In the pre-Reformation era, the organization of the church within a land was understood as a landeskirche, certainly under a higher power (the pope or a patriarch), but also possessing an increased measure of independence, especially as concerning its internal structure and its relations to its king, prince or ruler. Unlike in Scandinavia and England, the bishops in the national churches did not survive the Reformation, making it impossible for a conventional diocesan system to continue within Lutheranism. Therefore, Martin Luther demanded that, as a stop-gap, each secular Landesherr (territorial lord, monarch or a body, like the governments of republican Imperial estates, such as Free Imperial Cities or Swiss cantons) should exercise episcopal functions in the respective territories. The principle of cuius regio, eius religio also arose out of the Reformation, and according to this a Landesherr chose what denomination his subjects had to belong to. This led to closed, insular landeskirchen. The principle was a byproduct of religious politics in the Holy Roman Empire and soon softened after the Thirty Years' War.
At the time of the abolition of the monarchies in Germany in 1918, the Landesherren were summus episcopus (Landesbischöfe, comparable to the Supreme Governor of the Church of England) in the states or their administrative areas, and the ties between churches and nations came to be particularly close, even with Landesherren outside the Lutheran church. So the (Roman Catholic) king of Bavaria was at the same time supreme governor (summus episcopus) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria right of the river Rhine. In practice, the Landesherren exercised episcopal functions (summepiscopacy) only indirectly through consistories (German: Konsistorium/Konsistorien [sg./pl.]).
In Germany
List of Landeskirchen in 1922 with changes until 1945
Those of the following Landeskirchen, which existed in 1922, founded the new umbrella German Evangelical Church Confederation (German: Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund, 1922–1933). There were mergers in the 1920s and under Nazi reign in 1933 and 1934.
The first date given before every entry in the table below refers to the year, when the respective church body was constituted. Such a date of constitution is somewhat difficult to fix for the 19th century, when church constitutions were reformed and came into effect, which usually provided for more or less state-independent legislative and executive bodies more or less elected by parishioners. The Protestant Reformation and some church organisation (Kirchenordnung) of course existed long before.
For the 20th century the given years refer to the formal establishment of the respective church body. The second date refers to the year, when the respective church body ceased to exist (if so), due to a merger or unwinding. The third entry gives the name of each church body alphabetically assorted by the first territorial entity mentioned in the name. This makes sense because Landeskirchen have clear regional demarcations, therefore usually somehow mentioned in their names. The post-World War I church bodies, listed below, have never existed all in the same time. One can sort the table below alphabetically or chronologically by clicking on the button with the gyronny of four.
The Church body comprises only congregations of united confession. The official church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Anhalt.
The new name replaced the prior United Evangelical Protestant Church of the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1920, when the new church constitution accounted for the Grand Duchy having become a republic. The Church body comprises only congregations of united confession. The official church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Baden.
1,575,000 parishioners (1925)[2] Free State of Bavaria right of the Rhine, thus except of the then Bavarian Governorate of the Palatinate, which formed a separate church body since 1848. In 1918 the Reformed congregations earlier subsumed within the Bavaria church body seceded and founded the independent Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria (see Further Protestant church bodies in Germany). On 1 April 1921 the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Saxe-Coburg merged in the Bavaria church body.
The new name replaced the prior Protestant State Church in the Kingdom of Bavaria right of the river Rhine in 1921, when the new church constitution accounted for the Kingdom having become a republic and the Reformed congregations having formed a separate church body. The Bavaria official church body remained an intact church (German: intakte Kirche), since the Nazi-submissive German Christians remained a minority in the synod after the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents of the Confessing Church could act within the church body.
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Church of the Principality of Birkenfeld after 1918, when the new Oldenburgian monarchy with its Principality of Birkenfeld had become a republic. The Church body comprised only congregations of united confession. The Ecclesiastical Province in the Rhineland, of which Birkenfeld had become a part, was a destroyed ecclesiastical province (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the provincial synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church in the Rhineland.
