Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia

Background

The theology of the church goes back to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Since 1927 the ordination of women has been allowed, and the blessing of same-sex unions has been allowed by the synod but depends on the local presbytery (German: Gemeindekirchenrat).

History

After the Second World War the integrated Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (under this name 1922–1953, then renamed into Evangelical Church of the Union) was transformed into an umbrella organization. In 1947 its ecclesiastical provinces (German: Kirchenprovinzen), as far as their territories were not annexed by Poland or the Soviet Union, became independent church bodies of their own.

Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg

The March of Brandenburg ecclesiastical province (including Berlin, but after 1945 without the territory east the Oder-Neiße line), which until 1933 was headed in rotation by the general superintendents of Kurmark, Neumark-Lower Lusatia, and Berlin, became the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg. After 1945, the church covered only the territory still in Germany.

From 1972 on this church body ran double administrative structures in West Berlin and East Berlin - also competent for Brandenburg - because the communist government of East Germany did not allow pastors and church functionaries to travel freely between East and West. The two church bodies reunited in 1991.

Evangelical Church of Silesia(n Upper Lusatia)

In 1946 the Silesian ecclesiastical province, presided over by Ernst Hornig, held its first post-war provincial synod in then already Polish Świdnica (formerly Schweidnitz). But on 4 December 1946 Poland deported Hornig from Wrocław (formerly Breslau) beyond the Lusatian Neiße, where he took his new seat in the German part of the now divided city of Görlitz of the former Prussian province of Lower Silesia. In 1947 the Polish government also expelled the remaining members of the Silesian consistory, which temporarily could continue to officiate in Wrocław. Görlitz became the seat of the tiny territorial rest of the Silesian ecclesiastical province, constituting on May 1, 1947 as the independent Evangelical Church of Silesia (German: Evangelische Kirche von Schlesien) - comprising the small parts of Silesia remaining with Germany after 1945.

All of the church property east of the Oder-Neiße Line, parochial and provincial alike, was expropriated without compensation, and the church buildings were mostly taken over by the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. A small number of Silesian churches are owned today by Protestant congregations of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland (see e.g. Churches of Peace).

On April 9, 1968 East Germany adopted its second constitution, accounting for the de facto transformation into a communist dictatorship. Thus the East German government deprived the church bodies of their status as statutory bodies (German: Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) and abolished the church tax, by which parishioners' contributions had been automatically collected as a surcharge on the income tax. Now parishioners would have to fix the level of their contributions and to transfer them again and again on their own. This together with ongoing discrimination of church members, which resulted in many people leaving the church, effectively eroded the financial situation of the church bodies in the East.

In 1968, churches were reclassified as civic associations, and the East German government required the Evangelical Church of Silesia to remove the word "Silesia" from its name. The church body then chose the new name Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Ecclesiastical Region.

With the end of the East German dictatorship in 1989, things changed decisively. In 1992 the Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Ecclesiastical Region dropped its unwanted name and chose the new name of Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia.

Leading persons and bishops in history

Today the leading bishop is elected for ten years from the synod and can be reelected for a second term. Since 1817, when the Lutheran, Calvinist and newly founded united congregations formed a common administrative umbrella, later called Evangelical Church in Prussia's older Provinces, the area comprised by today's church body formed part of the two old-Prussian ecclesiastical provinces of Silesia (German: Kirchenprovinz Schlesien) and of the March of Brandenburg (German: Kirchenprovinz Mark Brandenburg). Until 1933/1934 the spiritual leaders of the Evangelical Church were called general superintendents (German: Generalsuperintendent[en]) with regional competences. The adulteration of the church constitution by the Nazi-submissive German Christians was accompanied by new titles (provincial bishop, German: Provinzialbischof) with hierarchical supremacy over parishioners and church employees, and renamings (provosts German: Propst instead of general superintendents). After 1945 the offices of general superintendents as spiritual leaders were reconstituted. The two ecclesiastical provinces assumed independence as the Evangelical Church of Silesia (as of 1947) and the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (as of 1948) when their respective provincial synods legislated new church constitutions. Both independent regional Protestant church bodies created its office of an elected chairperson called bishop, in Protestant tradition of course without hierarchical supremacy. After the merger of both churches in 2004, Wolfgang Huber was elected as the first bishop of the merged Evangelical Church in Berlin - Brandenburg - Silesian Upper Lusatia (German: Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz; EKBO.

