German Protestantism The Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire After the
Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the principle that the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled (
cuius regio, eius religio) was observed throughout the
Holy Roman Empire. Section 24 of the Peace of Augsburg (
ius emigrandi) guaranteed members of denominations other than the ruler's the freedom of emigration with all their possessions. Political stalemates among the government members of different denominations within a number of the republican
free imperial cities such as
Augsburg, the
Free City of Frankfurt, and
Regensburg, made their territories de facto bi-denominational, but the two denominations did not usually have equal legal status. The Peace of Augsburg protected
Catholicism and
Lutheranism, but not
Calvinism. Thus, in 1613, when
John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg converted from Lutheranism to Calvinism, he could not exercise the principle of
Cuius regio, eius religio' ("whose realm, their religion"). This situation paved the way for bi- or multi-denominational monarchies, wherein a ruler adhering to a creed different from most of his subjects would permit conversions to his minority denomination and immigration of his fellow faithful. In 1648, the
Peace of Westphalia extended the principle of
cuius regio, eius religio to Calvinism. However, the principle grew impracticable in the 17th and 18th centuries, which experienced continuous territorial changes arising from annexations and inheritances, and the religious conversion of rulers. For instance, Saxon
Augustus II the Strong converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism in 1697, but did not exercise his
cuius regio, eius religio privilege. A conqueror or successor to the throne who adhered to a different creed from his new subjects usually would not complicate his takeover by imposing conversions. These enlarged realms spawned diaspora congregations, as immigrants settled in areas where the prevailing creeds differed from their own. This juxtaposition of beliefs in turn brought about more frequent personal changes in denomination, often in the form of
marital conversions. Still, regional mobility was low, especially in the countryside, which generally did not attract newcomers, but experienced rural exodus, so that today's denominational make-up in Germany and
Switzerland still represents the former boundaries among territories ruled by Calvinist, Catholic, or Lutheran rulers in the 16th century quite well. In a major departure, the legislature of the
North German Confederation instituted the right of
irreligionism in 1869, permitting the declaration of secession from all religious bodies. The Protestant Church in Germany was and is divided into geographic regions and along denominational affiliations (Calvinist, Lutheran, and United churches). In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the then-existing monarchies and republics established regional churches (
Landeskirchen), comprising the respective congregations within the then-existing state borders. In the case of Protestant ruling dynasties, each regional church affiliated with the
regnal houses, and the crown provided financial and institutional support for its church.
Church and State were, therefore, to a large extent combined on a regional basis.
Weimar Germany In the
aftermath of World War I with its political and social turmoil, the regional churches lost their secular rulers. With
revolutionary fervor in the air, the conservative church leaders had to contend with
socialists (
Social Democrats (SPD) and
Independent Social Democrats (USPD)), who mostly held to
disestablishmentarianism. When
Adolph Hoffmann, a strident secularist, was appointed
Prussian Minister of Education and Public Worship in November 1918 by the USPD, he attempted to implement a number of plans, which included: • cutting government
subsidies for the church •
confiscation of church property • abolition of theology as a course of study in universities • banning
school prayer • banning compulsory
religious instruction in schools • prohibiting schools from requiring attendance at
worship services After storms of protests from both Protestants and Catholics, Hoffmann was forced to resign and, by political means, the churches were able to prevent complete disestablishment. A compromise was reached — one which favored the Protestant church establishment. There would no longer be state churches, but the churches remained public corporations and retained their subsidies from the state governments for services they performed on behalf of the government (running hospitals, kindergartens etc.). In turn, on behalf of the churches, the state governments collected church fees from those taxpayers enlisted as parishioners and distributed these funds to the churches. These fees were, and still are, used to finance church activities and administration. The theological faculties in the universities continued to exist, as did religious instruction in the schools, however, allowing the parents to opt out for their children. The rights formerly held by the monarchs in the German Empire simply devolved to church councils instead, and the high-ranking church administrators — who had been civil servants in the Empire — simply became church officials instead. The governing structure of the churches effectively changed with the introduction of chairpersons elected by church synods instead of being appointed by the state. Accordingly, in this initial period of the
Weimar Republic, in 1922, the Protestant Church in Germany formed the
German Evangelical Church Confederation of 28 regional (or provincial) churches (), with their regional boundaries more or less delineated by those of the federal states. This federal system allowed for a great deal of regional autonomy in the governance of German Protestantism, as it allowed for a national church parliament that served as a forum for discussion and that endeavored to resolve
theological and organizational conflicts.
