Bavarian Concordat (1924)

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The Bavarian Concordat (abbreviated: “ BayK ”) of March 29, 1924 is a state church treaty that was concluded between the Free State of Bavaria and the Holy See .

prehistory

After the end of the First World War and the overthrow of the Bavarian monarchy in 1918, the question of whether a republic could enter into royal rights or whether the Concordat of 1817 had automatically expired by the revolution was immediately debatable . The alliance of throne and altar ended as a result of the revolution, as shown by the fact that the prayer for the king was no longer available in the service. The new state seemed to be heading for the first solution: a few days after the revolution, the Ministry of Education demanded, as before, the oath of office of the bishops on the sovereign, the new people's state. The bishops followed suit. From the experience of the Kulturkampf , this happened with the restriction only insofar as it was about state services by the church. The replacement of parishes was treated just as pragmatically . The previous royal presentation and approval rights were tacitly granted to the new government in anticipation of the previous consideration. The Munich nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, who had been in office since 1917 and later Pope Pius XII , tried to give legal form to this situation .

Concordat negotiations

The key figure in the concordat negotiations, Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. has been

The Weimar Republic had created new facts and the presentation rights or the church regimental occupation rights of the Ancien Régime were swept away by Article 137 of the Weimar Constitution (WRV). Since then, every religious community has conferred "its offices without the involvement of the state or the civil community". Based on this new constitutional situation, Nuncio Pacelli outlined the objectives for a future Concordat. He called for a concordat chair for one professorship each in philosophy and history. Catholic theological faculties at Bavarian universities should be guaranteed by the state. For the appointment of all these professors of the faculty, the Catholic Church should be granted a right of objection in the manner of a nihil obstat , so that an appointment is waived in the event of church complaints. He also called for the abolition of laws against the dead hand and the free transfer of property rights to state property previously used by the church, but with the state construction burden being retained or against a corresponding redemption. He also worried about the collection of church taxes and their collection by the tax offices. The later fierce dispute about the denominational school was not on the agenda.

The Foreign Ministry in Palais Montgelas ( Promenadeplatz / Kardinal-Faulhaber-Str.)

The parliament and the government agreed on 20 January 1920, the recording to formal negotiations. Meanwhile, an episcopal commission had worked out proposals that anticipated the essential provisions of the later Concordat. The leading Ministry of Education under Franz Matt ( BVP ) had to take into account the interests of the state government. Bavaria hoped that the deal would underscore its own position as a subject under international law (see article Bavarian citizenship ). For this purpose, considerations at the level of the empire had to be anticipated. For this reason, the church side pressed for a speedy deal with Bavaria in order to be able to trump the parallel negotiations with the Reich. On the other hand, the already well advanced negotiations were delayed again by the fact that an internal church dispute broke out. The non-Bavarian Fulda Bishops 'Conference under the leadership of the Archbishop of Wroclaw, Adolf Cardinal Bertram, wanted to introduce the right to free bishops' elections through the cathedral chapters , which had previously been in force in Prussia , for Bavaria, whose bishops had previously been presented by the king. This requirement was contrary to Can. 329 Codex Iuris Canonici of 1917, which provided for the appointment of bishops by the Pope. Pacelli had worked on this new version of Roman canon law for 12 years before his appointment as nuncio in Munich. Rome steered purposefully towards the compromise of the Prussian Concordat (1929) , a list election that granted the cathedral chapters the right to make a final selection from three candidates for the Pope.

The negotiations were brought to an end with a slight delay in 1924, but were nevertheless the first to come before the Reich and the other member states. On March 29, 1924 , initialed Nuncio Pacelli, Prime Minister of Knilling , Culture Minister Matt and Finance Krausneck the concordat in the Bavarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs . This was in the Palais Montgelas , whose namesake was the father of secularization in Bavaria . With the consent of the Reich Government, the following individual agreements were made:

The contents of the 1924 Concordat

Collective freedom of belief

  • Freedom to practice one's faith including self-determination within the Church (Art. 1).
  • Guarantee of the existence and the wealth (and its increase) of the orders (Art. 2).
  • Collection of church taxes by the tax office (Art. 10 § 5).
see Art. 137 WRV

Colleges

  • Right to object when professors and lecturers are appointed to the Catholic Theological Chairs (Art. 3).
  • Establishment of concordat chairs for philosophy and history at the philosophical faculties of the Universities of Munich and Würzburg (Art. 4 § 2).

schools

  • Religion as a regular subject in all types of school (Art. 4 § 3 and Art. 7 § 1).
  • Supervision of religious education by the church (Art. 8).
  • Confessional teacher training (Art. 5 § 3).
  • Parents' right to set up denominational schools, the “Catholic primary school” (Art. 6).
  • Right to object to religious education teachers at higher educational institutions (Art. 3 §§ 1–2).
  • Missio canonica for religious teachers at Catholic elementary schools. (Art. 5 § 2).
see. the School Act of August 1, 1922.

