a specifically Polish association emerged around the church, although the German town pastor or his chaplain presided over this. [ . ] 

The use of the Polish language in church services developed into a key area of conflict. Religious services in the Ruhr area were initially carried out by secular priests of Polish nationality who had been recruited from the Prussian eastern provinces. They lived in the Redemptorist Monastery, from which the German padres had been expelled in the course of the 1873 Prussian “cultural battle” [ . ], and from there visited individual parishes. The peak of this pastoral care were multiple-day Polish “people’s missions” with a wide-ranging offer of celebrations of Mass, confessionals, and religious instruction.

In the eastern Ruhr area, Franciszek Liss, the founder of, for example, the popular newspaper “Wiarus Polski” was particularly busy since 1890. However, he soon came under suspicion – and not entirely without justification – of acting in Polish national interests. This led the Prussian authorities to dismiss the busy pastor from the Bishop of Paderborn in 1894. For some time after, regional pastoral care for the Ruhr Poles was provided by German secular priests, and as of 1900 by Upper Silesian padres from the Dortmund Franciscan monastery [ . ] who first had to acquire the necessary language skills. These clerics were quickly suspected of wanting to Germanise the Polish parishioners on behalf of the state with the help of the pastor and were therefore often distrusted and rejected.

Despite this conflict, Polish parishioners and Polish associations were often involved in building and furnishing churches in the Ruhr area. There are records of financial donations to, for example, Dortmund (Franciscan Monastery, Holy Trinity Church), Gelsenkirchen-Schalke and Recklinghausen-Bruch. In Bottrop-Eigen and Bottrop-Batenbrock Polish parishioners also supported such projects with their labour. Pensioners supplied bricks and sand, and miners helped physically with construction after their shift. 

To furnish the churches Ruhr-Polish parishioners and associations donated multiple altars to, for example, churches in Dortmund-Eving (St. Barbara), Herne (St. Bonifatius), Duisburg-Laar (St. Ewaldi) und Castrop-Rauxel-Schwerin (St. Francis). The donation of confessional booths mostly took place on the occasion of a Ruhr-Polish mission. Examples of this are documented, for example, for Dortmund (St. Apostles), Dortmund-Marten (Holy Family), Herne-Börnig (St. Peter and Paul), Oberhausen-Osterfeld (St. Pankratius) and Duisburg-Meiderich (St. Michael). These confessional booths were then also used by Polish pastors and parishioners after the people’s mission.

Mission crosses with Polish inscriptions were sometimes donated to commemorate such events, for example to Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck (St. Francis), Recklinghausen-Hillerheide (St. Gertrudis) and Dortmund-Nette (St. Joseph). Some priests to whom the Polish community members felt especially connected received liturgical items as a gift, e.g. Communion chalices or containers for Communion bread in Witten (Church of Our Lady) and Dortmund (St. Anna, Holy Trinity Church). There are only a few of these donations left in the Ruhr area. These objects are presented further below. [ ., ., ., ., ., . ]