History of the Religions in Leipzig

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This article outlines the historical development of the religious communities in the city of Leipzig . There are more than 70 religious communities in the city, with only around 16 percent of the population belonging to one of the large Christian churches (as of 2015).

History of the Christian Churches

The population of the city of Leipzig initially belonged to the diocese of Merseburg . The city was already starting 968 seat of the archdeaconry of Domdechanten the Bishopric of Merseburg.

Thomas Church

Four monasteries arose in the 13th century: St. Paul ( Dominican ), St. Thomas ( Augustinian Canons ), Zum Heiligen Geist ( Franciscan ) and St. Georg ( Cistercian Sisters , later Benedictine Sisters ).

The first Lutheran sermons were given as early as 1522, but the Reformation was initially still strongly suppressed, but was finally introduced by Duke Heinrich of Saxony in 1539. The monasteries were closed and some of their book holdings were transferred to the university's newly established library. After that, Leipzig was a predominantly Protestant city for many centuries. At first there were only Lutherans . Since 1702 in the Electoral were official home also reformed church services held. The community that developed from this now belongs to the Evangelical Reformed Church with its seat in Leer (East Frisia) . The Lutheran congregations of the city belonged to the superintendent of Leipzig, which was probably established soon after the Reformation. Today this administrative district is called the church district . Later there were two church districts that merged in 1997. Thus today all parishes in the city belong to the church district of Leipzig, which belongs to the Leipzig region of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony . The church district also includes parishes outside the city. There is also a regional church community within the regional church .

In 1954 and 1997 the German Evangelical Church Congress took place in Leipzig. 98,000 permanent guests took part in the 26th Evangelical Church Congress from June 19 to 22, 1997, which was held under the slogan On the Path to Justice is Life . The venues were - in addition to churches and exhibition halls - above all the new and old exhibition grounds. The Erfurt provost Heino Falcke preached at the closing service in the central stadium . The two Leipzig Kirchentag and the Kirchentag in Dresden 2011 were the only ones in an East German city so far.

Catholic Church

The new provost church of St. Trinity opposite the new town hall
Dominican monastery in Wahren , where Aurelius Arkenau worked

Since 1697 there were again catholic services in Leipzig . However, these were only held privately in the apartment of the Italian opera director Sartorius. In 1710, Elector August the Strong made the former court room of the Pleißenburg available for public services. However, even until 1831, non-Lutheran residents were not allowed to become citizens of the city or even council members. From these beginnings, independent parishes were founded again later. Like all Catholics in what was then the Kingdom of Saxony, they belonged to the Apostolic Vicariate based in Dresden , which had been the responsible administrative district since 1743 in the succession of the dioceses that were dissolved during the Reformation. From this administrative district, the Diocese of Meißen was created in 1921, since 1980 Diocese of Dresden-Meißen , which today belongs to the Church Province of Berlin ( Archbishopric Berlin ). As early as 1921, Leipzig became the seat of a deanery within the Diocese of Meißen , which today also includes parishes outside Leipzig. The main Catholic church of the city is the Provost Church of St. Trinity which was inaugurated on May 19, 2015. In 2016 the 100th German Catholic Day took place in Leipzig.

Evangelical Free Churches

Baptist Congregation Center Leipzig

The Federation of Evangelical Free Churches (BEFG) is represented in Leipzig with one Baptist and three Brethren congregations . The roots of the Leipzig Baptist Congregation lie in the central Saxon town of Oederan . A Baptist congregation was established there in 1864, which despite severe persecution by church and state authorities had a strong missionary charisma and had branch congregations in Zwickau , Meerane and Altenburg . In 1881 the town hall was moved from Oederan to Leipzig. At that time the church had around 40 members baptized in faith . By 1909 the community had grown to a good 150. In 2009 the community, which had 226 members in 2015, set up a new community center at Bernhard-Göring-Strasse 18-20 (see picture!). The Brethren have their community centers in Jacobstrasse 17/19 (2015: 156 members), Karlsruher Strasse 29 ( Grünauer Oase ; 2015: 15 members) and in Schlebestrasse 72 (2015: 116 members).

In addition to the Baptists, there are a large number of other free churches in Leipzig. These include an Elim congregation , which belongs to the Federation of Free Church Pentecostal Congregations , the Methodist Church , a Free Evangelical Congregation (FeG), the Salvation Army , a Mennonite Brethren Congregation (meeting point Jesus), the Seventh-day Adventists , a Calvary congregation Chapel and a Pentecostal Apostolic Congregation . The Methodists have two Methodist church buildings in the city, the Kreuzkirche and the Bethesda Church. The Adventists have been using a villa built in 1891 as a community center (Advent house) since 1951. The Mennonites use community rooms in the city center.

Old denominational churches

In addition to the parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church, there are also parishes of the old denominational Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (ELFK) and the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) in Leipzig . In addition, the Old Catholic Church and the Anglican Church each have a congregation in Leipzig.

Orthodox Church

Plaque at the Café Pinguin in memory of the Greek house
Russian Memorial Church

The first Orthodox church services took place around 1700 in the Greek House (a trading yard of Greek merchants). The parish of St. George later had its own rooms.

A large Russian Orthodox church has also been located in Leipzig since 1913 . The Sankt-Alexi-Gedächtniskirche in honor of the Russians was built on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Nations with donations from Russia and Germany near the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. It is subordinate to the Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Russia in Germany . About 300 members of various nationalities are registered in the community list.

Other Christian churches and denominations

The New Apostolic Church has two congregations in the city. The apostolic community is represented by a congregation, as is the church of the Apostle Ministry of Jesus Christ . Other religious communities in Leipzig are the Christian Community and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).

Today 80% of the population do not belong to any religion.

