German Evangelical Church Community AB zu Preßburg
The German Evangelical Church Community AB zu Preßburg was a German Evangelical Church Community of the Augsburg Confession (AB) in Pressburg , which existed from 1606 to 1945 .
History of the Evangelical Church Community AB zu Preßburg
First signs of the Reformation in Pressburg
The Reformation spread extremely quickly in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary . Although the first signs of the Reformation can also be found in Pressburg shortly after the Battle of Mohács , it should nevertheless be noted that the teachings of Martin Luther spread only slowly in the city itself. The patricians of the city and the educated bourgeoisie of Pressburg, who were already numerous at that time, certainly knew the events that were taking place in the world of that time and could find out about the events from books that were already widespread in Pressburg at that time. which took place in Wittenberg in 1517 . Nevertheless, almost a hundred years had to pass from the beginning of the Reformation to the establishment of the first Protestant church community in Pressburg.
Presumably it was the Turkish threat, which repeatedly threatened Eastern Europe, and the catastrophic defeat of the royal army in the Battle of Mohács for the Kingdom of Hungary, which contributed to the fact that the Reformation in Pressburg was initially regarded as a minor matter. A stream of refugees set in from the areas occupied by the Turks in the direction of the excellently fortified Pressburg. The queen widow Maria of Hungary arrived here on September 3, 1526 . Part of the Hungarian nobility and high nobility followed her. The subsequent battle for the Hungarian royal crown also had a lasting impact on the progress of the Reformation. Two pretenders claimed the crown at the same time: one was the Voivode of Transylvania Johann Szapolyai (1487–1440) and the other was Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, who was the brother of the emperor on the basis of the inheritance contract ( Vienna double wedding ) between the house Habsburg and the House of Jagiello also made claims to the Hungarian throne.
In the history of the Kingdom of Hungary - not occupied by the Turks - the city of Pressburg played a dominant role. At the Landtag convened in 1535 it was decided to make the city of Pressburg the seat of the entire provincial administration. With this, Pressburg also became the de jure capital of the country and seat of the central authorities including the royal governors. This state lasted for over 300 years.
During this period, the focus was more on these political matters, which stemmed from the defeat of the Hungarian army against the Ottomans and which soon led to a reorganization of the administration in the kingdom. The teachings of Martin Luther, which were spread through the Reformation, live in Pressburg rather like a glowing ember that is only to be kindled at a much later point in time. But even the aristocratic circles were gripped by the glow of the Reformation.
Foundation of the Pressburg Protestant parish
The beginnings of founding a Protestant community in Pressburg were very modest. The first Evangelical congregation in Pressburg was not a church as we know it today. It was ultimately a result of the political wishes of the then Bratislava City Council.
Since loud rallies for the Reformation were also noticeable in Pressburg, an application was made to the city magistrate on April 17, 1606 for the employment of a Lutheran preacher for the inner city, but this was rejected by the magistrate. After the conclusion of the Peace of Vienna , however, nothing stood in the way of the election of a Protestant pastor.
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On 16 (26?). In July 1606, therefore, the Bratislava magistrate sent a letter to Count Siegfried von Kollonich , an ardent supporter of the Reformation who was staying in Prague as a court war councilor with his troops . In this letter the city magistrate asked for support in the organization of a Protestant congregation and at the same time for the release of his Ratzersdorf court preacher, Andreas Reuss . On August 7th, the count's acceptance was given. As a result, Andreas Reuss was publicly appointed as the first Protestant preacher on October 2, 1606. He gave his inaugural sermon on October 8, 1606, the 20th Sunday after Trinity, in Armpruster's house 'Zur Blaue Himmelskugel', which was set up as a provisional location for Protestant services, as the Protestants did not have their own church in the city at that time . The Armpruster house stood on the site of today's Jesuit church on the main square between the royal curia at that time, the Beck house and the Karnerische house near the town hall.