260,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Bremen city and one united congregation in the historical centre of Bremerhaven, which was extended by 1939 by prior Hanoveran suburbs, whose Lutheran parishes continue to belong to the Hanover Lutheran church body.
The church body comprises mostly Reformed and less Lutheran congregations and one united congregation. The official church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Bremian Confessing Church.
464,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Free State of Brunswick, when the state territory was altered in 1942, the Brunswick church body readjusted its ambit accordingly, ceding congregations to and receiving some from the Hanover Lutheran church body.
The official church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Brunswickian Confessing Church.
The official Frankfurt church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Frankfurt.
The official Hamburg church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive conservative Lutherans in May 1933 even before the German Christians gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Hamburg.
2,414,000 parishioners (1922)[2] Prussian Province of Hanover, the territorial changes of the province in 1937 (Greater Hamburg Act) were not followed by a change in ecclesiastical ambit. In 1939 (Greater Bremen, annexation of Hanoveran suburbs of Bremen to Bremen proper) and 1942, when the provincial territory was altered along the Brunswickian border, both church bodies readjusted their ambits accordingly, ceding congregations to and receiving some from each other.
The official church body remained an intact church (German: intakte Kirche), since the Nazi-submissive German Christians remained a minority in the synod after the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents of the Confessing Church could act within the church body.
157,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Prussian Province of Hanover and some Reformed parishes in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein acceded since 1923.
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover in 1922, when the Hanover Reformed church body caught up in terms of the title with the Hanover Lutheran church body. The official church body remained an intact church (German: intakte Kirche), since the Nazi-submissive German Christians remained a minority in the synod after the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents of the Confessing Church could act within the church body.
The official Hesse Cassel church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. However, a merger, planned since 1926, with the Frankfurt, Hesse state and Nassau church bodies failed after quarrels about their Nazi radicalism.
The official Hesse Electorate and Waldeck church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was merged from two destroyed church bodies. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Electoral Hesse-Waldeck.
The official Hesse state church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Hesse.
1933
1945
Hesse-Nassau Evangelical State Church Hesse-Nassau German: Evangelische Landeskirche Hessen-Nassau
In September 1933 the destroyed Frankfurt, Hesse state, and Nassau church bodies merged in the new Hesse-Nassau church body, which thus became a new church body radically organised according to the Führerprinzip, thus anti-synodal and anti-presbyterial. With the end of the Nazi reign this church body was dissolved. Nazi opponents had organised along the church bodies merged into this church body.
111,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck, the Lübeck state church body persisted also after Prussia had annexed the Lübeck state by in 1937 (Greater Hamburg Act), and its incorporation into the Prussian Schleswig-Holstein province.
The official Lübeck state church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Lübeck state.
no data yet The Oldenburgian exclave of the Lübeck Region, the Lübeck region church body persisted also after Prussia had annexed the Lübeck Region in 1937 (Greater Hamburg Act), and its incorporation into the Prussian Schleswig-Holstein province.
The official Lübeck region church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. However, its land provost (leading cleric) maintained a rather neutral position, so Nazi opponents of the Confessing Church could act within the official church body.
1835
1926
Lusatia Lutheran Church in Upper Lusatia German: Lutherische Kirche in der Oberlausitz
In 1926 the Lusatia church body merged in the Saxony state church body.
1850
1934
Mecklenburg-Schwerin Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg-Schwerin German: Evangelisch-lutherische Kirche von Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Lutheran
614,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1934 the Mecklenburg-Schwerin church body merged in the Mecklenburg state church body.
The official Mecklenburg-Schwerin church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933.
19th century
1934
Mecklenburg-Strelitz Mecklenburg-Strelitz State Church German: Mecklenburg-Strelitzer Landeskirche
Lutheran
101,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1934 the Mecklenburg-Strelitz church body merged in the Mecklenburg state church body.