The Nazi regime Many Protestants voted for the Nazis in the elections of
summer and
autumn 1932 and
March 1933. This differed noticeably from Catholic populated areas, where the results of votes cast in favor of the Nazis were lower than the national average, even after the
Machtergreifung ("seizure of power") of Hitler. A limited number of Protestants, such as
Karl Barth,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
Wilhelm Busch, objected to the Nazis on
moral and theological principles; they could not reconcile the Nazi state's claim to
total control over the person with the ultimate
sovereignty that, in Christian orthodoxy, must belong only to God.
German Christians The
German Christian movement in the Protestant Church developed in the late Weimar period. They were, for the most part, a "group of fanatic Nazi Protestants" who were organized in 1931 to help win elections of
presbyters and
synodals of the old-Prussian church (last free election on 13 November 1932). In general, the group's political and religious motivations developed in response to the social and political tensions wrought by the end of World War I and the attendant substitution of a
republican regime for the authoritarian one of
Wilhelm II — much the same as the conditions leading to
Hitler's rise to power. The German Christian movement was sustained and encouraged by factors such as: • the 400th anniversary (in 1917) of
Martin Luther's posting of the
Ninety-five Theses in 1517, an event which served to endorse German nationalism, to emphasize that Germany had a preferred place in the Protestant tradition, and to legitimize
antisemitism. This was reinforced by the Luther Renaissance Movement of Professor
Emmanuel Hirsch. The extreme and shocking
antisemitism of Martin Luther came to light rather late in his life, but had been a consistent theme in Christian Germany for centuries thereafter. • the revival of
völkisch traditions • the de-emphasis of the
Old Testament in Protestant theology, and the removal of parts deemed "too Jewish", replacing the
New Testament with a dejudaized version entitled
Die Botschaft Gottes (The Message of God) • the respect for temporal (secular) authority, which had been emphasized by Luther and has arguable scriptural support (
Romans 13) "For German Christians, race was the fundamental principle of human life, and they interpreted and effected that notion in religious terms. German Christianity emphasized the distinction between the visible and invisible church. For the German Christians, the church on earth was not the fellowship of the holy spirit described in the New Testament but a contrast to it, a vehicle for the expression of race and ethnicity". The German Christians were sympathetic to the Nazi regime's goal of "co-ordinating" the individual Protestant churches into a single and uniform
Reich church, consistent with the
Volk ethos and the
Führerprinzip.
Creating a New National Church (Deutsche Evangelische Kirche) When the Nazis took power, the German Protestant church consisted of a federation of independent regional churches which included Lutheran, Reformed and United traditions. In late April 1933 the leadership of the Protestant federation agreed to write a new constitution for a new "national" church, the
German Evangelical Church ( or DEK). This had been one goal of many German Christians for some time, as centralization would enhance the coordination of Church and State, as a part of the overall Nazi process of
Gleichschaltung ("coordination", resulting in co-option). These German Christians agitated for Hitler's advisor on religious affairs,
Ludwig Müller, to be elected as the new Church's bishop (). Müller had poor political skills, little political support within the Church and no real qualifications for the job, other than his commitment to Nazism and a desire to exercise power. When the federation council met in May 1933 to approve the new constitution, it elected
Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Younger as
Reichsbischof of the new
Protestant Reich Church by a wide margin, largely on the advice and support of the leadership of the 28 church bodies. elections 1933: German Christians and Confessing Church campaigners in Berlin Hitler was infuriated with the rejection of his candidate, and after a series of political maneuvers, Bodelschwingh resigned and Müller was elected as the new
Reichsbischof on 27 September 1933, after the government had already imposed him on 28 June 1933. The formidable propaganda apparatus of the Nazi state was deployed to help the German Christians win presbyter and synodal elections in order to dominate the upcoming synod and finally put Müller into office. Hitler discretionarily decreed unconstitutional premature re-elections of all presbyters and synodals for 23 July; the night before the elections, Hitler made a personal appeal to Protestants by radio. The German Christians won handily (70–80% of all seats in presbyteries and synods), except in four regional churches and one provincial body of the united old-Prussian church: the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria right of the river Rhine ("right" meaning "east of"), the
Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover,
Evangelical Reformed State Church of the Province of Hanover the Lutheran
Evangelical State Church in Württemberg, and in the
old-Prussian ecclesiastical province of Westphalia, where the German Christians gained no majorities. Among adherents of the Confessing Church these church bodies were termed
intact churches (), as opposed to the German Christian-ruled bodies which they designated as "destroyed churches" (). This electoral victory enabled the German Christians to secure sufficient delegates to prevail at the so-called
national synod that conducted the "revised" September election for
Reichsbischof. Further pro-Nazi developments followed the elevation of Müller to the bishopric: in late summer the old-Prussian church (led by Müller since his government appointment on 6 July 1933) adopted the
Aryan Paragraph, effectively
defrocking clergy of Jewish descent and even clergy married to non-Aryans. ==The Confessing Church==