https://doi.org/10.31261/WSN.2012.12.06
The Prince-Bishop of Wrocław George Kopp was a controversial figure because of his attitude toward the Polish-speaking population in Upper Silesia. On the one hand, he had great merits for the development of religious life and the network of parishes in the area of the Diocese of Wrocław. On the other hand, he was known for his disapproving attitude toward the Polish issue, including the presence of the Polish language in public life in Upper Silesia, and also toward the Polish national movement, the leader of which was Wojciech Korfanty. A specially interesting source for researching these problems is the Polish-language Upper Silesian press. The present work is based on newspaper titles representing different political orientations: Katolik (Catholic), Górnoślązak (Upper Silesian), Polak (The Pole) and Gazeta Robotnicza (Workers’ Gazette). In the Polish-language Upper Silesian press, the wide political and pastoral work of the Bishop of Wrocław Georg Kopp was rendered only partially. Preliminary source research shows that the press was interested in the figure of the Bishop of Wrocław only in connection to the Polish issues in Upper Silesia. It was triggered by the profile and ideological assumptions of each of the press titles. They supported, in various ways, the efforts of the Poles to have equal language rights in Upper Silesia. The most space was devoted to Kopp in Katolik, where he was presented in a relatively nonpartisan manner. It stemmed from the clerical character of the newspaper that decided to pay respect to the bishop as the Head of the Silesian Church. But in Górnoślązak and Polak, because of the national profile of those titles, the cardinal had been criticized from the very beginning. Especially in the years 1901–1905, when the Polish national movement in Upper Silesia was the most impetuous, the papers focused mainly on this topic. In the anticlerical Gazeta Robotnicza, on the other hand, not much information about Cardinal Kopp appeared. In the few articles in which he was present, he was rendered as a decisively negative character. Basing on the analysis of the press, the evolution of the Bishop’s views on the Polish issue in Upper Silesia can be traced. The analysis also shows that Katolik, contrary to Górnoślązak, Polak and Gazeta Robotnicza, noticed in the person of Bishop Kopp not only an agent of Germanization but also emphasized his merits in the field of pastoral work, in which he was just toward the Polish-speaking population.
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Vol. 4 No. 9 (2012)
Published: 2020-03-04
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