The 1817 Concordat continues to apply

By far the most extensive Art. 10 deals with a legal obligation of the state towards the church. The legal basis are Sections 35 and 63 of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 and Art. 138 WRV of 1919. Art. 10 roughly corresponds to Articles IV and V of the Concordat of 1817. The original justification for these regulations has ceased to exist. There is no right of nomination, amortization laws and the oath of the bishops. The latter only comes back to life through Article 16 of the 1933 Reich Concordat .

  • Fund for Archbishop's and Episcopal Chapters and their Cathedral Chapters.
  • Appropriate apartment for the archbishops, bishops, the dignitary, half of the cathedral capitulars by the state.
  • State provision for the vicar general and the episcopal secretary.
  • Suitable buildings for the ordinariate , cathedral chapters and their archives by the state.
  • Guarantee of existence for the assets and income of the cathedral churches.
  • Guarantee of the state in the maintenance of the cathedral churches including their expenses for church services and the remuneration of secular servants to make compensation payments if necessary.
  • State aid for boys 'and priests' seminars .
  • Appropriate grants for the emeritus institutions and the emeritus , see also: Emeritenanstalt der Archdiocese Munich-Freising .
  • Appropriate subsidies for clergy when changing pastor's posts.

Appointment of clergy

  • Establishment of chaplains (Art. 11).
see. Art. 141 WRV.
  • Protection of the integrity of the church administrative units (Art. 12).
  • Exclusive appointment of clergy with German citizenship and university degree (Art. 13).
cf. the May Laws during the Kulturkampfzeit .
  • Procedure for the appointment of bishops on the basis of the triennial lists of bishops and cathedral chapters (Art. 14 § 1).
see the articles Political Clause , Terna (three-way proposal)
  • Collection of " memories " on the part of the Bavarian state government when appointing bishops (Art. 14 § 1) and pastors (Art. 14 § 3).
  • The appointment and election of the members of the cathedral chapters, including the canons, are adapted to the canon law (Art. 14 § 2).

Domestic implementation 1925

Politics stood between initialing and domestic ratification . There were also Protestant churches in Bavaria, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria on the right side of the Rhine and the United Protestant-Evangelical-Christian Church of the Palatinate . Only after initialing the concordat were negotiations with the two churches started. On November 15, 1924, the separate contracts were signed. On the same day, the government submitted a blanket law to the state parliament that bracketed the three treaties. In this way the state government tried to save the far-reaching concessions made to the churches. This procedure made the qualification as an international treaty questionable, because on the ecclesiastical side only the Holy See was subject to international law . The problem to be feared, however, was the faculty. Traditionally liberal , their associations objected to the cementing of denominational schools and denominational teacher training . The heated debates that followed in the state parliament forced the state government to enclose a declaration that relativized the concordat. In the final debate, the newly crowned MP Dr. Wilhelm Hoegner , the only minister-president of the SPD to date , knowledgeably signed the Concordat and wrote himself in the studbook: "Constantly emphasizing Bavaria's statehood at every opportunity must not be an end in itself:"

The state parliament adopted the coat law on January 15, 1925. Supporters were the Bavarian People's Party (BVP), the Bavarian Farmers' Union and the Bavarian Middle Party (DNVP) , opponents of the SPD and KPD and the Völkische Block .

Continued validity

The continuation of the 1924 Concordat was guaranteed in Article 2 of the 1933 Reich Concordat , especially Catholic denominational schools (Article 23). During the regime’s fight against the denominational schools in 1938, they were eliminated throughout Bavaria. Initially, attempts were made to use intimidation and propaganda to persuade parents to enroll their children in the “German Community School”. Countermeasures by the church were brutally suppressed, contrary to the Concordat, and church people like Johannes Neuhäusler or Rupert Mayer were sent to concentration camps because they stood up for the denominational school. In October 1938 the Ministry of Education converted the last denominational schools into community schools.

In 1941 the possibility of raising "memories" against newly appointed pastors was waived. In the post-war period, the dispute over schools and universities returned.

Community school

Primary school and the contracts with the churches are closely linked via Art. 135 BV:

