Evangelical Church in Waldeck

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The Evangelical Church in Waldeck (until 1922 Evangelical Church in Waldeck-Pyrmont ) was a church that emerged as a territorial church in the German Empire during the Reformation and existed as a regional church until 1934. Then she went with the Evangelical Church in Hessen-Kassel largely in the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck .

history

The history of the church is inextricably linked with the county of Waldeck , which was merged with the county of Pyrmont to form the county (later principality) of Waldeck-Pyrmont in 1625/1691 . The Lutheran Reformation was introduced in the principalities of Waldeck and Pyrmont from 1525. The driving force in the Waldecker Land was Johann Hefentreger . In addition to the Lutheran congregations, smaller Reformed congregations formed in Arolsen and Korbach ; the only completely reformed village was Züschen , which finally came to Waldeck in 1625. In 1821 a union was carried out between the Lutheran and Reformed congregations. Since 1850, some Lutherans, led by the Sachsenberg pastor Rudolf Rocholl , have been resisting the existence of a unified Protestant regional church . His followers left the regional church in 1864 and founded their own congregation, which was recognized by the state in 1866 and joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia .

The head of the regional church was the respective Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont. The administration was incumbent on the consistory, which was founded in 1675 by Count Georg Friedrich and Christian Ludwig in Mengeringhausen and moved to Arolsen in 1728 . Since the beginning of the 18th century it was separated from the princely administration as an independent authority. However, the chair was always chaired by a President or Director of the Government in personal union. The other members of the government stood by his side; there was also a pastor (two from 1840) as consistorial councilor. In 1852/53 the consistory was formally spun off from the government as an independent higher church authority; however, the prince continued to appoint senior lawyers in the principality as president. At the same time, the Evangelical Church in Waldeck and Pyrmont was divided into four church districts (Eder, Eisenberg, Twiste and Pyrmont), which corresponded to the political division of the country.

In 1867 the administration of the principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont passed to Prussia , although the principality continued to exist formally. The reigning prince was henceforth only head of the church, exercised the right to pardon, received the income from the domains and had the right to approve laws. In 1873 the Evangelical Church of Waldeck and Pyrmont received a synodal order. From pastors and members of the existing since 1857 parish councils assembled synods had within the continued pressure exerted by the prince by the consistory church government but only advisory functions.

After the end of the First World War, Waldeck-Pyrmont became a free state within the Weimar Republic in 1918 . Because the sovereign church regiment had ceased to exist, the consistory in Arolsen was transformed into a "regional church council" by the new church constitution of 1921, consisting of the regional church committee and the regional church council. The latter included a lawyer, namely Hermann Dihle , who had been consistorial president since 1912 , and the senior church councilors Karl Weiß and Bernhard von Haller. The regional synod was transformed into the regional church convention.

In 1922, the Pyrmont part was separated from the Free State of Waldeck and Pyrmont and attached to the Prussian province of Hanover . The remainder went on April 1, 1929 in the Free State of Prussia and was added to the province of Hessen-Nassau . This also increased the pressure on the regional church to join a larger neighboring church or to participate in the plans for the unification of the Hessian Protestant churches that had been in place since 1926. However, this met with major reservations. Opponents of an amalgamation saw an opportunity to give the Waldeckers, who had become Prussian without being asked, a “unifying bracket” with the independent regional church. In January 1933, the Waldeck regional church assembly refused to make a fundamental decision for or against a merger. In the spring of 1933, under the impression of the church reorganization following the National Socialist “ seizure of power ”, Hermann Dihle tried to join the church with the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union .

The " German Christians " founded as a church party of the NSDAP were able to achieve a majority in the synods of the churches of Waldeck and Hesse-Kassel and power in the newly formed German Evangelical Church (DEK) in the summer of 1933 and their desire for a church division that the Party organization of the NSDAP corresponded to prevail. The Landeskirchentag, which met in September 1933, cleared the way for the connection to the neighboring Hessian church, but reserved the final decision. In January 1934, Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller declared the regional church council to be deposed and appointed the district court counselor Heinrich Happel as plenipotentiary. Happel dismissed the previous members of the regional church council and also declared the regional church convention dissolved. The connection could thus be completed. On June 12, 1934, the regional church convention of the Evangelical Church in Hessen-Kassel decided to merge with the Waldeck Church, but without Pyrmont, which was now also ecclesiastically attached to the Lutheran Church of Hanover . On July 31, 1934, the dissolution of the regional church came into force.

The waldeckischen church districts ( the Eder and Frankenberg and the Twiste and the Eisenberg , respectively in 2014 combined to church Kreiseder or church district Twiste-Eisenberg ), formed within the new church a private Sprengel , who in 1976 with the Sprengel Marburg Sprengel Waldeck and Marburg united has been.

Hymn books

The most important hymn books of the Church are:

New Waldeck hymnbook for public and domestic worship with the most gracious privilege, Mengeringhausen, introduced in July 1790.
Hymn book for the Protestant church in the principalities of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Mengeringhausen, 1863, later with addendum and appendix “Spiritual songs”.

literature

  • Dieter Waßmann: Waldeck. History of a regional church. Evangelical Press Association Kurhessen-Waldeck, Kassel 1984, ISBN 3-920310-40-3 ( Monographia Hassiae 10).
  • Rainer Hering, Jochen-Christoph Kaiser : Contributions to church history . Evang. Media Association, Kassel

Web links