Andreas Reuss, the first Lutheran preacher in Pressburg, came from Querfurt in what is now Saxony-Anhalt . He attended grammar school in his hometown and then grammar school in Salzwedel , where the Reformation was introduced in 1541. According to the Wittenberg ordination book, he was ordained a Lutheran pastor on April 1, 1579 by Polykarp Leyser . As a special feature it can be noted that Reuss had no theological-academic training. Siegfried von Kollonich made Reuss his court preacher in 1581 and it can be proven that he had been a preacher in Ratzersdorf since 1590 . Even at that time, numerous Lutherans in Bratislava attended his services. But Reuss himself also came to the suburbs repeatedly - even before he was called to Pressburg - where he held public services in a sugar- coated house in Kamper's house . A memorial plaque dedicated to him was later placed on this house. It should be noted that the Zuckermantel was not under the jurisdiction of the city of Pressburg until 1850, but was considered an independent municipal administrative unit.
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The work of Reuss as the city's first Protestant pastor did not last long. Just one year after taking office, Reuss was accused by the Catholic side of "lese majesty", whereupon the city magistrate, under pressure from above, on November 13, 1607, forbade him to preach. In 1608 he was called to St. Georgen , where he was elected dean. He stayed in St. Georgen until the end of his life, around 1629 (?).
In the interest of establishing a Protestant life in the city and on the advice of Count Siegfried Kollonich, a Pressburg deputation went to Lauingen to find a rector for the planned Protestant school and a deacon as a preaching assistant for Reuss from the Protestant Duke Philipp Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg to ask. The reason they gave was that the Protestant faith in Hungary did not yet have such strong roots and that men with a corresponding zeal for faith would therefore be required. The Duke agreed to this and sent Professor David Kilger, who became the first rector of the Pressburg Protestant School, and the deacon Adam Tettelbach to Pressburg.
Adam Tettelbach came from Carlstein in Austria . After the death of his father, Tettelbach came to the Palatinate and under the protégées of Duke Philipp Ludwig, later he studied theology in Wittenberg as a scholarship holder of the Palatinate, where he received his master's degree on April 7, 1606. After his studies, the Duke sent him to Pressburg at the request of the Pressburg magistrate, where he arrived in December 1606. However, he was only granted a relatively short service here, as he died of the plague on August 28, 1613. His funeral sermon was given by his successor, the third in the ancestral line of the Pressburg pastors, Simon Heuchelin (* 1577 in Lauingen; † 1621 also from the plague).
Construction of the first Protestant church in Pressburg
From this point on, Protestant life in Pressburg began to develop very fruitfully. The church grew. The city magistrate was gradually permeated by the evangelical belief system and promoted the evangelical faith. But the citizens were not only enthusiastic, but also willing to make sacrifices when a fundraising campaign was called for the construction of the city's first own Protestant prayer house. Four fifths of the cost of building the church were raised as donations by the people of Pressburg. The builder Hans Stoss from Augsburg was entrusted with the construction . Strict construction criteria had to be taken into account: the building was not allowed to have the appearance of a sacred structure and the construction of a church tower was also prohibited. After three years of construction, on December 18, 1638, the theologian of international importance from Augsburg, Josua Wegelin (1604–1640), the eleventh in the ancestral line of the Pressburg pastors, was able to give the first sermon of thanks for the lucky one for the new prayer house next to the Pressburg town hall Keep the completion of the church building. The solemn consecration took place within the framework of a two-day church consecration on December 21, 1638. Josua Wegelin, the senior of the community, consecrated the church in the name of the Holy Trinity and he also gave the sermon. The German Evangelical Pressburgs had thus reached one of the high points of their existence at that time. With the consecration of this church, the first heyday of the Pressburg evangelical parish began.