Chairmen of the March of Brandenburg ecclesiastical province

The general superintendents for the different areas were rotating in the spiritual leadership within the provincial consistory, seated in Berlin.

1823 - 1865: D. Daniel Amadeus Gottlieb Neander, bearing the title Provost of St. Peter's Church, then the highest ecclesiastical rank in Berlin, in 1830 King Frederick William III of Prussia bestowed him with the merely honorary title Bishop.

1865 - 1871: not restaffed before Neander's death in 1869, then vacancy

1871 - 1892: D. Bruno Brückner, bearing the title General Superintendent (Gen.Supt.)

1893 - 1911: Gen.Supt. D. Wilhelm Faber

1912 - 1918: Gen.Supt. D. Friedrich Lahusen

1918 - 1921: vacancy

1921 - 1927: Gen.Supt. D. Georg Burghart

1928 - 1933: Gen.Supt. D. Emil Karow, furloughed by State Commissioner August Jäger, after Hermann Göring's Prussian government usurped the factual power in the church body.

The general superintendency was called in German: Berlin-Land und Kölln-Land.

1911 - 1933: D. Wilhelm Haendler (created in 1911, dissolved after Haendler retired)

1540 - 1550: Jacob Stratner (*unknown-1550*)

1550 - 1566: Johannes Agricola (1494-1566)

1566 - 1581: Andreas Musculus (1514-1581)

General superintendents since 1945

In 1945 the pre-1933 structures were provisionally restituted. The provisionally leading advisory council (German: Beirat) reconfirmed Dibelius as general superintendent of the Kurmark (i.e. Electoral March). The Beirat also commissioned Dibelius to serve per pro the vacant general superintendencies of Berlin and the New March-Lower Lusatia. The Soviet occupational power agreed that Dibelius would use the title of Bishop, better recognisable for the Soviets as clerical title than the term general superintendent mostly unknown in Russian. In 1949 the Kurmark ceded deaneries to the New March-Upper Lusatia general superintendency which had lost almost all the New March, Polish annexed in March 1945, by the flight and expulsion of its parishioners living there. The New March-Upper Lusatia general superintendency was renamed into Cottbus after its seat. In 1963 the new Eberswalde general superintendency was partitioned from the Kurmark, which was renamed on that occasion to Neuruppin (and again into Potsdam in 2010). The Eberswalde general superintendency remerged in that of Neuruppin in 1996. In 2003, with the merger of the Evangelical Church in Silesian Upper Lusatia, its region became a subdivision of the EKBO.

1945 - 1946: D. Dr. Otto Dibelius, per pro

1993–1996: Ingrid Laudien (1934-2009)

1996–2008: Martin-Michael Passauer

2008–2011: Ralf Meister

2011– date: Ulrike Trautwein

The general superintendency is seated in Potsdam. In 1963 the general superintendency of Eberswalde was partitioned from the Kurmark, renamed into Neuruppin on that occasion. In 1996 Eberswalde remerged in Neuruppin.

1945–1946: D. Dr. Otto Dibelius

1946–1963: Walter Braun (1892–1973)

1963–1978: Horst Lahr (1913-2008)

1979–1996: Günter Bransch (1931)

Bishops of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg

In 1948 the first post-war elected provincial synod of the March of Brandenburg ecclesiastical province of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union constituted as an independent church body named Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg. The new constitution provided for a chairperson to bear the title bishop.

