The Controversy Surrounding Rev. Włodzimierz Kirchner’s Brochure [Challenging Poverty in Bałuty]

Abstract

Włodzimierz Kirchner (1875-1970) – former priest, activist in the Łódź and Warsaw districts of the Christian Charity Association, he supported the efforts of the organisation by publishing articles on philanthropy. He was a proponent of the so-called ‘enlightened philanthropy’, i.e. he argued that social support cannot be of a spontaneous and chaotic character, but, rather, it should be controlled and monitored so that unemployment can be prevented. To justify his theses, the main of which was a conviction that giving alms was a waste of money and a tool spreading demoralisation, he conducted an analysis of dysfunctional communities, e.g. Bałuty (near Łódź back then). He depicted the inhabitants of the area (serving as a synecdoche of the dysfunctional communities throughout Poland) as a group of pretenders and impostors hustling potential benefactors by using a theatricalisation of behaviours which evoked empathy. He collected and published his conclusions in the brochure titled Walka z nędzą na Bałutach, which – due to its controversial recommendations of emotional restraint and the application of the method of control and monitoring – stirred aversion among various groups of intellectuals. Kirchner was accused of blind support of doctrines and extreme aestheticism, while the leftist press accused him of hypocrisy typical of the clergy.

Keywords

• włodzimierz kirchner
• philanthropy
• charity associations
• journalism of the early 20th century
• łódź
• proletariat