Holy Prince Vladimir Brotherhood

The need to create a Russian charity in Germany arose after the end of the 19th century there were many Russian citizens who found themselves in a difficult situation. Basically, these were people whose plans to emigrate to America did not materialize and who then in the port cities of Germany turned to the diplomatic missions of Russia for help. To help compatriots, Archpriest Alexy Petrovich Maltsev, who was appointed to Berlin in 1886, received permission from Metropolitan Isidor (Nikolsky) of St. Petersburg in 1888 to create a brotherhood. The constituent assembly of the Holy Prince Vladimir Brotherhood took place on April 10 (March 29, according to the senior art.) Of 1890 in Berlin. According to the charter , the Russian ambassador in Berlin was considered the honorary chairman of the Brotherhood General Meetings. The Brotherhood took under its protection the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (brother of Emperor Alexander III ). Actually, the affairs of the Brotherhood were managed by Archpriest A.P. Maltsev, who formally held the position of first treasurer , then secretary.

Members of the Brotherhood included such personalities as St. Theophan the Recluse , righteous John of Kronstadt , Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas of Japan , Holy Martyr Metropolitan Vladimir (Epiphany) (upon entering the Brotherhood of the Exarch of Georgia and Archbishop of Kartalinsky and Kakhetinsky, later Metropolitan of Kiev, Grand Duchess the Great Patriarch Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich (brother of Emperor Nicholas II), Queen Württemberg Olga Nikolaevna (daughter of Nicholas I) , Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich , Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich , Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich , Grand Duke George Mikhailovich , Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich , Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley , Princess Altenburg and Duchess of Mecklenburg Elena Georgievna, Count M. N. Muravyov , Count A. V. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, General Adjutant I.L. Tatishchev , Rear Admiral F.V. Dubasov , K.K. Grot , V.A. Dashkov , composer and conductor A.G. Rubinshtein , etc.

To help those in need, the Brotherhood in 1895 in the Berlin suburb of Tegel built the House of Remembrance of Emperor Alexander III , in which people found an overnight stay. Various workshops, a carpentry, a printing house and a horticultural farm were created at the house, in which people in distress could work and earn enough money with their own labor to return to Russia without losing their face and dignity. There was also a Russian library and a museum of Russian culture at the House.

Opposite the House, back in 1892, the Brotherhood set up a Russian cemetery , and in 1894 a cemetery church of Konstantin and Elena was built . Then the Brotherhood erected the All Saints Church in Bad Homburg (1899), the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Bad Kissingen (1901), the church of St. Archangel of God Michael in Herbersdorf (now Sokolovsko) (1901), house church of St. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Hamburg (1901), the church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk and St. Seraphim of Sarov in Bad Nauheim (1908), a church house in Bad Homburg (1911), as well as house churches in Bad Bruckenau (1908), Bad Wildungen (1912) and Danzig (now - Gdansk ) (1913). The cathedral was planned. St. Andrew the First-Called in Berlin itself.

Charity activities of the Brotherhood covered not only Germany. Thanks to generous donations, the Brotherhood helped the victims of crop failure in central Russia, sent parcels to Russian prisoners of war in Japan , and helped the disabled and orphans in Russia.

World War I interrupted the activities of the Brotherhood. Most of its members were forced to leave Germany. Archpriest A. Maltsev died in 1915 in Kislovodsk and was buried in the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Petrograd .

After the revolution, many members of the Brotherhood appeared in Berlin among Russian refugees - immigrants , whose activities they renewed, registering the Brotherhood in 1923 as a legal entity . For charity, however, there was already not enough money. The brotherhood barely found the means to maintain their temples. However, the Brotherhood in 1921 in Berlin-Tegel built a barracks dormitory for Russian disabled soldiers. And in 1938, General A. A. Lampe , a member of the Brotherhood and the head of the department of the Russian All-Military Union in Germany, with the help of donations from emigrants, erected a monument “ Faithful Sons of Great Russia ” in memory of the fallen soldiers of World War I and the Civil War in Berlin-Tegel cemetery .

Since 1938, the Brotherhood has been part of the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) .

After World War II, the occupation authorities in 1945 transferred the property of the Brotherhood in Berlin to the Moscow Patriarchate . The Brotherhood reigned in West Germany. Since 1961, Bad Kissingen became the center of the Brotherhood.

Since 1990, the chairman of the Brotherhood G. A. Rahr began to establish ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. When the Brotherhood was forced to close the house church in Hamburg in 1995, he transferred the Memelsky marching iconostasis from the Seven Years War to the newly built Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Kaliningrad at the request of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk (Gundyaev) .

In 1996, a small money fund was created under the Brotherhood to resume charity work primarily to help children in Russia. Since 1996, several issues of the Bratskiy Vestnik bulletin have been published (published irregularly). Since 2000, the Brotherhood has been closely cooperating with the Russian Culture Foundation, since 2006 with the Vladimir Brotherhood in Moscow, since 2008 with the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the Russian Abroad Fund, since 2009 with the Russian Society of St. Petersburg.

In 2006, the Brotherhood was restored as the owner of the Russian cemetery in Berlin-Tegel, providing it henceforth for use by the Berlin diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 2008, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Berlin instructed the Brotherhood to take care of old Russian monuments and graves in Germany.