The Age of the Counter Reformation in Hungary
The decade between 1671 and 1681 is known as the decade of mourning for Protestantism in the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1672, after tough resistance, the first Protestant church in the city was taken away from the Protestants and handed over to the Jesuit order on January 1, 1673 . If the Jesuit party led by György Szelepcsényi (1595–1685; from 1666 Archbishop of Gran / Esztergom ) had gone within the Roman Church, Protestantism in Hungary would have had to reckon with its complete annihilation during this period. Under the direction of Archbishop Leopold Kollonich , show trials were staged in Tyrnau in 1673/74 , during which Protestants - Lutherans and Calvinists alike - were brought before and sentenced en masse. With this the Catholic dignitaries hoped to exterminate the Lutheran and Calvinist " heretics " once and for all. Draconian judgments and punishments were pronounced, which led to the sale of Protestant preachers as galley slaves to Naples . An outcry of indignation roared through Protestant Europe.
The imperial court in Vienna could not accept this radical position of the Catholic clergy. Consideration for the Protestant princes in the German Empire and for his Protestant allies England and Holland , which he needed in the fight against the Turkish sultan and France , forced Emperor Leopold I to adopt a more liberal position. A compromise had to be found - also with regard to Emmerich Thököly's military successes - which solved the problems. And so Emperor Leopold I decided in May 1681 to convene a state parliament in Ödenburg .
The legislation of this parliament saved the Protestantism of old Hungary from its complete ruin. With Articles XXV and XXVI, a modest new beginning was even possible. The Protestants could now practice their faith freely and could no longer be obliged to take part in the Catholic rites. The ministers who were expelled were allowed to return to the country and resume ministry as pastors. In each county the Protestants were allowed to own two churches outside the town walls, which, however, had to be made of wood. The same was true of the royal free cities. Existing churches were allowed to remain in the possession of the Protestants if they had been used by them without interruption since 1670. However, since in 1672, i.e. at the height of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic clergy had seized almost all Protestant churches - with the help of the military - most of the existing churches were lost for the Protestants. Thus there was no church available to the evangelical believers in Pressburg either. Therefore it was decided in 1682 - in accordance with the requirements of the Ödenburger Landtag - to build a wooden church outside the city (on the nunnery). This was used by the congregation for worship for almost 100 years.
Tolerance time
The Age of Enlightenment begins with Emperor Josef II . The Jesuit order was dissolved by his mother, Empress Maria Theresa , in 1773 . For the Protestants, the most difficult period of persecution, which had lasted over 200 years, was over. On October 5, 1781, Joseph II issued his tolerance patent ( Edictum Tolerantiae ), which laid down further essential religious freedoms and facilities for Protestants. The main points of the edict were: the Roman Church's withdrawal of supervision over the Protestant clergy (from now on superintendents are responsible for this); Protestants are allowed to set up churches and their own denominational schools, and they have been allowed to hold public offices. Mixed marriages were allowed, albeit with restrictions.
The Protestant denominations were only “tolerated” (“propter bonum pacis adhuc tolerata”!), They were not “incorporated” religions (“religio recepta”). The "tolerated" started to work immediately, congregations restructured themselves, congregational life got a new boost and new churches were built. In 1791, Emperor Leopold II completely lifted the restrictions on Protestants in a resolution.
In Pressburg, for example, the German articulated wooden church built in 1682 was allowed to be replaced by a massive new church before the Tolerance Patent came into force in 1776 (Majesty request of the Pressburg parish to Empress Maria Theresa from 1774). Only one year later, a second church could be built in Pressburg, also after an imperial “special permit” had been granted.
Building new churches
Second German Evangelical Church (Great Church)
After the existing wooden articular church was in a very poor structural condition, the Preßburg parish submitted an application to Empress Maria Theresa for a new building in February 1774. In June 1776 the community was granted special permission from the Viennese court for the new building. According to the requirements of the building permit, the church was not allowed to have a tower, it had to be built outside the city center, the entrance could only be reached from a side street.
In accordance with these requirements, the builder Matthäus Walch planned a new building in the late Baroque style with classical elements near the site of the dilapidated wooden articular church. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on June 24, 1774.
