Protestant Church In Baden
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The Protestant Church in Baden (; i.e. Evangelical Regional Church in
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...
) is a United Protestant member church of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), and member of the Conference of Churches on the Rhine (since 1961), which now functions as a regional group of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). The Evangelical Church in Baden is a united Protestant church. Its headquarter, the ''Evangelical Superior Church Council'' (, EOK) is located in
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
. The church is not to be confused with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden, based in
Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...
.


History

In 1821 the Evangelical Church in Baden was founded by uniting Lutheran and Reformed churches in the
Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...
, thus its then name ''United Evangelical Protestant Church of the Grand Duchy of Baden''. The church body comprises only congregations of united Protestant confession. After the grand duchy had become the
Republic of Baden The Republic of Baden () was a German state during the Weimar Republic. It was formed as the successor to the Grand Duchy of Baden during the German revolution of 1918–1919 and formally dissolved in 1945. Today it is part of the federal state ...
in 1918 and after the
separation of religion and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...
by the
Weimar Constitution The Constitution of the German Reich (), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era. The constitution created a federal semi-presidential republic with a parliament whose ...
in 1919 the church adopted a new constitution in December 1919 accounting for these changes, renaming as the ''United Evangelical Protestant Regional Church of Baden'' (Vereinigte Evangelisch-protestantische Landeskirche Badens). In 1922 the church counted 821,000 parishioners.Sebastian Müller-Rolli in collaboration with Reiner Anselm, ''Evangelische Schulpolitik in Deutschland 1918–1958: Dokumente und Darstellung'', Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, (=Eine Veröffentlichung des Comenius-Instituts Münster), p. 30. . Nazi-aligned Protestant activists, emerging from the 1931-founded Nazi Federation of pastors of Baden (NS-Pfarrbund, Gau Baden), candidated for the nominating group called the German Christians and some won already in the ordinary election for synodals and presbyters in late 1932.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 35. . They still formed a minority in the legislating assembly of the church, the Landessynode. After the Nazi takeover the synodals standing for the nominating group of the Ecclesiastical Liberal Union (Kirchlich-Liberale Vereinigung, KLV) jumped ship and joined the German Christians' faction. On 1 June 1933, together with the votes of further other sympathisers of the Nazi takeover among the synodals a new majority led by the German Christians voted in a new episcopal church constitution, doing away with most of the say of the Landessynode for the future. Instead the new office of the Landesbischof (i.e. regional bishop) was formed bundling the spiritual, legislative and executive church leadership (before the first was with the prelate, the second with the Landessynode, and the third with the EOK) in the hands of one single man, as typical for the concept of the
Führerprinzip The (, ''Leader Principle'') was the basis of authority, executive authority in the government of Nazi Germany. It placed the Führer's word above all written law, and meant that Law of Nazi Germany, government policies, decisions, and officia ...
, in harsh contradiction to the Protestant tradition of synodal legislation and
collegiality Collegiality is the relationship between colleagues, especially among peers, for example a fellow member of the same profession. Colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose and, at least in theory, respect each other's abilities t ...
in the consistorial executive. This adulteration of Protestant church governance started the
Kirchenkampf ''Kirchenkampf'' (, lit. 'church struggle') is a German term which pertains to the situation of the Christianity in Germany, Christian churches in Germany during the Nazi Germany, Nazi period (1933–1945). Sometimes used ambiguously, the term ma ...
(1933–1945; i.e. ''struggle of the churches'') in Baden. On 24 June 1933 the Landessynode elected the incumbent Prelate Julius Kühlewein the new powerful Landesbischof regnant, being ex officio the head of the EOK, downsized in members.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 39. . On 23 July 1933, the day of the unconstitutional premature reelection of synodals and presbyters imposed by Hitler, the Nazi-submissive German Christians then gained a majority of 32 seats against the only remaining opposition of 25 members of the conservative Ecclesiastical Positive Association (Kirchlich-Positive Vereinigung, KPV, another nominating group not to be confused with the proponents of the so-called Positive Christianity) in the widely self-disenfranchised Landessynode. On 5 April 1934 the various opposing church groups merged in the Badischer Bekennerbund (i.e. Baden Covenant of Confessors), the Confessing Church branch in Baden,Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 41. . considering the official church body as a destroyed church (), since it had been taken over by Nazi-submissive leaders. Representatives of the Baden Covenant of Confessors participated in the first Reich's Synod of Confession (Reichsbekenntnissynode) and voted in, with others, the Barmen Declaration. On 19 June 1934 the Baden Covenant of Confessors and more intra-church opponents formed the Regional Brethren Council (Landesbruderrat), considered the new parallel church leadership in opposition to the official church led by Kühlewein.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 42. . After polling the pastors of the Church of Baden, resulting in a majority of supporters for a merger of the church into the new Protestant Reich Church (478 yeas, against 92 nays, with 18 abstentions and 32 pastors not having answered), on 13 July Kühlewein declared the merger of his church into the new streamlined Reich church.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 43. . The Baden Confessors protested that self-aggrandising act of Kühlewein. By the end of 1934 Kühlewein changed his mind, and reversed the merger,Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 44. . after the biggest ''destroyed'' regional Protestant church in Germany, the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union with more than 19 million members, was reestablished as a separate legal entity by a sentence contended by an old-Prussian German Christian faction fighting the authoritative leadership of the old-Prussian Landesbischof, a German Christian too. This again split Kühlewein's previous supporters in two, those following his new course, and those who did not. When the Reich bishop, claiming leadership over Baden as part of the Reich church, in April 1935 visited his supporters in Baden, he was mostly welcomed by local Nazi party leaders and local German Christians, but completely ignored by any representative of the official Baden church under Kühlewein.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 45. . In May 1936 Kühlewein in a meeting with the Nazi Gauleiter for Baden, explained that the members of his church clung by 50% to the Confessing Church, 25% were undecided and maximally 25% followed the German Christians. His task would be to protect church members, also when attacked as subversive Confessing Christians by the Nazi government.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 47. . This shift of behaviour and opinion opened the way for reconciliation of many Baden Confessors with the official church leader. In 1937 Kühlewein joined with the Baden church the moderately Nazi-opposing block of the so-called intact regional Lutheran churches, to wit
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
,
Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
, and neighbouring
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...
. In order to suppress the Confessing Church in Baden, now obviously not fought anymore by Kühlewein, the Nazi Reich government decided to block the Baden Confessors by draining their access to any finances. To this end, on 25 May 1938 the decree with the euphemising title ''Law on the Wealth Formation within the Regional Protestant Churches'', passed on 11 March 1935 and then already applied to Regional churches within Prussia, was also implemented in Baden.Bernd Martin, „Professoren und Bekennende Kirche. Zur Formierung Freiburger Widerstandskreise über den evangelischen Kirchenkampf“ in: ''Wirtschaft, Politik, Freiheit: Freiburger Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und der Widerstand'', Nils Goldschmidt (ed.), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. pp. 27–55, here p. 48. . So any offertory, to-be-collected, all budgets, remittances and payments by any entity of the church, were subject to approval by government-appointed comptrollers. This caused an outrage of pastors, rallying for public demonstrations, and a sharp protest by Kühlewein, backing the demonstrators, but in vain. After the government waged war on
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
and thus started the Second World War, male members of the Confessing Church were preferently drafted for the army.Barbara Krüger and Peter Noss, „Die Strukturen in der Evangelischen Kirche 1933–1945“, in: ''Kirchenkampf in Berlin 1932–1945: 42 Stadtgeschichten'', Olaf Kühl-Freudenstein, Peter Noss, and Claus Wagener (eds.), Berlin: Institut Kirche und Judentum, 1999, (=Studien zu Kirche und Judentum; vol. 18), pp. 149–171, here p. 167. .
Hanns Kerrl Hanns Kerrl (11 December 1887 – 15 December 1941) was a German Nazi politician. His most prominent position, from July 1935, was that of Reichsminister of Church Affairs. He was also President of the Prussian Landtag (1932–1933) and head o ...
demanded to calm down the ''struggle of the churches'', since the Wehrmacht wanted no activities against pastors of the ''Confessing Church'' during the war. So the Gestapo concentrated on pastors of the ''Confessing Church'', who were not drafted. In January 1940, urged by the Wehrmacht, Hitler repeated that no wide-ranging actions against the ''Confessing Church'' are to be taken, so that the Gestapo returned to selective forms of repression. After Kühlewein had resigned after the war, in November 1945, on the first Landessynode convened after the World War II, Julius Bender, a proponent of the Confessing Church, was elected the new Landesbischof. After the war a movement developed within a number of regional Protestant churches promoting constitutional changes drawing lessons from the vulnerability of their churches and its staff for giving way to state pressure. Synodalism was strengthened and the separation of religion and state was reinforced in a number of church renamings from the church of a certain nation, to the church of a certain denomination within a certain nation. So on 1 July 1957 the present name, "Evangelical Regional Church in Baden" replaced the former naming "United Evangelical Protestant Regional Church of Baden".


