Threatened Protestants: Confessional Conflict in the Rhine Province and Westphalia during the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Hostilities between Catholics and Protestants abounded in Germany during the nineteenth century, and historical scholarship on religion has provided numerous examples. Likewise, the unequal distribution of power and status between German Catholics and Protestants that commonly factored into these conflicts has long been recognized and researched by historians. Catholics faced disadvantages in the German lands, and this situation only worsened with the foundation of the empire in 1871 under the leadership of Protestant Prussia. At the same time, several scholars have pointed out that Protestants, like Catholics, also experienced varying degrees of anxiety over confessional relations. Yet, compared to the Catholic case, historians have given far less attention to this topic. Looking at cases from the Rhine Province and Westphalia, this article attempts to flesh out the picture of Protestant anxiety by examining fears expressed in communal conflicts that were quite legitimate given the threatening confessional circumstances that existed in certain regions and locales. Examples are drawn from both rural and urban settings. The conflicts range from burial disputes to disagreements about access to adequate health care. The emphasis on the particular contexts of these cases allows for a better understanding of the multiplicity of factors that fuelled confessional conflicts.