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The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed Protestant denominations in Prussia. It became the biggest independent religious organisation in the German Empire and later Weimar Germany, with about 18 million parishioners. The church underwent two schisms (one permanent since the 1830s, one temporary 1934–1948), 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 organisational divisions, eliminated entire congregations, and expropriated church property, transferring it either to secular uses or to different churches more favoured by these various governments. In the course of the Second World War, Church property was either damaged or destroyed by strategic bombing, and by war's end many parishioners fled from the advancing Soviet forces. After the war, complete ecclesiastical provinces vanished following the flight and expulsion of Germans living east of the Oder-Neiße line. The two post-war periods saw major reforms from within the Church, strengthening the parishioners' democratic participation. In theology the Church counted many renowned persons as its members – such as Friedrich Schleiermacher, Julius Wellhausen (temporarily), Adolf von Harnack, Karl Barth (temporarily), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or Martin Niemöller (temporarily), to name only a few. In the early 1950s the Church body was transformed into an umbrella, after its prior ecclesiastical provinces had assumed independence in the late 1940s. Following the decline in number of parishioners due to the German demographic crisis and growing irreligion, the Church was subsumed into the Union of Evangelical Churches in 2003. == Status and official names == The many changes in the Church throughout its history are reflected in its several name changes. These include: * 1821–1845: ''Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian Lands'' – the state church * 1845–1875: ''Evangelical State Church of Prussia'' – the state church besides other recognised Protestant church bodies * 1875–1922: ''Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces'' – the state church in the old provinces of Prussia besides other recognised Protestant church bodies * 1922–1933, 24 June: ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'' – an independent church among other recognised Protestant church bodies * 24 June to 15 July 1933: state control abolished freedom of religion, a Nazi-loyal leadership was imposed * 15 July 1933 – 28 February 1934: ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'' under new streamlined leadership * 1 March to 20 November 1934: The streamlined leadership abolished the ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'' as an independent church body and merged it in the new Nazi-submissive German Evangelical Church * 29 May 1934 – 1945: ''Confessing Christians'' declared that the imposed Nazi-inspired (so-called ''German Christian'') leadership had submitted the Church to a schism, with the Confessing Church and their newly created bodies (partially already established since January 1934) representing the true Evangelical church. * 20 November 1934 – 1945: The ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'', restored by verdict of the ''Landgericht I Berlin'' court. Thus, two church bodies–one Nazi-recognised and one gradually driven underground–each claimed to represent the true church. * 1945–1953: The ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'' partially cleansed its leading bodies from ''German Christians'' and appointed Nazi opponents and persons of moderate neutrality. * 1953–2003 ''Evangelical Church of the Union'', an independent ecclesiastical umbrella among other recognised Protestant umbrellas and church bodies. * 2004 The ''Evangelical Church of the Union'' merged in the Union of Evangelical Churches. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prussian Union of churches」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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