The official Mecklenburg-Strelitz church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. State bishop Gerhard Tolzien was deposed.
The official Mecklenburg state church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was merged from two destroyed church bodies. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church in Mecklenburg.
The official Hesse state church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Nassau.
291,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Free State of Oldenburg except of its exclaves of Birkenfeld and Region of Lübeck. In 1921 the Lübeck region church body had seceded from the Oldenburg church body, while the Birkenfeld church body had never been part of the Oldenburg church body.
The official Oldenburg church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Oldenburg.
Since the parishioners' plesbiscite in 1817 all Palatine congregations are confessionally united. The official Palatinate church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of the Palatinate.
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces in 1922, accounting for the facts that the Weimar Constitution had done away with state churches in 1919, and that the old-Prussian congregations were then spreading over four sovereign states (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Poland) and three League of Nations mandates (Danzig, Klaipėda, and Saar) after the different post-World War I annexations. The new name was after a denomination, not after a state any more. It became a difficult task to maintain the unity of the church, with some of the annexing states being opposed to the fact that church bodies within their borders keep a union with German church organisations. The official old-Prussian church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the general synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Only the Westphalia ecclesiastical province remained an intact church, since the German Christians did not gain the majority in its provincial synod, while all the other old-Prussian ecclesiastical provinces within Germany were taken over by German Christians as well. The Nazi opponents formed parallel Confessing Church institutions on the old-Prussian general level as well as in the destroyed ecclesiastical provinces.
19th century
1934
Reuss Evangelical Lutheran Church in Reuss Elder Line German: Evangelisch-lutherische Kirche in Reuß ältere Linie
The Reuss church body was a stronghold of Lutheran Orthodoxy and refused the merger with the other seven church bodies in Thuringia in 1920. However, in 1934 Reuss merged in the Thuringia church body.
4,509,000 parishioners (1922)[2] until 1926 the then Free State of Saxony except of the region of Kreishauptmannschaft Bautzen(in German), from 1926 on all the Free State of Saxony. All the parishes east of the Oder Neisse line vanished due to fleeing parishioners before the Soviet conquest and the subsequent violent expulsion of parishioners between 1945 and 1950, including casualties.
The new name came along with the new church constitution of 1922. The official Saxony church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Saxony.
The Schaumburg-Lippe official church body remained an intact church (German: intakte Kirche), since the Nazi-submissive German Christians remained a minority in the synod after the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents of the Confessing Church could act within the church body. Even the more, in 1936 the German Christian minority was excluded from the executive board, which was then only staffed with partisans of the Nazi-opponent Confessing Church.
The official Schleswig-Holstein church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents formed the Confessing Church of Schleswig-Holstein.
1,384,000 parishioners (1922)[1] the State of Thuringia in its borders of 1920, until 1934 except of the areas comprising the former Principality of Reuss Elder Line. In 1934 the Reuss elder line church body merged in the Thuringia church body.
65,000 parishioners (1922)[1] Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont, since 1929 part of the Free State of Prussia as the District of Waldeck and the District of Pyrmont. Some small northern exclaves with Pyrmont in today's Lower Saxony were ceded in the 1920s to the Hanover Lutheran church body.
The official Waldeck church body became a destroyed church (German: zerstörte Kirche), since it was taken over by Nazi-submissive German Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. However, a merger, planned since 1926, with the Frankfurt, Hesse state and Nassau church bodies failed after quarrels about their Nazi radicalism. In 1934 the Waldeck church body merged in the Evangelical Church of Electoral Hesse-Waldeck.
The Württemberg official church body remained an intact church (German: intakte Kirche), since the Nazi-submissive German Christians remained a minority in the synod after the unconstitutional election imposed by Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents of the Confessing Church could act within the church body.
