Editing Maximilian Kaller

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
[[File:Maximilian Kaller.jpg|thumb|Maximilian Kaller]]
[[File:Maximilian Kaller Frauenburger Dom.jpg|thumb|Bust of Kaller in [[Frombork]]'s [[Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Andrew, Frombork]].]]
'''Maximilian Kaller''' (10 October 1880 – 7 July 1947) was Roman Catholic [[List of bishops of Warmia|Bishop of Ermland]] ({{langx|pl|Warmia}}) in [[East Prussia]] from 1930 to 1947. However, ''de facto'' expelled from mid-August 1945, he was a special bishop for the homeland-expellees until his death.

==Early life==
Kaller was born in [[Bytom|Beuthen (Bytom)]], [[Province of Silesia|Prussian Silesia]], into a merchant family, the second of eight children. With the population of Beuthen being of German and Polish ethnicity he grew up bilingual in German and [[Polish language|Polish]]. He graduated from the ''[[Gymnasium (Germany)|Gymnasium]]'' in 1899 with ''[[Abitur]]'' and started theological studies in [[Wrocław|Breslau]] (today's Wrocław) at the [[episcopal see]] of his then home [[Prince-Bishopric of Breslau]]. There he was consecrateda  priest in 1903.<ref name="Visitator Kaller">[http://www.visitator-ermland.de/txt/kalermax.htm "Bischof Maximilian Kaller"], ''Apostolischer Visitator Ermland'', the website of the Apostolic Visitator for the Ermland Diocesans in Germany.</ref>

He was the chaplain in the parish of [[Strzelce Opolskie|Groß Strehlitz]] (today's Strzelce Opolskie) in the Breslau diocese.<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/> Between 1905 and 1917, he practised as a missionary priest at St. Boniface parish in [[Bergen auf Rügen|Bergen]] on [[Rügen]] Island in the [[Hither Pomerania]]n Catholic [[diaspora]] within Breslau's [[Prince-Episcopal Delegation for Brandenburg and Pomerania]]. He raised the necessary donations to erect St. Boniface Church there in 1912.<ref>Cf. [http://www.katholischekirche-ruegen.de/kaller/index.php "Maximilian Kaller"], ''Katholische Kirchengemeinde St. Bonifatius'', website of St. Boniface parish in Bergen on Rügen.</ref> From 1917, he was the priest at Berlin's second oldest Catholic Church, [[Saint Michael's church, Berlin|Saint Michael's Garrison Church]].<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/>

==Career as prelate and bishop==
In 1926, he succeeded Robert Weimann (1870–1925) as [[Apostolic Administrator]] of [[Piła|Schneidemühl]] (today's Piła).<ref name="May 175">Georg May, ''[[Ludwig Kaas]]: der Priester, der Politiker und der Gelehrte aus der Schule von Ulrich Stutz'': 3 vols., Amsterdam: Grüner, 1981–1982 (Kanonistische Studien und Texte; vols. 33–35), vol. 1, p. 175. {{ISBN|90-6032-197-9}}.</ref> Kaller's jurisdiction comprised Catholic parishes of the [[Bishopric of Culm (Chełmno)|dioceses of Chełmno]] and [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno|of Gniezno]][[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poznań|-Poznań]], which had been separated from their episcopal sees by the new Polish border in 1918 and 1920, respectively.<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/> On Kaller's instigation, the seat of the apostolic administration had been moved from [[Tuczno|Tütz (Tuczno)]] to Schneidemühl on 1 July 1926.<ref name="May 175"/>

Following the [[Free State of Prussia (1918–1933)|Prussian]] [[Concordat]] ({{langx|de|link=no|Preußenkonkordat}}) of 1929, some Catholic dioceses and jurisdictions in [[Northern Germany|Northern]], [[Central Germany (cultural area)|Middle]] and [[former eastern territories of Germany|Eastern Germany]] had been reorganised. In 1930, the Apostolic Administration of [[Tuczno|Tütz]] was reconstituted as the [[Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl]] ({{langx|de|link=no|Freie Prälatur Schneidemühl}}, {{langx|pl|Prałatura Pilska}}, existing until 1972, and from 1945 under apostolic administrators) with Kaller being promoted to prelate.

