Historia wspólnoty ewangelickiej w Wejherowie i jej cmentarza w latach 1643-1951

I. Community Wejherowo which was established in 1643 since its inception enjoyed the status of religious tolerance. Its founder Jakub Wejher withdrew the privilege of free and public confession of Lutheranism shortly before his death in 1657. This state of affairs lasted until the end of the eighteenth century. When in 1772 Prussia and Wejherowo by virtue of the Treaty of Partition were seized by the Prussian state, there has been a change in attitude of the authorities to the Protestant population. Over the next decade there has been the rapid influx of them. On the day Prussia intercepted Wejherowo there were only a few dozen protesters in a town. In 1900 the number increased to more than 2.5 thousand (4002 Catholics). In the first quarter of the nineteenth century Wejherowo evangelicals still belonged in terms of organization to the municipality in Bolszewo. They had their own temple there. Their cemetery quarter was designated back to the time of Jakub Wejher in the parish cemetery at St. Trinity Church in Wejherowo . In 1823 several towns were separated from the municipality in Bolszewo and along with Wejherowo a new Evangelical parish was created. At the time the Lutheran church was founded in the town as well as the cemetery in the suburbs. In the years 1907 - 1909 the community built a new grander temple. Change of the borders and retake of Wejherowo by the Polish state in 1920 caused that most of the Evangelical community from the town emi-grated to Germany. During the interwar period the number of faithful fell to about 400 people in the town. The outbreak of war in 1939 for many Germans in Wejherowo was a willed come back to times before 1920. In March 1945 the Evangelical Church was passed by the Polish mu-nicipalities and counties to the Catholic Church in intention for school youth. Today this place is hosted by Catholic Parish of St. Leon, and the church itself is called St. Stanisław Kostka one. II. Cemetery Establishment of a separate Lutheran cemetery should be combined with the rise and construction of a new parish church in Wejherowo in 1823. The cemetery was built around 1826 on the rustic outskirts of Wejherowo at some distance from the church, located on the main street leading to Bolszewo and further to Lębork. It was the double terrace object of a rectangular shape with dimensions of approximately 180 m x 65 m. After 1945 due to a lack of maintenance the cemetery fell into increasing disrepair. The last official funeral was held there in 1947. In 1951, the transformation of evangelical cemetery into the city park was started. Tombs were leveled and mortuary was demolished as well as brick fence surrounding the cemetery. In 2005, at the initiative of the Association of Cemeteries Remembrance and Burial Places in Wejherowo a memorial boulder commemorating the past of this place was erected in the former Protestant cemetery. In October 2012 archaeological excavations were conducted at the former site of the cemetery. The study has been subjected to a small area of approximately 60 m x 10 m located in the front in the oldest part of the structure. The re- burial of the remains excavated during archaeological works belonging to 45 people took place in November 5th 2012.