List of Landeskirchen after 1945 with changes until 2012
Those of the following Landeskirchen, which existed in 1948, founded the new Protestant umbrella Evangelical Church in Germany (German: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland). However, following the violations of the church constitutions under Nazi reign many church bodies did not simply return to the pre-1933 status quo, but introduced altered or new church constitutions – usually after lengthy synodal procedures of decision-taking -, often including an altered name of the church body. In a process starting in June 1945 and ending in 1953 the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union transformed from an integrated church body, subdivided into ecclesiastical provinces, into an umbrella-like church body, renamed into Evangelical Church of the Union under political pressure of communist East Germany in 1953.
The six old-Prussian ecclesiastical provinces (Kirchenprovinz[en], sg.[pl.]), which were not or not completely abolished by the expulsion of its parishioners from the Polish and Soviet annexed German territories, assumed independence as Landeskirchen of their own between 1945 and 1948, however, simultaneously remaining member churches within the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union, thus rather converted into an umbrella.
The communist dictatorship in East Germany imposed further name changes and administrative reorganisations along the inner German borders. This was reversed after unification.
There were mergers of church bodies in 1947, 1977, 1989, 2004, 2009, and 2012, and likely more are to come. The German demographic crisis and rising irreligionism influence them, especially in former East Germany. The first date given before every entry in the table below refers to the year, when the respective church body was constituted. Such a date of constitution is somewhat difficult to fix for the 19th century, when church constitutions were reformed and came into effect, which usually provided for more or less state-independent legislative and executive bodies more or less elected by parishioners. The Protestant Reformation and some church organisation of course existed long before.
For the last and this century the given years refer to the formal establishment of the respective church body. The second date refers to the year, when the respective church body ceased to exist (if so), due to a merger or unwinding. The third entry gives the name of each church body alphabetically assorted by the first territorial entity mentioned in the name. This makes sense because Landeskirchen have clear regional demarcations, therefore usually somehow mentioned in their names. The post-war German church bodies, listed below, have never existed all in the same time. The very independent and autonomous organisational structure of German Protestantism provides for unconcerted developments. One can assort the table below alphabetically or chronogically by clicking on the button with the gyronny of four.
Between 1960 and 2003 the Anhalt church was a member of the Evangelical Church of the Union. The Church body comprises only congregations of united confession.
The new name replaced the prior United Evangelical Protestant State Church of Baden. The Church body comprises only congregations of united confession.
The prior name extension right of the river Rhine was skipped in 1948, after Bavaria left of the river Rhine, i.e. Governorate of the Palatinate, had been seceded from Bavaria by the Allies in 1945.
East Berlin, West Berlin, and Brandenburg (in its borders of 1945–1952, thus without Polish-annexed eastern Brandenburg and territorial redeployments after the re-establishment of the state in 1990) In 1972 the church body installed double administrative structures for West Berlin on the one hand and for East Berlin and the parishes in the 1952-abolished state of Brandenburg on the other hand, because communist East Germany did not allow pastors and church functionaries travelling freely between East and West. The two administrations reunited in 1991.
The new name replaced the prior March of Brandenburg ecclesiastical province (Kirchenprovinz Mark Brandenburg) in 1948, when this old-Prussian ecclesiastical province assumed independence as Landeskirche. The new name reflected the fact, that Berlin was no part of Brandenburg state at that time. Between 1948 and 2003 the Berlin-Brandenburg church was a member of the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union. In 2004 the Berlin-Brandenburg church body merged into the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The church body comprised mostly Lutheran and few Reformed and united congregations.
Berlin, Brandenburg (in its borders of 1945–1952), and the German remainder of Silesia (mostly Saxon today), after the post-war Polish annexation of main part Silesia
The church body comprises mostly Lutheran and few Reformed and united congregations.
former Free State of Brunswick In 1977 the Brunswick church body conveyed its tasks for its East German parishes to the East German Saxony Province church body. In 1992 the eastern parishes returned to the Brunswick church body.
