Bogumił Šwjela

Krystijan Bogumił Šwjela (also spelled "Schwela" and "Schwele") (5 September 1873 in Schorbus, Drebkau – 20 May 1948 in Naumburg) was a Wendish/Sorbian Protestant clergyman and ethnic activist in the Lower Lusatia region.

He also acted as a linguist and journalist, was chairman of the Maśica Serbska organization and co-founder of the Sorbian umbrella organization Domowina in 1912. Šwjela advocated the preservation of Sorbian language and culture in Lower Lusatia.

His ordination took place at a time when the oppression of Sorbian language and culture by the Prussian authorities peaked. Education in Sorbian at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cottbus was stopped in 1888 and later religious instruction in the language was also stopped. The older Sorbian intellectuals were initially paralyzed. Šwjela, of the nationally conscious young Sorbian movement, was motivated strongly to work for the cultural interests of the Sorbs. Things came to a head in the Cottbus parish where he continued to minister in Sorbian. In 1908, Swjela had to leave the city because he had refused to hold sermons in German only. He was then several years as vicar in Nochten before he came to the Dissen parish in 1913. In his exile, Šwjela remained committed to the Sorbian cause. Together with earlier companions, including the journalist Mina Witkojc and the painter Fritz Lattke, he developed an important foundation for the revival of the Lower Sorbian culture in the postwar period.

In 1946 he was involved in the re-establishment of the Lower Sorbian branch of Domowina and since 1947 he was editor of the Lower Sorbian newspaper Nowy Casnik. Before he found a new apartment in the Lower Sorbian region, Šwjela died in 1948 from a stroke on a railway journey from Rudolstadt to Cottbus. In Cottbus, a street was named in his honor.