Prussian Union of churches
The Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (abbr. EKapU APU) was under this name from 1922 to 1953 a Protestant State Church in Prussia and its successor states. The church existed from 1817 to 1953 under different names and was continued as an umbrella for 1945-1948 even become independent to national churches ecclesiastical provinces of these after another name change from 1953 to 2003 as Evangelical Church of the Union.
On September 27, 1817 decreed King Friedrich Wilhelm III. , The summus episcopus the sovereign government of the Church of its territory held in his capacity as the union of the Reformed and Lutheran congregations to a " Uniate " Church in Prussia. The Prussian king had come to the conclusion that the boundaries between the Reformed Protestant - to those who were especially the Huguenots, the ruling Hohenzollern and the inhabitants of the Lower Rhine in parts of the Hunsrück and parts of the Bergische Land and the winning country - and the Lutheran Christians, who constituted the majority of the Prussian population, was untimely. Even his ancestors, the Great Elector with the Berlin colloquy, had tried to overcome intra- Protestant denomination opposites within the meaning of unionism.
In the now united church there was an administrative and not confessional Union; but already emerged soon denominational Uniate communities.
Name and status of the national church
In addition to those listed below official name, which led this Protestant church, there are terms such as old-Prussian church, old Prussian state church or old-Prussian Union. In addition, since 1866 also Prussian state church is common, however, is inaccurate, since the existing or newly formed Protestant state churches in the then annexed provinces were also Prussian state churches.
History
Throughout history, the name of this church was founded in 1817 changed several times: in 1821 it was called " Evangelical Church in Prussia ". After the advent of various free churches in the middle of the 19th century, especially the altkonfessionellen Old Lutherans, they called to distinguish these from 1845 onwards " Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia ". 1850 came Hohenzollern - Hechingen and Sigmaringen to Prussia and the local Protestant parishes were called " church circle Hohenzollern " on January 1, 1899 part of the Rhenish ecclesiastical province.
1866 Prussia annexed several neighboring states. Their partly Uniate ( national church of Frankfurt am Main, Church in Hesse -Kassel, Lutheran Church in Nassau ) and partly Lutheran state churches ( Church of Hanover, country church Schleswig-Holstein) and the Reformed congregations, however, remained independent. 1882 included the most Reformed congregations in the province of Hanover, composed of King Wilhelm I to the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover together.
The old Prussian state church was called hence in 1875 officially " Evangelical Church of the old provinces of Prussia ." She was subdivided into ecclesiastical provinces in all nine provinces of Prussian policy, namely Brandenburg ( with Berlin), East Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, Rhineland ( with Hohenzollern), Saxony, Silesia, West Prussia and Westphalia.
1918, after the end of the First World War, had the King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicate, whereby the sovereign government of the Church was omitted. Therefore, the old Prussian state church was in 1922 a new church order and the name " Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union " ( EKapU or APU ); the ecclesiastical provinces were democratized. The management of the ecclesiastical provinces was in 1922 when the provincial church councils that were elected by the provincial synods. The consistory, now a deletion, administrative organs of ecclesiastical provinces, were faced with spiritual General Superintendent and legal Konsistorialpräsidenten.
The parishes in to Belgium ( four municipalities of the Rhenish ecclesiastical province ), Poland ( Ecclesiastical Province of Posen predominantly ecclesiastical province of West Prussia to a large extent, as well as 17 ostoberschlesische parishes of the church province of Silesia ) and Czechoslovakia (municipality Hultschin the ecclesiastical province of Silesia) ceded territories remained, secreted but from the state of the Church; the indigenous population remained predominantly in the assignment areas to live. The parishes in the League of Nations mandates Free City of Danzig ( Landessynodalverband the Free City of Danzig with the status of a church province ), Memel ( from 1924 to Lithuania, the parishes formed from 1925 to Landessynodalverband Memelgebiet status of an ecclesiastical province ) and Saar ( Rhenish ecclesiastical province ) were members of the country church. The remaining parishes in Germany in the district of West Prussia became part of the ecclesiastical province of East Prussia, those in the border Posen- West Prussia were from 1923, the " Ecclesiastical Province of Posen - West Prussia ".