The new name replaced the prior Brunswickian Evangelical Lutheran State Church in 1970, after considerations, that the church body is rather a Christian than an organisation related to the Brunswickian state. After a British-Soviet boundary adjustment between the British Zone and the Soviet Zone in July 1945 the formerly Brunswickian salients (e.g. the eastern part of Blankenburg District, Hessen am Fallstein) and the exclave of Calvörde became part of the Soviet zone. This did not affect the ecclesiastical affiliation. However, East Germany's sealing off its western border and its very restrictive granting of entry and exit visas made cross-border travelling for easterners almost impossible and difficult for westerners. In 1957 East Germany forbade further contact of the East German Brunswickian parishes with the western-based Brunswick church body on the pretense that the latter co-operated with enimical western NATO forces, following a concordat of the Brunswick church body on military chaplains for the Bundeswehr.
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Lutheran State Church of the Oldenburgian Region of Lübeck, reflecting the fact, that Oldenburg had ceded its exclave Region of Lübeck to the Prussian Schleswig-Holstein province following the Greater Hamburg Act in 1937. On 1 January 1977 the Eutin church body merged into the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The Frankfurt church body was restored after the end of the war, since the lawfulness of the September-1933 merger into the Evangelical State Church in Hesse-Nassau was doubted due to the influence of the Nazis and the Nazi-submissive German Christians, gained by the unconstitutional re-election of all synods and presbyteries ordered by Hitler in July 1933. In September 1947 a freely and constitutionally elected synod decided on the merger into the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau
former Prussian Province of Hanover, in 1977 reduced for those parishes located in the Harburg area of Hanover province, which had been ceded to Hamburg in 1937 and increased by the parishes in Cuxhaven, which had been ceded from Hamburg to Hanover province on the same occasion by the Greater Hamburg Act.
Between 1949 and 1989 the East German communist government inflicted similar problems onto the East German parishes of the Electoral Hesse-Waldeck church body as onto the eastern parishes of Brunswick church body.
The Hesse church body was restored after the end of the war, since the lawfulness of the September-1933 merger into the Evangelical State Church in Hesse-Nassau was doubted due to the influence of the Nazis and the Nazi-submissive German Christians, gained by the unconstitutional re-election of all synods and presbyteries ordered by Hitler in July 1933. In September 1947 a freely and constitutionally elected synod decided on the merger into the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Lübeckian State, accounting for Lübeck's statehood being abolished by the Greater Hamburg Act in 1937. On 1 January 1977 the Lübeck church body merged into the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
former Mecklenburg in its borders of 1936 Communist East Germany's sealing off its western border and its very restrictive granting of entry and exit visas made cross-border travelling for easterners almost impossible and difficult for westerners. So the Mecklenburg church body conveyed its tasks as to its western parishes to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein and its successor North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. After unification the conveyed parishes decided not to return to their original Mecklenburg church body, personally and financially terribly weakened during East German dictatorship. In 2012 the Mecklenburg church body merged in the new Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.
After a British-Soviet boundary adjustment between the British Zone and the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany following the Barber Lyashchenko Agreement in November 1945 the parishes of Ratzeburg Cathedral and Bäk, Mechow, Römnitz, and Ziethen became part of the British zone. This did not affect the ecclesiastical affiliation. So the Mecklenburg church body retains a stake as co-owner in the historically important Ratzeburg Cathedral.
The Hesse church body was restored after the end of the war, since the lawfulness of the September-1933 merger into the Evangelical State Church in Hesse-Nassau was doubted due to the influence of the Nazis and the Nazi-submissive German Christians, gained by the unconstitutional re-election of all synods and presbyteries ordered by Hitler in July 1933. In September 1947 a freely and constitutionally elected synod decided on the merger into the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau
Merger of Eutin, Hamburg, Lübeck and Schleswig-Holstein church bodies. In 2012 the North Elbian church body merged in the new Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.
the former Prussian Province of Hanover and some Reformed parishes in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Reformed State Church of the Province of Hanover in 1949, considering the accession of parishes outside of Hanover province (since 1923) and the latter's merger into Lower Saxony in 1946. In 1989 the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwestern Germany merged into the Evangelical Reformed Church
The new name replaced the prior United Protestant Evangelical Christian Church of the Palatinate (Palatine State Church) in 1976. Since the parishioners' plesbiscite in 1817 all Palatine congregations are confessionally united.
