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''Away from Rome!'' (german: Los-von-Rom-Bewegung) was a religious movement founded in Austria by the
Pan-German Pan-Germanism (german: Pangermanismus or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the German-speaking people – and possibly also Germanic-speaking ...
politician
Georg Ritter von Schönerer Georg Ritter von Schönerer (17 July 1842 – 14 August 1921) was an Austrian landowner and politician of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in ...
aimed at conversion of all the Roman Catholic
German-speaking German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...
population of
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
to
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
, or, in some cases, to the
Old Catholic Church The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...
es.''The science of the swastika'', Bernard Thomas Mees.
/ref> It was founded amid the ensuing ''
Kulturkampf (, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiasti ...
'' in
Imperial Germany The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...
.


Origins

"Away from Rome" (German: ''Los-von-Rom-Bewegung'') was a religious movement founded in Austria around 1900, mostly politically influenced. This movement aimed at supporting change of confession from the Roman Catholic to either the Evangelical Lutheran or Old Catholic denomination. It was supported by German National forces. The slogan "Away from Rome" was coined by Theodor Georg Rakus, a medical student (who would later become Dr. Theodor Georg Rakus, physician and royal Swedish vice consul in Salzburg), and a companion of Georg von Schönerer.


Background: Greater German and German national ideas

Since the time of Counterreformation among the
Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
, Austria was an almost exclusively Roman Catholic country. The Protestants only formed a vanishing minority. Only since emperor Joseph II's enactment of the Patent of Tolerance in 1781, the exercise of religion was granted again to Reformed Christians and Lutherans. After the foundation of the German Reich in 1871, causing the "lesser German solution", that is the unification of Germany under the control of Prussia excluding Austria, many Austrians still remained devoted to "Greater German ideas". The German Nationals strived for a close political connection to the German Reich, and partially even aimed at complete dissolution of the monarchy of the Habsburgs and the annexation of the parts that were populated by the Germans to the German Reich. One of the leading advocates of this political direction was Georg Ritter von Schönerer. In the program of Linz in 1882, the German Nationals established the slogan "not liberal, not clerical, but national", and opposed to the Jews, as well as to the political and societal influence of the Roman Catholic Church.


Starting point: Count Badeni's language decrees

In 1897, the Language decrees issued by Prime Minister Count Badeni were enacted. The decrees ordered that civil servants of the crown lands Bohemia and Moravia should always be able to speak both German and Czech. These decrees were vehemently opposed by a group of German nationalists (''Deutschnationale''), but were largely supported by the Austrian Catholic People's Party (''Katholische Volkspartei'') as well as by many Czech Catholic clerics. In reaction, the Nationalists promoted an oppositional movement that called for secession from Catholicism and resistance to its "alien" influence. (Schönerer's slogan "''Ohne Juda, ohne Rom wird gebaut Germanias Dom''" ("Without Jewry, without Rome,
Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north ...
's cathedral will be built") demonstrates a typical conflation of
anti-Catholicism Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and the Uni ...
with
xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
.) In a congregation of German nationalists in Vienna, the so-called "German National Congress" (''Deutscher Volkstag''), the nationalists called on the people to leave the Catholic Church and Schönerer and a group of followers coined the slogan "Away from Rome!" ("''Los von Rom!''"). The conversion movement was supported by Protestant organizations from Germany, especially by the "
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Association" (''Gustav-Adolf-Verein'') and the Protestant Federation (''Evangelischer Bund'') until 1905. Between January 1898 and March 1900 10,000 Austrians left the Catholic Church. More than 65,000 people joining the Protestant Church and more than 20,000 people joining the Old Catholic Church before the outbreak of World War I in 1914 were registered. As a result, many new Protestant rectories had to be installed. Nevertheless, not all conversions can be seen as a result of the "Away from Rome" movement; many of them were due to a general dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Church, which was largely viewed as anti-liberal and anti-progressive. The Catholic Church was at first hesitant to react, but from 1902 onward, big press campaigns were undertaken and administrative measures enacted in order to slow down the conversion movement. As a result from the "Away from Rome" movement, the Protestant churches in Austria fell to an extent under the influence of German nationalists. Many Austrian Protestants had already been affected by the Protestant
Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
-dominated
German Empire The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...
(''Deutsches Reich''), and the identification of German Protestantism with
German nationalism German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one nat ...
(as opposed to the relatively pluralistic policy of the Catholic Habsburg monarchy) tended to make this tendency even stronger.


References

{{Authority control Anti-Catholic organizations 19th century in Austria-Hungary Religious nationalism German nationalism in Austria Anti-Catholicism