Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany

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The Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (also known as the Luther Council ) was an amalgamation of the Lutheran regional churches in Germany achieved in the church struggle . He was the forerunner of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany .

history

The founding of the Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany was initiated on March 11, 1936 by representatives of the regional churches of Bavaria , Württemberg and Hanover (the three Lutheran churches that belonged to the "intact churches" ) and the regional brother councils of the Lutheran regional churches of Saxony , Mecklenburg and Thuringia decided and carried out on March 18, 1936. Regional Bishop August Marahrens founded the Lutheran Council as early as 1934 in order to bring the Lutheran churches in Germany closer together. The direct cause of Meiser's initiative was the division of the Confessing Church into a "moderate" wing, which was prepared to work with the Reich Ministry of Churches by Hanns Kerrl , and the "radical" or "radical" wing, which came to light at the fourth Synod of Confessions in Bad Oeynhausen in February 1936 . "Dahlemite" wing who refused. In particular the claim of the Confessional Synod to be the only legitimate Protestant church in Germany was viewed by the Lutheran representatives as an attack on the regional churches and as a disregard for the confession. With the formation of the Lutheran Council and the election of the Second Provisional Church Government one day later without representatives of confessional Lutheranism, the division of the Confessing Church was complete.

The Luther Council, which was soon joined by the regional brother councils of other regional and provincial churches, claimed “to exercise common spiritual leadership for the Lutheran churches and works that are associated with the Confessing Church .” The ultimate goal of the council was to be evangelical -to create the Lutheran Church of Germany under a unified Lutheran church regiment. The Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church was also represented .

The council first consisted of the bishops August Marahrens, Hans Meiser , Hugo Hahn and Theophil Wurm as well as Oberkirchenrat Thomas Breit (Bavaria), Niklot Beste (Mecklenburg), Ernst Otto (Thuringia) and Hanns Lilje . Breitling was chairman until 1938, then regional bishop Meiser. Her deputy from October 1936 was Paul Fleisch . Lilje became the head of the secretariat in Berlin. Another employee from 1936–1938 was Christian Stoll , who took over management in 1945; after his death in December 1946 Ernst Kinder took over the position. In addition, Oberkirchenrat Walter Zimmermann worked in the office from 1946.

After the Evangelical Church in Germany was provisionally founded in Treysa in August 1945 after the end of the Second World War , the representatives of the Lutheran Council took an active part in drafting a constitution. Against the efforts of Meiser and Stoll to found a large Lutheran church, which should also be joined by the Lutheran provinces and parishes of the United Churches, the compromise pursued by Wurm prevailed in the constitution adopted in Eisenach in 1948, according to which the EKD as " Union of Lutheran, Reformed and United Churches ”was constituted. The Lutheran regional churches (excluding Oldenburg and Württemberg) for their part founded the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany, which replaced the Lutheran Council.

Representatives of the regional churches and brother councils

Bavaria

Braunschweig

Danzig

  • Werner Göbel, 1945

Alsace-Lorraine

Eutin

Hamburg

Hanover

Lippe (Lutheran class)

Lübeck

Mecklenburg

Poses

Saxony

Schaumburg-Lippe

Silesia

Schleswig-Holstein

Thuringia

Württemberg

Permanent guest (for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia )

literature

  • Wolf-Dieter Hauschild : The Barmer Theological Declaration as a Confession of the Church? On the attitude of the Lutherrats 1937-1948 In: Reinhard Rittner (ed.): Barmen and the Lutheranism (= Fuldaer Hefte 27). Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hannover 1984, pp. 72–114 (reprinted in Conflict Community Church. Essays on the history of the Evangelical Church in Germany . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-55740-X , pp. 394–411).
  • Wolf-Dieter Hauschild: From the “Lutherrat” to the VELKD 1945-1948. In: Joachim Mehlhausen (Ed.): "... and beyond Barmen". Studies on contemporary church history. Festschrift for Carsten Nicolaisen on April 4, 1994. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1995, ISBN 978-3-525-55723-5 , pp. 451-470 (revised and printed in Conflict Community Church. Essays on the history of the Evangelical Church in Germany . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-55740-X , pp. 245-294).
  • Thomas Martin Schneider : Against the zeitgeist. The way to the VELKD as a Lutheran confessional church. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-55749-5 .
  • Thomas Martin Schneider (Ed.): The minutes of the Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, 1945-1948. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-55766-2 .
  • Heinz Boberach, Carsten Nicolaisen , Ruth Pabst (eds.): Handbook of the German Protestant Churches 1918 to 1949, organs - offices - associations - people. Volume 1, National Institutions. Göttingen 2010, pp. 140-143.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carsten Nicolaisen (Ed.): Responsibility for the Church II: Autumn 1935 to Spring 1937 . Göttingen 1992, pp. 195-203.
  2. ↑ Carsten Nicolaisen (Ed.): Responsibility for the Church II: Autumn 1935 to Spring 1937 . Göttingen 1992, pp. 207-209.
  3. ^ Gerhard Besier : The Churches and the Third Reich. Volume 3: Divisions and defensive struggles 1934 to 1937. Propylaen, Berlin 2001, pp. 423-429.