Protestant Church in Germany

The Protestant Church in Germany (German:

Protestant Church in
Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD), formerly known
in English as the Evangelical Church in Germany, is a Germany
federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed, and United Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland
Protestant regional Churches in Germany, collectively
encompassing the vast majority of the country's Protestants.[6]
In 2020, the EKD had a membership of 20,236,000 members,
or 24.3% of the German population.[4] It constitutes one of
the largest Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices
managing the federation are located in Herrenhausen,
Hanover, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider Classification Protestant
themselves Lutherans. Orientation United (Prussian
Union)
Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German
Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the Lutheran
form of the German Protestant Church Confederation, which Reformed
existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been Polity Episcopal
successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, Presbyterian
beginning with Prussia and several minor German states (e.g. Congregationalist
Duchy of Nassau) in 1817. These unions resulted in the first
united and uniting churches, a new development within Chair of the Council Kirsten Fehrs[1]
Protestantism which later spread to other parts of the world. Associations World Council of
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, his administration Churches
tried to reorganize the old confederation into a unified Conference of
German Evangelical Church as Hitler wanted to use a single European
Protestant church to further his own ambitions. However, a
Churches
division emerged between the Reichskirche, led by the pro-
Community of
government German Christians, and the Confessing Church,
Protestant
which opposed state control of the church. Other Protestant
churches aligned themselves with one of these groups, or Churches in
stayed neutral in this church strife. The postwar church Europe
council issued the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt on 19 Region Germany
October 1945, confessing guilt and declaring remorse for
Origin 1948[2]
indifference and inaction of German Protestants in the face of
atrocities committed by Hitler's regime. In 1948, the Protestant Members 2020 EKD data:
Church in Germany was organized in the aftermath of World 20.2 million
War II to function as a new umbrella organization for German ~49.7% United
Protestant churches. As a result of tensions between West and Protestant
East Germany, the regional churches in East Germany broke (Lutheran and
away from the EKD in 1969. In 1991, following German Reformed)
reunification, the East German churches re-joined the EKD.
~48.7% Lutheran
The member churches (Gliedkirchen), while being ~1.5%
independent and having their own theological and formal Reformed[3][4][5]
organisation, share full altar and pulpit fellowship, and are Official website www.ekd.de (http
united in the EKD synod, but they act as individual members s://www.ekd.de/)
of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE).
Boundaries of EKD churches within Germany partially resemble those of the states of the Holy Roman
Empire and successor forms of German statehood (to the most part 1815 borders), due to the historically
close relationship between individual German states and churches. As for church governance, the Lutheran
churches typically practise an episcopal polity, while the Reformed and the United ones a mixture of
presbyterian and congregationalist polities. Most member churches are led by a (state) bishop. Only one
member church, the Evangelical Reformed Church in Germany, is not restricted to a certain territory. In
some ways, the other member churches resemble dioceses of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches,
from an organisational point of view.

Name
The German term evangelisch more accurately corresponds to the broad English term Protestant[7] rather
than to the narrower evangelical (in German called evangelikal), although the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England
use the term. Literally, the German word evangelisch means "of the Gospel", denoting a Protestant
Reformation emphasis on sola scriptura, "by scripture alone". Martin Luther encouraged the use of this
term alongside Christian.

History
From the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 to the end of the First World War
and the collapse of the German Empire, some Protestant churches
were state churches. Each Landeskirche[2] (state or regional church)
was the official church of one of the states of Germany, while the
respective ruler was the church's formal head (e.g. the King of Prussia
headed the Evangelical Church of Prussia's older Provinces as
supreme governor), similar to the British monarch's role as the
Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

