Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany

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Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany has been the name of the Reformed Regional Church founded in 1882 as the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover with its seat in Aurich , since the 1950s in Leer (East Frisia) . Since 1922 it has been called the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover .

In 1989 it merged with the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria to form the Evangelical Reformed Church (Synod of Evangelical Reformed Churches in Bavaria and Northwest Germany) . Today the regional church bears the title Evangelical Reformed Church . Together with other national churches in Lower Saxony was one of the church to the carriers of the village assistants work Niedersachsen eV

history

Most of the Reformed parishes belonged to the Kingdom of Hanover in the 19th century , which became a Prussian province in 1866 . In detail, the Reformed communities in the province of Hanover previously belonged to the following former rulers:

Seal mark of the Aurich Consistory

A joint synodal ordinance was issued for all these communities in the province of Hanover in 1882 and the consistory in Aurich, as church authority, was given a collegial constitution by order of the King of Prussia . Thus the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover was created. The consistory in Aurich, founded in 1643 and initially purely Lutheran, had been made up of Lutherans and Reformed people on an equal footing since 1766 and at the same time remained provincial consistory for the parishes of the Lutheran regional church in the north-west of the province of Hanover. In the Prussian provinces that were acquired by 1850, Lutheran, Reformed and the newly formed United parishes have belonged to a regional church since 1817 . However, this could not be achieved within the province of Hanover.

In the "Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover" the Reformed congregations in Hanover, Hann. Münden , Göttingen, Celle and Bückeburg-Stadthagen (the latter, however, in Schaumburg-Lippe ) not included. Since the 18th century, these have formed the Lower Saxony Confederation , a special association of Reformed communities, which mainly come from the Huguenot tradition, which the Reformed in Altona ( Schleswig-Holstein province ) and Braunschweig ( Duchy of Braunschweig ) also supported. Most of these congregations later joined the Evangelical Reformed Church. Others, on the other hand, formed the Federation of Evangelical Reformed Churches in Germany from 1928 together with the Evangelical Reformed Community of Göttingen and the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria .

As early as 1866 there was a (Lutheran) state consistory in Hanover within the province of Hanover. The five previously existing provincial consistory (including Aurich) were initially continued. By 1904 all except the one in Aurich were abolished. This was due to the peculiarity of the parity (reformed and Lutheran) gradually developed since 1766 of this administrative authority in Aurich.

Head of the Hanoverian provincial churches, i.e. both the Lutheran and the Reformed Church, was the King of Prussia as summus episcopus . The superintendent in Aurich was responsible for the spiritual direction of the Reformed Church.

After the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover was founded in 1882, further congregations were accepted, namely in 1886 the United Church Community of Freren / Emsland and in 1901 the Evangelical Reformed Church of Hanover . In addition, new Reformed congregations arose in those years. a. in Hameln and Hildesheim .

After the First World War (elimination of the sovereign church regiment / Summepiskopats), both regional churches of the province of Hanover became independent by receiving their own constitutions in 1922. Since 1922 the regional church was a member of the German Evangelical Church Federation . The consistory in Aurich, with equal representation, was converted into a reformed consistory and the state consistory in Hanover was now responsible for all Lutheran congregations within the province of Hanover. However, the constitution of the Evangelical Reformed Church did not finally come into force until 1925. The church administered from Aurich was now called the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover . The consistory in Aurich became the "regional church council".

In the period that followed, other congregations were accepted into the church: the Reformed congregations of Altona, Celle and Hannoversch-Münden joined the church as early as 1923. The area of ​​the regional church (with Altona) extended beyond the borders of the province of Hanover for the first time. In 1927 the reformed parish of Lübeck followed and in 1937 the reformed parishes in Rinteln and Möllenbeck , which had previously belonged to the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck .

Although the reformed Hanover was one of the so-called “ intact regional churches ” during the Nazi era, there was a fierce struggle within the church about the right course towards the Nazi state, which was welcomed by the mass of church members in 1933. Many Reformed pastors also joined the National Socialist German Christians (DC) in 1933 . Most of them left after the DC's Sportpalast rally in Berlin in November 1933, when the Old Testament was rejected as a Jewish script.

In the period that followed, there were violent disputes within the church between supporters of the DC, the state-oriented and soothing course of the Aurich church leadership and the confessional pastors, among whom Friedrich Middendorff from Schüttorf, Reinhard Smidt from Hameln or Hermann Steen from Holthusen should be emphasized. Only in the last few years has research on the attitude of the Reformed Church towards National Socialism been intensified, with some remarkable new results (e.g. Weßels 2002; Herrenbrück 2006; Lekebusch 2006; Lensing 2008/2009).

From 1949, as a result of the merger of the province of Hanover in Lower Saxony and the expansion of the member congregations at that time, the regional church called itself the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany, according to the new circumstances . She became a founding member of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

In 1951 the Stuttgart Reformed Congregation joined, which had previously belonged temporarily to the Evangelical Church in Württemberg . In the 1950s, the church administration moved from Aurich to Leer (East Frisia) because of the better transport connections (rail connection). In 1959, the Evangelical Reformed Church in north-west Germany adopted a new constitution, the content of which, however, essentially confirmed the old constitution of 1922.

In 1989 the Reformed Church of Bavaria left the Federation of Evangelical Reformed Churches in Germany and merged with the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany to form the Evangelical Reformed Church (Bavaria and Northwest Germany) .

Management positions

Church presidents

The overall representation to the outside was with the church presidents , who also presided over the regional church convention (the synod ).

General superintendent or state superintendent

The spiritual direction of the church lay with the general superintendents , who were called state superintendents from 1925 onwards.

President of the Regional Council of Churches

The administration of the church lay with the consistorial presidents , who were later called presidents of the regional church council.

  • 1904–1925: Linnko Oderhoff , President of the Consistory in Aurich
  • 1925–1937: Otto Koopmann , President of the Consistory in Aurich
  • 1939–1946: State Superintendent Walter Hollweg (in personal union)
  • 1946–1958: Berthold Fokken , President of the Regional Church Council
  • 1958–1959: Landessuperintendent Herrenbrück senior, acting
  • 1959–1969: Hans Gernot Dan , President of the Regional Council of Churches
  • 1969–1989: Winfried Stolz , President of the Regional Church Council, 1989–1994 as President of the Synodal Council of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria and Northwest Germany

literature

  • The Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany. Contributions to their past and present. Edited by the regional church council. Risius, Weener 1982. ISBN 978-3-88761-005-0 .