Baptist Church. The first work in Denmark generally considered Baptist began in 1836 when
Julius Köbner, a Danish Jew, visited Hamburg, Germany and met some individuals with Baptist views. Köbner was an associate and co-worker of
Johann Gerhard Oncken (1800–1884), often considered the father of European Baptists. Oncken baptized these believers and established a church in Copenhagen in 1839. Until 1849, when religious liberty was granted through the
Constitution of 1849, Baptists were fined, imprisoned, and their
infants baptized by compulsion. The Baptists were instrumental in the obtaining of
religious freedom in Denmark. The Baptist Union was formed in 1849, and remained a part of the German Baptist Union until 1888. In that year, it was reorganized, influenced by the emigration of Danish Baptists to the
United States, and the returning influence of American Baptists on the Danish. The
New Hampshire Confession of Faith was adopted in place of the
German Confession of 1847. A number of Danish pastors studied at Morgan Park Seminary in
Chicago, Illinois. In 1918, they established their own theological seminary. Doctrinally, the Danish Baptists have evolved from a generally
Calvinistic closed Baptist tradition to a more
Arminian ecumenical body.
Open communion has been practiced since the 1930s. According to a census published by the association in 2023, it claimed 4,937 members and 54 churches. The theological seminary is located in
Tølløse. ==References==