This changed somewhat with growing religious freedom in the 19th

century, especially in the republican states of Bremen, Frankfurt
(1857), Lübeck, and Hamburg (1860). The greatest change came after
the German Revolution, with the formation of the Weimar Republic
and the abdication of the princes of the German states. The system of
state churches disappeared with the Weimar Constitution (1919),
which brought about disestablishment by the separation of church and
state, and there was a desire for the Protestant churches to merge. In Front page of the Peace of
fact, a merger was permanently under discussion but never Augsburg, which laid the legal
materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as groundwork for two co-existing
well as the denominational fragmentation into Lutheran, Reformed, religious confessions (Roman
and United and uniting churches. Catholicism and Lutheranism) in
the German-speaking states of
During the Revolution, when the old church governments lost power, the Holy Roman Empire.
the People's Church Union (Volkskirchenbund) was formed and
advocated unification without respect to theological tradition and also
increasing input from laymen. However, the People's Church Union quickly split along territorial lines after
the churches' relationship with the new governments improved.[8]
It was realised that one mainstream Protestant church for all of Germany was impossible and that any union
would need a federal model. The churches met in Dresden in 1919 and created a plan for federation, and
this plan was adopted in 1921 at Stuttgart. Then in 1922 the then 28 territorially defined Protestant churches
founded the German Evangelical Church Confederation (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund, DEK). At
the time, the federation was the largest Protestant church federation in Europe with around 40 million
members.[8] Because it was a federation of independent bodies, the Church Union's work was limited to
foreign missions and relations with Protestant churches outside Germany, especially German Protestants in
other countries.

In July 1933, the German Evangelical Church (Deutsche Evangelische Kirche, DEK) was formed under
the influence of the German Christians, a pro-Nazi religious movement. They had much influence over the
decisions of the first National Synod, via their unambiguous partisanship in successfully backing Ludwig
Müller for the office of Reich bishop. He did not manage, however, to prevail over the Landeskirchen in
the long term. The Confessing Church arose in resistance to the Nazi regime's ideology. After the
installation of Hanns Kerrl as minister for church matters in a Führer-directive of 16 July 1935 and the
foundation of the – in the end not materialising – Protestant Reich Church, the DEK played more or less no
further role.

In 1948, freed from the German Christians' influence, the Lutheran,

Reformed (including the German Reformed Church / Reformierte
Kirche) and United churches came together as the Protestant
Church in Germany at the Conference of Eisenach. In 1969, the
regional Protestant churches in East Germany and East Berlin[9]
broke away from the EKD and formed the League of Evangelical
Churches in the German Democratic Republic (German: Bund der
Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR, BEK), in 1970 also joined by
the Moravian Herrnhut District. In June 1991, following German
reunification, the BEK merged with the EKD.

While the members are no longer state churches, they enjoy

constitutional protection as statutory corporations, and they are still
called Landeskirchen, and some have this term in their official
Synodal elections 1933: German names. A modern English translation, however, would be regional
Christians and Confessing Church church. Apart from some minor changes, the territories of the
campaigners in Berlin. member churches today reflect Germany's political organisation in
the year 1848, with regional churches for states or provinces that
often no longer exist or whose borders changed since. For example,
between 1945 and 1948, the remaining six ecclesiastical provinces (Kirchenprovinzen), each territorially
comprising one of the Old Prussia provinces, within the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union
assumed independence as a consequence of the estrangement among them during the Nazi struggle of the
churches. This turned the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union into a mere umbrella, being itself a
member of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991) but covering some regional church bodies, which were again
themselves members of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991).

Since 1973, when many Protestant churches in Europe, including the EKD members, concluded the
Leuenberg Agreement, also the then 21 EKD members[10] introduced full communion for their
parishioners and ministry among each other.

Since also the regional Protestant churches in East Germany had signed the Leuenberg Agreement, thus the
then ten members of the Federation of Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic practised
full communion with the EKD members too. Ordination of women is practised in all 20 member churches
with many women having been ordained in recent years. There are also several women serving as bishops.
Margot Käßmann, former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover and Chairperson of the
Council of the EKD from 2009 until February 2010, was the first woman to head the EKD.[11] Blessings
of same-sex marriages is practised and allowed in 14 of 20 and Blessing of same-sex unions are allowed in
all other member churches.[12] [13] The EKD opposes abortion in most situations but believes it should
remain legal.[14]

The EKD has undergone a split in the 20th century and lost a bulk of its adherents in East Germany due to
state atheist policies of the former East German government. After 1990, membership was counted and
amounted to around the same number as the Roman Catholic Church. In the 21st century, membership in
both the Evangelical Church and the Roman Catholic Church stagnates as more people are becoming
religious nones.

