Evangelical Lutheran Dean's Office Coburg

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Lutherrose.svg
Evangelical Lutheran
Dean's Office

The Veste Coburg, Luther site and symbol of the Coburg region
organization
Deanery district Coburg
Church district Bayreuth
Regional church Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria
statistics
surface 519 km²
Parishes 51 in four regions
Parishioners 72,000
management
dean Stefan Kirchberger and Andreas Kleefeld
Address of the Dean's Office Pfarrgasse 6
96450 Coburg
Web presence www.coburg-evangelisch.de
Moriz Church in Coburg
Holy Cross Church in Coburg

The Evangelical Lutheran deanery in Coburg is one of the 16 deaneries in the Bayreuth church district . The Coburg deanery district is divided into four regions and is headed by two deans. A dean is responsible for the communities of Coburg Heiligkreuz, St. Lukas and St. Moriz and Creidlitz in the Central Region and for the Neustadt / Rödental and South-East regions. The supervisory area of ​​the other dean includes the communities Ahorn, Coburg Johanneskirche, St. Markus and St. Matthäus, Scheuerfeld-Weidach, Weitramsdorf in the Mitte region and the Ephorie Bad Rodach region.

Church history

Church development up to the Reformation

The church development of the Coburg Land by the Diocese of Würzburg with parishes is assumed between the beginning of the 9th century and 1007, the year the Diocese of Bamberg was founded . Original parishes arose around the turn of the millennium as own or send churches in Meeder and Fechheim , in Heldburg , responsible for the area around Rodach , and in Altenbanz , responsible for the Itzgrund . In Gauerstadt , Oettingshausen and Rodach there were also large parishes and a church on the Coburg mountain. In the middle of the 15th century there were parishes in Coburg, Meeder, Rodach, Oettingshausen, Großgarnstadt , Gauerstadt, Unterlauter , Weißenbrunn vorm Wald , Gestungshausen , Grub am Forst , Ahorn , Elsa , in the area of ​​the Coburg Landkapitels , the area of ​​today's deanery . Ebersdorf near Coburg and Fechheim. Altenbanz, Untersiemau and Watzendorf belonged to the Münnerstadt regional chapter .

As the oldest in the Coburg region, the monastery of St. Peter and Paul was built in 1074 with a provost's office on the fortress mountain , a subsidiary of the monastery in Saalfeld . In 1135 a Premonstratensian monastery followed near Rodach , 1149 the Benedictine monastery in Mönchröden , 1250 the Coburg Franciscan monastery and 1260 the Sonnefeld Cistercian monastery . A place of pilgrimage was the Ottilien chapel on the Muppberg , where believers with eye diseases went to a spring.

In 1353 Margrave Friedrich III inherited . von Meißen and thus the House of Wettin from the Henneberg Count Heinrich ruled Coburg ( care Coburg ).

reformation

After Leipzig was divided in 1485, the Coburg foster family belonged to the Ernestines as the southernmost bastion in the Electorate of Saxony . Elector Johann the Constant and his son Johann Friedrich I promoted the Reformation movement in the first half of the 16th century . Balthasar Düring , from 1520 vicar at the St. Moriz Church, played a key role as a preacher in the development of the Reformation in Coburg. With a resolution of October 12, 1524, Duke Johann the Constant approved a new order of worship drafted by Düring , which followed Luther's Formula missae et communionis of 1523. At the end of the 1520s, Düring was appointed superintendent and carried out the first Electoral Saxon church and school visitation in the Coburg region in the autumn and winter of 1528/29 on behalf of the Elector together with three other visitors. Among other things, the pastors were confirmed or newly appointed. In particular, some parts of the parish were re-parished, larger branch parishes were church-independent and new parishes were founded. The southern border to the dioceses of Würzburg and Bamberg developed into a religious border.

A significant event during the Reformation was Martin Luther's stay at the Veste Coburg in 1530. On Good Friday, April 15th, he came to Coburg in the wake of Elector Johann the Steadfast. Since the free imperial city of Nuremberg Luther during the Augsburg Diet failed protection and shelter, he lived for his imperial ban from 24 April to 4 October 1530 the fortress. During that time, he wrote 120 letters to Augsburg and Wittenberg, the Coburg Psalter (Psalm 1–25), interpretations of the 117th and 118th Psalm and numerous so-called letters.

Regional church

Under Duke Johann Casimir , a sovereign church regiment with its own regional church was established in the Principality of Saxony-Coburg, which has been independent since 1572 . In 1591 the office of general superintendent , the highest ecclesiastical representative, was introduced, in 1593 a consistory, a supreme ecclesiastical authority, was established and in 1626 a church ordinance was enacted which Johann Gerhard had drawn up. The first Coburg hymnbook appeared in 1616. It was taken over by the Castle Church in Dresden . After Johann Casimir Tods in 1633, the general superintendents from Coburg represented the Lutheran church system. With Duke Albrecht , Coburg became a royal seat again in 1680. Duke Albrecht appointed Johann Heinrich Hassel court preacher. Hassel, as a pietiest a like-minded colleague of August Hermann Francke , became president of the consistory. However, after the death of Duke Albrecht in 1699, Pietism could not assert itself against Lutheran Orthodoxy . Under Duke Franz Josias , a reformation of the church system followed from 1730 with a return to the Lutheran heritage. Among other things, it was ordered that no one before the age of 14 is admitted to the Lord's Supper and that a confessor must prepare them for it. The pastor and later general superintendent Erdmann Rudolf Fischer was significantly involved in the reforms with the two-part complete church book .

