Protestantism in Germany

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Religion in Germany (2022 estimate)[1][2]

  
Eastern Orthodoxy (2.2%)
  Other Christians (1.1%)
  Non-religious (43.8%)
  Islam
(3.7%)
  Other religions (1.7%)

The religion of Protestantism (German: Protestantismus), a form of Christianity, was founded within Germany in the 16th-century Reformation. It was formed as a new direction from some Roman Catholic principles. It was led initially by Martin Luther and later by John Calvin.[3]

History

The Protestant

Phillip of Hesse who convened the Marburg Colloquy where key Protestant theologians agreed on theological questions relevant to Germany. The Marburg Colloquy reforms included a restructuring of the Protestant Church in the light of the early church, the dissolution of monastic communities, establishment of Protestant universities, the regular inspection of Parishes and the conversion of nuns and monks. The Thirty Years' War, which took place from 1618 to 1648, stunted the theological development of Protestantism in Germany due to the severe reduction in population it triggered, with estimates suggesting as much as 90% of the German population was lost and barbary was common.[6]

Political effects

Separation of church and state

Stained glass window within the Sternberg Protestant Parish in Mecklenburg, commemorating the introduction of Protestantism in the region in 1549.

In the early 1500s, the

League of Schmalkalden, endorsed by Luther, with the intent to defend the rights of princes and the religion.[7] The league became central to the spread of Protestantism by using its political sway in Germany, helping the restoration of the Lutheran Duke of Wurttemberg in 1534, enabling the establishment of Protestantism in the region.[7] Conflicts with the Holy Roman Empire, resolved by the 1548 Council of Trent, maintained a lack of concessions to the German Protestants, and country-wide riots ensured it was not accepted.[7] The official separation of Protestantism and the Reichstag in Germany came with the adoption of the Weimar Constitution in 1919.[8]

Rebirth of political Protestantism

In the 19th century,

Napoleon Bonaparte.[6]

Nazi Germany

German Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1938.

During the

German chancellor Angela Merkel has been a regular attendant.[6]

Communism and the German Democratic Republic, 1949–1990

In the initial years of

conservatives.[13]

Protestants in East Germany 1949–1989 No. of members No. parishes No. of pastors
Lutheran (Werner Leich, Chairman) 6,435,000 7,347 4,161
Methodist (Rüdiger Minor, Bishop of Dresden) 28,000 400 140
Baptist Federation (Manfred Suit, President) 20,000 222 130
Reformed (HansJürgen Sievers, Chairman) 15,000 24 20
Old Lutheran (Johannes Zellmer, President) 7,150 27 22
Total 6,505,150 8,020 4,473

Economic effects

The initial effect of the Protestant revolution in Germany was to facilitate the entry of entrepreneurship with the decline of feudalism.[15] The Lutheran literature dispersed throughout Germany after the Reformation called for the elimination of clerical tax exemptions and the economic privileges granted to religious institutions.[16] Through the 16th century, however, the Protestant movement brought with it wealthy and influential Lutheran princes who formed a new social class.[7]

Social and cultural effects

Art

When the Reformation occurred, the art industry was declining in Germany; however, it provided a new inspiration for graphic arts, sculptures and paintings.[17] Protestant churches displayed medieval images, along with uniquely Lutheran artistic traditions, such as the Wittenberg workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger.[18] The Protestant movement brought a new variation of figural sculptures, portraits, artwork and illustrations to the interiors of German churches.[19]

Music

Further information: Reformation § Music and art

Martin Luther's early reforms included an emphasis on the value music provides as an aid to worship.

Calvinism, reduced the role of liturgical music and the expression of faith through the development of music.[21]

Education

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In the immediate post-Reformation and subsequent decades, the Lutheran principle of

Phillip Melanchthon and other prominent German Protestant reformers, that a Protestant university should be formed. This became the University of Marburg, the oldest Protestant university in the world. By the 19th century, German universities were recognised as leading the Western world, with Protestant theology globally influenced by Friedrich Schleiermacher, Ernst Troeltsch, Julius Wellhausen and Adolf von Harnack.[6] Within the GDR in the 1980s, the Church maintained Protestant theological faculties in six of the state universities in Berlin (Halle, Leipzig, Jena, Greifswald, and Rostock) funded by the Communist budget.[11] The Protestant leadership protested the insertion of a "materialist view" on school students' writing and the alteration of textbooks to include Communist ideology.[12]

Literature

In the years after the Reformation, Luther and his followers utilised the

dogmatics. He worked extensively to reform the German education system, local schooling and national universities.[6]

Wider culture and theology

The Protestant church has influenced changes in wider culture in Germany, contributing to the debate around bioethics and stem cell research.[25] The Protestant leadership in Germany is divided on the issue of stem cell research; however, those opposing liberalising laws have characterised it as a threat to the sanctity of human life.[26] Within the German Democratic Republic, the Federation of Evangelical Churches, formed in June 1969 and lasting until April 1991, was where questions of morality were determined.[12]