Practices

Ordination of women The ordination of women to Minister of religion, ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain religious groups in which ordination ...
and
blessing of same-sex unions The blessing or wedding of same-sex marriages and same-sex unions is an issue about which leaders of Christian churches are in ongoing disagreement. Traditionally, Christianity teaches that sexual practices between men and sexual practices bet ...
were allowed.Badische Zeitung:Landeskirche genehmigt gleichgeschlechtliche Trauungen
/ref>


Bishops

* 1819–1826: Johann Peter Hebel * 1826–1828: Johannes Bähr * 1829–1853: Ludwig Hüffell * 1853–1861: Carl Christian Ullmann * 1861–1877: Karl Julius Holtzmann * 1877–1895: Karl Wilhelm Doll * 1895–1900: Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt * 1900–1903: Albert Helbing * 1904–1909: Friedrich Karl Oehler * 1909–1924: Ludwig Schmitthenner * 1924–1945: Julius Kühlewein * 1945–1964: Julius Bender * 1964–1980: Hans Heidland * 1980–1998: Klaus Engelhardt * 1998–2014: Ulrich Fischer * 2014-2022: Jochen Cornelius-Bundschuh * since April 2022: Heike Springhart


References


External links

*
Protestant Church in Baden
{{Authority control Baden
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...
Baden Church Baden Church Baden Church