On 2 September 1930, Kaller was invested as bishop of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Warmia|Roman Catholic Diocese of Ermland]] (an archdiocese since 1992) by [[Pope Pius XI]] and consecrated in Schneidemühl, afterwards taking the episcopal see in Frauenburg (today's Frombork).<ref name="Hierarchy Kaller">Cf. [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bkaller.html "Bishop Maximilian Josef Johannes Kaller †"], ''Catholic Hierarchy''</ref> [[Franz Hartz]] succeeded Kaller as Prelate of Schneidemühl.
[[File:Grab Bischof Kaller und Bischof Kindermann in Königstein i. Ts..JPG|thumb|Grave of Maximilian Kaller – with bishop Adolf Kindermann in [[Königstein im Taunus]]]]

From 1925, Ermland diocese comprised all of the [[Free State of Prussia (1918–1933)|Prussian]] [[Province of East Prussia]] in its borders of 1938. In the year of Kaller's investiture, his diocese, which had turned [[Exemption (church)|exempt]] in 1566 when its original [[Metropolis (religious jurisdiction)|metropolitan]] [[Archbishopric of Riga]], had become [[Lutheran]] and was ''de jure'' dissolved, became again [[suffragan]] to an archdiocese. Ermland diocese, together with the new [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin|Berlin diocese]] and Schneidemühl prelature joined the new [[Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province]] ({{langx|de|link=no|Ostdeutsche Kirchenprovinz}}) under the newly elevated [[Metropolitan bishop|Metropolitan]] Archbishop [[Adolf Bertram]] of Breslau.

In 1932, Kaller consecrated the new diocesan [[seminary]] for priests in [[Braniewo|Braunsberg in East Prussia (today's Braniewo)]]. Under his jurisdiction, Ermland diocese issued a new diocesan [[hymnal]] and a diocesan ritual (cf. [[Rituale Romanum]]) in Latin and the three native languages of the diocesan [[parishioner]]s (German, [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] and Polish).<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/> Kaller was also appointed [[apostolic visitator]] to the then 8,000 Catholic faithful in [[Memelland]], a Lithuanian-annexed formerly East Prussian area, whose then four Catholic parishes had been seceded from Ermland diocese and subsequently formed part of the Territorial Prelature of [[Klaipėda|Memel]] (Klaipėda)]], {{langx|de|link=no|Freie Prälatur Memel}}; {{langx|lt|Klaipėdos prelatūra}}; {{langx|la|Praelatura Territorialis Klaipedensis}}) existing between 1926 and 1991.<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/>

Kaller and other members of the German Catholic and Protestant Churches formulated their opposition to the policy of [[Nazi mysticism]] early on (cf. [[Kirchenkampf|Struggle of the churches]]). German clergy who opposed [[Adolf Hitler]] or supported refugees were strongly persecuted under the Nazi dictatorship. On 10 June 1939, [[Pope Pius XII]] appointed Kaller apostolic administrator of the Territorial Prelature of Memel, after [[Lithuania]] had ceded [[Memelland]] under German pressure to [[Nazi Germany]] in March the same year.<ref name="Hierarchy Kaller"/> In 1942, Kaller applied to [[Nuncio]] [[Cesare Orsenigo]] to resign from episcopate in order to administer services at [[Terezín|Theresienstadt]], but his wish was not granted.<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/>

On 7 February 1945, during World War II, the [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[Schutzstaffel]] forced Kaller out of his episcopal office while the Soviet [[Red Army]] was overrunning Ermland diocese.<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/> Kaller had appointed Frauenburg's Cathedral dean Aloys Marquardt (1891–1972) as [[vicar general]] to the see.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jerzy Pietrzak|url=http://www.tchr.org/hlond/www/book/hlond05.htm |title=Działalność kard. Augusta Hlonda jako wysłannika papieskiego na Ziemiach Odzyskanych w 1945 r. |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718075623/http://www.tchr.org/hlond/www/book/hlond05.htm |archivedate=18 July 2011|chapter=Początki polskiego duszpasterstwa na ziemiach zachodnich}}</ref>

==After World War II==
After World War II, [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|most Germans were expelled]] to [[Allied-occupied Germany]], including Marquardt who had to leave in July. Frauenburg's [[cathedral chapter]] then elected the aged Canon Johannes (Jan) Hanowski, a German of Polish ethnicity and long-term archpriest of [[Olsztyn|Allenstein]] (today's Olsztyn), as [[capitular vicar]], i.e. provisional head of the see, on 28 July 1945.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja">{{cite book|author=Jerzy Pietrzak|url=http://www.tchr.org/hlond/www/book/hlond05.htm|title=Działalność kard. Augusta Hlonda jako wysłannika papieskiego na ziemiach odzyskanych w 1945 r. |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718075623/http://www.tchr.org/hlond/www/book/hlond05.htm |archivedate=18 July 2011 |chapter=Rezygnacja niemieckich hierarchów z jurysdykcji}}</ref>