This second church of the German Evangelicals followed a straightforward, classicist line and is thus similar in character, albeit in a completely different style, to the aforementioned first Renaissance church (today the Jesuit church) on the main square of the city. Related is the towering roof, which in turn had to replace the conspicuousness of a church tower, which was not allowed at the time. In a strict sequence, the window axes structure the puritanic structure of the church, which actually has no main view. Inside, the church breathes the spirit of an enlightening preaching room, the double galleries of which would also have been suitable for an auditorium or theater.
Only the pulpit altar - a work by Peter Brandenthaler - with its reredos , a gift from the Bratislava-born painter Adam Friedrich Oeser (the drawing teacher Johann Wolfgang von Goethes), depicting the Last Supper at Emmaus, has pictorial decorations. Otherwise everything is focused on the spoken word of the sermon.
The first service took place in this church on the Saturday before the 1st Advent (November 30, 1776). The sermon was given by Pastor Michael Klein (1712–1782); the actual consecration of the house took place on the following 1st Sunday in Advent in 1776.
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The construction of the church devoured the considerable sum of 46,546 guilders and 42 kreuzers ; the money was raised exclusively from donations from Evangelical Lutheran co-religionists.
The organs
The Great Church had an organ from the beginning. The first organ was installed in 1776 by the Pressburg organ builder Karl Janischek.
In the 19th century this organ no longer met the demands of the parish. Therefore it was dismantled and the Viennese organ builder Jacob Deutschmann was commissioned to build a larger organ. This had 27 registers and 1602 pipes. The new organ (now the second organ in the church) was inaugurated on October 13, 1839. Johann Nepomuk Batka the Elder Ä. (who later also settled in Pressburg) wrote a “Larghetto” (op. 25) for this occasion, which was performed during the inauguration ceremony. During the First World War , a large part of the pipes was requisitioned and sent to the arms industry. Since no money could be invested in the first post-war years, the organ fell into disrepair.
At the beginning of the 1920s, the then senior of the German parish, D. Carl Eugen Schmidt , was actively considering building a new instrument. The position of organist was filled with the important organ musician Gustav Rhodes.
And in 1923 a new organ began to be installed in the 'Great Church'. It was the third instrument in the history of the Church. The organ was manufactured by the Rieger brothers , Jägerndorf , who installed it in the church. The architectural design was the responsibility of the Bratislava architect Christian Ludwig. The instrument has 62 registers, 4787 pipes, 4 manuals and a pedal. The solemn consecration took place on January 20, 1924. On the evening of that day the first organ concert on the new instrument took place, given by the famous Hamburg organist Alfred Sittard .
The organ was donated by the German winegrowers ("Weingärtner") family Schwanzer. The following German inscription is located above the gaming table :
"Dedicated to the German Evangelical Church AB zu Preßburg for the glory of God and for the edification of the community by the Schwanzer siblings in 1923."
Between the two world wars it was the largest instrument of its kind in all of what was then Czecho-Slovakia and therefore it was not only used for worship, but was also a popular concert instrument.
After the Second World War and during the time of communist rule, no financial means could be invested in the organ, which resulted in the instrument in a desolate condition. Renovation work only began after the fall of the Wall . In 2010 the company Rieger (now based in Austria) was commissioned with a general cleaning and renovation of the organ. It is one of the largest organs in all of Slovakia and is used not only for worship purposes, but also for organ concerts.
The instrument, which is now over 90 years old, is now a listed building.
The Slavic-Hungarian Church (Little Church)
Around the streets of Nonnenbahn and Lyzeumgasse, the new Protestant quarter of Pressburg was built, with the Evangelical Lyceum also built by Walch and the 'Great Church' immediately adjacent to the church of the Slovaks and Hungarians, which is now called the 'Small Church' becomes. It still seems to be completely hidden between the rows of houses and cannot be seen from the outside as a cult building. Neither church was sacralized later, and a tower was also denied, which is why they have faithfully retained their original appearance.