By the end of 2009, the Brotherhood consisted of about 50 members belonging to the ROCOR , ROC, and the Polish Orthodox Church .

Fellowship Founder and Manager

• 1888-1915 Archpriest Alexy Petrovich Maltsev

Brotherhood Patrons

• 1890-1909 Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich
• 1909-1920 Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
• 1936-2001 Princess Vera Konstantinovna

Imperial Russian Ambassadors - Honorary Chairpersons of the Brotherhood

• 1890-1895 Pavel Andreevich Shuvalov
• 1895-1912 Nikolai Dmitrievich Osten-Saken
• 1912-1914 Sergey Nikolaevich Sverbeev

Brotherhood Chairpersons

• 1922-1924 Alexandra Sergeevna Dubasova, nee Sipyagin
• 1924-1936 Sergey Dmitrievich Botkin
• 1936–1951 Princess Vera Konstantinovna (Administrative affairs 1936–1945, General Nikolai Ivanovich Globachev )
• 1951—1955 Mikhail Mikhailovich Medem (aka Administrative affairs 1945-1955)
• 1955-1963 Nikolai Nikolaevich Gerard
• 1963-1967 Nikolai Fedorovich Fabricius
• 1967-1971 Alexander Antonovich Shpakovich
• 1971-1983 Lev Nikolaevich Serov
• 1983-2004 Gleb Aleksandrovich Rar
• c 2004 - Dimitri Glebovich Rar

• “ Brotherly Yearbook. Orthodox churches and Russian institutions abroad . ” Brotherhood Edition; St. Petersburg, 1906.
• “ On the XVth Anniversary of the Holy Prince Vladimir Brotherhood ”, Brotherhood Edition, Berlin 1906.
• “ Berlin Fraternal Temporary. Orthodox churches and Russian institutions abroad . ” Brotherhood Edition, Berlin 1911.
• “ Church Truth ”, No. 1- (?), Berlin 1912-1914.
• The Fraternal Messenger , No. 1-20, Bad Kissingen 1996-2002.

• “ Brotherly Yearbook. Orthodox churches and Russian institutions abroad . ” Edition of St. Prince Vladimir Brotherhood; St. Petersburg, 1906.
• “ On the XVth Anniversary of the Holy Prince-Vladimir Brotherhood ”, Edition of the Holy Prince-Vladimir Brotherhood, Berlin 1906.
• Historical Bulletin. Historical and literary magazine . St. Petersburg 1906.
• “ Berlin Fraternal Temporary. Orthodox churches and Russian institutions abroad . ” Edition of St. Prince Vladimir Brotherhood, Berlin 1911.
• The Fraternal Messenger , No. 1-20, Bad Kissingen 1996-2002.
• I. M. von Schweder: “ Brief information about the charity“ Brotherhood ”(Orthodox brotherhood of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir) .” Bad Kissingen 1963.
• Andrei Roginets: “ Archpriest A.P. Maltsev, his life and liturgical works. Course essay on the department of liturgics ”, Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Sergiev-Posad 1973-1974.
• Nikolai Balyuk: “ The history of the Orthodox Holy Prince-Vladimir Brotherhood in Germany from 1890 to 2007. ". Edition of the Minsk Theological Seminary, Zhirovichi 2007.
• G. A. Rahr: “The Living Heritage of Great Russia: The Brotherhood of St. Vladimir ”, “Russian Renaissance”, No. 24, New York 1983.
• G. A. Rahr: “ Die russische Kirche in Bad Kissingen ” (Russian Church in Bad Kissingen) (German). Sowing Publishing House, Frankfurt 1984.
• G. A. Rahr: “ Hundert Jahre russische Kirche Bad Kissingen ” (One Hundred Years of the Russian Church in Bad Kissingen) (German). Josef Fink, Lindenberg 1999.
• Metropolitan Eulogius (St. George): “ The Way of My Life ”. YMCA-PRESS, Paris 1947.
• Kaete Gaede: “ Russische Orthodoxe Kirche in Deutschland in der ersten Haelfte des 20. Jahrhunderts ” (German). Stenone Publishing House, Cologne 1985.
• Russian emigration to Europe . Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 1996.
• Nikolaus Thon: “ Die russisch-orthodoxe Gemeinde zu Berlin bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges ” (Russian Orthodox community in Berlin before the First World War) (German); Der Christliche Osten Magazine, Würzburg 1986.
• Church Gazette of the Orthodox Church in Germany , No. 7/9, Munich 1955.
• G. A. Rahr: Russian churches in Germany . Nezavisimaya Gazeta, No. 6 / June, Moscow 1997.
• M. V. Shkarovsky: " Nazi Germany and the Orthodox Church ." Moscow 2002.
• Tatyana Forner: “ Russians in Germany ”. Directory. Dialogue Club Publishing House, Berlin 2008.
• A. N. Popov: “ Russian Berlin ”. Veche Publishing House, Moscow 2010. ISBN 978-5-9533-4275-9 .
• G. A. Rahr : ... And our generation will report to history . Memories. Russian Way Publishing House, Moscow 2011 ISBN 978-5-85887-382-2

• The official website of the Brotherhood .
• Information about the Brotherhood .
• Nikolai Balyuk: History of the Holy Prince of Vladimir Brotherhood.
• Interview with D. G. Rahr on the Brotherhood (2008) .
• Interview with S.V. Rar (2010) .