With Duke Ernst Friedrich there was a change in the Lutheran church in the spirit of the Enlightenment . First introduced in the specially established court community, later the New Coburg Hymnbook was also introduced in the city and in the country , general confession was introduced instead of individual confession and the Sunday full service was divided into sermon and sacrament services.

Under Duke Ernst I , shaped by the spirit of rationalism , the third holidays at Easter, Pentecost and Christmas were canceled in 1818 in the so-called Sabbath mandate and the holidays on weekdays were moved to Sunday. In 1833 the New Hymnbook was published for the Protestant communities of the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg . Duke Ernst II , devoted to the interests of the liberal bourgeoisie, and the Coburg state parliament prevented the regional church from becoming more independent.

The clergy of the regional church was shaped in the second half of the 19th century mainly by Karl von Hase from the theological faculty of the University of Jena with a freer theology. No compulsion was exercised on the formulation of the creed.

Only after the death of Duke Ernst II in 1893 could the hymnbook for the duchies of Coburg and Gotha appear in 1896 for church, school and house use for the duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , which was in use for almost 50 years. In 1907 cremation was introduced, and in 1911 a church constitution. The Protestant church regiment was exercised by the Coburg State Ministry on behalf of the Duke. State and church issues were regulated by laws and ordinances, church taxes were not levied. The regional church council with six clergymen and twelve lay people was set up as an advisory board in 1911.

Evangelical Lutheran Dean's Office

Dean's office in Coburg Pfarrgasse

The sovereign church regiment by Duke Carl Eduard ( summus episcopus ) ended after his resignation on November 13, 1918. The final separation between church and state followed on August 11, 1919 through the state assembly of the Free State of Coburg with the law on the legal status of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church . The regional church became a corporation under public law under the direction of a three-member senior church council. The primary elections for a new regional council of churches were canceled due to an unification list. On December 19, 1919, the first synod of the Coburg regional church took place, which commissioned the upper church council to start negotiations for practical reasons with a view to joining the Bavarian regional church on the right side of the Rhine. On March 11th and 12th, 1920 the regional synod decided among other things a new parish order and on July 9th, 1920 Georg Kükenthal with the title general superintendent was elected as chairman of the upper church council.

The referendum of November 30, 1919 for the Free State of Coburg to join Bavaria led in April 1920 to initial negotiations with the Bavarian regional church. On January 11, 1921, the Synod voted against the agreement on unification with the Bavarian regional church, which came into force on April 1, 1921, with a 50-year transition period for internal alignment. Kükenthal became the first dean of the new Coburg deanery. In 1922 the five enclave parishes of the Ephorie Königsberg in Franconia were incorporated into the Rügheim deanery .

Anti-Semitism was widespread among the clergy in the deanery after the First World War. Is best known for Helmuth Johnsen , who was pastor in Gauerstadt in the 1920s. Johnsen actively supported the völkisch movement and was a radical anti-Semite. At a meeting of the pastors' association of the deanery in December 1923, he received the support of 23 of the 27 ministers present. National Socialism , which was widespread in Coburg, led, among other things, to an active member of the NSDAP being appointed to the pastor's office in Coburg II (St. Moriz) in 1933. A total of eleven pastors were members of the NSDAP in the deanery in 1933, the highest number of all Upper Franconian deaneries.

After 1945 the Bavarian hymn book and the Bavarian order of worship were introduced.

The dean's office in Neukirchen has had a youth center since 1976 .

Parishes

There are five old parish churches in Coburg, St. Moriz, Heilig Kreuz, St. Matthäus in Neuses, Our Lady in Seidmannsdorf and the church in Scheuerfeld. From 1952 onwards, more congregations were founded.

The deanery includes the Protestant parishes of the independent city of Coburg and the old district of Coburg , the former duchy of Saxony-Coburg without the Königsberg exclave . It consists of 51 parishes in four regions with around 72,000 Protestant parishioners. In 1984 there were 94,000 parishioners. In 2009, 55% of the inhabitants of the city of Coburg were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Central Region

Northwest region, Ephorie Rodach

South-east region

East region

literature

  • Eckhart Kollmer (ed.): Evangelical parishes in the Coburg region . Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission Erlangen, Erlangen 1984, ISBN 3-87214-202-X .
  • Matthias Simon: Historical Atlas of Bavaria . Ecclesiastical organization, the Protestant Church. Commission for Bavarian State History, Munich 1960.
  • Wolfgang Osiander: The Reformation in Franconia . Andreas Osiander and the Franconian reformers. Schrenk-Verlag, Gunzenhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-924270-55-1 .
  • Sites of Protestant history in Bavaria . JP Peter Verlag, Rothenburg 2006.

Web links

Commons : Evangelical Lutheran Dean's Office Coburg  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.coburg-evangelisch.de/node/10
  2. ↑ http://www.coburg-evangelisch.de/dekan
  3. ^ Hubert Fromm: The Coburg Jews - History and Fate. Evangelisches Bildungswerk Coburg eV and Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg eV, 2nd edition Coburg 2001, ISBN 3-9808006-0-1 , p. 28.
  4. ^ Rainer Axmann, Coburger Landeskirche, in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, URL: < http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_44463 >
  5. ↑ Albrecht Bald: “The border shimmers brown and the Mark stands true!” The NS-Gau Bayerische Ostmark / Bayreuth 1933–1945. Grenzgau, Grenzlandideologie and economic problem region, Bayreuth 2014 (= Bayreuth Reconstructions, Vol. 2), p. 46.