The small church stands exactly on the site of the now demolished wooden articulated church. Maria Theresa granted special permission for this church too; dated in Vienna on February 24, 1777. The building, realized by the builders Mathias Walch and Franz Carl Römisch , was completed on November 8, 1777. The inauguration took place on the 1st Sunday of Advent 1777 (November 30, 1777). The construction cost 7167 guilders and 81 cruisers. The money was also raised exclusively from donations from the faithful.
The organ of the 'Little Church' was built in 1878 by the organ builder Martin Šaško from Birkenhain ( Slov . Brezová pos Bradlom ) and rebuilt by the Pressburg organ builder Konstantin Bendár after the First World War. It is a simple instrument with a manual and a pedal.
Orthodoxy, Pietism, Rationalism
After Protestantism had endured the most difficult period of its struggle for survival, various religious currents spread in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which made it difficult for the believers in ancient Hungary to understand religion and which were stylized as a question of existence among theologians. On the one hand, it was religious denominationalism, which was unworldly and unrelated to the theses of Lutheran orthodoxy . The other two currents were "imported" from Germany. One was the rationalism ("belief in reason" ) founded by Georg Friedrich Seiler (1733–1807) , the other, the pietism of the Frankfurt pastor Philipp Jakob Spener , who learned about the at the University of Halle / S. Acting August Hermann Francke and his theology students came to old Hungary. When the Protestant Church at that time threatened to freeze in the rigid doctrinal system of “rationalism originating from reason”, Spener called on all “who seriously want to be Christians to a Christianity of heart and action”. Spener, Francke and their followers were contemptuously called "bigots" (ie "Pietists") by their opponents, but in the course of the 19th century the theology of Pietism gained a very good reputation and thus became the positive belief that we are know them today.
No wonder, then, that the Protestant believers were addressed by Pietism, whose main representative was in Pressburg: Matthias Bel . He had studied with August Hermann Francke in Halle and so to speak absorbed Pietism at the place of origin. From 1719 he was the first preacher of the German Evangelical Congregation in Preßburg and developed into one of the most important theologians and historians of his time. Bel did not ask about theological correctness, but about the effects of faith in everyday life. The faith of the individual should be active in love; that was now the focus of church preaching and teaching and of community life.
However, until the first half of the 19th century, the questions of religious currents - among theologians, but also among the lay people - were hotly debated and the struggle for “pure teaching” was fought with great commitment. In old Hungary, in the Synod of Rosenberg (1707) the at the University of Halle / S. scholarly pietism expressly condemned and rejected in a separate article. In the communities of old Hungary generally the rationalism of the Enlightenment prevailed. Worship services were transformed into pure "sermon worship services"; the old, traditional hymns were made "sensible" and even Luther songs were banned from the hymn books! Only very slowly - and with a time lag compared to Germany - the rationalism of the Enlightenment was overcome in old Hungary and gradually the church renewal had an invigorating effect on the cold community life.
19th century
In the early 19th century, the age of liberalism, the period of the greatest persecution was over. The Counter Reformation reduced the number of Protestants in the Kingdom of Hungary to almost a tenth. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Lutherans were estimated at around 830,000, who until 1918 were united in four church districts of the "Hungarian Evangelical Church AB". The Slovaks made up the largest share with around 440,000, especially in the Liptov and Turz counties , the Germans had around 200,000 and the Hungarians 180,000 members.
German Lutheranism was predominantly in the north-west of the country, namely in the counties of Raab , Ödenburg , Eisenburg and the Spiš , as well as the city of Pressburg (and the surrounding area), where there was also the largest parish with around 5000 members. The German Preßburger Kirchengemeinde AB belonged to the Hungarian Evangelical Church A. B. administratively to the Evangelical Church District for Cisdanubia .
When, in 1840, the then General Inspector of the Lutheran Regional Church, Count Karl Zay (1797–1871) - based on the model of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union (1817) - attempted to bring the Lutherans and Reformed into one union, his efforts failed due to fierce resistance of the Protestant communities, since the Lutherans Hungarians were numerically far inferior to the Reformed. The Evangelical Church Community in Pressburg also opposed the formation of a union based on the Prussian model.