In the Third Reich, in particular the joint resistance during the church struggle in the Confessing Church against the hitler loyal German Christians coined a small part of the Christians in the church. The Barmen Theological Declaration of 1934 can be regarded as Uniate confession, in the matched together in the field of Uniate church Christians from the Reformed and Lutheran tradition. The Protestant church in the country part Birkenfeld joined on 25 June 1934, the EKapU and has since formed a church circle in the Rhenish ecclesiastical province.
On September 5, 1933, the Old Prussian Union introduced the governing officials " Aryan paragraph " for Protestant ministers. In response, among other things founded on 21 September 1933, the Pastors.
After the Second World War, the Oder- Neisse line was the eastern border of Germany. Unlike 1918/20 but the new border drew a full expulsion of the native population by itself. So most evangelical congregations were in East Prussia (now the Republic of Poland or - as Kaliningrad - which belongs to Russia) and in East Brandenburg, Pomerania and Silesia (except the west of the Neisse preferred territory of the province ), which now belong to Poland, with the expulsion its not fleeing parishioners under, according to all the parent church organizations such as church provinces etc. Unless stayed there exist Lutheran congregations or arisen, which belong to the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
The church leaders of the still remaining in Germany six ecclesiastical provinces west of the Oder and Neisse, western and mid- Brandenburg, the rest of Pomerania, Rhineland, Saxony province, residual Silesia and Westphalia, met in 1945 in Treysa (now a district of Schwalm city ) to new to take policy decisions. The ecclesiastical provinces were the independent national churches
- Evangelical Church in Berlin- Brandenburg,
- Pomeranian Evangelical Church (1968-1991: Evangelical Church in Greifswald )
- Evangelical Church in the Rhineland,
- Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony (until 2009),
- Evangelical Church of Silesia (1968-1992: Evangelical Church of the Görlitz area church, 1992-2003: Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia ) and
- Evangelical Church of Westphalia.
They formed after further meetings in 1949, 1950 and 1954, the old Prussian state church finally to the " Evangelical Church of the Union " ( EKU ) to. This came as her six member churches themselves, in the EKD and was until 2003 a union of six ( seven in 1960; accession of the Church of Anhalt ) independent United regional churches.
1945 was provisionally taken over the care of the church district of Hohenzollern Württemberg in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was then reclassified formally on 1 April 1950 by the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland in the Württemberg church.
Church leadership
As the chief executive officer of the Evangelical Supreme Ecclesiastical Council ( EOK ) was established in 1850, which in its own new building in Jebensstraße, Berlin, moved 1912. He was occupied with theologians and jurists. With the new church order of 1922 his skills had been circumcised. The church leadership, which was as Summepiskopat the Prussian monarchs until 1918, 1922 was transferred to the Church of the Senate, which the EOK zuarbeitete now. The president of the General Synod was at the same time in front of the church senate and represented the Church outwardly. 1951 EOK was renamed Church Office and remained under that name even after the renaming of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union Evangelical Church of the Union in December 1953 made .
President of the Evangelical Supreme Ecclesiastical Council
In addition to the sovereign as summus episcopus the President of the EOK led the church until 1922
Praesides the General Synod
From 1922, the Praesides the General Synod initiated as a board of church Senate also the national church. The new church order of the old Prussian state church from August 1, 1951 replaced the Church Senate by the Council of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union. The president of the General Synod was it a member, but not ex officio chairman.
Bishop
On August 4, 1933, Ludwig Müller explained the Prussian State Bishop, when the Prussian State Commissioner had him August hunter provisionally transferred the church leadership. The German Christian majority of the General Synod confirmed on September 5, 1933 this high-handed act by the effect changed the church order by church law, they only ever created the Office of the State Bishop. As of October 3, 1935 Müller led Although further the title of bishop, but had no authority in the church leadership more.