The new name replaced the prior Pomerania ecclesiastical province (Kirchenprovinz Pommern) in 1947, when this old-Prussian ecclesiastical province assumed independence as Landeskirche. Between 1947 and 2003 the Pomerania church body was a member of the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union. In 1968 communist East Germany ordered the church body to skip the term Pomerania from its name, then it chose the name Evangelical Church in Greifswald (German: Evangelische Kirche in Greifswald). The original name was readopted in 1990. In 2012 the Pomeranian church body merged in the new Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.
The new name replaced the prior Rhineland ecclesiastical province (Kirchenprovinz Rheinland) in 1948, when this old-Prussian ecclesiastical province assumed independence as Landeskirche. Between 1948 and 2003 the Rhineland church body was a member of the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union.
former Kingdom of Saxony except of the small area annexed to Poland in 1945 (modern Saxon Free State territory differs considerably more).
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Lutheran State Church of the Free State of Saxony since the Free State had been abolished in 1952, only to be re-established in 1990, which did not cause another name change.
The new name extended the prior Saxony ecclesiastical province (Kirchenprovinz Sachsen) in 1947, when this old-Prussian ecclesiastical province assumed independence as Landeskirche. Between 1947 and 2003 the church body of the Saxony Ecclesiastical Province was a member of the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union. On 1 January 2009 the church body of the Saxony Ecclesiastical Province merged into the Evangelical Church in Middle Germany.
Any claim to merge the tiny Schaumburg-Lippe church body has been refused so far based on a solid self-confidence, also laid during the Nazi era, when this church body became the only one in 1936, which staffed all its executive board only with partisans of the Nazi-opponent Confessing Church.
the German remainder of Silesia, after the post-war Polish annexation of main part Silesia
The new name replaced the prior Silesia ecclesiastical province (Kirchenprovinz Schlesien) in 1947, when this old-Prussian ecclesiastical province assumed independence as Landeskirche. Between 1947 and 2003 the Silesia church body was a member of the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union. In 1968 communist East Germany ordered the church body to skip the term Silesia from its name, then it chose the name Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Ecclesiastical Region (German: Evangelische Kirche des Görlitzer Kirchengebiets). In 1992 the Silesia church body dropped its unwanted name and chose the new name of Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia. On 1 January 2004 the Silesia church body merged into the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia.
The new name replaced the prior Thuringian Evangelical Church in 1948. On 1 January 2009 the church body merged into the Evangelical Church in Middle Germany.
Berlin, Brandenburg (in its borders of 1946–1952), German Hither Pomerania, former Hohenzollern province (ceded to Württemberg church body in 1950), former Rhine Province (in its borders of 1938), former Province of Saxony (in its borders of 1938), post-war German part of former Silesia province, former Westphalia (in its borders of 1815–1946), as well as the Saarland, except of its eastern formerly Palatine districts.
The new name replaced the prior Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union in 1953, after the communist dictatorship in East Germany insisted on skipping the name element Prussia. Between 1948 and 2003 EKU was rather an umbrella, though running an own synod and executive body. Therefore, it was an equal member of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), even though all of EKU's member churches were simultaneously members of EKD on their own. The church was merged into the mere umbrella Union of Evangelical Churches.
The new name replaced the prior Westphalia ecclesiastical province (Kirchenprovinz Westfalen) in 1945, when this old-Prussian ecclesiastical province assumed independence as Landeskirche. Between 1945 and 2003 the Westphalia church body was a member of the Evangelical Church of the (old-Prussian) Union.
- Lower Saxon Confederation (Reformed, German: Niedersächsische Konföderation) – Territory: Calvinist congregations, mostly of Huguenot foundation, in the Free State of Brunswick, the Free and Hanseatic Cities of Hamburg and Lübeck and the Prussian Province of Hanover.
