Hanau Union

The Hanauer Union is a union of Protestant - Reformed and Lutheran state churches of Hanau-Münzenberg .

prehistory

Reformation in Hanau-Munzenberg

First Reformation

The Reformation began in Hanau-Münzenberg as early as the 1620s. But it dragged on for a long time and was more Lutheran. The Catholic service was never officially canceled and took place for the last time in 1550 in the Marienkirche , the central church of the residential city of Hanau . The denominational foundations of this Reformation were never clearly clarified, the officially used catechism changed several times within a few years.

Second Reformation

In a "second Reformation", the denomination of the County of Hanau-Münzenberg was changed again. From 1597 Count Philipp Ludwig II pursued a decidedly reformed church policy and made use of his right as sovereign to determine the denomination of his subjects, the Jus reformandi , and enforced this version of the Reformation as binding for the county.

Softening of the Reformed monopoly of faith

Lutheran Count Friedrich Casimir takes office

After the death of the last count from the Hanau-Munzenberg line, Johann Ernst , on January 12, 1642, his closest male relative was the Lutheran Count Friedrich Casimir von Hanau-Lichtenberg . His accession to power was problematic. In order to secure the necessary support from the reformed, financially strong, bourgeois ruling class in the royal seat of Hanau, the count's guardian, Baron Georg II von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl , had no choice but to grant the demands made by the citizens after ten days of negotiations . The main concern was to guarantee the denominational, reformed status quo.

While 50 years earlier Count Philipp Ludwig II could invoke the Jus reformandi , the principle cuius regio, eius religio , i.e. the right to determine the denomination of his subjects, and was able to predominantly enforce a corresponding policy, Count Friedrich Casimir now had to exercise his religion freely of the Reformed not only continue to grant, but even initially limit the Lutheran worship for himself and his court to the chapel in the castle.

Pro-Lutheran politics

Despite this assurance to the Reformed majority of the population, Friedrich Casimir pursued an expansive, pro-Lutheran policy. Lutheran congregations soon formed in the county and the first Reformed Lutheran mixed marriages took place. This led to aggressive conflicts between the established, Reformed establishment and the Lutherans. A comparison of religions in 1650 was intended to resolve these problems, but this had no lasting effect.

From 1658 the Lutheran St. John's Church could be built - with considerable financial support from Lutheran abroad. Lutheran communities established themselves in the city of Hanau and the offices of the county.

Equal rights of denominations

In 1670 there was another comparison between the two denominational parties, the so-called main religious trial . This laid down the equality of the two evangelical denominations and gave each its own church administration. From now on there were two independent regional churches in the county of Hanau . Each had its own facilities, such as the consistory , church buildings, staff, cemeteries and schools. The count expressly renounces his - theoretically still entitled - Jus reformandi . The 1670 agreement became a permanent and firm foundation for biconfessionalism in the county.

In the everyday dealings of the denominations with one another, however, the arguments continued to be violent. For example, on the occasion of the celebration of the Lord's Supper on Christmas Day 1695 in the Reformed Church in Bruchköbel , an incident occurred because Lutherans disrupted the celebration by improper behavior.

The poor financial situation of the county as a result of the Thirty Years War and the financial mismanagement of Count Friedrich Casimir delayed the material development of the Lutheran infrastructure in the county of Hanau-Munzenberg. This came under Count Johann Reinhard III. (1712–1736) in swing. The Lutherans now built their own churches and schools across the county. Lutheran churches were built in Windecken , Steinau an der Straße , Nauheim (today: Bad Nauheim ), Kesselstadt , Marköbel and Rodheim vor der Höhe (" Reinhardskirchen ").

enlightenment

In the course of the 18th century, the disputes were defused through mutual familiarization with one another and through clarification . The opposition between the denominational parties turned into a tolerable coexistence.