Kaller, who had been stranded by the end of the war in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle upon Saale]], made his {{convert|720|km|mi|adj=on}}-long way back to his see and arrived on one of the first nights of August 1945 in Allenstein/Olsztyn, taking on the jurisdiction from Hanowski. He started to develop new plans for his diocese especially aiming at overcoming the nationalist antagonism between Catholics of the German and Polish languages, reshaping the diocese in the spirit of German-Polish reconciliation.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/> He appointed Franciszek Borowiec, his close collaborator, as new vicar general for the Diocesan area under Polish occupation and Paul Hoppe (1900–1988), [[Königsberg|Königsberg in Prussia]] (today's [[Kaliningrad]]), as vicar general for the diocesan area under Soviet occupation.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/><ref name="Visitator Hoppe">[http://www.visitator-ermland.de/txt/hopepaul.htm "Paul Hoppe"], ''Apostolischer Visitator Ermland, the website of the Apostolic Visitator for the Ermland Diocesans in Germany.</ref>

Kaller further appointed an ethnic Pole as new [[provost (religion)|cathedral provost]], since his predecessor provost, Franz Xaver Sander (also [[Official#Ecclesiastical judiciary|official]]), and five more fellow cathedral canons had been killed by the invading Soviets. (The other killed canons were Andreas Hinzmann, Dr. Franz Heyduschka, Dr. Wladislaus Switalski, Anton Krause and Dr. Bruno Gross.)<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945">{{cite journal|author=Hans Preuschoff|title=Seit 1945 fährt das Ermland zweigleisig|journal=Ermlandbriefe|year=1981|edition= Christmas|url=http://mitglied.multimania.de/kranlucken/zweigleisig.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320094856/http://mitglied.multimania.de/kranlucken/zweigleisig.htm |archivedate=20 March 2012|accessdate=12 December 2010}}</ref> Addressing the Polish authorities in the annexed area of his diocese, Kaller declared that he wanted to continue his episcopate within [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]], but officials said it was for neither him nor them, but Warsaw to decide that.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/> Kaller chose four ethnic Poles as canon candidates to replenish the chapter so that ethnic Poles and Germans would each have half the seats. With these activities and plans Kaller was unique among the German bishops in the eastern territories.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/>

On 14 August, he received a telegramme from [[August Hlond]] for the expelled Marquardt. Polish Primate Hlond had invited the vicar general for a meeting on the diocesan future to [[Pelplin]], not knowing that the Polish authorities had expelled him, let alone that the deported Kaller had managed to return.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/> A Polish government car was provided and Kaller and Borowiec travelled the next day to Pelplin. When, on coming for the general vicar, the Polish government representatives learned the bishop himself was coming, they sent an advance party to Pelplin in order to inform Hlond.<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/>

As Pelplin's canon and chancellor, Franciszek Kurland recalled, Kaller was not welcomed in priestly fraternity.<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/> It was difficult enough to urge a general vicar to resign, but the papally-invested bishop was another task. In fluent Polish, Kaller and Hlond, his chaplain Bolesław Filipiak, his brother Antoni Hlond SDB, Leon Kozłowski (Chełmno's vicar general) and Kurland conversed while taking lunch, discussing the situation. Kaller explained that he wanted to stay with his diocese in Poland and talked about his plans. Hlond replied that Kaller was no Polish citizen and thus unacceptable as bishop in the Polish area, avoiding the term "state", since Ermland diocese was only Polish-occupied German territory.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/><ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Andreas Kossert|title=Ostpreußen: Geschichte und Mythos|location=Munich|publisher=Siedler|year=2005|page=359|isbn=3-88680-808-4}}</ref> Afterwards, in a private conversation, Hlond urged Kaller to resign which he did for the jurisdiction in the Polish-occupied diocesan area, but retained the office of Bishop of Ermland,<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/> which rather turned quite void, especially since in the Soviet-occupied diocesan area no Catholic ecclesiastical activity whatsoever was tolerated. Later in Poznań, Hlond praised Kaller for how he had complied with the demanded resignation from jurisdiction.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/>

On his way back, accompanied by Borowiec, Kaller cried and told him that the jurisdiction in the Polish-occupied diocesan area would be passed on to [[Teodor Bensch]], a German-born naturalised Pole, who would arrive within days officiating as apostolic administrator. They returned home in the evening on 16 August. Kaller could not appoint the four new canons for the chapter any more but was expelled the next day, transferred by lorry to Warsaw, accompanied by Borowiec, who also joined him on the train to Poznań on 18 August. Then Borowiec, who had not been expelled, returned to the diocese, while Kaller had to leave via [[Stettin]] for Allied-occupied Germany.<ref name="Pietrzak section Rezygnacja"/>

