Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans

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Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans are the most important denominational group of the German minority in Russia .

History of the Evangelical Russian Germans

Beginnings in the Tsarist Empire

A number of Evangelical Lutheran Germans lived in the Tsarist Empire as early as the 16th century . Evangelical-Lutheran Russian Germans are essentially the descendants of the Germans who were called to Russia as settlers from 1763. The colonists were guaranteed freedom of belief. From the beginning, the vast majority of Russian Germans belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran denomination. In terms of head strength, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was for some time the third largest Christian church in Russia after the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church . In 1897, 76% of Germans in the Tsarist Empire belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran denomination, 3, 6% were Reformed . Pietist groups such as the Moravian Brethren played an important role.

Build up until the end of the Tsarist Empire

The establishment of a church organization was slow. Finally, Tsar Nicholas I, as head of all the churches in his empire, established the "Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia" by decree in 1832. For the first time, this church encompassed (almost) the entire Russian Empire. It was divided into different consistories. Compared to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church was given the rank of a church of lesser law, the Lutherans only belonged to one tolerated denomination. As before, proselytism among the Orthodox remained forbidden; the Russian Orthodox Church was allowed to proselytize among the other Christian denominations.

Rebuilt after the October Revolution in 1917

The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 meant for the Evangelical Lutheran Church the loss of both the previous state authority and the supreme lord of the church. The Bolshevik government that came to power with the October Revolution provided a new framework. She liquidated on 2/15. November 1917 a. St./n. St. the privileges of all Christian denominations and on 11./24. December 1917 a. St./n. St. religious instruction in schools. With January 20th / 2nd February 1918 a. St./n. St. followed the law on the separation of church and state .

The reforms that became necessary in the Evangelical Lutheran Church after the revolution were resolved by a general synod in 1924. They opted for a synodal constitution and a three-tier church structure. The constitution provided for individual parishes and parishes at the lower level. The provost districts, which in turn were under the general synod, were located above.

Persecution and destruction

An atheistic state ideology was introduced in the Soviet Union . It aimed to de-churchification or de-Christianization of the population and ultimately to the destruction of faith or the annihilation of those who believed. After a short and relatively quiet phase of consolidation, the Evangelical Lutheran Germans from Russia suffered massive persecution like the other denominations and religious communities. The security authorities arrested numerous pastors, committed lay people and ordinary believers; a large number of them died in captivity . All church buildings had to close and none of the parishes could work. Without it being officially banned, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Soviet Union was effectively destroyed between 1929 and 1938. During the 'Great Terror' (autumn 1936 to the end of 1938) the repression was particularly massive. On August 7, 1938, the Petri-Pauli Church in Moscow, the last open church for German Lutherans in the Soviet Union, was closed.

At the same time, the Germans from Russia suffered massive deportations in the 1930s. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union , from 1941 onwards, most of the Russian Germans were taken to areas east of the Urals ; many of them in special camps (see Gulag , labor camp ). In multiethnic Soviet Union many found Ethnic cleansing instead (for more details here ).

Individual communities after the end of World War II

During and after the war, the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans could only practice their faith in secret. People met secretly in forests, mine tunnels or in remote buildings. Practicing Christians faced arrests and severe sentences. Nevertheless, small, pietistic groups and communities gradually gathered. These communities were z. B. on the basis of the independent Bible studies and scriptural interpretation traditionally practiced among the brothers' congregations, able to survive in the persecution situation even without church organization and care by pastors. Until the release of the men, who were abducted to the GULags to a much greater extent than women, women in particular led the communities. However, women were later consecrated to the ministry under certain circumstances.

For the first time in 1957 a community in Akmolinsk could be “registered”, ie legalized, by the authorities, but at the price of recognizing drastic state regulations, including the requirement to deny children and young people access to church services. Therefore, the registration step was very controversial in the communities. In spite of all methodological and empirical difficulties with regard to reliably quantifying data, the cautious estimate is that there were around 40 registered municipalities in 1975 (1969: approx. 8 or 9; 1980/81: approx. 150) out of a presumably around 280 existing municipalities (1969: approx . 160; 1980/81: approx. 500). Some of the congregations were allowed to build their own prayer houses .

