Berlin tumult
Inner-Protestant confessional unrest that occurred in Berlin-Cölln in Holy Week 1615 is referred to as Berlin tumult .
prehistory
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On Christmas Day 1613, Elector Johann Sigismund made his long-standing turn to Calvinism public with a celebration of the Lord's Supper according to the Reformed rite in the (old) Berlin Cathedral . Both he himself and his brother and governor Johann Georg initially intended to lead the state church of Brandenburg , to which reformed parts of the country also belonged after the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute in 1609, to the Reformed creed and worship. They did not see a change of faith in this, but the completion of the Reformation through the elimination of “ papist ” remains, in particular the Lord's Supper with hosts , the exorcism at baptism and the crucifixes and other images in the churches. They met with resistance from the clergy in town and country, where Lutheran orthodoxy had prevailed since the introduction of the Lutheran Reformation by Joachim II in 1539 and the settlement of intra-Lutheran controversies through the concord formula in 1577 .
course
After Joachim Friedrich had already removed sculptures and pictures during a redesign of the cathedral in 1608, dissolved the cathedral monastery and had the church consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity by General Superintendent Christoph Pelargus , Johann Georg, with the consent of his hunting brother, des Electors, on Thursday, March 30th, July / April 9, 1615 greg. , the complete removal of all pictures, the baptismal font and the high altar , in the place of which a simple communion table was set up. In particular, the removal and destruction of the triumphal cross outraged some witnesses who saw it as an attack on the depicted Christ himself.
On the following Palm Sunday , April 2, July / April 12, 1615 greg. , preached the reformed cathedral preacher Martin Füssel between 9 and 10 o'clock in the cathedral and justified the measure as a cleaning of "papist filth". He argued against the alleged educational value of the church pictures with reference to a sculpture in the nearby Petrikirche , which shows a couple whoring . When the Lutheran chaplain Peter Stuler climbed into the pulpit of the Petrikirche on the same Sunday at 12 noon , he knew not only about the events in the cathedral, but also about Füssel's sermon statements and responded with violent counter-attacks. His most daring statement was addressed directly to the elector: "If you want to reform, move to Jülich , you have enough to reform." Afterwards, around a hundred listeners banded together and threatened the Calvinists; however, there was no assault. Stuler was reprimanded by his superior provost and indirectly also by the Electress Anna , who remained Lutheran and who otherwise always sided with the Lutheran confession.
On the following day, the Monday of Holy Week, Stuler came to his senses and feared severe consequences. In the evening he left the city in the direction of Schöneberg . He explained to everyone he met that he was threatened with dungeon or worse. This led to a crowd of indignant citizens in front of Stuler's house who wanted to defend him. The preacher's wife poured beer, for which they had the right to be a mug. The excited crowd ran up and down the Brüderstraße and threw stones into the houses of the Reformed preachers Füssel, Sachse and Finck as well as the court doctor. At around 10 p.m., the governor Johann Georg himself came over from the castle to the Petrikirche with eight horsemen and a few satellites to ensure peace and quiet. The crowd, numbered between 500–700, believed he was coming to arrest their preacher, and some with rifles holed up behind the churchyard wall. An attendant of the governor fired a warning shot. Some of the crowd then climbed into the church tower and rang the storm bell , so that people rushed over the Spree bridge from Berlin. Johann Georg had the mayor of Cölln wake up to calm the people down, but the sight of him in his sleeping fur only excited them more. The governor decided to return to the castle to avoid further escalation. He was insulted and ridiculed. For about an hour he tried to calm the crowd. More shots were fired from both sides, injured, but no one was killed. Johann Georg was hit in the leg by a cobblestone. Finally he withdrew with his company; most of the citizens went home too. A small group, however, entered the house of court preacher Füssel and destroyed and stole the entire household effects. Füssel himself was able to escape with his family over the roof into a neighboring house.
On Tuesday the popular outrage had not subsided and some spokesmen again threatened Reformed court officials and even the castle. Stuler returned to town and, together with an official at St. Petri, rekindled the excitement. On the same day the elector returned from the hunt. He put a strong military garrison in the city, which restored calm. He decided not to track down and punish the ringleaders in order not to pour new fuel on the fire. The licensing rights were only withdrawn from Kaplan Stuler. He left the city in the same year and took on another pastorate.
consequences
After the tumult, the elector finally renounced the attempt to reform the entire regional church in the Calvinist sense. The denominational conflict continued to smolder for decades, and the tolerance prescribed by the authorities only embittered the Lutheran clergy, including Paul Gerhardt , all the more. It was not until the anniversary of the Reformation in 1817 that Friedrich Wilhelm III. the union . But the agendas and secession of the Old Lutherans revealed their initial fragility.
literature
- Anton Chroust : Files on Brandenburg history under Elector Johann Sigismund : Extract writing sub dato Cöln an der Sprew on April 13th a. 1615 (eyewitness account of the events): Commentary p. 11–12 and text p. 18–21 . In: Research on Brandenburg and Prussian History 9, Leipzig 1896
- Daniel Heinrich Hering: Tumult in Berlin . In: Daniel Heinrich Herings Pastors of the Evangelical Reformed Church, and the Royal Friederichs School Directors in Breslau Historical news of the first beginning of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Brandenburg and Prussia under the godly Elector Johann Sigismund: together with the three confessional documents of this church . Halle 1778, pp. 279–301
- Gabriel Almer: Calvinista Aulico-Politicus. Denomination and rule in Brandenburg-Prussia (approx. 1660–1740) . Berlin 2016, therein: pp. 85–86 ( digitized version )
- Albrecht Beutel : Reflected Religion: Contributions to the History of Protestantism . Tübingen 2007, on the subject especially p. 87
Individual evidence
- ↑ From Luther Taufbüchlein provided
- ↑ Luther saw - in the old church tradition - the biblical prohibition of images as obsolete by the incarnation , while for Calvin it was strictly valid.
- ↑ Pelargus later publicly confessed to Calvin's teaching.
- ↑ The Julian calendar was in effect in Brandenburg until 1700 .
- ↑ probably one of the apotropaic representations frequent in Romanesque and Gothic , which no longer exists and of which there are no illustrations
- ↑ Also called the deacon, he was probably the second preacher of the Petrikirche