The Lutheran parish of Gąbin

Name:

Gąbin / Gombin

Location:

17 km south of Płock

Established:

1829

The church at Gombin before the tower was added in 1911 - after a photograph in the Weichselbote

Pastors:

Wilhelm Nathanael Ernst Bando (1831-1875),

Theodor Kunzmann (1876-1921),

Philipp Schmidt (1921-1923),

Bruno Löffler (1923-1929),

Bruno Gutknecht (1930-1939)

History:

Around 1820 the city of Gąbin has been a town with a significant majority of Jewish inhabitants (75%), but also Catholic and Lutheran inhabitants.

In the surrounding areas of Gąbin the settlement of German colonists started after 1750:

• 1759 in Deutsch-Wiączemin, Troszyn Niemiecki, Borki and Kępa Tokary;
• 1769 in Sady;
• 1772 in Deutsch-Grabie;
• 1800 the Swabian settlement of Leonberg/Lwówek was founded.

After 1820 the settlement of German cloth workers increases the number of Lutheran inhabitants of the city of Gąbin.

In 1829 the Lutherans of the Vistula villages, the Lutherans of Gąbin and the Lutherans of Leonberg join to form the Lutheran parish of Gąbin.

Before the founding of the Gąbin parish the Vistula villages had belonged to the Iłow parish. But births, marriages and deaths often were registered in nearby Catholic communities like Troszyn, Zyck, Czermno or Dobrzyków.

1827-1829 a stone church and a parsonage were built in Gąbin.

In Świniary there existed a Lutheran and a Baptist chapel.

In Wiączemin a new stone church was built in 1935 after the vistula flood of 1924 had destroyed the foundations of the old church.

Gable of the Wiączemin Church - Photo by: Annegret Krause, 2002

Rinas gravestones in Wiączemin - Photo by: Annegret Krause, 2002

In Szczawin an Assembly and prayer house existed since 1938.

Since 1938 Troszyn had a small church with a bell tower.

In Deutsch-Wymyśle there were view Lutheran families and a majority of Mennonite families.

The Lutheran church in Gąbin had been destroyed in 1939. The cemetery can still be found.

In 1867 there were 10 German schools, 10 Teachers and 612 pupils.

Under the restrictive minority politics of Jozef Pilsudski the German schools were closed or transformed to Polish schools.

Till 1939 all German schools within the area of the Gąbin parish had vanished.

School building and Church of Wiączemin - Photo by: Annegret Krause, 2002

Sources:

Eduard Kneifel: Die evangelisch-augsburgischen Gemeinden in Polen 1555-1939

Bruno Gutknecht: Kirchengemeinde Gombin, Gąbin: Zur 100 Jahr Feier der Kircheneinweihung 1932

Annegret's aunt Amanda