Architecture

Main article: The Reformation and its influence on church architecture
The Protestant Christ Church of Mannheim, completed in 1911.
A trout
Protestant Cathedral erected in Berlin,1894.The altar is made of white marble, yellow onyx candleholders and gilded iron Apostles screen.
Protestant Church bells
Church bells playing at the Mannheim Protestant Christ Church
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The Protestant church has influenced German architecture. Among adherents to Protestantism in Germany were engineers, craftsmen and architects, enabling Lutheran constructions.[18] The earliest Protestant constructions were in the 17th century, where the castles built along Germany's Middle Rhine were inhabited by Protestant archbishops, joined only by nobles and princes.[27] In the later centuries, separate church buildings were constructed along the Rhine region, due to controversial marriage laws that mandated Protestants and Catholics marry separately.[27] The spreading of Protestant architecture was slower in other parts of Germany, however, such as the city of Cologne where its first Protestant church was constructed in 1857.[28] Large Protestant places of worship were commissioned across Germany, such as the Garrison Church in the city of Ulm built in 1910 which could hold 2,000 congregants.[29] In the early 1920s, architects such as Gottfried Böhm and Otto Bartning were involved in changing Protestant architecture towards modern constructions.[28] An example of this new form of architecture was the Protestant Church of the Resurrection [de] built in the city of Essen in 1929 by Bartning.[28]

Media

The Protestant church published five regional papers throughout the GDR, including Die Kirche [de] (Berlin, circulation 42,500; also in a Greifswald edition), Der Sonntag [de] (Dresden, circulation 40,000), Mecklenburgische Kirchenzeitung [de] (Mecklenburg, circulation 15,000), Glaube und Heimat [de] (Jena, circulation 35,000), and Potsdamer Kirche (Potsdam, circulation 15,000).[14]

Influences on Christianity within Germany

The reformation itself was grounded in a rebellion against the German Catholic church, emphasizing the primacy of the Bible, the abolition of the Catholic ritualistic mass and a rejection of clerical celibacy.[30] The 19th century saw movements within German Protestantism involving practical devotion and spiritual energy. The 20th century saw the creation of new Protestant organisations, such as the Evangelical Alliance, YMCA, and the German Student Christian movement, whose active participation involved church adherents from other nations.[6]

See also

Look up Protestant, Protestantism, or evangelical in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Protestantism in Germany.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Protestantism.

References

  1. ^ "Religionszugehörigkeiten 2022".
  2. ^ "Kirchenmitglieder: 47,45 Prozent".
  3. ^ Elton, G., & Pettegree, A. (1999). Reformation Europe, 1517-1559 (pp. 30-84). Oxford: Blackwell.
  4. ^ Scribner, R. W. (1987). Popular culture and popular movements in Reformation Germany. A&C Black.
  5. ^ Dixon, C. S. (2008). The Reformation in Germany (Vol. 4). John Wiley & Sons.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Littell, F. (2005). Illustrated history of Christianity (2nd ed., pp. 151–407). New York: Continuum.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Hughes, M. (1992). Early Modern Germany, 1477–1806 (1st ed., pp. 4–190). Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  8. ^ Eberle, E. (2016). Church and state in Western society (1st ed., pp. 32–100). London: Routledge.
  9. ^ a b Probst, C. (2012). Demonizing the Jews (pp. 3–98). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  10. ^
    doi:10.2307/1431915
  11. ^
    doi:10.1080/09637499108431513
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Ramet, S. (1998). Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics, and Social Change in East-Central Europe (2nd ed., pp. 67–101). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
  13. ^ a b c Tyndale, W. (2016). Protestants in Communist East Germany: In the Storm of the World (1st ed., pp. 4–95). New York: Routledge.
  14. ^ a b c Solberg, R. (1961). God and Caesar in East Germany. The conflicts of Church and State in East Germany since 1945, etc. (1st ed., pp. 235–260). Michigan: Macmillan University of Michigan.
  15. ^ Ekelund, Jr., R., Hébert, R., & Tollison, R. (2002). An Economic Analysis of the Protestant Reformation. Journal Of Political Economy, 110(3), 646-671. doi: 10.1086/339721
  16. ^ Seabold, S., & Dittmar, J. (2015). Media, Markets and Institutional Change: Evidence from the Protestant Reformation. Centre For Economic Performance, 2, 6-43.
  17. ^ Christensen, C. (1973). "The Reformation and the Decline of German Art". Central European History, 6(3), 207–232. Retrieved April 14, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4545672
  18. ^ a b Heal, B. (2018). A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany (2nd ed., pp. 23–79). New York: Oxford University Press.
  19. ^ Smith, J. (1994). German sculpture of the later Renaissance, c. 1520-1580: art in an age of uncertainty (1st ed., pp. 23–78). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  20. ^ Oettinger, R. (2001). Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation (1st ed., pp. 4–350). New York: Routledge.
  21. ^ Etherington, C. (1978). Protestant worship music. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
  22. ^
    doi:10.1093/past/104.1.31
  23. doi:10.1111/ecin.12058
  24. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1742523
  25. doi:10.1093/cb/cbn006
  26. ^ Tuffs, A. (2001). "Germany debates embryonic stem cell research". BMJ, 8, 323.
  27. ^ a b Taylor, R. (1998). The Castles of the Rhine: Recreating the Middle Ages in Modern Germany (1st ed., pp. 32–100). Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
  28. ^ a b c James-Chakraborty, K. (2000). German Architecture for a Mass Audience (2nd ed., pp. 3–158). New York: Routledge.
  29. ^ Maciuika, J. (2008). Before the Bauhaus: Architecture, Politics and the German State, 1890–1920 (1st ed., pp. 12–340). New York: Cambridge University Press.
  30. ^ Seabold, S., & Dittmar, J. (2015). Media, Markets and Institutional Change: Evidence from the Protestant Reformation. Centre For Economic Performance, 2, 6–43.

Further reading

  • Littel, Franklin (2005). Illustrated History of Christianity. New York, United States: The Continuum. p. 151.
  • Roper, Lyndal (2018). Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet. New York, United States: Random House. p. 161.
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