Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin

The affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Prussia had been reorganised by the Bull "De salute animarum", issued in 1821. Before the Prussian Provinces of Brandenburg and of Pomerania were part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern Missions after the Reformation in the Duchy of Pomerania in 1534 and in the Electorate of Brandenburg in 1539 and the conversion of the majority of the inhabitants had made the area a Catholic diaspora.

Before the Reformation the westernmost territories of the Berlin diocese were in ecclesiastical respect part of the Diocese of Havelberg, the southwestern and central parts belonged to the Diocese of Brandenburg.[1] The northwestern Rügen island belonged to the Diocese of Roskilde,[2] whereas the northern (Hither Pomerania) and the former northeastern part (Farther Pomerania) on both banks of the Oder formed the exempt Diocese of Cammin, established in 1140 for the territory of the then Duchy of Pomerania. Pomerania had repeatedly been Polish or independent before joining the Holy Roman Empire in 1180. Gniezno and Magdeburg archdioceses competed for expanding their influence into Pomerania, which is why the Holy See determined Cammin to remain exempt.[3][4] Cammin had had a short-lived predecessor, the diocese of Kołobrzeg, established in the year 1000.[5] Kołobrzeg's diocese under Bishop Reinbern[6] was overrun by a pagan revolt just a few years after its establishment and Christianity was reintroduced in the area only in the early 12th century, following military expeditions of Duke Bolesław Wrymouth who once again had tied the Pomeranian lands to Poland. The native Wartislaw I, Duke of Pomerania established the Duchy of Pomerania in 1121, as a vassal state of Poland under Bolesław Wrymouth.[7] Wartislaw I agreed to Christianise Pomerania, and he, along with Bolesław, backed Otto of Bamberg in his successful Conversion of Pomerania.

In 1125 Bolesław Wrymouth established the new Diocese of Lubusz (Lebus) seated in Lubusz (Lebus), with its diocesan territory comprising the Lubusz Land (Land of Lebus), then part of the Polish reign, on both banks of the Oder.[8] Lebus' diocesan area later formed the southeastern part of the Berlin diocese.

In the late 16th and the 17th centuries the competent dioceses of Brandenburg, Cammin, Havelberg, Lebus, and Roskilde had been secularised, the few Catholics in the area were pastored by the Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern Missions (for the dioceses of Brandenburg, Havelberg and Lebus since 1670; for those of Cammin and Roskilde as of 1688). The Holy See considered the former sees as sedes impeditae. In memory of them, Berlin's archdiocesan coat-of-arms combines the symbols of the dioceses of Brandenburg, Cammin, Havelberg and Lebus.[9] With the annexation of most of Silesia until 1763 the bulk of the then Diocese of Breslau (Wrocław),[10] most of which lay within the borders of Kingdom of Bohemia since the 14th century, had become a part of Brandenburg-Prussia. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire Brandenburg was officially merged with Prussia, which itself had gained sovereignty from Poland in 1657 (Treaty of Wehlau).

Many Roman Catholic dioceses and other jurisdictions had borders deviating from the political boundaries often changing with the many wars in Central Europe. This led to the situation where parts of one diocese or jurisdiction lay in different countries. The territory of pre-1815 Brandenburg (thus without Lower Lusatia) and Prussian Pomerania formed part of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern Missions, which in 1821 also comprised seventeen other nations partially or completely.[11] In Brandenburg and Pomerania the pope, by the Bull "De salute animarum", established a new jurisdiction on the one hand and extended the ambit of the neighbouring Breslau diocese on the other. The 1815-annexed Prussian part of the Lusatias, in ecclesiastical respect part of the Apostolic Prefecture of the two Lusatias (a.k.a. of Meissen), seated in Bautzen (Saxony), was reassigned in ecclesiastical respect to the Diocese of Breslau, which itself, comprising territory in Bohemia and Prussia, became exempt in 1821 (previously a suffragan of Gniezno). In political respect, the two Lusatias were divided. Lower Lusatia became Brandenburgian, northeastern Upper Lusatia Silesian, southeastern Upper Lusatia remained Saxon. The new jurisdiction was Breslau's Prince-Episcopal Delegation for Brandenburg and Pomerania whose ambit was disentangled from the Northern Missions Apostolic Vicariate and comprised pre-1815 Brandenburg (thus without Lower Lusatia) and Prussian Pomerania. The Bull also reassigned the deaneries of Pszczyna (Pless) and Bytom (Beuthen) from the diocese of Kraków to that of Breslau more than 600 years after those territories had been ceded by the Polish duke Casimir the Just of Kraków to his nephew Mieszko IV Tanglefoot of Racibórz.[12]