History of the Jewish Community

The Great Community Synagogue in the Gazebo (1854)

The first Jewish community existed in Leipzig as early as the Middle Ages, until 1441. In the centuries that followed, Jewish life was primarily shaped by the Messjude Jews who attended the Leipzig trade fair as merchants . Since 1710, protective Jews who were directly subordinate to the elector and who primarily handled financial transactions for him were allowed to settle in Leipzig. After the Seven Years' War , Jewish fur traders set up an Orthodox prayer room at Leipziger Brühl . In 1820 a reform synagogue was built, but it was only in operation during the Leipzig trade fair. Today's Israelite Religious Community in Leipzig was founded in 1846. On September 10, 1855, the first synagogue in Leipzig was inaugurated, which was built according to plans by Otto Simonson . With 12,594 members in 1925, the Israelite religious community was one of the sixth largest in Germany. With the establishment of the Higher Israelite School by Rabbi Ephraim Carlebach , Leipzig received the first Jewish school in Saxony in 1912. In Leipzig in 1929 more than half of the 794 tobacco shops on the Brühl were of Jewish origin - the Leipzig writer and trained furrier Edgar Hilsenrath comes from such a family. As a result of the Nazi rule and its consequences, the number of Jewish residents in Leipzig was reduced to around 200 by the end of the war. During the GDR era, the number of parishioners shrank to 35 people and only increased to 1230 people again today with the influx of Russian Jews after reunification. Today there is only one of 17 synagogues left in Leipzig . A new culture and meeting center "Ariowitsch-Haus" was built in 2006 and opened in May 2009.

Islam

Takva Mosque in Leipzig

In 2003 there were around 500 Muslims in Leipzig . At the end of 2017, the number of people with a Muslim background living in Leipzig was estimated at 24,000; However, this number is based on the total number of migrants from Islamic countries who cannot be assigned to any other religion and thus also includes an unknown number of non-religious people. The Islamic community in Leipzig is shaped by converts, foreign students, third generation families of Turkish origin living in Germany and asylum seekers.

The Takva Mosque ( Takva Camii ) is the Sunni mosque of the Leipzig Center for Islamic Culture and Research, the community has existed since 1998. The Al-Rahman Mosque, which is also Sunni, is located in a converted residential building near Leipzig Central Station The community has existed since 1993. The German-Syrian Hassan Dabbagh has been the head of the mosque association and imam there since 1995 .

Furthermore, there is the Eyup Sultan Mosque ( DITIB Mosque ), a Pakistani mosque, an Ahmadiyya community, the Islamic Al-Sahra Center and the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bosniaks (El Furkan Mosque) in Leipzig .

In 2013 the Ahmadiyya congregation announced a new mosque in the Gohlis district, which would be the first domed mosque in East Germany outside of Berlin. A citizens' initiative was formed against the plans and was accused of being close to the right-wing extremist NPD. A date for the start of construction is not yet known (as of July 2017).

Buddhist initiatives

Lecture cycle 1903

At the end of the 19th century, Leipzig was already a center of Indology and Buddhism. Karl Eugen Neumann received his secondary education here and finally published the groundbreaking translation of the Middle Collection here in the 1890s . Later it was the Indologist Karl Seidenstücker who founded the first Buddhist organization in the German Empire, the "Buddhist Mission Association for Germany", on August 15, 1903 in Leipzig. With a cycle of lectures between October 17, 1903 and March 26, 1904, Seidenstücker wrote a new chapter in the history of German Buddhism in his university town . His Buddhist Mission Publishing House , founded here, and its publications were a first source of information for many people interested in Buddhism.

For more than half a century after 1933, Buddhism hardly appeared in Leipzig. Only since the 1990s has there been a stronger interest in Buddhism again. The center of Diamond Way Buddhism at Rabensteinplatz and the Zen-Dôjô Leipzig are living proof of this. Since 2003 there has been a Vietnamese Buddhist initiative in Taucha that wants to build a temple.

literature

  • Horst Riedel: Chronicle of the city of Leipzig. 2500 events in words and pictures. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2001, ISBN 3-8313-1111-0
  • re.form Leipzig e. V. (Ed.): Religions in Leipzig. Leipziger Campusverlag, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-937218-00-9
  • Hannelore Künzl: Islamic style elements in synagogue construction of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Publishing house Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1984, ISBN 3-8204-8034-X (Judaism and Environment, 9).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Blume: Is Religion Dying Out? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! The Handbook of Leipzig Religions
  2. ↑ Population 2006 to 2015 according to religious affiliation, in: Statistisches Jahrbuch 2016 , p. 25
  3. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work. Expansion of the German Baptist congregations over 60 years (1849–1909 , Kassel 1960, p. 54f)
  4. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work. Expansion of the German Baptist congregations over 60 years (1849–1909 , Kassel 1960, p. 342)
  5. ↑ Federation of Evangelical Free Churches: Yearbook of the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches 2015/2016 , Kassel 2015, pp. 199f
  6. ^ Hannelore Künzl: Islamic style elements in synagogue construction of the 19th and early 20th centuries. P. 188
  7. ^ Synagogue and meeting center Leipzig eV . In: www.synagoge-leipzig.de . Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  8. ↑ Religious Studies Forum Leipzig e. V. ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 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 / www.reform-leipzig.de
  9. ^ A b City of Leipzig: Muslims in Leipzig
  10. ↑ Volker Nüske: From Leipzig to the Black Forest: Muslim life in the 'Diaspora' . In: www.deutsche-islam-konferenz.de German Islam Conference . January 13, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  11. ↑ Islamists: Charges against Missionaries of Terror . In: Focus Online . Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  12. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung: Construction of the Ahmadiyya Mosque in Leipzig is delayed - application is ready , August 11, 2017