Reformed seminary in Elberfeld
The Reformed Preachers' Seminar Elberfeld was a theological training center in Elberfeld .
It was founded on July 1, 1904 as the "Elberfeld Candidate Foundation". As early as 1857, the Reformed community in Elberfeld wanted a seminary to be founded in order to be able to better cultivate its denominational tradition within the Uniate Prussian regional church . Because the Prussian government was extremely skeptical of denominationalism and preferred the United Church form, the foundation dragged on for almost half a century. For this reason, the choice of the original name also had to be more neutral, and it was not until 1929 that the name could be changed to “Reformed Preacher's Seminary”.
The first seat of the seminary was on Blankstrasse, the number of candidates was limited to four per year. With the reorganization in 1929, the facility moved to Am Mäuerchen 8a and appointed Hermann Albert Hesse as director. In the meantime, candidates have not only been trained from the Church of the Old Prussian Union , but also from Reformed churches from all over Europe (e.g. Scotland and Hungary ). In 1937 the seminar was closed by the Gestapo .
In 1951 the seminar resumed its work on Mainzer Strasse. The carriers were now the Reformed Churches in the EKD , the Lippe Regional Church and the Evangelical Reformed Church , as well as the United Regional Churches in the Rhineland and Westphalia , in 2001 it moved into rooms in the Wuppertal Church University . There, with the seminary of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , which existed in Bad Kreuznach until 2003 , it worked out in the seminar for pastoral training .