page_title: History of Lutheranism
section_title: Results
hierarchical_section_title: History of Lutheranism / Rationalism and revivals / Revivals / Results
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. Kirchenwahl.- Propaganda der "Deutschen Christen" in Berlin ADN-ZB/Archiv Kirchenwahl am 23.7.1933 in Berlin. Wahl in der Marien Kirche am Neuen Markt. Nazistische Wahlpropaganda unter Maske des Christentums. [Kirchenwahl in Berlin.- SA-Männer vor Marienkirche mit Plakat "Wählt Liste 1 Deutsche Christen". Hitlerjunge mit Spendendose]
context_page_description: Lutheranism as a religious movement originated in the early 16th century Holy Roman Empire as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The movement originated with the call for a public debate regarding several issues within the Catholic Church by Martin Luther, then a professor of Bible at the young University of Wittenberg. Lutheranism soon became a wider religious and political movement within the Holy Roman Empire owing to support from key electors and the widespread adoption of the printing press. This movement soon spread throughout northern Europe and became the driving force behind the wider Protestant Reformation. Today, Lutheranism has spread from Europe to all six populated continents.
context_section_description: The Neo-Lutheran movement managed to slow secularism and counter atheistic Marxist socialism, but it did not fully succeed in Europe. It partly succeeded in continuing the Pietist movement's drive to right social wrongs and focus on individual conversion. The Neo-Lutheran call to renewal failed to achieve widespread popular acceptance because it was rooted in a lofty, idealistic Romanticism that did not connect with an increasingly industrialized and secularized Europe. At best, the work of local leaders resulted in specific areas with vibrant spiritual renewal, but people in Lutheran areas overall continued to become increasingly distant from church life. Beginning in 1867, confessional and liberal minded German Lutherans joined together to form the Common Evangelical Lutheran Conference against the ever looming prospect of a legally binding union with the Reformed. However, they failed to reach a consensus among themselves on how much agreement in doctrine is necessary for church union. Eventually, the fascist German Christians movement forced the final national merger of Lutherans and Reformed into a single Reich Church, now the Evangelical Church in Germany, in 1933.
caption: Stormtroopers holding German Christians propaganda during the Church Council elections on July 23, 1933 at St. Mary's Church, Berlin.
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