Redesign of the Catholic dioceses in Germany after the Congress of Vienna

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The old diocesan structure (black border lines) and the new description after the Congress of Vienna (colored areas)

The rewriting of the Catholic dioceses in Germany after the Congress of Vienna was an important part of the reorganization task that the Roman Catholic Church in Germany faced in the first years of the 19th century after the end of the Holy Roman Empire and the Imperial Church ( Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803) . The old church organization, which was based essentially on the clerical principalities ( Hochstifte ), their legal status and their economic performance, had to be replaced from 1815, after the political consolidation of the Congress of Vienna , by a diocesan structure without state sovereignty and taxable territories. In addition to negotiating secularization adjustments, it was above all necessary to rewrite the dioceses to take account of the new political conditions.

The old diocesan organization

The old diocesan borders were drawn under Charlemagne and his first successors and have remained largely unchanged since the foundation of the Bamberg diocese in 1007. As a result of the Reformation , the north and east German dioceses of Brandenburg , Bremen , Halberstadt , Havelberg , Kammin , Lebus , Lübeck , Magdeburg , Meißen , Merseburg , Minden , Naumburg-Zeitz , Ratzeburg , Schwerin and Verden perished . Their areas were combined in the Apostolic Vicariate of the North , which experienced various divisions and outsourcing in the 18th century, but without new regular dioceses were established. The episcopal jurisdiction for the Protestant territories was suspended in the Peace of Augsburg and the Peace of Westphalia . However, population migration and political shifting of borders led to the fact that Catholics lived there again and Catholic communities emerged.

The rewrite

requirements

The majority of the new state structures of the Congress of Vienna comprised both Catholic and Protestant parts of the country. The princes, who exercised the sovereign church regime for their Protestant subjects , also wanted Catholic dioceses within their national borders, over which they could influence without interference from foreign sovereigns. The Roman Curia and the German bishops, on the other hand, were concerned with independence in spiritual matters, for example in school and marriage matters, but could not do without regular cooperation with the state authorities and donations to their institutions. This led to long and sometimes difficult negotiations, the result of which were the Concordats and Circumcription Bulls for the years 1817 to 1824.

Principles

With the rewrite, the diocesan borders were brought to coincide with the political borders of 1815. One or more dioceses should correspond to each state. Diocesan areas of foreign bishops should not be located in any state. With a few deviations from these principles, especially for the smallest states, a church map was created, of which essential parts have been preserved to this day.

States and dioceses

literature

  • Jochen Martin : The reorganization of the Catholic Church in Germany 1802–1821 / 24 . In: Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte , Freiburg 1987, pp. 68 * –69 *.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Changes in the territory of the bishops connected with the bishopric (princedom) did not affect the diocesan division under canon law.
  2. ^ Bavarian Concordat (1817) .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Circumcription bull Provida solersque (1821).
  4. ↑ a b c Newly built bishopric.
  5. ↑ a b Circumcription bull De salute animarum (1821).
  6. ↑ The Diocese of Aachen was only spun off from the Archdiocese of Cologne in 1930.
  7. ↑ Archbishopric since 1930; it also included the principalities of Lippe and Waldeck .
  8. ↑ a b For the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, a separate diocese was temporarily considered. However, due to the old affiliation of the Niederstift to Münster, the area became part of the Münster diocese with limited autonomy.
  9. ↑ Circumcription bull Impensa Romanorum Pontificum (1824).
  10. ↑ “The situation in the Thuringian states was complicated; here the situation only consolidated in the second half of the 19th century. Apart from the parts that came to Fulda in 1821 or have been administered by Fulda since then (...), Sachsen-Meiningen went to Würzburg, Reuss younger line on 15 3. 1822 to Prague (!) [, But later to the Apostolic Vicariate in the Saxon Hereditary Lands (see below)], while Schwarzburg initially did not belong to the diocese. Saxony-Altenburg has been co-administered from Saxony since the 1920s ”(Martin p. 69 *, addition in square brackets not original).
  11. ↑ On June 24, 1921, Benedict XV. the prefecture of Meißen, responsible for the district chief of Bautzen , to the new diocese of Meißen (cf. Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum ), whereby the seat of the prefecture in Bautzen was retained as the bishopric. See "Diocese of Dresden-Meissen" , on: Catholic Hierarchy , accessed on February 8, 2011.
  12. ↑ The lower-ranking vicariate in the Saxon hereditary lands, which in addition to the rest of Saxony also comprised Sachsen-Altenburg , Reuss older and younger lines , was abolished in 1921 and its area was incorporated into the new diocese of Meissen. See "Diocese of Dresden-Meissen" , on: Catholic Hierarchy , accessed on February 8, 2011.
  13. ^ Klaus Schatz: History of the Diocese of Limburg , Mainz 1983, pp. 188–189.