1948 - 1966: D. Dr. Otto Dibelius

1966 - 1972: D. Kurt Scharf

Reunited church body since 1991:

1991 - 1993: Dr. theol. Martin Kruse

1994 - 2003: Prof. Dr. theol. Wolfgang Huber

On January 1, 2004 the church body merged with the Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia.

Silesian general superintendents and bishops

1829 - 1830: Johann Gottfried Bobertag

1830 - 1832: ?

1832 - 1843: Ernst Friedrich Gabriel Ribbeck

1844 - 1863: August Hahn

1864 - 1900: David Erdmann

1901 - 1903: Hugo Nehmiz (1845–1903)

1935 - 1941/1945: D. Otto Zänker, due to his siding with the Confessing Church he was involuntarily pensioned off in 1941, but ignored that, however, accepted only by the non-schismatic Confessing Church congregations. The Nazi authorities expelled him from Silesia in January 1945.

1941/1945 - 1946: vacancy

1945 - 1946: D. Praeses Ernst Hornig per pro

1946 - 1963: D. Ernst Hornig

1964 - 1979: D. Hans-Joachim Fränkel

1979 - 1985: Hanns-Joachim Wollstadt

1986 - 1994: Joachim Rogge

1994 - 2003: Klaus Wollenweber

Bishops of the Evangelical Church Berlin - Brandenburg - Silesian Upper Lusatia

2004 - 2009: Wolfgang Huber

2009–2019 Markus Dröge

2019–present: Christian Stäblein

Synod

The election of the synod (Landessynode) is for six years. The synod meets each year in Berlin. The leader of the synod is called Präses (English: praeses).

Books

Berlin-Brandenburg:

Gesangbuch zum gottesdienstlichen Gebrauch für evangelische Gemeinen, Berlin, 1829

Evangelisches Gesangbuch, nach Zustimmung der Provinzialsynode vom Jahre 1884 zur Einführung in der Provinz Brandenburg mit Genehmigung des Evang. Oberkirchenrats herausgegeben vom Königlichen Konsistorium, Berlin, 1884

Evangelisches Gesangbuch for Brandenburg and Pommern, Berlin and Frankfurt/Oder; eingeführt durch Beschlüsse der Provinzialsynoden der Kirchenprovinz Pommern 1925 and 1927 and Mark Brandenburg 1927 and 1929 and nach der Notverordnung des Kirchensenats from August 7, 1931 published from the Provinzialkirchenräten Brandenburg and Pommern 1931

Evangelisches Kirchengesangbuch, Edition for the Evangelische Kirche in Berlin-Brandenburg; Ausgabe für die Konsistorialbezirke Berlin, Magdeburg, Greifswald und Görlitz und der Evang. Landeskirche Anhalts" bzw. "Evangelisches Kirchengesangbuch, Ausgabe für die Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalt, Evang. Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg, Evang. Kirche des Görlitzer Kirchengebietes, Evang. Landeskirche Greifswald, Evang. Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen"

Evangelisches Gesangbuch, Edition for the Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalts, die Evangelische Kirche in Berlin-Brandenburg, die Evangelische Kirche der schlesischen Oberlausitz, die Pommersche Evangelische Kirche, die Evangelische Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen, Berlin/Leipzig; eingeführt am Reformationstag, 31. Oktober 1993

Silesian Upper Lusatia:

Gesangbuch für Evangelische Gemeinden Schlesiens; since 1878

Schlesisches Provinzial-Gesangbuch; since 1908

Evangelisches Kirchen-Gesangbuch (EKG) - Edition for the Konsistorialbezirke Berlin, Magdeburg, Greifswald und Görlitz and the Evang. Landeskirche Anhalts/ Edition for the Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalt, Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg, Evangelische Kirche des Görlitzer Kirchengebietes, Evangelische Landeskirche Greifswald, Evangelische Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen; since 1953