Pastor Andrzej Krzywoń (Andreas Krzywon), Moravian-Silesian Superintendent, and His Attitude towards National Issues
Pastor Andrzej Krzywoń (Andreas Krzywon), Moravian-Silesian Superintendent, and His Attitude towards National Issues

Summary/Abstract: The article presents a biography of Andrzej Krzywoń (1844–1911), a pastor in Międzyrzecze and Skoczów in Cieszyn Silesia, a Silesian senior, and from 1909 a Moravian-Silesian superintendent. He was one of the most important figures in the The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Habsburg Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. I pay special attention to his attitude towards national issues. Krzywoń came from an ethnically Polish family, he studied in Vienna and Heidelberg. After returning to Cieszyn Silesia, he became involved with the (pro)German faction, similarly to most pastors in the region. In elections for Silesian senior he even obtained the support of proponents of the Polish national movement. After being elected in 1909 as Moravian-Silesian superintendent, he abandoned political neutrality and actively combated the Polish national movement. His biography is an example of the radicalization of political moods in the Habsburg Empire. It also illustrates the attitudes of the majority of Lutheran pastors in Cieszyn Silesia. Until now, there was a false conviction among researchers that that in this region, Lutherans in general supported the Polish national movement, and the Catholics supported the German party.

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