“Like most of the other federal states, after the collapse, Bavaria essentially followed the legal status before 1933. In Article 135 of the Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria of December 2, 1946, the precedence of the denominational school over the community school was established. After protracted party political disputes, the School Organization Act of August 8, 1950 (GVBl. P. 159) was passed, which affirmed the primacy of the denominational school. The Bavarian Constitutional Court confirmed the constitutionality of this regulation. This ended the discussion on school policy in Bavaria for the time being, although the strong religious mix of the Bavarian population after 1945 repeatedly raised particular problems of minority protection. Only the elementary school law of November 17, 1966 (GVBl. P. 402), enacted in the course of the rural school reform, brought the two types of schools closer together with the introduction of the 'minority teacher' in accordance with Article 8, Paragraph 4 of this law. If at least 35 students from a denominational school belonged to a different denomination, a teacher trained for teaching at public elementary schools, who was suitable and willing to provide religious instruction for the students of the denominational minority, was to be used in consultation with the higher ecclesiastical authority in order to secure religious instruction to take over. This teacher also gave lessons in the other subjects and was a full member of the teachers' conference. There were constitutional concerns against the 'minority teacher' with regard to Art. 135 Para. 2 BV, old version, according to which only those teachers were allowed to be used at denominational schools who were suitable and willing to teach and educate the students according to the principles of the denomination in question to a constitutional complaint at the Bavarian Constitutional Court. The latter decided on March 20, 1967 that the challenged provisions were compatible with the Bavarian constitution (BayVerfGH nF 20, 36). Regarding the problem of the 'minority teacher', the court stated that Art. 8 Para. 4 VoSchG does not correspond to the wording of Art. 135 Para. 2 BV, old version, but real circumstances must be taken into account when interpreting a norm. from which it grew. In view of the lack of homogeneity in more than half of all denominational schools and in view of the fact that well-structured schools provide better career opportunities, it is not acceptable, if only because of the educational entitlement to which every resident of Bavaria is entitled under Art. 128 BV, the Referring the confessional minority to locally distant or poorly structured schools. In doing so, however, the minority could not be taught according to the principles of the majority confession , because this would violate both freedom of belief and parental rights. From the point of view of tolerance, the overriding elementary principle of freedom of belief and conscience requires that pupils of such denominationally mixed classes should also be brought up together on the basis of the convictions common to both denominations. In the case of larger minorities, it is necessary to employ minority teachers in order to maintain parity and to protect the freedom of religion and belief. Art. 135 BV, old version, can only be implemented in full in schools that are either of homogeneous denominations or that are attended by small minorities. In the period that followed, more and more voices were raised calling for the formal legal situation, especially the wording of the constitution, to be brought into line with the current situation. "

- BVerfGE 41, 65, 79ff.

For a long time , the state government and the CSU parliamentary majority were not ready to resolve a conflict with the Catholic Church to overcome the denominational school . Only when the opposition parties SPD and FDP 1967/68 petition for "Christian Community School" clinked, the state government decided to act.

In order to prevent the SPD's draft law, which was given good chances, the CSU, in consultation with the nuncio in Bonn, Corrado Bafile , decided to revoke the previous separation into community schools and denominational schools through its own legislative initiative. Finally, the three parliamentary groups agreed on a jointly drawn up law to declare the elementary school as a common school in which teaching is based on the principles of the Christian creeds.

"The co-rapporteur, the MP Hochleitner (SPD), welcomed the compromise, as his parliamentary group has always approved of the common school for all primary school children, in which teaching and education should be based on Christian principles."

In the referendum held on July 7, 1968, there were three initiatives to choose from: the SPD, the CSU, and the intergroup proposal. The SPD and CSU themselves recommended rejecting their own proposals. The referendum under Article 75 to amend Article 135 was adopted on July 7, 1968 (76.3%).

Colleges

For the loss of legal positions due to the introduction of the community school, the church was granted additional concordat chairs.

validity

Reference to the Bavarian Concordat from 1924 on a building board at the Frauenkirche in Munich in 2015

The Bavarian Concordat of 1924 is still valid. On September 4, 1974, declarations on various articles (parts) were included in the contract.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "... already in the interest of maintaining the state personality of Bavaria." Karl Scharnagl (BVP) in the Landtag: Bavarian Landtag. - 27th session of January 13, 1925 In: Bavarian State Parliament: Negotiations 1919–1933; Session period 1924–1928, vol. 1. Stenographic reports on the public sessions 1924/1925, p. 747
  2. ↑ cf. also view of Florian Heinritzi in the conference report: The Holy See in international relations 1870–1939. , July 1, 2009 to July 2, 2009, Munich, on H-Soz-u-Kult.de, September 24, 2009
  3. ↑ Ingrid Schulze-Bidlingmaier: The Wirth Cabinets I and II (1921/22) , Volume 1. Boppard am Rhein 1973, No. 139 Executive meeting of November 11, 1921 , on Bundesarchiv.de
  4. ↑ Ingrid Schulze-Bidlingmaier: The Wirth Cabinets I and II (1921/22) , Volume 1. Boppard am Rhein 1973, No. 134 Chief Meeting of November 10, 1921 , on Bundesarchiv.de
  5. ↑ Bavarian State Parliament. - 27th meeting on January 13, 1925 . In: Bavarian State Parliament: Negotiations 1919–1933; Session period 1924–1928 , vol. 1. Stenographic reports on the public sessions 1924/1925, p. 753
  6. ^ A b Fritz Schäffer: Community school. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . November 20, 2012, accessed April 20, 2013 .
  7. ↑ a b BerfGE 41, 65 - Joint School Decision of the First Senate of December 17, 1975, 1 BvR 428/69, quoted from: A. Tschentscher (Ed.): Deutschsprachiges Fallrecht (DFR). Status: November 24, 2009
  8. ^ Holy See / Vatican - Relations with Germany: Concordats with Germany and German federal states . Foreign Office Germany