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 (Khevenhüller, 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 Ödenburg 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 19^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. Kühnert (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 Österreich, 1981.