Membership
Protestantism is the major religion in Northern, Eastern and Middle
Germany, with the Reformed branch predominating in the extreme
northwest and Lippe, the Lutheran branch in the north and south, and
the United branch in Middle and Western Germany. While the
majority of Christians in Southern Germany are Roman Catholic,
some areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are predominantly
Protestant, e.g. Middle Franconia and the government region of
Stuttgart. The vast majority of German Protestants belong to a member
church of the EKD. With 20,236,000 members in 2020, around 24.3
percent of all Germans belong to a member church of the EKD.[4]
Average church attendance is lower, however, with only around a
million people attending a service on Sunday.[15]
Confessions of EKD
The regional Protestant church bodies accept each other as equals, parishioners
despite denominational differences. No member church runs United (administratively or
congregations or churches in the area of another member church, thus
confessionally, both Lutheran and
preventing competing with each other for parishioners. The only Reformed; Prussian Union) (57%)
exception is the Evangelical Reformed Church, which combines
Lutheran (40%)
Reformed congregations within the ambits of usually Lutheran
Reformed (3%)
member churches, which themselves do not include the eventual local
Reformed congregations. Thus, for example, a Lutheran moving from
a place where their parish belongs to a Lutheran member church,
would be accepted in their new place of domicile by the locally competent congregation within another
member church, even if this church and its local parish are Reformed or of united Protestant confession,
with Lutheran being exchangeable with the two other respective Protestant confessions within the EKD.
This is due to full altar and pulpit fellowship between all EKD member churches.

In this the ambits of the member churches resemble dioceses of the Anglican or Roman Catholic churches,
however, else there is no common hierarchy supervising the member churches, who are legally independent
equals with the EKD being their umbrella. Members of congregations within the member churches – like
those of parishes within Catholic dioceses and those
enrolled in Jewish congregations also enjoying
statutory corporation status – are required to pay a
church tax, a surcharge on their normal income tax
collected by the states of Germany and passed on to
the respective religious body.

2011 census results by state

Church Percentage of
State [16] membership the
(2011) population

Schleswig-
1,550,200 55.7%
Holstein
Lower
3,976,430 51.5%
Saxony

Bremen 279,180 43.2%

Hesse 2,426,990 40.8%

Baden-
3,552,450 34.1%
Württemberg Member churches by confession
Hamburg 573,960 33.9%

Rhineland-
1,260,720 31.8%
Palatinate

Germany 24,552,110 30.8%

North Rhine-
4,974,240 28.5%
Westphalia
Thuringia 529,010 24.3%

Berlin 706,650 21.6%

Saxony 856,340 21.4%

Bavaria 2,592,550 21.1%

Saarland 199,240 20.1%

448,970 18.4%
Brandenburg

Mecklenburg- 280,500 17.7%

Vorpommern

Saxony-
344,680 15.2%
Anhalt

Gallery
 EKD Protestants Red denotes states Flag of the Another version, as
according to the in which EKD Protestant Church in used by German
2011 census. Protestants Germany. Protestants.
outnumber
Catholics.

EKD church office in EKD's internal

Hanover, Lower organization.
Saxony, Germany.

Structure
The structure of the EKD is based on federal principles. Each regional church is responsible for Christian
life in its own area while each regional church has its own special characteristics and retains its
independence. The EKD carries out joint tasks with which its members have entrusted it. For the execution
of these tasks, the Church has the following governing bodies, all organised and elected on democratic
lines:

Synod

The Synod is the legislature of the EKD. It has 126 members: 106 elected by Landeskirchen synods and 20
appointed by the council.[17] These 20 are appointed for their importance in the life of the Church and its
agencies. Members serve six year terms and the synod meets annually.