The communities with a particularly strong presence included B. Akmolinsk (also: Zelinograd / Akmola) / oblast Zelinograd, Alma-Ata / oblast Alma-Ata , Qaraghandy / Qaraghandy oblast, Komsomolez / oblast Kustanai, Krasnokamenka / oblast Kokchetav ?, Krupskoje (Krupskaja) / oblast Taldy Kurgan, Nagornoje / oblast Kokchetav, Semipalatinsk / oblast Semipalatinsk, Taldykorgan / oblast Taldy-Kurgan, Viktorowka / oblast Kokchetav, Kotowo (Kuttuvo / Kotschowar) / the oblast, Nischni Tagil / oblast Swerdlowsk, Novosibirsk / oblast Novosibirsk, Omsk / oblast Omsk, under the direction of Nikolaus Schneider (1920–1996), Tomsk / Oblast Tomsk, Prochladnyj /Karb.-Balk. ASR (North Caucasus), Sosnowka / Oblast Omsk, Sot Oktjabrskij / Bashkortostan, Syzran / Oblast Kujbyschewsk, under the direction of Erich Schacht (1926-2000), Boglastny (= Niwoga?), Frunze / Oblast Frunze, Kant / Oblast Kant, Tokmak / Frunze and Dushanbe Oblast / Dushanbe.

The congregations were almost exclusively led by laypeople who were pietistic. Apparently, of around 100 clergymen around 1929, only four pastors had survived the persecution: Eugen Bachmann, Arthur Pfeiffer and Johannes Schlundt as well as David Schaible (Scheible). The first three played a significant role in rebuilding church life. The development of ritual peculiarities (such as “ marble prayer ” and “ distant burial ”) is one of the many individual aspects that come into view . One particular difficulty was supplying the congregations with spiritual literature. German-language Bibles, sermon and hymn books were very difficult to obtain legally and never in sufficient quantities. As a result, many began to laboriously prepare the required literature by hand. So were z. For example, until the 1990s, numerous parishes were predominantly equipped with handwritten song books, some of which were several hundred pages long.

The fact that German remained the language of preaching in the congregations almost without exception initially stabilized the congregations. Nonetheless, a generation of Russian Germans grew up who spoke less and less German and more and more Russian.

Cross-community contacts in the Soviet Union

For decades there were only a few, weak supra-church contacts on the vast territory of the Soviet Union. They included: B. the visiting trips of the few surviving pastors and a number of brothers. In addition, there are the occasional "Brothers' Conferences", which are difficult to grasp in terms of sources. In contrast, certain international contacts played a significant role.

First of all, the connections of Church Councilor Lic. Karl Rose (1896–1976) from the Humboldt University of Berlin should be mentioned (in the late 1940s and 1950s). Rose came from Riga / Latvia and had a good command of the Russian language. In the meantime he was pastor of the Berlin Advent community in Prenzlauer Berg. Rose was allowed to make several trips to the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1950. There he was responsible for the spiritual care of German scientists who had been brought to the Soviet Union after the war. In addition, Rose was responsible for correspondence with deported Soviet Germans in the Evangelical Union in Germany.

In addition, reference must be made to the connections of the " Working Group for Russian Church History " founded in East Berlin in 1970 and finally to the contacts of the " Andreas Circle ", which was founded around the same time in the Federal Republic of Germany . Both circles kept secret contacts with Protestant communities in the Soviet Union, so that they were important sources of information for the respective regional churches of the Evangelical Union in Germany and the EKD and even for the Lutheran World Federation .

Both the " Working Group for Russian Church History " and the " Andrew's Circle " came under the sights of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), one more, the other less: Since at least 1972, the work of the "Working Group" of the MfS has been part of the main department XX / 4 ("Operative process poison spider") infiltrated.

Situation since perestroika

Re-establishment of a universal church

The rise of the Riga pastor Harald Kalnins to the leading figure of the Evangelical-Lutheran Russian- Germans was connected with his contacts abroad; His election as bishop , combined with the re-establishment of a comprehensive church of the Russian-German parishes in 1988, which was already taking place under the sign of perestroika, was closely linked to contacts abroad.

At the parish level, the decline of the “ Brethren parishes ” - above all due to the mass migration to Germany and the extensive retention of the German language of preaching - can be noted, as well as the opposing movement of the formation of a new type of parish, which in the context of the national cultural awakening of the Germans from Russia (discussion of autonomy and striving according to the status of a recognized minority). The new congregations are somewhat misleadingly called “reincarnation congregations” based on the cultural organization of the same name. Among the approx. 500 congregations of the overall church that existed around 2003, the old and new congregation types are roughly in balance.

Regional Evangelical Lutheran churches have been set up in most of the former Soviet republics. Their community forms the universal church, the " Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia (ELCRAS)". The governing bodies of the Church, headed by an archbishop, are based in Saint Petersburg . In 2010, the total church comprised between 400 and 500 parishes and groups with around 76,000 members. There have been a number of tensions, conflicts and new formations since its inception.