Church political disputes after the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918
After the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, the organization of the 'Hungarian Evangelical Church AB' was destroyed and a new organization had to be found. A number of authoritative evangelical Slovaks who were also ardent Slovak patriots wanted to create new structures as quickly as possible. That is why they asked Vavro Šrobár , the then authoritative “Minister with Authority for the Administration of Slovakia” , to take charge of the reorganization from the state. With the ordinances of January 30 and February 7, 1919, the latter suspended the previous autonomy by dissolving the higher presbyteries and church conventions, depriving bishops, inspectors and senior citizens of their offices, organizing two church districts and setting up a general council of churches made up only of Slovaks duration. On April 2, 1919, he appointed the district church councils, episcopal administrators and inspectors, as well as the senior citizens.
The Pressburg Evangelical Church Congregation - after all numerically the largest congregation in Slovakia - learned about all of this in passing from the newspaper. Above all, she protested against the lifting of church autonomy. But when in the first synod (in the new state) on January 19, 1921 in Trenčín-Teplitz no consideration was given to minority rights and the Germans were constantly being outvoted, Pressburg decided to leave the Evangelical Church AB in Slovakia and declared its accession to the German Evangelical Church of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia , based in Gablonz . This decision was not approved and all state subsidies were blocked. Under this pressure, Pressburg had to declare its re-entry into the Evangelical Church Evangelical Church AB in Slovakia , albeit with 11 reservations. One of these reservations was the formation of a 'German Church District'.
In fact, on December 12, 1923, a 'German Seniorat Preßburg' was formed, to which the German communities of Preßburg and the surrounding area belonged.
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In the city of Pressburg, the reorganization was somewhat different. A Slovak parish with around 1,600 souls and a German-Hungarian parish with a little over 8,000 souls were formed. The economic separation dragged on until December 3, 1928, whereby the assets were divided in a ratio of 4/5 to 1/5. The Preßburger Diakonissenheim , as well as numerous properties, remained in the hands of the German Evangelical Church Community until 1945.
The German-Hungarian congregation in Pressburg was looked after by four pastors. Senior Carl Eugen Schmidt was the first German preacher in the parish (since 1890), and alongside him Pastor Heinrich Pröhle (since 1905) and Pastor Wilhelm Rátz (since 1910) served in the German community. Pastor Adolf Okályi was responsible for the Hungarian part of the community. Okályi worked in the parish since 1911; until the collapse of the Danube Monarchy mainly for the Slovaks and then until 1937 for the Hungarians. When Okályi retired, the Hungarian pastor János Endreffy took over this office and held it until 1945. The pastors had different priorities in their gifts and interests and thus complemented each other well. This is exemplified by their work at the Pressburg Theological Academy, to which they were called in addition to their pastoral office. Carl Eugen Schmidt was responsible for practical theology (until 1919). Heinrich Pröhle headed the catechetical seminar until the end of the First World War. In 1935, Pastor Rátz was appointed lecturer for homiletic and liturgical lectures.
The time of National Socialism and the Second World War
The Slovak side delayed the establishment of a German district for the whole of the Church. The General Convention did not want to make a decision until 1937, but by then it was too late; politics had ignored the church talks. The National Socialist forces now demanded their own regional church.
In 1939 the German Evangelical Church AB was founded in Slovakia . In 1942 it was approved by the state and Johannes Scherer was introduced as bishop.