Praesides of the Synod

1949–1955: Gustav Heinemann

1955–1961: Constantin von Dietze
1961–1970: Hans Puttfarcken
1970–1973: Ludwig Raiser
 1973–1985: Cornelius von Heyl
1985–2003: Jürgen Schmude
2003–2009: Barbara Rinke
2009–2013: Katrin Göring-Eckardt
2013–2021: Irmgard Schwaetzer
since 2021: Anna-Nicole Heinrich

Council of the EKD

Irmgard
The EKD Council is the representative and governing body of the Protestant Church in Schwaetzer,
Germany. The Council of the EKD has 15 members jointly elected by the Synod and praeses of the
Church Conference who serve terms of six years.[18] synod till 2021

Chairperson of the Council of the Protestant Church in

Germany

The chairperson of the Council is the church's highest representative.[19]

1945–1949: Theophil Wurm, Bishop, Württemberg

1949–1961: Otto Dibelius, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg
1961–1967: Kurt Scharf, president, bishop from 1966, Berlin-
Brandenburg Heinrich
1967–1973: Hermann Dietzfelbinger, Bishop, Bavaria Bedford-Strohm,
1973–1979: Helmut Claß, Bishop, Württemberg former chairman
1979–1985: Eduard Lohse, Bishop, Hanover of the Council of
1985–1991: Martin Kruse, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg the EKD.
1991–1997: Klaus Engelhardt, Bishop, Baden
1997–2003: Manfred Kock, president, Rhineland
2003–2009: Wolfgang Huber, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia
2009–2010: Margot Käßmann, bishop of Hanover
2010–2014: Nikolaus Schneider, president, Rhineland
2014–2021: Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Bishop, Bavaria
2021–2023: Annette Kurschus, Bishop of Westphalia[20]

Church Conference (permanent body)

The Church Conference is where member churches, through the representatives of their governing boards,
can directly participate in the work of the EKD.[21]

Church Office of the EKD

The Church Office is the administration of the EKD and shall the business of the Synod, Council and
Conference of the EKD.[22]

Main divisions:

I = line, law and finance: President Hans Ulrich Anke

II = Religious Activities and Education: Vice President Thies Gundlach (since 2010)
 III = Public Responsibility: Vice President Horst Gorski (also head of the Office of the United
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany) (since 2007)
IV = ecumenism and working abroad: Vice President Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber, foreign
bishop and head of the Office of the Union of Evangelical Churches) (since 2014)

President
1945–1948: Hans Asmussen
1949–1965: Heinz Brunotte
1966–1989: Walter Hammer
1989–1997: Otto von Camphausen
1997–2006: Valentin Schmidt
2006–2010: Hermann Barth
since 2010: Hans Ulrich Anke

The EKD Church Office has approximately 200 employees.

International activities

The EKD holds various charities ("Hilfswerke") under its auspices. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW)
(Gustaphus Adolphus Union formerly) was founded 1832 in Leipzig as the first and eldest such
organization and is responsible to aid feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries and the
Protestant diaspora. It has separate branches internationally, the organization in Austria is still called the
Gustav-Adolf-Verein.[23] Brot für die Welt is responsible for international development aid.

Member churches (since 2012)

The umbrella of the Protestant Church in Germany comprises 20 regional churches:

10 United Protestant (Lutheran and Reformed)

8 Lutheran
2 Reformed

These bodies are termed Landeskirchen ("Regional Churches")[24] though in most cases, their territories do
not correspond to the current federal states, but rather to former duchies, electorates and provinces or
mergers thereof.