• Christian Schreiber (13 August 1930 appointed – 1 September 1933 died)
• Nikolaus Bares (27 October 1933 appointed – 1 March 1935 died)
• Konrad Cardinal von Preysing Lichtenegg-Moos (5 July 1935 appointed – 21 December 1950 died)
• Wilhelm Weskamm (4 June 1951 appointed – 21 August 1956 died)
• Julius August Cardinal Döpfner (15 January 1957 appointed – 3 July 1961 appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising)
• Alfred Cardinal Bengsch (16 August 1961 appointed (later had the personal title of Archbishop) – 13 December 1979 died)
• Joachim Cardinal Meisner (22 April 1980 appointed – 20 December 1988 appointed Archbishop of Cologne)
• Georg Cardinal Sterzinsky (28 May 1989 appointed – 24 February 2011 retired)
• Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki (2 July 2011 – 20 September 2014 installed Archbishop of Cologne)
• Heiner Koch (appointed 8 June 2015, installed on 19 September 2015)

The delegate was combined in personal union with the provostry of St. Hedwig's in Berlin.

• 1821–1823 – Johann Ambros(ius) Taube (Silesia, *1778 – 22 April 1823*, Berlin),[20] provost of St. Hedwig since 1810
• 1824–1826 – Hubert Auer (Bingen, *1 May 1780 – 17 February 1838*, Trier)
• 1827–1829 – Nikolaus Fischer as administrator per pro
• 1829–1836 – Nikolaus Fischer (*1791– 18 April 1858*, Frankenstein in Schlesien)
• 1836–1849 – Georg Anton Brinkmann (Billerbeck, *15 October 1796 – 7 May 1856*, Münster in Westphalia)
• 1849–1850 – Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler
• 1850–1859 – Leopold Pelldram (Schweidnitz, *3 May 1811 – 3 May 1867*, Trier)
• 1860–1870 – Franz Xaver Karker
• 1870–1882 – Robert Herzog (Schönwalde bei Frankenstein, * 17 February 1823 – 26 December 1886*, Breslau)
• 1882–1888 – Johannes Baptist Maria Assmann (Branitz, *26 August 1833 – 27 May 1903*, Ahrweiler)
• 1889–1897 – Joseph Jahnel (*1834–1897*, Berlin)
• 1887–1905 – Karl Neuber (*1841–1905*)
• 1905–1920 – Carl Kleineidam (Hohengiersdorf, *1848–1924*, Giersdorf)
• 1920–1929 – Josef Deitmer (Münster in Westphalia, *12 August 1865 – 16 January 1929*, Berlin)
• 1929–1930 – Christian Schreiber, Bishop of Meissen, as administrator of the future diocese of Berlin[21]

• Joseph Ahrens
• Eva-Maria Buch
• Alfred Delp
• August Froehlich, priest active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, protector of Polish forced laborers, martyred in the Dachau concentration camp
• Romano Guardini
• Paul Lejeune-Jung
• Bernhard Lichtenberg, blessed priest and theologian, active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations
• Josef Lenzel, priest active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, helped the Polish forced laborers, martyred in the Dachau concentration camp
• Michael Graf von Matuschka
• Max Josef Metzger
• Herbert Simoleit
• Margarete Sommer, awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations
• Carl Sonnenschein
• Maria Terwiel
• Albert Willimsky, priest active in the resistance movement against the National Socialism, protector of Polish forced laborers, martyred in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
• Josef Wirmer

• Bilger, Waltraud; Hanky, Dieter (1997). Erzbistum Berlin 1930–1996: Daten, Fakten, Zahlen (2nd, revised and ext. ed.). Berlin: Pressestelle des Erzbistums Berlin.
• Jablonski, Leo (1929). Geschichte des fürstbischöflichen Delegaturbezirks Brandenburg und Pommern. 2 vols. Breslau.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Vol. 1: Die äußere Entwicklung; vol. 2: Die innere Entwicklung.

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