Relocate to Germany

Since the beginning of perestroika, around one million Germans from Russia who have entered the country have declared themselves Evangelical Lutheran; most of them have joined the regional churches. This denomination is numerically by far the largest group of all Russian-German resettlers. The Evangelical Church in Germany and its regional churches, the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church and individual parishes offered special care programs for resettlers, especially in the 1990s.

In addition, it is estimated that up to around 350 Brethren congregations were formed (1974: first known congregation in Wolfsburg, 1984: 22 known congregations, 1991: 47, 1999: approx. 200, 2003: approx. 350, 2011: approx. 250) move a larger part within the regional church framework to a smaller part outside of it. Its members make up an estimated 5% of the Evangelical Lutheran resettlers from the former Soviet Union. Against the background of the majority of Russian-German emigrants, the Brethren parishes are characterized by a particularly intense religious life. In contrast, many repatriates from the former Soviet Union who do not belong to the Brethren have only very little knowledge of the most important beliefs. One of the reasons for this is that in the atheistic Soviet Union, Christian teaching was largely underdeveloped or was hindered by the authorities.

The brothers' congregations are only loosely networked with each other, but since 2016 a supra-congregational website has been supposed to coordinate addresses and dates. However, a number of the Russian-German Brethren congregations that have emerged in Germany are based on the "Church Community of Evangelical Lutheran Germans from Russia eV" in Bad Sooden-Allendorf. The "Church Community of Evangelical Lutheran Germans from Russia eV" (before 1977: "Aid Committee of Evangelical Lutheran Resettlers from the East", founded in 1947) pursues a church course. In 2011 she was in contact with around 200 of the then around 250 known Evangelical Lutheran Brethren congregations.

Employees of the "Church Community of Evangelical Lutheran Germans from Russia" have temporarily taken on high offices in the ELKRAS. So was z. B. Siegfried Springer between 1992 and 2007 the bishop of the "Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia". Ernst Schacht (1953-2008) served between 1996 and 1997 as superintendent and between 1997 and 1998 as bishop at the head of the "Evangelical Lutheran Churches Urals, Siberia and Far East". The two church leaders mentioned come from a Russian-German background.

Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in cities and regions such as B. Emsland, Hanover, Ingolstadt, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Paderborn, Gifhorn, Fulda and Wolfsburg special focus.

A number of congregations have built their own house of prayer. The construction of one's own house makes it clear that the respective community is preparing for a permanent and independent existence. However, Russian-German Lutherans differ significantly from Russian-German Baptists or Mennonites: Evangelical-Lutheran congregations, which are usually integrated in the regional churches, are rarely dependent on their own buildings: They can use the rooms of their parish on site. Russian-German parishes with their own parish hall are for example in Enger , Alzey , Paderborn, Lahr, Cloppenburg or Schwarzach .

