Archive of the Evangelical Superintendent’s Office and St George’s Parish in Malbork – Thursdays at the Outer Bailey – report on the meeting

Another meeting in the Thursdays at the Outer Bailey series is behind us. This time, our guest was Rev. Canon Prof. Dr Wojciech Zawadzki, Director of the Elbląg Diocesan Archives, who presented a lecture titled ‘Characteristics and scholarly value of the archives of the Evangelical Superintendent’s Office and St George’s Parish in Malbork’.

The speaker began by outlining the history of the clergy, Lutheranism and Calvinism in Poland. He referred, for example, to the Prussian era, when religious organisations were subordinate to secular authority. Participants also learnt what a superintendent’s office is, what the scope of its activities was, and what role the superintendent’s office played. These points proved essential for understanding the context and significance of the archival materials under discussion.

Prof. Rev. Zawadzki then outlined the post-war history of the documents relating to the Evangelical superintendent’s office and the Malbork parish. Once kept in the rectory of St George’s Church in Malbork, they were transferred in 1998 to the Archives of the Diocese of Elbląg, where they were secured and described in detail. The documents comprising this collection date from the late 18th century to 1945. The Malbork superintendent’s office covered a significant area of the Malbork Fens, comprising over 20 parishes with 26 churches. The collection includes the records of individual parishes, instructions from state and church authorities, synod orders and reports, accounts and financial statements, parish statistics, records relating to pastoral care for the deaf and in prisons, as well as correspondence from pastors. These are both handwritten and printed documents. The holdings of the superintendent’s office and the Malbork parish constitute a valuable source of knowledge on the history of Malbork and the Malbork Fens region from the late 18th century onwards.

This extremely interesting lecture, enriched by a display of original documents, allowed us to discover new aspects of Malbork’s history and its religious and social life. It can certainly be said that the collection presented has enormous research potential.

We invite you to our next meeting on 19 November. Our guest will be Dr Bartłomiej Kaczyński from the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw, who will give a talk on the collection of archaeological artefacts from pre-war museum institutions in the former East Prussia.