page_title: Julius Rupp
section_title: Free Congregation leader
hierarchical_section_title: Julius Rupp / Free Congregation leader
caption_attribution_description: Gustav Adolf Wislicenus. Verlag Naumburgs Kunstanstalt Leipzig
context_page_description: Julius Friedrich Leopold Rupp was a Prussian Protestant theologian.
  He founded the first Free Protestant Congregation in Königsberg, which rejected all state or church control and believed in absolute freedom of conscience for its members.
context_section_description: Despite his dismissal, Rupp said he still considered himself a Protestant minister, since the church was a Christian community and not a state institution. Some of his liberal supporters organized a Free Congregation (freie Gemeinde) and elected Rupp as chief preacher. The group was open to different Christian denominations, to Jews and freethinkers. Gustav Adolf Wislicenus gave the view of the radicals in an open letter in which he stated that the free congregations represented a complete break with the past.
  The congregation was organized by evangelical principles and wanted to be free of all government coercion and all supervision by church authority.
  It supported the principles of absolute freedom of conscience and free self-determination for community members.
  The Congregation was classified by the authorities as a political society rather than a church and subject to police surveillance.
  During the Revolutions of 1848 the pressure on Rupp was lifted.
  At this time the Königsberg branch of the German Reformed Church, part of the Established State Church, elected Rupp as its minister. The government would not confirm the election, even when the church directly petitioned Frederick William IV.
  At this time Rupp wrote a circular letter to the Evangelican Church in Germany on the question, Creeds, or God's Word?.
  He and other liberals also published a periodical named Free Evangelical Church (Die Freie Evangelische Kirche).
  Rupp also published the Popular Prussian Messenger (Ost Preussische Volksboten) at the start of 1849, a paper that discussed politics and religion, and that championed justice as the basis for politics. In 1849 Rupp was elected a member of Konigsberg in the second Prussian Chamber.
  At the 26th session of the Lower House in 1849 he gave a speech on the importance of the right to print and publish printed matter.
  Rupp founded the first German pacifist association in 1850.
  In July 1851 the Prussian ministry withdrew Rupp's right to give academic lectures.
  In 1851 Rupp was found guilty of press offenses and sentenced to several months in prison. The Popular Messenger was suppressed.
  In August 1851 the Free Evangelical Community was dissolved on the grounds that it was a political society.
  It revived under a new name in October 1853.
  The Free Congregation joined the scattered German Catholic movement to form the Free Protestant-Catholic Congregation.
  Despite many obstacles other congregations were formed in Memel, Domnau, Kreuzburg, Preußisch Eylau, and later in Schneidemühl, Elbing, Danzig and Tilsit. Probably the congregation never had more than 1,200 members.
  Rupp was editor of the Konigsberg Sunday Post (Sonntags Post) from 1856–62, which promoted humanitarian culture in religion, public life, science and art.
  In 1859 the Federation of Free Religious Congregations was formed, in which Rupp played a prominent role.
  Rupp was again elected to represent Konigsberg in the Second Prussian Chamber in 1862 and 1863.
  At the 38th session of the Lower House he spoke on appointment of Jews as teachers in public schools.
  In 1863 Rupp became editor of the twice-weekly paper The Friend of the Constitution. He was editor, then contributor, of the Religiöse Reform from 1867–76. 
  In 1869 he became completely blind due to cataracts in both eyes. An operation in 1870 restored partial sight in one eye.
  In 1881 he was forced by increasing blindness to resign his ministry in the outdoor congregation.
  Julius Rupp died in Königsberg, Prussia on 11 July 1884.
caption: Gustav Adolf Wislicenus, a leader of the Free Congregations
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