page_title: Prussian Union of Churches
section_title: Abolition of synods
hierarchical_section_title: Prussian Union of Churches / History / Under Nazi rule / Abolition of synods
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Wittenberg, Nationalsynode Eröffnung der Nationalsynode in Wittenberg. Landesbischof Ludwig Müller (der spätere Reichsbischof) beim Heilruf mit dem faschistischen Gruß auf Adolf Hitler. 1933 Abgebildete Personen: Müller, Ludwig: Evangelischer Theologe, 1934 Reichsbischof, Deutschland
context_page_description: The Prussian Union of Churches was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Prussia. Although not the first of its kind, the Prussian Union was the first to occur in a major German state.
  It became the biggest independent religious organization in the German Empire and later Weimar Germany, with about 18 million parishioners. The church underwent two schisms, due to changes in governments and their policies. After being the favoured state church of Prussia in the 19th century, it suffered interference and oppression at several times in the 20th century, including the persecution of many parishioners.
  In the 1920s, the Second Polish Republic and Lithuania, and in the 1950s to 1970s, East Germany, the People's Republic of Poland, and the Soviet Union, imposed permanent or temporary organizational divisions, eliminated entire congregations, and expropriated church property, transferring it either to secular uses or to different churches more favoured by these various governments.
context_section_description: On 18 September 1933 Werner was appointed praeses of the old-Prussian general synod, thus becoming president of the church senate. In September Ludwig Müller appointed Joachim Hossenfelder, Reichsfuhrer of the German Christians, as provincial bishop of Brandenburg (resigned in November after the éclat in the Sportpalast, see below), while the then furloughed Karow was newly appointed as provincial bishop of Berlin. Thus the Ecclesiastical Province of the March of Brandenburg, which included Berlin, had two bishops. Karow, being no German Christian, resigned in early 1934 in protest against Ludwig Müller.
  On 27 September the pan-German First National Synod convened in the highly symbolic city of Wittenberg, where the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-five Theses to the door of the church in 1517. The synodals were not elected by the parishioners, but two-thirds were delegated by the church leaders, now called bishops, of the 28 Protestant church bodies, including the three intact ones, and one third were emissaries of Müller's Spiritual Ministerium.
  Only such synodals were admitted, who would "uncompromisingly stand up any time for the National Socialist state" (German: »jederzeit rückhaltlos für den nationalsozialistischen Staat eintritt"). The national synod confirmed Müller as Reich's Bishop. The synodals of the national synod decided to waive their right to legislate in church matters and empowered Müller's Spiritual Ministerium to act as he wished. Furthermore, the national synod usurped the power in the 28 Protestant church bodies and provided the new so-called bishops of the 28 Protestant church bodies with hierarchical supremacy over all clergy and laymen within their church organisation. The national synod abolished future election for the synods of the 28 Protestant church bodies. Henceforth synodals had to replace two-thirds of the outgoing synodals by co-optation, the remaining third was to be appointed by the respective bishop.
caption: The old-Prussian State Bishop Ludwig Müller before his acclamation as Reich's Bishop by the National Synod in Wittenberg.
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