Friends of the Light

The Friends of Light (Association of Protestant friends ) was a rationalist embossed Protestant grouping with a focus in Central Germany. They fought for a reason contemporary, practical Christianity, which resulted in a departure from the Protestant churches in the longer term. The name " Friends of Light " was based on a mocking designation by the enemy, but quickly sat down and was sometimes taken as a self-designation.

As a result of the actions of the Church of the Old Prussian Union against the rationalistic pastor Wilhelm Franz Sintenis in Magdeburg Bilderstreit gathered on June 29, 1841, at the invitation of the pastor Leberecht Uhlich in Gnadau 16 priest as internal church opposition group and founded the Association of Protestant friends.

Especially in the Prussian province of Saxony, and beyond, created various local associations of light friends. Since 1842 were held twice yearly general meetings under the direction Uhlich in his home town of Köthen instead. The Köthen lying in the independent Duchy of Anhalt was also chosen to avoid countermeasures Prussia. To Pentecostal meeting in 1844 about 600 people appeared in Köthen, at events in 1845 there were several thousand people. As a leader of the March Revolution of 1848, the Friends of Light had up to 150,000 members.

Initially, the Friends of Light representing the views of the Enlightenment theology, as is evident from a 1842 published creed:

" We believe in God, our heavenly Father, we believe in the eternal duty of man, that he lead a virtuous life and continue to stride incessantly therein; we believe in our continuance beyond the grave. We believe that the main truths of all religion through Jesus' teachings presented to people on the most perfect manner wor ¬ the are and have been found in the person of Jesus is the best mediation, that is, the best means of illustration for the mind, the best starting point for the feeling [. ..]. "

Pastor Gustav Adolf Wislicenus from Halle exerted a criticism of the Bible, which went beyond the classical rationalism and recorded pulses of David Friedrich Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach. He was dismissed from the church service and documented this process in a publication. Then he built in hall itself on a free evangelical community. Founded and pastorierten of communities led him later his brother Adolf Timothy Wislicenus further, the Halberstadt built a church since 1847.

Pastor Uhlich could erstreiten a more prominent pastor in Magdeburg, but was, as he defended his colleague Gustav angriffigeren Wislicenus, exposed himself severe harassment of the state. His dismissal will be at the behest of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to happen. He then built in a touching devotion there on the free community.

Pastor Eduard Baltzer had a wide cross- Life Program - Vegetarianism and Froebel kindergartens - he sought to develop in his church plant in Nordhausen. He was later the first president of the Union of the Independent religious communities. But even in distant regions of the then Prussia emerged communities, so in 1846 in Königsberg, where Julius Rupp was one of the founding members. In Marburg, Karl Theodor Bayrhoffer founded his associated with the light friends Free Church.

The free discussion of the people of his faith appeared to King and Church questionable, and so changed in the struggle for a constitution, which also granted religious freedom, prohibitions and permissions from. In 1845 the meetings were forbidden, on March 30, 1847 but received existing communities a royal patent, which granted them freedom of religious exercise. A requirement was the registration of the municipalities in the state, which most communities refused.

1848 took Baltzer and Wislicenus part in the Frankfurt Pre-Parliament, Uhlich and Baltzer were elected to the Prussian National Assembly. At that time, there were 40 municipalities in the German lands. The suppression found after the brief upsurge of the revolution of 1848/ 49 in the following Reaktionsära more resolutely instead. According to the National Liberal and thus national- Christian ecumenical concept of the Friends of Light contact to the national- liberal Catholics from their very beginning was good. In 1859, combined with the German communities outside the Catholic Confederation of Free religious communities.

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