Despite these external disturbances, church life had to go on. Senior Schmidt tried to counter the currents of National Socialism . As early as 1935 he turned against the establishment of a Reich Church in Germany with Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller at the head and his slogan: “One people - one church!” In the Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt . Schmidt: “National Socialism wanted the church to be Germanized. And the visible goal is "- and now Schmidt is bitterly sarcastic -" the 'evangelical' church ordered from above and brought into line with the state, the large, glorious imperial church with the no less great, magnificent imperial bishop at its head, who says' Staff 'and surrounded by a' ministry 'and funny' church laws' fabricated. Including laws such as the 'foolish paragraphs of arias ', with which this confessional universal church excluded itself from the universal church. Because this paragraph assumes ... instead of the sacrament of baptism and the faith in Jesus Christ wrought by the Holy Spirit, membership of a race is a condition of entry into the Christian community. "
Such warnings may have made some church members thoughtful. Many of them were loyal parishioners, but also members of the "Carpathian German Party" (KdP). Only too late did many realize that this party had been infiltrated by the National Socialists in the course of time. During the Sudeten crisis , the KdP was banned in September 1938, and a short time later the National Socialist “ German Party ” was founded in its place , claiming to represent all Germans in Slovakia.
The pastors of the German-Hungarian Preßburg community enjoyed such a reputation among the city's population that the Nazis did not dare to take action against them. None of the pastors collaborated with the German party. That may also have been the reason why none of the German pastors in the Pressburg community had not left Pressburg when the Eastern Front approached - despite the "ordered" evacuation of the Germans.
End of the German community
On April 4, 1945, Pressburg was liberated by the Red Army . Many members of the Pressburg parish fled to the west, but the greater part was forcibly evacuated on the basis of the Beneš decrees and scattered all over Austria and especially Germany . The German Evangelical Church AB in Slovakia was dissolved and the church property became the property of the Slovak Evangelical Church. The 10 to 15% of German speakers who stayed in the city were initially looked after by the German pastors who had stayed at home. From around 1949, German Protestant services were again allowed in Bratislava, which were now held in the 'Little Church'. After the death of the last German pastor (Wilhelm Rátz; † 1952), the rest of the community was looked after by the Slovak pastor Juraj Holčík (1903-1984). Holčík, who was born in Pressburg, studied Protestant theology in Erlangen and spoke German on a native level. It was he who took care of this small group of Protestant Germans still living in the city until his death. After his death, there was no longer any question of a German community in Bratislava. But German church services are also currently being offered by the local Slovak priests without interruption, but these are now attended by members of the German companies employed in the city or by tourists.
Important preachers of the German Evangelical Church Community AB (selection)
- Simon Heuchelin (* 1577, † 1621)
- Josua Wegelin (* 1604, † 1640)
- David Titius (* 1619, † 1679)
- Anton Reiser (* 1628, † 1686)
- Georg Friedrich Schnaderbach (* 1669, † 1716)
- Wilhelm Josef Jarius (* 1772, † 1843)
- Franz Samuel Stromszky (* 1792, † 1861)
- Paul Rázga (* 1798, † 1849)
- Carl August Raabe (* 1804 - † 1878)
- Ludwig Geduly (* 1815, † 1890)
- Carl Eugen Schmidt (* 1865, † 1948)
- Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Pröhle (* 1870, † 1950)
- Wilhelm Rátz (* 1882, † 1952)
Structure and structure of the Evangelical Church in Pressburg
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of Hungary was structured completely differently from churches in Germany. These were (and are) conceived from top to bottom, the Roman Catholic Church anyway, and the Protestant churches also emerged as regional churches with sovereign consistory, which led a strict church regime and largely still leads today.
The Evangelical Church in Old Hungary, after its first heyday, was a suppressed church from around 1674. When the Ödenburger Landtag entered in 1681 and even more so through the tolerance patent of Emperor Joseph II. In 1781, the Protestant church had to build itself up independently from below, separate from the state and the municipalities.
So the convention, the totality of the electorate, became the most important decision-making body. The convention elected a ' church inspector ' (usually a respected personality from the nobility, administration or economy) to lead the congregation, who also convened the convention. The proposals for the election of pastors were also submitted to the convention, and the parish convention alone decided the election; a superior authority had nothing to do with it.
The convention was usually convened only once a year, unless there was a special need such as the election of a pastor. In the meantime the convent elected a presbytery to handle the day-to-day business. The individual presbyters were elected to various committees.
