!!!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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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 
19%%sup th/%  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.


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