Protestantismus#
Protestantism: in the 17th century the Protestant congregations established during the Reformation in Salzburg and the Habsburgs´ Alpine and Danubian possessions were destroyed. Reformation commissions were charged with converting them back to Catholicism. Although many people were converted, a considerable number of Protestants emigrated to Protestant countries. Among these Exulanten were numerous members of the nobility (Khevenhueller, Starhemberg, Hardegg, Dietrichstein), and also the Salzburg miner J. Schaitberger, who attempted to strengthen the faith among his Protestant fellow-countrymen by writing them "epistles". Others tried to keep their faith while remaining in their homeland. More than 21,000 of those who remained were driven out of Salzburg by Archbishop Count Firmian in 1731/1732. In 1734-1776, under the reigns of Karl VI and Maria Theresia, 4,000 Protestants from Upper Austria, Carinthia and Styria were forced to resettle in Transylvania.
Small Protestant groups kept their faith in remote areas by means of
prayer services and secret meetings ("Secret Protestants"),
remained in contact with German Protestant institutions and reduced
their contact to the Catholic Church to the minimum necessary to
prevent them from being persecuted. The existence of such groups, who
constituted the majority of the population in many areas (e.g. Ramsau
am Dachstein, Gosau, Goisern), was not entirely unknown.
After the Edict of Tolerance was issued on October 13, 1781,
these groups formed new Protestant congregations: one in Lower
Austria, three in Styria and the remaining 46 congregations in Upper
Austria and Carinthia. Only in Vienna did privileged groups attend
religious services in chapels belonging to foreign Protestant
diplomatic missions (military officers, civil servants and
representatives of the Imperial authorities, merchants and
manufacturers, as well as their servants). It was out of these groups
that the Protestant Church in Austria was formed.
In Burgenland, where Hungarian laws governing religion prevailed,
resolutions passed by the Oedenburg Parliament of 1681 allowed the
establishment of a Calvinist "Artikularkirche" church in
Oberwart. Lutherans had access to Lutheran Protestant churches in
neighbouring Hungary. After Joseph II issued the Edict of Tolerance
(which entered into force in Hungary on October 25, 1781), 18 Lutheran
congregations and one Calvinist congregation formed. After having
achieved "autonomy" (granted by the Pressburg (now
Bratislava) Parliament in 1790), general synods were held in 1791
which regulated the organisation of the church; the Lutheran
congregations were placed under the authority of three senior
councils.
In the hereditary lands the organisation of the church was initiated
by appointing superintendents and by moving the Consistorium, created
in 1707 and renewed in 1749, from Teschen to Vienna in 1784, in which
both Calvinists and Lutherans were represented under a common
(Catholic) president. In addition, the organisation of the Protestant
church was subject to Imperial patents. The region governed by the
Vienna superintendent extended to Trieste, the Upper Austrian
superintendent oversaw congregations in Upper Austria, later also
those in Salzburg and, after 1875, those located in Tirol. An academy
was established in Vienna for the study of Protestant theology in
1821.
Difficult provisions for converts, unfavourable laws governing mixed
marriages and large financial burdens kept the Protestant Church from
expanding, and even in 1837 the Protestants from the Zillertal valley
were being driven out of Tirol. Austria's Protestant Church did not
obtain equal legal footing with the Catholic Church until the
Constitution of 1849 and the Imperial Decree on Protestantism of 1861.
The first general synod, which was held in 1864, passed the
Presbyterian-synodal church constitution, which replaced the
Consistoria with the Protestant High Church Council for Lutherans and
Calvinists. The Council´s first president was J. A.
Zimmermann. The Protestant Church, which experienced considerable
growth from then on, received spiritual and material support from the
Gustav-Adolf-Werk organisation, and later from the Protestant
Federation (Evangelischer Bund).
An influx from Germany and general population growth resulted in a
clear growth spurt in the Protestant Church after 1870. In spite of
the state´s rights of supervision, church life was able to
develop relatively unhindered.
The Los-von-Rom anti-Papist movement around 1890 changed the face of
Protestantism in Austria. Even though only Vienna, Lower Austria and
Styria experienced a significant increase in the number of
Protestants, new congregations were also created elsewhere, which were
significantly different from the more traditional (rural)
congregations (increased awareness of their role as a religious
minority in diaspora).
The depot of the British and Foreign Bible Society (headed by B.
Millard), established in 1864, was also of significance; however, the
Reichsvolksschulgesetz of 1869 restricted Protestant schooling for a
long time. The teachers´ academy in Bielitz played an important
role. The College of Theology in Vienna was made into a
university-level faculty in 1850, and the establishment of a centre in
Gallneukirchen in 1877 provided a headquarters for the Church´s
social and welfare services.
The decline of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy not only dealt a strong
blow to the Calvinist Protestant Church, but the Lutheran Protestant
Church also decreased in size and suffered an identity crisis. Both
the political circumstances of the time and considerable German
influence strengthened many Protestants´ belief in the
desirability of union with Germany and opposition to the idea of an
independent Austria within the Church. The Protestant community was
aware of the lack of leadership in the church, which led to the
election of Superintendent J. Heinzelmann as a leader.
The Church welcomed the Anschluss in 1938, but soon began to
experience oppression by the Nazis. The Nazi´s campaign to
secularise public life was not limited to the Catholic Church (in 1939
the state High Church Council was dissolved, but state supervision
continued; church associations ceased to exist, religious instruction
was abolished, and most church social and welfare services were
seized).
After 1945 an influx of Protestant refugees breathed new life into the
Protestant Church in Austria, resulting in the creation of new
congregations and the construction of new churches. But most
significant was a rise in awareness throughout the Protestant Church,
strengthened by increased involvement with Protestant groups
world-wide. Despite financial problems, the Church gained momentum
internally and externally in the period up to 1965 and was given a
stable legal basis by the adoption of the Church Constitution of 1949
and the Federal Act on the External Legal Relationships of the
Protestant Church ( Protestantism, Imperial Decree on). In 1968 the
Church recorded an all-time high in membership (more than 425,000).
Since then the number of baptisms and overall membership has declined
as increasing numbers of people have left the church. Internal
conflict, the introduction of neo-pietistic and fundamentalist ideas
and the general lack of ministers have contributed to growing
difficulties within the Church, which have not been overcome despite
an intensive search for a new Protestant identity.
The recent historiography of Protestantism has also failed to attain
its previous importance. Except for early testimony from abroad which
deplored the violent oppression of the Reformation (such as those
written by the Hamburg pastor Rev. B. Raupach, d. 1741),
Protestant historiography in Austria did not start until the
19th century. The establishment of the "Society for the
Study of the History of Protestantism in Austria" in 1879 marked
a revival of scholarly interest in the subject. Protestant research
was primarily supported by liberal historians favouring the concept of
Grossdeutschland (J. Loserth, V. Bibl, G. Loesche (1855-1932), K.
Voelker (1886-1937), P. Dedic (1890-1952), W. L. Kuehnert
(1900-1980) and G. Mecenseffy (1898-1985)). New approaches have
attempted to achieve a synthesis of historical methods and theological
questioning and to record the position of Protestantism in Austrian
society without engaging in apologetics.
Literature#
G. Reingrabner, Protestanten in Oesterreich, 1981.