Dutch congregation of the Augsburg Confession

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The Dutch congregation Augsburger Confession (short: NGAC) has existed since 1585. It was founded by Lutheran religious refugees from the Spanish Netherlands who were accepted into Frankfurt am Main and acquired citizenship there . The history of many old Frankfurt families is closely linked to that of the Dutch community AC. The Dutch community AC is next to the aristocratic inheritance of the House of Alten Limpurg perhaps "the last animated extended family of Alt-Frankfurt" ( Alfred Andreae ).

The foundations of today's Dutch community are the family relationships and the tradition of the families united in it and their responsibility for the alms box they founded, which was maintained over the centuries and transferred to a foundation in 1998.

The community

The Dutch congregation Augsburger Confession was founded on May 31, 1585 by religious refugees from Antwerp under the leadership of Casiodoro de Reina , who had come to Frankfurt since 1570 as a result of the Eighty Years War . In the Lutheran city of Frankfurt, the sovereign church regiment lay with the city council, which is why the Dutch congregation was not a legally independent congregation , but a cooperative pension fund for the poor of Dutch origin, a so-called alms box similar to the already existing general alms box .

The community grew rapidly because the Antwerp Protestants had to leave their hometown after the Spanish conquest . In 1592 the congregation obtained the right to hold its services in French, and the council assigned the Weißfrauenkirche as a preaching site. For this he appointed a French-speaking Lutheran preacher from Mömpelgard , Reina received the second preaching position. For almost 200 years until 1788, the Weißfrauenkirche remained a French church . In the 17th and 18th centuries, several members of the Ritter family held the office of German and French preacher at the church. In 1788 the council decided not to hire any French-speaking Lutheran preachers. On the one hand, there were hardly any members of the Dutch community who did not speak German, and on the other hand, denominational tolerance had grown so much that the council had approved the building of a French Reformed church in which French preaching continued.

The community continued to exist as the bearer of the alms box, whose assets grew through foundations. In 1778 Magdalena Margarethe Andreae (1707–1787), widow of the lay judge Johann Benjamin Andreae (1705–1778) bequeathed her house in Großer Hirschgraben and most of her assets of 225,000 guilders to the Dutch community in order to build an orphanage .

The community is still one of the oldest charitable associations in Frankfurt am Main. The assets collected for charitable purposes were available to all registered members and their legitimate descendants who were able to accept them in an undivided community until 1998, when it was converted into the legal form of a foundation . In terms of tradition, the Dutch community is both a solidarity cooperative, which jointly maintains a pension institution, as well as a community of descendants and remembrance, which has recorded the family ramifications of its members in a register for centuries.

Belonging to the community means, as most of their members understand, more than membership in the circle of sponsors of contemporary charitable foundations or the right to support in the event of personal need. Once donated from the ranks of refugees, the Dutch congregation is now the epitome of the imperial city tradition of Frankfurt am Main, because in the process of family ties, most of Frankfurt’s leading Lutheran families were connected to the Dutch congregation. So it has become a gathering point of the old Frankfurt bourgeoisie. Working as head of the Dutch congregation or deacon is part of the résumé of many well-known Frankfurt personalities.

The Foundation

In 1998 the alms box was transferred to the Foundation Dutch Congregation Augsburg Confession . The prerequisite for membership is birth or marriage among the descendants of the founders and former members. Previously more extensive provisions have been repealed over time: Members no longer have to be Frankfurt citizens since 1876 and no longer belong to the Lutheran denomination since 2005.

Publications

  • Frank Berger (editor): Faith makes art. Antwerp-Frankfurt around 1600 . Historical Museum Frankfurt, Hessenhuis Antwerp, 2005, Mörfelden
  • Konrad Bund: 400 Years of the Dutch Congregation Augsburg Confession in Frankfurt am Main 1585–1985 (text accompanying the exhibition in the city archive). Frankfurt am Main 1985
  • Alexander Dietz : Frankfurt trade history. Five volumes (Volume 1, 1910; Volume 2 and 3, 1921; Volume 4 and 5, 1925).
  • Heike Drummer: Finding aid for the holdings of the Dutch Congregation Augsburger Confession 1585-1985 . City Archives Frankfurt am Main, Repertories No. 645, Office for Science and Art of the City of Frankfurt, 1988, Frankfurt am Main
  • Johannes Lehnemann: Historical news of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Antorff, which was famous earlier in the sixteenth century, and the resulting Dutch community of Augsburg Confession in Franckfurt am Mayn . 1725
  • Robert van Roosbroeck: Emigrants. Nederlandse Vluchtelingen in Duitsland (1550-1600) . Leuven 1968
  • Sabine Wick: finding aid for inventory Dutch municipality of Augsburg Confession II . Institute for Urban History Frankfurt am Main, repertory no. 915, 2004, Frankfurt am Main

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