The Political Role of German Protestantism, 1870-1990

Abstract

Bismarck's successful unification of Germany in 1870-71 was to have a highly significant impact on the life of the nation's Ev angelical, i.e. Protestant churches. For the majority of German Protestants, the triumph of the Hohenzollern dynasty, both over Catholic France and over the particularist survivals of the Holy Roman Empire, seemed to be a sign of God's providential bless ing for the idea of Protestant ascendancy, and approval of their Lutheran-based concept of the virtues of a close alliance be tween throne and altar. For the next fifty years this readiness to give theological justification to the Prussian-led conservative im perial order was a dominant feature of the Protestant churches' role in forging a new sense of national cohesion and inter-per sonal identity. A notable feature of the post-unification period was the growing sense of self-confidence in the Protestant community, with the belief that history had at last confirmed the Tightness of its cause. German Protestantism had always defined itself on the basis of the heritage of Martin Luther and remembered the key dates of his momentous act of liberation accordingly. To be sure, some critics among the educated classes were increasingly ready to challenge Luther's teachings, and indeed all of the church's transcendental claims. The political achievements of unification, however, were seen by most pastors as a God-given opportunity not only to complete the suppression of the errors and superstitions of Roman Catholicism, but also to propagate a distinctively Protestant national culture for the whole country, and thus to provide a new identity for the faithful. In the newly-unified Germany after 1870, as had also been