Above all, the administrative committee, which was responsible for the financial affairs of the community, was important. The chairman of this committee was called the 'curator'. Since all of these offices were voluntary, the community only had to pay the employees who did the work. In this way church taxes of the parishioners could be kept relatively low and most of the money could be put into the parish work.
literature
- Adalbert Hudak : The Church of Our Fathers, Stuttgart 1953
- Anton Klipp: Fragments on the history of Protestantism in Old Hungary in Carpathian Yearbook 2006 , (Vol. 57) Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 80-88903-78-5
- Anton Klipp: Pressburg. New views on an old city. Karpatendeutsches Kulturwerk, Karlsruhe 2010, ISBN 978-3-927020-15-3 .
- Anton Klipp: The Habsburgs and the beginnings of the Reformation in Preßburg, in Carpathian Yearbook 2017 (vol. 68), Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-80-8175-021-2
- Andreas Metzl and colleagues: unforgotten piety. The last German Protestant parishes in Slovakia (= Acta Carpatho-Germanica XXII), SNM Museum, Bratislava 2016
- CE Schmidt , S. Markusovßky, G. Ebner: History of the Evangelical Church Community AB zu Preßburg , 2 Bde., Pozsony 1906
- Reiner Sörries: By Emperor's Grace: Protestant Church Buildings in the Habsburg Empire, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20154-8
- Roland Steinacker , Desider Alexy: 350 years of the Evangelical Church in Preßburg, Stuttgart 1956
- P. Rainer Rudolf, Eduard Ulreich: Karpatendeutsches Biographisches Lexikon. Working group of the Carpathian Germans from Slovakia, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-927096-00-8 .
Web links
History of the Lutheran Church in Hungary
[1] Reinmundus Rimandus: Pressburg school and church loss , published AD 1673 (the copy is in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , Munich )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Anton Klipp: Pressburg ..., p. 57f
- ^ Anton Klipp: The Habsburgs and the beginnings of the Reformation in Pressburg ... , p. 75ff
- ↑ Siegfried von Kollonich belonged to the aristocratic family Kollonitz von Kollograd, originally from Croatia .
- ^ History of the Evangelical Church Community AB zu Pozsony-Preßburg , Pozsony 1906, Volume 1, page 91.
- ↑ a b History of the Evangelical Church Community AB zu Preßburg, (1906), Vol. 1 pp. 152 to 155
- ↑ Matthäus Walch was born in Bösing . He was the only famous builder of the 18th century who came from the area around Pressburg . In 1757 he settled in Pressburg. In 1776 he built the Great German Evangelical Church on the Nonnenbahn. He also built the Jesuit order house , the (old) municipal theater in Pressburg, and the Pressburg palaces of the Erdődy and Illesházy families . His work was under the influence of FA Hillebrand . (Source: Karpatendeutsches Biographisches Lexikon, Stuttgart 1988, p. 343)
- ↑ Reiner Sörries: By Kaisers Gnaden ..., S. 177f
- ↑ According to the Gospel of Luke ; the scene refers to ( Lk 24.30-32 LUT )
- ↑ a b Information from sources of the 'Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession in Slovakia' (Evanjelická cirkev augsburského vyznania na Slovensku; ECAV)
- ^ Gustav Rhodes was a student of the famous organ artist and Hamburg cantor Alfred Sittard.
- ↑ The organ cost an enormous sum of 400,000 crowns; the Schwanzer family donated half of this enormous sum.
- ↑ a b Anton Klipp: Zur Geschichte des Protestantismus…, S. 57ff
- ↑ After a lecture given by Pastor Andreas Metzl: The last fifty years of the German Evangelical Church Community Preßburg, in Bernried / Starnberger See on April 11, 2017
- ^ Anton Klipp: In memoriam Juraj Holčík (on the 10th anniversary of his death). In: Karpatenpost , Stuttgart (vol. 45) June 1994.