Evangelical Church in Nassau

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The Evangelical Church in Nassau was a regional church of the German Empire . As a unified church, it was created in 1806 through the formation of the Duchy of Nassau . From 1866 it formed the "Wiesbaden consistorial district" of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau , which existed until 1945. In 1925 the church was renamed "Evangelical Church in Nassau" again.

history

Distribution of the predominant religions in the duchy

The history of the Evangelical Church in Nassau is inextricably linked with that of the Duchy of Nassau and its predecessor territories. The rulers of the various Nassau territories went over to the Reformation and redesigned the respective churches accordingly after 1526. In the principalities of the Walram line, Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Weilburg , which existed until 1806 , the Lutheran creed was preserved. Under Count Johann VI. (1559–1606) the Reformed Confession was introduced in Nassau-Dillenburg . In 1584 Johann VI. the high school in Herborn, which became one of the most important training centers for Reformed theologians and a center of influence for Reformed theology. In all Nassau countries, Pietism was able to gain greater influence in the 18th century .

The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (1803) and the post-Napoleonic reorganization of the German territories (1814/15) brought Nassau-Dillenburg (without the Siegerland ), Nassau-Weilburg and other areas (mainly from Kurmainz and Kurtrier ) together to form the Duchy of Nassau, whose residents now also a considerable proportion of Catholics consisted of roughly equal parts Lutheran and Reformed Protestants. The consistories in Wiesbaden and Weilburg were dissolved in 1816 and their powers transferred to the state government .

Market Church in Wiesbaden

In Nassau the idea of ​​a union of the two evangelical denominations developed on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in 1817. At a synod on August 5, 1817 in Idstein , the unanimous unification of the two denominations into an "Evangelical Christian Church" was decided and ordered on August 11, 1817 by a ducal edict. This makes the Union of Nassau the first union in Germany. In contrast to the Prussian Union enforced by the sovereign , the Nassau Union came about by consensus with broad participation of the clergy and therefore did not lead to the separation of dissatisfied communities. The general superintendent Friedrich Giesse (reformed) and Georg Müller (Lutheran), who remained in office, were initially responsible for the spiritual leadership of the United Church . When Giesse had to give up his office for health reasons in 1827, Müller became the sole "Protestant regional bishop" of Nassau.

As the main church of the regional church, the market church was built from 1853 as the "Nassauer Landesdom" next to the city ​​palace in Wiesbaden.

Seal of the Consistory Wiesbaden

In 1866 the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia . The Nassau Church was not incorporated into the Evangelical Church in Prussia , but remained independent - under the supervision of the King of Prussia. 1867 was formed a consistory again in Wiesbaden, the addition to the Nassau territories and which also in 1866 ceded to Prussia predominantly Lutheran Hessian Hinterland (Gladenbach, Biedenkopf) and the former Hesse-Homburg (without politically to the Rhine Province integrated Oberamt Meisenheim shelter) and that corresponded to the Prussian administrative district of Wiesbaden (excluding the urban district of Frankfurt am Main ). The regional church was now mostly referred to as the Wiesbaden consistorial district. After the death of Regional Bishop Wilhelm Wilhelmi (1882), the spiritual leaders of the church again carried the title of general superintendent and were appointed by the Prussian king on the proposal of a synodal committee. In 1878 Nassau received a church constitution with presbyterial-synodal elements based on the model of the Rhenish-Westphalian church order of 1835 .

After the end of the sovereign church regiment (1918), the church constitution was modified (1922–1925) in such a way that the sovereign church power was now taken from the Landeskirchentag, i. H. of the Synod. The church area previously administered by the Wiesbaden consistory became the "Evangelical Regional Church in Nassau"; Since 1922, its spiritual director again bore the title of "regional bishop".

In 1934 and finally in 1947 the Evangelical Church in Nassau was merged with the Evangelical Church in Hesse and the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt am Main to form the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (until 1945: Evangelical Church in Nassau-Hesse). Nassau formed one of the five provosts of the regional church in 1934 ; from 1948/50 the two provosts of South Nassau and North Nassau existed .

General superintendents and regional bishops

  • 1817–1827: Friedrich Giesse (1760–1842, general superintendent)
  • 1817–1827: Georg Müller (General Superintendent)
  • 1827–1836: Georg Müller (regional bishop)
  • 1836–1858: Ludwig Heydenreich (regional bishop)
  • 1858–1882: Ludwig Wilhelmi (regional bishop)
  • 1882–1897: Karl Ernst (General Superintendent)
  • 1897–1913: Heinrich Maurer (General Superintendent)
  • 1913–1919: Karl Ohly (General Superintendent)
  • 1919–1925: Anton Jäger (1849–1928, acting general superintendent)
  • 1925–1933: August Kortheuer (regional bishop)
  • 1945–1947: August Kortheuer (chairman of the provisional church government)

Consistorial president or president of the regional church office in Wiesbaden

literature

  • Heinrich Steitz : History of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. 5 volumes, Marburg 1961–1977, ISBN 3-87822-068-5 .
  • Karl DienstNassau . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 24, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1994, ISBN 3-11-014596-0 , pp. 12-17.
  • Karl Dienst: Politics and religious culture in Hesse and Nassau between “state change” (1918) and “national revolution” (1933): causes and consequences. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3631604694 .
  • Karl Dienst: Miniatures of a Nassau Church History (= Journal of Religious Culture No. 165). Frankfurt am Main 2012 ( PDF file )

Individual evidence

  1. Information on the holdings of the consistory on the website of the Hessian Main State Archives .
  2. ^ Andreas Anderhub: Administration in the Wiesbaden administrative district 1866–1885. Diss. Frankfurt am Main 1977 ( PDF file ), pp. 78–80.
  3. Handbook of the German Protestant Churches 1918 to 1949: Organs - Offices - Associations - People (= work on contemporary church history, series A, sources, vol. 20). Edited by Heinz Boberach, Carsten Nicolaisen and Ruth Pabst. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, Vol. 2 Landes- und Provinzialkirchen, p. 338.
  4. member of the Corps Saxonia Jena ; KCL 1960, 71 , 341.