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The German Evangelical Churches and the Struggle for the Schools in the Weimar Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Frank J. Gordon
Frank J. Gordon
Affiliation:
Mr.Gordon received a Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of Colorado and presently resides in Boulder, Colorado.
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Extract

It is a well-known fact that the German Evangelical churches did not hold the Weimar Republic in the highest esteem. This lack of church affection for the republic cannot be wholly explained with reference only to the monarchist, authoritarian intellectual and theological heritage of the German churches. Research in the Evangelical newspaper press and in official church proceedings and proclamations reveals that the republic's treatment of issues of vital concern to the churches played a crucial role in shaping church political opinion.1 Among the most important of these issues was the question of religious instruction in the schools. German children had always received such instruction as a regular part of their elementary school curriculum. Also, the overwhelming majority of school children before 1918 had attended confessional schools; that is, Protestant children attended Protestant schools, Catholics went to Catholic schools, and Jews to Jewish schools. Only three states, Baden, Hesse, and Nassau, had systematically established interconfessional or “simultaneous” schools (Simultanschulen).2

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 47 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1980

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References

1. See my “The Evangelical Churches and The Weimar Republic, 1918–1933” (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1977).Google Scholar

2. Samuel, Richard H. and Thomas, R. Hinton, Education and Society in Modern Germany (London, 1949), p. 100;Google ScholarEngelmann, Susanne C., German Education and Re-education (New York, 1945), p. 12.Google Scholar

3. Verhandlungen der verfassunggebenden Deutschen Nationalversammlung. Stenographische Berichte, vol. 326, pp. 663D, 665A; hereafter cited as VVDN. See also Evangelisch-lutherisches Volksblatt für Stadt u. Land, 07 13, 1919, p. 81Google Scholar (hereafter cited as ELVB); Allgemeines Kirchenblatt für das Evangelische Deutschland 68 (04 1, 1919): 154–157;Google ScholarPreuβisches Pfarrarchiv. Zeitschrift für Rechtsprechung und Verwaltung auf dem Gebiete der evangelischen Landeskirchen 11(1919): 16–17.Google Scholar

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5. The author has used the English translation of the Weimar Constitution as it appears in Frederick Frank Blachly and Oatman, Miriam E., The Government and Administration of Germany (Baltimore, 1928), pp. 642–679.Google Scholar

6. For editorial examples of this concern, see ELVB, 01 12, 1919, pp. 1–3;Google ScholarDie Wartburg. Deutsch-evangelische Wochenschrift, 01 10, 1919, p. 15;Google ScholarLicht und Leben. Evangelisches Wochenblatt, 01 12, 1919, pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

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8. For example, see ELVB, 05 14, 1928, col. 82.Google Scholar

9. Quoted in Allgemeine Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirchenzeitung, 03 4, 1921, cols. 141–142;Google Scholar hereafter cited as AELKZ.

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11. The development of this theological quarrel in Germany is traced in Rathje, Johannes, Die Welt des freien Protestantismus. Ein Beitrag zur deutsch-evangelischen Geistesgeschichte. Dargestellt an Leben und Werk von Martin Rade (Stuttgart, 1952).Google Scholar The feud was in many ways similar to the present-day trouble in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in the United States.

12. During the early years of the Weimar Republic, conservative and liberal churchmen locked horns in a bitter struggle over how best to create an all-embracing people's church (Volkskirche). At issue, among other things, were the nature of the church and the role of doctrine within it. Rathje's work treats the issue, as does chapter three of the present author's dissertation cited above, note 1.

13. Samuel, and Thomas, , Education and Society, p. 103.Google Scholar

14. Quoted in Tormin, Walter, Geschichte der deutschen Parteien seit 1848, 3rd. ed. (Stuttgart, 1968), p. 144.Google Scholar

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18. Ibid. For similar opinions, see Evangelische Freiheit. Monatschrift für die Kirchliche Praxis in der gegenwartigen Kultur 19 (March 1919): 78–79; also Verhandlungen des Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentages 1919 (Berlin, 1919), pp. 277–279.Google Scholar

19. ELVB, 08 21, 1921, col. 270.Google Scholar

20. Verhandlungen des 2. Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentages 1921 (Berlin, 1921), p. 171.Google ScholarThe Kirchentag (Church Conference) was the legislative body of the German Evangelical Church Federation, which was composed of the individual state churches.

21. Ibid., pp. 234–236.

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30. Ibid., February 22, 1923, col. 123.

31. Licht und Leben, 08 28, 1927, p. 557.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., May 24, 1925, p. 340.

33. Die Christliche Welt, 10 28, 1920, col. 700.Google Scholar

34. Quoted in Licht und Leben, 04 22, 1928, p. 269.Google Scholar

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36. Verhandlungen des Reichstags. Stenographische Berichte, vol. 352, pp. 5479–5541 passim; hereafter cited as Reichstag.

37. AELKZ, September 25, cols. 717–718.

38. Reichstag, vol. 394, p. 11506A; AELKZ, 10 16, 1925, col. 779.Google Scholar

39. The text of the bill is in Reichstag Anlagen, vol. 419, no. 3654.

40. AELKZ, 08 12, 1927, cols. 763–764;Google Scholar October 28, 1927, cots. 1027–1028.

41. ELVB, 08 15, 1927, cols. 229–230.Google Scholar

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43. Ibid., October 7, 1927, col 955.

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48. Ibid., October 6, 1927, cols. 931–932.

49. Licht und Leben, 11 27, 1927, p. 764.Google Scholar

50. Der Reichsbote, July 20, 1927, front page.

51. Reichstag, vol. 394, pp. 11506–11613 passim.

52. Ibid., p. 11613B.

53. ELVB, 03 23, 1928, cols. 47–48.Google Scholar

54. Ibid. See also the account in AELKZ, February 24, 1928, cols. 186–187.

55. Turner, Henry Ashby Jr, Stresemann and the Politics of the Weimar Republic (Princeton, 1963), pp. 234–235;CrossRefGoogle ScholarEyck, Erich, A History of the Weimar Republic, trans. Hanson, Harlan P. and Waite, Robert G. L., 2 vols. (New York, 1967), 2: 150–152;Google ScholarLicht und Leben, 03 4, 1928, pp. 152–153.Google Scholar

56. Die Christliche Welt, 04 1, 1928, col. 347;Google ScholarAELKZ, 03 2, 1928, cols. 210–212.Google Scholar

57. Licht und Leben, 03 4, 1928, p. 152.Google Scholar

58. ELVB, 05 14, 1928, col. 86.Google Scholar

59. The phrase “before the Deluge” is taken from Otto Friedrich's sparkling study, Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920's (New York, 1972).Google Scholar

60. Eyck, , Weimar Republic, 2: 153–156.Google Scholar