==Kaller's last years==
Kaller found asylum in what became [[Bizone]] in 1947. On 26 September 1946, Pius XII appointed him Papal Special Commissioner for the homeland-expelled Germans ({{langx|de|link=no|Päpstlicher Sonderbeauftragter für die [[heimatvertriebene]]n Deutschen}}). In November 1946, Pius XII invited Kaller to Rome. Both were personally acquainted since their common time in Berlin (Pius as [[Nuncio to Germany]] and Kaller as priest), and the latter reported to the pope on the destitute situation of the expellees from eastern Europe. On 7 July 1947, Kaller died suddenly of a heart attack in [[Frankfurt am Main]] and was buried besides St. Mary's Church in [[Königstein im Taunus]].<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/>

==Succession of Kaller until 1972==
On 11 July 1947, the Ermland chapter, residing in the Allied Bizone, then elected Provost Arthur Kather (1883–1957), officiating before his exile at [[St. Nicholas Cathedral, Elbląg|St. Nicholas Catholic Church]] in [[Elbląg|Elbing (today's Elbląg)]], capitular vicar, as provided by canon law in case of ''[[sede vacante]]''.<ref>[http://www.visitator-ermland.de/txt/kathart.htm "Arthur Kather"], ''Apostolischer Visitator Ermland'', the website of the Apostolic Visitator for the Ermland Diocesans in Germany.</ref> The Holy See later confirmed him and thereafter Kather represented Ermland diocese in the [[Fulda Conference|Fulda Conference of Bishops]] until his death.<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/> 

On 29 July 1957, the Ermland chapter, with the surviving capitulars living in what had become [[West Germany]], elected Hoppe as capitular vicar, who had been expelled from the Soviet-occupied Ermland diocesan area ([[Kaliningrad Oblast]]) in 1947. Hoppe held that post until [[Pope Paul VI]] terminated the apostolic administration of Ermland diocese and finally appointed again a bishop to the see on 28 June 1972, then named Warmia (Polish for Ermland), however, not comprising the former diocesan area within the [[Soviet Union]]. Paul VI then elevated Hoppe to Apostolic Visitator of Ermland taking care of Ermland's diocesans living in Germany.<ref name="Visitator Hoppe"/>

==Legacy==
In July 1979, Kaller's successor, Warmia's Bishop [[Józef Glemp]], visited [[Straelen]], where he had earlier improved his German. On his way to [[Nuremberg]], Glemp stopped in Königstein to visit Kaller's grave.<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/> On 10 October 1980, Kaller's 100th birthday, Glemp celebrated a [[pontifical requiem]] in honour of Kaller in Frombork's [[Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Andrew, Frombork]], commemorating in his preaching Kaller's personality as priest and his benedictory work for the diocese.<ref name="Preuschoff Seit 1945"/> In 1997, Archbishop [[Edmund Michał Piszcz]] of Warmia and the community of Ermlanders in [[Western Germany]] commemorated Kaller and placed [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]] of him in Germany and [[Poland]]. On 4 May 2003, the procedure for his [[beatification]] started.<ref name="Visitator Kaller"/>

==See also==
*[[Reorganization of occupied dioceses during World War II]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*Based on ''Mitteilungen'', German minority newspaper of Ermland.

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/piusnyt/war.htm|title= PIUS XII AND THE JEWS: The War Years as reported by The New York Times|author=Stephen M. DiGiovanni, H.E.D. |publisher=Catholic League|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020812205945/http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/piusnyt/war.htm|archivedate=12 August 2002}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
|-
{{s-bef | before=[[Robert Weimann (1870–1925)|Robert Weimann]]<br/><small>as Apostolic Protonotar</small>}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Apostolic Administrator]] of [[Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl|Schneidemühl (Piła)]]<br/><small>elevated to Prelate of Schneideühl in 1930</small>|years=1926–1930}}
{{s-aft | after=[[Franz Hartz]]<br/><small>as territorial prelate</small>}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Augustinus Bludau]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Bishop of Ermland#Bishops|Bishop of Ermland]]|years=1930–1947}}
{{s-vac | next=[[Józef Drzazga]]<br/><small>1947–1972 [[sede vacante]]</small>}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Justinas Staugaitis]]<br/><small>as territorial prelate</small>}}
{{s-ttl | title=Apostolic Administrator of <br/>[[Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Klaipėda|Prelature of Klaipėda (Memel)]]|years=1939–1947}}
{{s-vac | next=[[Petras Maželis]]<br/><small>as territorial prelate<br/>1947–1949 sede vacante</small>}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaller, Maximilian}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1947 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bytom]]
[[Category:Bishops of Warmia]]
[[Category:Clergy from the Province of Silesia]]
[[Category:German refugees]]
[[Category:20th-century German Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:German people of World War II]]
[[Category:20th-century German Roman Catholic priests]]