Endowment agreement

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In the year 1830, the endowment agreement, unique in Germany, was signed between the Free City of Frankfurt and Christian communities in Frankfurt. On the basis of this State Church Treaty , the city of Frankfurt am Main is obliged to maintain the eight inner-city churches that it owns . In principle, the endowment is still valid today.

The endowment is a consequence of secularization , which is why there are similar regulations in other places such as B. Bern .

history

With the introduction of the Reformation in Frankfurt in 1533, the Lutheran Church became the state church of Frankfurt. Other religious communities, especially the Catholic and Reformed Churches, were not given equal rights. The Lutheran churches were maintained by the city, and their clergy and musicians were city officials.

In the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, the secularization of church property was decided in favor of the respective territorial lords. As a result, the Catholic collegiate churches of St. Bartholomew , St. Leonhard and Liebfrauen , which existed in Frankfurt at that time , as well as the Dominican monastery and the Carmelite monastery with their considerable fortunes fell to the city. The coming of the Teutonic Order and the Johanniter came to other owners. While the Johanniterkirche was bought and torn down by the city in 1840, the Teutonic Order Church is still not owned by the city. The same was true for the two Reformed churches in Frankfurt, which were built between 1789 and 1793 and destroyed in 1944 , the German Reformed Church on Grosse Kornmarkt and the French Reformed Church on Goetheplatz .

After secularization, the municipal treasury, as the owner of almost all churches, was responsible for maintaining the same and the associated facilities, such as organs and bells .

In 1806 the city initially lost its freedom and became part of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt . It was not until 1816 that Frankfurt became a Free City again . The city's constitution, the so-called Constitution-Supplementary Act , contained in Article 39 the provision that city funds "had to provide for the Lutheran and Catholic religious cult and school system". However, the drafting of the endowment contract, which the city senate initiated, dragged on for a few years, as regulations had to be made for a number of controversial issues. This included not only the use of the churches by the congregations, but also the rights of the church council, the whereabouts of the devices and furnishings of the churches, the salaries of pastors and other church officials , pension obligations as well as tax and accounting obligations . The endowment of the four Protestant and the four Catholic schools was also regulated.

On February 2, 1830, the city finally issued the document pertaining to the endowment for the Evangelical Lutheran religious cult as well as the document pertaining to the endowment for the church and school system of the local Catholic community . While the endowment for the Lutherans merely confirmed the practice that had already been introduced, it was still more than twenty years before the Catholic endowment actually came into force in 1856.

In 1866 Prussia annexed the Free City of Frankfurt. In a so-called dispute process in 1869, the assets of the Free City were divided up. Assets with more of a state character should fall to the Kingdom of Prussia, and municipal assets to the Prussian city of Frankfurt am Main. The endowment obligations were transferred to the city of Frankfurt am Main, with the exception of the church assets in the villages of Bornheim , Oberrad , Niederrad and Niederursel , which went to the respective parishes.

The Evangelical Church in the consistorial district of Frankfurt am Main formed a regional church under the church regiment of the King of Prussia, represented by the consistory . With the introduction of the parish and synodal order for the evangelical parishes of the consistorial district of Frankfurt am Main in 1899, six Evangelical-Lutheran parishes emerged from the city, whose common rights from the endowment were exercised by a community association, the Evangelical-Lutheran city synod .

The endowment negotiated in 1830 remained in principle to this day and was last confirmed in 1962 as continuing Hessian state law. A framework agreement from 2003 between the state of Hesse and the Protestant regional churches and Catholic dioceses in Hesse on the replacement of church construction charges expressly excludes the Frankfurt grant.

Despite multiple efforts, the city was never ready to increase the annual grant of 28,500 guilders to the pastor's salaries and religious costs. This amount remained unchanged across all currency reforms and is now 30,400 euros a year. All benefits in kind, e.g. B. the delivery of 96 fathoms of beech logs annually , were replaced over time, the last in 1940.

Consequences of the endowment contract

The city of Frankfurt has always fulfilled its obligation from the endowment. There were originally six Lutheran endowment churches in Frankfurt (Barfüßerkirche, St. Katharinen , St. Peter , Weißfrauenkirche , Dreikönigskirche and Heiliggeistkirche) as well as three Catholic ( St. Bartholomäus , Liebfrauenkirche and St. Leonhard ). In the course of time there have been a number of changes: in 1833 the Paulskirche , which was rebuilt in place of the former Barfüßerkirche, was included in the endowment, in 1840 the Heiliggeist Church was replaced by the Old Nikolaikirche . The Dominican monastery and the Dominican church, used as barracks, fell to the Prussian treasury in 1869.

The dilapidated Dreikönigskirche and Peterskirche were demolished at the end of the 19th century and rebuilt at the city's expense.

The reconstruction of the churches that had been destroyed in World War II posed a particular challenge . With the exception of the ruins of the Weißfrauenkirche, which was demolished in 1952 for the construction of Berliner Straße , all churches were restored by the city by 1965.

In 1953 the Paulskirche and the demolished Weißfrauenkirche were exchanged for the Dominican monastery and the Dominican church (today the Church of the Holy Spirit) through a contract between the city and the Protestant community association. The Paulskirche has not been used as a church since 1948; However, the 1953 treaty stipulates that the cross on the church may not be removed.

The endowment thus includes today five Evangelical Lutheran Churches (St. Catherine's Church, St. Peter's Church, Epiphany Church, Holy Spirit Church and Old Nikolai Church) and three Catholic (Dom St. Bartholomew Church of Our Lady and Leonhard church) and the Dominican Monastery (seat of the Protestant city deanery and the Evangelical Regional Association Frankfurt ). All churches are the property of the city and the respective parishes "for their cult for perpetual and exclusive use". The city is obliged to keep the “church buildings and their parts, such as organs and the like, in good condition at all times”.

The Carmelite monastery , which also fell to the city during the secularization, never belonged to the endowment churches. It has housed the Institute for City History since 1959.

Patronage rights of the city of Frankfurt

In addition to the endowment, the city of Frankfurt has a right of patronage over the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Bonames . The city is the owner of the Bonamese parish hall and has the right to participate in filling the pastoral position.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Law on the dispute between the state and the city of Frankfurt am Main from 5./10. March 1869 . (No. 7344). In: Law Collection for the Royal Prussian States . Berlin March 5, 1869, p. 379-392 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Church Affairs at par.frankfurt.de , the former site of the city of Frankfurt am Main