Hanau Union

The opposition between Reformed and Lutherans, which largely disappeared after the Napoleonic Wars, no longer justified the church's double structure, which was a relatively small unit, and an enormous burden on the County of Hanau-Münzenberg. The economic and financial crisis triggered by the Napoleonic wars brought about the end of the previous biconfessionalism.

This is how the Hanauer Union came into being in 1818 . This evangelical church union - for example compared to the church of the Old Prussian Union - has the peculiarity that it was created by the synodal structure of the church, was not ordained by the sovereign. It was also known as the Bookbinder Union , because although each other was granted communion in communion , it was impossible to agree on a uniform catechism: the Luther catechism and the Heidelberg catechism were pragmatically bound together in one book and it was for the individual believers up to which of the two they wanted to stick to.

A practical consequence of the union was that the name of the church building, which had often been denominational up until then, had to be changed. As a rule, the names of deceased dynasts were chosen for this. The main church in the old town of Hanau, after Reformation the High German Reformed church , was named Marienkirche after Maria von Hannover , Landgravine of Hessen-Kassel (* 1723, † 1772). The former Lutheran church in Hanau was named Johanneskirche after the Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony, who once laid the foundation stone . And in the former county of Hanau-Münzenberg there is a " Reinhardskirche " several times , named after the last Hanau Counts Philipp Reinhard and Johann Reinhard III.

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

Otto Dienemann: The Hanauer Union . In: Hanau city and country. A home book for school and home . Hanau 1954, p. 466f.
Wilhelm Friedrich Böhm: Memories of the Church Association in the Hessian provinces of Hanau and Fulda . Hanau 1843.
Reinhard Dietrich : The state constitution in the Hanauischen = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 34. Hanau 1996, ISBN 3-9801933-6-5
Carl Henß (Hrsg.): The Hanauer Union - Festschrift for the centenary of the Protestant Uniate Church Fellowship in the consistorial district of Cassel on May 28, 1918 , Hanau 1918
Julius Martiny: The Hanauer Union since 1818 . In: Marienkirche Hanau. Festschrift 1984, Hanau 1984, pp. 61–67.
Julius Martiny: 150 Years Hanauer Union - Portrait of a Sprengels . Supplement in: Evangelical Sunday messenger . Pentecost 1968, pp. 11-22.
G. Müller: The Union on the way to ecumenism. For the 150th anniversary of the Hanauer Union . In: Yearbook of the Hessian Church History Association 20 (1969), pp. 105–123.
Günter Rauch: The "Hanau Union" between Reformed and Lutherans 1818 . In: Stadtzeit (1998). History magazine on the occasion of the 150 years of revolution and gymnastics movement Hanau 1848–1998, p. 28f.
Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country . 3. Edition. Hanau 1919, ND 1978.
Bettina Wischhöfer: Anniversary of the “Buchbinde Union” . In: Archivnachrichten aus Hessen 18/1 (2018), p. 66f.

Individual evidence

↑ Erhard Bus : The consequences of the great war - the west of the county of Hanau-Munzenberg after the Peace of Westphalia. In: Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 : The Thirty Years War in Hanau and the surrounding area = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 45 (2011), ISBN 978-3-935395-15-9 , pp. 277-320 (298).
↑ Kathrin Ellwardt: "... to consult about the names of the buildings and institutions, which at that time bore the name Lutheran and Reformed ..." The Hanau Union of 1818 and the naming of the churches . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2017, pp. 94–112.

[1] Erhard Bus : The consequences of the great war - the west of the county of Hanau-Munzenberg after the Peace of Westphalia. In: Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 : The Thirty Years War in Hanau and the surrounding area = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 45 (2011), ISBN 978-3-935395-15-9 , pp. 277-320 (298).

[2] Kathrin Ellwardt: "... to consult about the names of the buildings and institutions, which at that time bore the name Lutheran and Reformed ..." The Hanau Union of 1818 and the naming of the churches . In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2017, pp. 94–112.