Juliusz Bursche (19 September 1862 in Kalisz – 20 February 1942?) was a bishop of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. A vocal opponent of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, after the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

in 1939, he was arrested by the Germans, tortured, and sent to

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

where he died.

Youth

Bursche was born as the first child to Ernst Wilhelm Bursche, vicar of the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church at Kalisz and his wife Mathilda, born Müller. The family moved to Zgierz, near

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, where his father became a Protestant pastor. Bursche studied Lutheran divinity at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

and became a member of the "Konwent Polonia", a Polish student fraternity, established in 1828. There, he was influenced by the ideas of Leopold Otto, a Lutheran pastor from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

who wanted to overcome the stereotype of

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

being

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

being

Lutherans Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

Lutheran Pastor

Bursche started working as a vicar in

in 1884 and married Amalie Helena Krusche in 1885. After a short time as a pastor at

Żyrardów Żyrardów is a town and former industrial hub in central Poland with approximately 41,400 inhabitants (2006). It is the capital of Żyrardów County in the Masovian Voivodeship, west of Warsaw. Etymology Żyrardów, initially a textile settleme ...

, he returned to the Warsaw Lutheran congregation in 1888. In 1904, he was elected as General-Superintendent of the Protestant Church in

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

. In 1905, he instituted the use of the Polish language in Lutheran church services, which had previously been only ministered in German. After the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1914, the Russian administration of Congress Poland began to deport members of the Lutheran church, considering them as Germans. Bursche was sent to Moscow in 1915, where he remained until the Russian

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

in 1917. He returned to German–occupied Warsaw in February 1918 and became a member of the Regency Council of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

. After the foundation of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

, he was a member of the Polish delegation at the Paris Peace Conference and attempted to incorporate the predominantly Lutheran area of

Masuria Masuria ( ; ; ) is an ethnographic and geographic region in northern and northeastern Poland, known for its 2,000 lakes. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District. Administratively, it is part of the Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship (ad ...

into the Polish state. In accordance with the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, the East Prussian plebiscite took place on 20 July 1920, and Bursche was the chairman of the Masurian Plebiscite Committee, organising the unsuccessful Polish publicity campaign in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. From 1922 to 1939, he issued the Polish newspaper in Masuria ''Gazeta Mazurska''. In 1936 the Polish government acknowledged the Evangelical-Augsburg (i.e. Lutheran) Church in Poland and Bursche became Poland's first Lutheran bishop. Because of his staunchly pro-Polish policy, a part of the German minority in Poland, most of them Lutherans, opposed his guidance and founded an independent Lutheran church in Poland in the spring of 1939.

World War II

After the German

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

in September 1939, Bursche was captured by the

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...

on 3 October 1939 and imprisoned in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

, and after 13 October 1939 at the central

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

prison in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In January 1940, he was sent to

. At the end of February 1942, his family was informed that Bursche had died on 20 February 1942 in Berlin–Moabit Prison. The exact circumstances of his death and even the real date and place are unknown.

Family

Bursche's son Stefan was killed by the Gestapo in 1940, his daughter Helena, director of the Lutheran Anna – Wasa Lyceum in Warsaw, died in 1975, his daughter Aniela, journalist at the Lutheran newspaper ''Zwiestun'', died in 1980 in Warsaw. Bursche's brothers: * Edmund Bursche, Lutheran Pastor (17 July 1881 – 26 July 1940

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...

) *Alfred Bursche, Lawyer (16 November 1883 – 15 January 1942, Mauthausen concentration camp) *Teodor Bursche, Architect (31 May 1893 – 15 March 1965)

Literature

*Paweł Dubiel, Józef Kozak: Polacy w II wojnie światowej: kim byli, co robili, Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM, Warsaw, 2003 *Eugeniusz Szulc, Cmentarz Ewangelicko-Augsburski w Warszawie, Warsaw 1989. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bursche, Juliusz 1862 births 1942 deaths People from Kalisz People from Warsaw Governorate Polish Lutheran bishops Polish people of German descent People from Kalisz Governorate 20th-century Polish clergy 20th-century Lutheran bishops University of Tartu alumni Polish civilians killed in World War II People who died in Sachsenhausen concentration camp Burials at Evangelical-Augsburg Cemetery, Warsaw