Pious Basel

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The term Frommes Basel describes the historical penetration of conservative-bourgeois circles in the city of Basel with pietistic - awakened piety , which began at the end of the 18th century and unfolded its full effect in the 19th century. Pietism shaped the life and thought of the upper middle class in Basel until the early 20th century.

development

The Elisabethenkirche , donated by Christoph Merian, is considered the most important architectural monument of the "Pious Basel".

Religiousness has always played an important role in the society of the former bishopric and council town of Basel , which was reformed in 1529 . After the religious split, the Evangelical Reformed state church came under Calvinist influence, which dominated until the 18th century. Pietism, which wanted to renew the church through the personal experience of God's devotion, was first attested in Basel and in the Basel countryside in the 1710s, superimposed with the movements of Anabaptists . As a partially radical, anti-church reform movement, the ruling orthodoxy initially fought him . However, from the second half of the 18th century onwards, his turning to a religiousness in conformity with the church enabled a mutual rapprochement. The pietistically motivated pastor Hieronymus Annoni (1697–1770) and the Moravian Brethren (attested in Basel from 1739 ) made a decisive contribution to mutual understanding . Pietism was established in Basel by 1780 at the latest (when the Christianity Society was founded ). In the shape of the revival movement of the 19th century, Pietism created many Christian works that were important for the church ( Basel Bible Society , Basel Mission , pilgrimage St. Chrischona , Diakonissenhaus Riehen ).

Juliane von Krüdener's stay in neighboring Grenzach in 1817 led to crowds in which Basel residents also took part. (Illustration by Hieronymus Hess .)

Pietism, originally the cause of a minority and mostly carried by women, also caught on in the wealthy, ruling circles. Since the end of the 18th century, Basel has been a place characterized by pietistic piety. The religious self-confidence was expressed in the idea that the Word of God was proclaimed particularly richly and truthfully in Basel, and the millenarian proclamations of Juliane von Krüdener met with a strikingly good reception. Penance sermons accompanied emergencies, wealth was interpreted under the auspices of predestination . The term "Frommes Basel" could have both a mocking and an appreciative character, since in Basel religiosity and wealth obviously went hand in hand (for example in the person of Christoph Merian ); the city was referred to in the same breath as “Pious Basel” as well as “Reiches Basel” and “God's darling”.

In the wake of the violent separation of the Basel cantons in 1832/33, pietism and conservatism allied . This gave the “Pious Basel” a political character. Pietism gained in attraction precisely for those classes who were interested in maintaining the existing order; This was due not least to the fact that at a time when public life was profoundly changing, he represented a movement aimed at inwardness. The social reform he propagated offered itself as an alternative to the revolutionary tendencies of the Enlightenment and liberalism . With the new constitution of 1875 and the now liberal instead of conservative dominance, Pietism had passed the zenith of its influence. As an opposition within the church, “liberal” parish associations emerged from 1880–1884. The strong changes in the composition of the population (growth of the working class, Catholic immigration) also contributed decisively to the loss of importance of pietism.

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