Switzerland has no country-wide state religion, though most of the cantons (except for Geneva and Neuchâtel) recognise official Landeskirchen, in all cases including the Roman Catholic Church and the Swiss Reformed Church. These churches, and in some cantons also the Old Catholic Church and Jewish congregations, are financed by official taxation of adherents.[3]
Roman Catholic cantonal churches
In most cantons the Roman Catholic congregations are organised in cantonal church bodies which form statutory corporations with executive and supervising bodies elected by their parishioners. Roman Catholic Landeskirchen developed from denominationally separate committees of the cantonal governments in cantons with populations of mixed denomination, such as Aargau, Graubünden, St. Gallen and Thurgau.[4] These separate government committees, competent for ecclesiastical matters of the respective denomination and founded in the 16th and 17th century, were sometimes called Corpus Catholicorum (for the Roman Catholics, with the equivalent Corpus Evangelicorum for the Reformed Protestants).[4]
In other cantons with predominantly Reformed population, Roman Catholic Landeskirchen were founded after World War II (except for Bern whose Roman Catholic Regional Church had already been established in 1939), paralleling the long established Reformed Landeskirchen in those cantons and accounting for the recognition of Roman Catholicism as an equivalent denomination.[4] Cantons of prevailingly Roman Catholic population then followed that example, first the Lucerne.[4]
Church buildings and other real estate, religious schools, religious charitable organisations and religious counselling centres are often owned, run and financed by the funds of the cantonally competent Roman Catholic church body. Since each has executive and legislative bodies, elected by its statutory members (i.e. the parishioners of age), each Roman Catholic church body is accepted as a democratic entity entitled to levy member fees (also by way of a church tax), because the usage of the funds is decided by the elected representatives of those who defray them.[4]
According to Roman Catholic doctrine the Roman Catholic church bodies are not churches, since there is only one hierarchic church.[4] Therefore some Roman Catholics oppose the Roman Catholic Landeskirchen as para-ecclesiastical entities paralleling the actual Roman Catholic church, while many others support the idea since they offer Roman Catholics similar opportunities to participate in church life like the Reformed Landeskirchen.[4]
Some cantonal church bodies bear the name Landeskirche in their name, others are called a synod, federation or association of congregations or simply Catholic Church of the respective Canton. Whereas the term Landeskirche actually implies that the body is a separate denomination, the term cantonal church would be more appropriate for Roman Catholic regional church bodies, since they form a cantonally delineated corporation of the Roman Catholic parishioners within a canton but are cooperating and providing services to their members, who in the canonical sense remain members of the Roman Catholic Church pastoring them by its respective diocese.[4]
The Roman Catholic cantonal church bodies form part of the Roman Catholic Central Conference of Switzerland (RKZ, official names in German: Römisch-Katholische Zentralkonferenz der Schweiz, French: Conférence centrale catholique romaine de Suisse, Italian: Conferenza centrale cattolica romana della Svizzera, Romansh: Conferenza centrala catolica romana da la Svizra).
Catholic Cantonal Church of Graubünden [de] Katholische Landeskirche Graubünden / Chiesa cattolica dello Stato dei Grigioni / Baselgia chantunala catolica dal Grischun / Corpus Catholicorum Rætiæ
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuSebastian Müller-Rolli in collaboration with Reiner Anselm, Evangelische Schulpolitik in Deutschland 1918–1958: Dokumente und Darstellung, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, (=Eine Veröffentlichung des Comenius-Instituts Münster), p. 30. ISBN3-525-61362-8.
^ abcdeSebastian Müller-Rolli in collaboration with Reiner Anselm, Evangelische Schulpolitik in Deutschland 1918–1958: Dokumente und Darstellung, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, (=Eine Veröffentlichung des Comenius-Instituts Münster), p. 29. ISBN3-525-61362-8.