Breyer the Researcher

Research for the Heimat

As a teacher Albert Breyer belonged to the intellectuals among the German minor­ity in Poland. Already during his stay at St. Petersburg (1913-1918) Breyer got in contact with the publication Geistiges Leben, a monthly periodical for the Germans in Russia. This periodical was initiated by two idealistic teachers from the Do­briner Land and was published in Łódź by Adolf Eichler and Ludwig Wolff. It's sub­ject were the hardships of teachers who had been sent to backward colonies. It supported in a somewhat idealistic way their striving for intellectual challenge, in­formed about recent teaching methods and also covered the latest developments in questions of the German and Lutheran minorities in Łódź, Poland and Russia.

This publication must have had great impact on the young teacher Albert Breyer. He could easily identify himself and his situation in most of the raised questions and issues.

Returned to Łódź, Albert Breyer got in touch with Adolf Eichler.

Adolf Eichler, who lived in Łódź, was one of the leading characters within the movement of the ethnic Germans in Łódź. He published the daily newspaper Lodzer Rundschau and published during World War I the Deutsche Post and the monthly periodical Geistiges Leben. Adolf Eichler was also the founder of the Deutsch-Evangelischer Landesschulverband and the Deutsch-Katholischer Landesschulver­band, he was a member of the board of trustees of the Deutsches Lehrerseminar, founder of the Deutscher Verein für Lodz und Umgebung, chairman of the board of the Deutsche Selbsthilfe and manager of the Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank (German Cooperative Bank) at Łódź. In 1917 Adolf Eichler caused the summoning of the Lodzer Synode, which was meant to replace the old Russian church law of 1849 by a new law that would consoli­date the German character of the Augsburgian church in Poland. The plan did not succeed and raised the argument within the Augsburgian church, later known as Kirchenkampf (church conflict).

Adolf Eichlers activities were sponsored by the industry of the German Reich[1].

The goal of the German movement in Łódź which had been initiated by Adolf Eichler was to 'awaken and strengthen the feeling of national identity among the Lutheran Germans in Congress Poland'[2]. To do so, the awareness of German culture, German language and the Lutheran faith - considered to be a German characteristic - was supported. These measures were completed by the research of local history, which should show the roots and the development of the Germans in Central Poland.

In Albert Breyer Adolf Eichler found a devoted follower. Eichler made good use of Breyer's commitment and motivation.

In 1919 Adolf Eichler left Łódź for political reasons After that the movement of the Germans in Łódź was continued by a group of intellectuals. Among them Albert Breyer and his friend and fellow teacher Julian Will.

The organs of the Łódź movement at the time of Albert Breyer were the Lodzer freie Presse and the Volksfreund-Kalender. Most of Breyer's early political and historic articles were published there.

Albert Breyer's commitment for the conflict within the Augsburgian church resulted in his participation in the attempt of some German Pastors to found a Lutheran Free Church in Poland. Albert Breyer and Julian Will contacted Adolf Eichler, who was at that time operating in East Prussia. They asked him to support this project. Eichler found them a private sponsor in East Prussia. After first contacts to the Lutheran church in America, two German Pastors traveled for six months trough America to rise more funds. Julian Will was trained in Berlin as a Free Church Pastor. After this the activities were suddenly stopped[3].

Jutta Dennerlein - April 2007