See also

literature

  • Erik Amburger : History of Protestantism in Russia. Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Stuttgart 1961.
  • Hans-Christian Diedrich: "Where should we go ...". The path of the Christians through the Soviet persecution of religion. A Russian Church History of the 20th Century from an Ecumenical Perspective. Martin Luther Verlag, Erlangen 2007, ISBN 978-3-87513-160-4 .
  • Christian Eyselein: Russian-German repatriates understand. Practical theological approaches. 2nd Edition. Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-374-02379-7 (also: Neuendettelsau, Augustana University, habilitation paper, 2004).
  • Walter Graßmann: History of the Evangelical-Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. Munich 2006 (Munich, University, dissertation, 2004), online (PDF; 9.16 MB) .
  • Walter Graßmann: Lutherans. In: Lothar Weiß (Ed.): Russian-German Migration and Protestant Churches (= Bensheimer Hefte. No. 115). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-525-87241-3 , pp. 74-94.
  • Wilhelm Kahle: History of the Evangelical Lutheran communities in the Soviet Union. 1917–1938 (= Studies on Eastern European History. Vol. 16). Brill, Leiden 1974, ISBN 90-04-03867-1 .
  • Wilhelm Kahle: The Lutheran churches and parishes in the Soviet Union. Since 1938/1940 (= The Lutheran Church, History and Design. Vol. 8). Gütersloher Verlags-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1985, ISBN 3-579-00117-5 .
  • Georg Kretschmar , Heinrich Rathke : Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia (ELKRAS). The Messenger, St. Petersburg 1995.
  • Ольга Вадимовна Курило: Очерки по истории лютеран в России (XVI – XX вв.). ИЭА, Москва 1996.
  • Ольга Вадимовна Курило: Лютеранская церковь в советской России (1918–1950 гг.). Документы и матералы. ИЭА, Москва 1997.
  • Ольга Вадимовна Курило: Лютеране в России. XVI – XX вв. Фонд "Лютеран. наследие “, Москва 2002, ISBN 1-58712-083-6 .
  • Hartmut Rudolph: Evangelical Church and Expellees 1945 to 1972. Volume 1: Churches without a country. The admission of pastors and parishioners from the east in western post-war Germany: emergency aid - pastoral care - ecclesiastical integration (= work on contemporary ecclesiastical history. Series B: representations. Vol. 11). With a foreword by the Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Regional Bishop D. Eduard Lohse . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 3-525-55711-6 .
  • Siegfried Springer: Closer to Heaven in Russia , Erlangen 2013, ISBN 978-387513-181-9 .
  • Ольга Андреевна Лиценбергер: Евангелическо-лютеранская церковь и советское государство (1917–1938). Готика, Москва 1999, ISBN 5-7834-0034-3 .
  • Gerd Stricker: German church affairs. In: Gerd Stricker (Ed.): Russia (= German history in Eastern Europe. Vol. 8). Siedler, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-88680-468-2 , pp. 324-419.
  • Joachim Willems: Lutherans and Lutheran Congregations in Russia. An Empirical Study of Religion in the Post-Soviet Context. Martin-Luther-Verlag, Erlangen 2005, ISBN 3-87513-142-8 (Hamburg, University, evang. Theol. Dissertation, 2003).
  • Joachim Willems: Russian German Lutheran "Brotherhoods" in the Soviet Union and in the CIS: Comments on their Confessional Identity and on their Position in ELCROS. In: Religion, State & Society. Vol. 30, No. 3, September 2002, ISSN  0963-7494 , pp. 219-228, doi : 10.1080 / 0963749022000009234 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Курило: Лютеране в России. 2002, p. 82.
  2. ↑ Erik Amburger : History of Protestantism in Russia. 1961, p. 76.
  3. ↑ Курило: Очерки по истории лютеран в России (XVI-XX вв.). 1996, p. 47.
  4. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, p. 69.
  5. ^ Kahle: History of the Evangelical Lutheran congregations in the Soviet Union. 1917-1938. 1974, pp. 142-143.
  6. ^ Willems: Lutherans and Lutheran Congregations in Russia. 2005, p. 192.
  7. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, p. 403.
  8. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, p. 192.
  9. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, pp. 208-212.
  10. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, pp. 212-238.
  11. ↑ Erich Bryner: Hans-Christian Diedrich "Where should we go ...". The path of the Christians through the Soviet persecution of religion. A Russian Church History of the 20th Century from an Ecumenical Perspective. Martin-Luther-Verlag Erlangen 2007. 572 S., Fig., Kte. ISBN 978-3-87513-158-1 . In: Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe. NF Vol. 58, No. 3, 2010, ISSN  0021-4019 , pp. 454-455 ( review ).
  12. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, pp. 216-217.
  13. ↑ WB Kranendonk: Bijbels smokkelen voor de Stasi. Berlijnse evangelist infiltreerde bij Kruistocht en light in the east.
  14. ↑ Andrea Schulze: A wolf in a gown smuggled Bibles. Pastor's ordination rights revoked because of Stasi work. In: Berliner Morgenpost , February 21, 1999, p. 11.
  15. ^ Graßmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century. Parish, Church, Language and Tradition. 2006, p. 351 ff.
  16. ↑ Graßmann: Lutheraner. In: Lothar Weiß (Ed.): Russian-German Migration and Protestant Churches. 2013, p. 82.
  17. ^ Evangelical Lutheran Brethren Congregations. (No longer available online.) In: Evang. – Lutherische Brüdergemeinden. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016 ; accessed on September 2, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / lutherische-bruedergemeinden.com
  18. ^ Church community. In: Church Community. Retrieved September 2, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Graßmann: Lutheraner. In: Lothar Weiß (Ed.): Russian-German Migration and Protestant Churches. 2013, p. 83.
  20. ↑ Martin Luther Bund: Ernst Schacht died. 2008.
  21. ↑ Siegfried Springer: Closer to Heaven in Russia , Erlangen 2013, ISBN 978-387513-181-9 , p. 132 ff.
  22. ↑ Brüdergemeinde Fulda ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bruedergemeinde-fulda.de
  23. ↑ Tighter
  24. ↑ Alzey
  25. ↑ Schwarzach
  26. ↑ Graßmann: Lutheraner. In: Lothar Weiß (Ed.): Russian-German Migration and Protestant Churches. 2013, pp. 80–90.
  27. ↑ Ulla Lachauer: RUSSLANDDEUTSCHE: Our compatriots from Karaganda. In: Die ZEIT , April 21, 2009.