1. Protestant Church of Anhalt (Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalts), a united church body in

Anhalt
2. Protestant Church in Baden (Evangelische Landeskirche in Baden), a united church body in
Baden
3. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern), a
Lutheran church body in Bavaria
4. Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (Evangelische Kirche in
Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz), a united church body in Berlin-Brandenburg-
Silesian Upper Lusatia merged in 2004 from:
Evangelische Kirche in Berlin-Brandenburg
Evangelische Kirche der schlesischen Oberlausitz
 5. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick
(Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche in
Braunschweig), a Lutheran church body in
Brunswick
6. Evangelical Church of Bremen (Bremische
Evangelische Kirche), a united church body
in Bremen
7. Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover
(Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche
Hannovers), a Lutheran church body in the
former Province of Hanover
8. Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau
(Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und
Nassau), a united church body in the former
People's State of Hesse and Nassau
9. Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-
Waldeck (Evangelische Kirche von
Kurhessen-Waldeck), a united church body
in former Hesse-Cassel and Waldeck
10. Church of Lippe (Lippische Landeskirche), a
Reformed church body of Lippe
11. Evangelical Church in Central Germany Member churches of the Protestant Church in
(Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland), a Germany (after the fusion of the Evangelical
united church body that was created in 2009 churches of Mecklenburg, North Elbia and
from the merger of: Pomerania in 2012).

Evangelical Church of the Church

Province of Saxony (Evangelische Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen) (Province of
Saxony)
Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in
Thüringen) (Thuringia)
12. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in
Norddeutschland), a Lutheran church body that was created in 2012 from the merger of:
North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Nordelbische Evangelisch-Lutherische
Kirche), a Lutheran church body in Northern Germany
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche
Mecklenburgs), a Lutheran church body in Mecklenburg
Pomeranian Evangelical Church (Pommersche Evangelische Kirche), a united church
body in Pomerania
13. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Oldenburg),
a Lutheran church body in Oldenburg
14. Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz) or Protestantische
Landeskirche, a united church body in Palatinate
15. Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland), a united church
body in the Rhineland
16. Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche
Sachsens), a Lutheran church body in Saxony
17. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schaumburg-Lippe (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche
Schaumburg-Lippe), a Lutheran church body in Schaumburg-Lippe
18. Evangelical Church of Westphalia (Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen), a united church
body in Westphalia
19. Evangelical Church in Württemberg (Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg), a
Lutheran church body in Württemberg
20. Evangelical Reformed Church (Regional Church) Evangelisch-reformierte Kirche
(Landeskirche), a Reformed church body, covering the territories of No. 3, 5, 7, 12, 16, 17,
and 19

The Moravian Church ("Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine") and the Federation of Evangelical Reformed
Congregations are associate members.

See also
List of Christian denominations by number of members
List of the largest Protestant denominations
Protestantism in Germany
Barmen Declaration
German Protestant Church Assembly
Evangelical Theology Student Council
Protestant Women in Germany
Union of Protestant Churches in the EKD

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Deutschland (in German). Hanover: Press Office of the Protestant Church in Germany.
Retrieved 20 November 2023.
21. § 28 of the Basic Order (Grundordnung) of the Evangelical Church (http://www.kirchenrecht-
ekd.de/showdocument/id/3435#s1.100049)
22. § 31 of the Basic Order (Grundordnung) of the Evangelical Church (http://www.kirchenrecht-
ekd.de/showdocument/id/3435#s1.100049)
23. "Startseite – Gustav-Adolf-Werk e.V." (http://www.gustav-adolf-werk.de/) (in German).
Retrieved 8 July 2015.
24. EKD-Internearbeit (24 March 2015). "Regional Churches" (https://web.archive.org/web/2015
0709195613/http://www.ekd.de/english/regional_churches.html). Archived from the original
(https://www.ekd.de/english/regional_churches.html) on 2015-07-09. Retrieved 8 July 2015.

External links
Official website (https://ekd.de/english/index.html) (in English)
Overview of World Religions (https://web.archive.org/web/20071009162012/http://philtar.ucs
m.ac.uk/encyclopedia/christ/cep/gec.html)

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