Evangelical Church Of Prussia's Older Provinces

The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Prussia. Although not the first of its kind, the Prussian Union was the first to occur in a major German state.

It became the biggest independent religious organization 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 organizational 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 had 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 within the Church, strengthening the parishioners' democratic participation. The Church counted many renowned theologians as its members, including Friedrich Schleiermacher, Julius Wellhausen (temporarily), Adolf von Harnack, Karl Barth (temporarily), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and 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:

* 1817–1821: The church union was still being regulated by Prussian officials, and no official name was taken up for it yet. Informal names reported elsewhere included Prussian Union of Churches and the Union of Churches in Prussia.
* 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 the freedom of religion and 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 brought the church to a schism, with the Confessing Church and their newly created bodies (partially established since January 1934) representing the true Evangelical church.
*20 November 1934 – 1945: The Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union restored by the verdict of the ''(''Berlin court), resulting in two church bodies–one Nazi-recognised and one gradually driven underground–each claiming to represent the true church.
* 1945–1953: The Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union partially cleansed its leading bodies of 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.

History

The Calvinist (Reformed) and Lutheran Protestant churches had existed in parallel after Prince-Elector John Sigismund declared his conversion from Lutheranism to Calvinism in 1617, with most of his subjects remaining Lutheran. However, a significant Calvinist minority had grown due to the reception of thousands of Calvinists refugees fleeing oppression by the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Bohemia, France ( Huguenots), the Low Countries, and Wallonia or migrants from Jülich-Cleves-Berg, the Netherlands, Poland, or Switzerland. Their descendants made up the bulk of the Calvinists in Brandenburg. At issue over many decades was how to unite into one church.

Royal attempts to merge Lutherans and Calvinists

One year after he ascended to the throne in 1798, Frederick William III, being ''summus episcopus'' (Supreme Governor of the Protestant Churches), decreed a new common liturgical agenda (service book) to be published for use in both the Lutheran and Reformed congregations. The king, a Reformed Christian, lived in a denominationally mixed marriage with the Lutheran Queen Louise (1776–1810), which is why they never partook of Communion together.Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here p. 16. A commission was formed in order to prepare this common agenda. This liturgical agenda was the culmination of the efforts of his predecessors to unify the two Protestant churches in Prussia and in its predecessor, the Electorate of Brandenburg.

Major reforms to the administration of Prussia were undertaken after the defeat by Napoléon's army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. As a part of these reforms, the separate leadership structures of both the Lutheran Church (with its chief body, the all-Prussian (Lutheran Upper Consistory), 1750–1808, and the Reformed Churches (with their chief bodies, the all-Prussian Französisches Oberkonsistorium /Consistoire supérieur (French Supreme Consistory); 1701–1808, and the all-Prussian German-speaking Reformed Kirchendirektorium (Church Directory); 1713–1808) were abolished and the tasks of the three administrations were taken on by the t (Section for the cult and public instruction), also competent for the Catholic church and the Jewish congregations, forming a department in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior.

Since the Reformation, the two Protestant denominations in Brandenburg had had their own ecclesiastical governments under state control through the crown as Supreme Governor. However, under the new absolutism then in vogue, the churches were under a civil bureaucratic state supervision by a ministerial section. In 1808, the Reformed Friedrich Schleiermacher, pastor of Trinity Church (Berlin-Friedrichstadt), issued his ideas for a constitutional reform of the Protestant Churches, also proposing a union.

Under the influence of the centralising movement of absolutism and the Napoleonic Age, after the defeat of Napoléon I in 1815, rather than reestablishing the previous denominational leadership structures, all religious communities were placed under a single consistory in each of the then ten Prussian provinces. This differed from the old structure in that the new leadership administered the affairs of all faiths; Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, and Calvinists (Reformed Christians).

In 1814, the Principality of Neuchâtel had been restituted to the Berlin-based Hohenzollern, who had ruled it in personal union from 1707 until 1806. In 1815, Frederick William III agreed that this French-speaking territory could join the Swiss Confederation (which was not yet an integrated federation, but a mere confederacy) as the Canton of Neuchâtel. The church body of the prevailingly Calvinist Neuchâtelians did not rank as a state church but was independent, since at the time of its foundation in 1540, the ruling princely House of Orléans-Longueville (Valois-Dunois) was Catholic. Furthermore, no Lutheran congregation existed in Neuchâtel. Thus the was not an object of Frederick William's Union policy.

In January 1817, the cult and public instruction section was separated off as the , usually called Cult Ministry (Kultusministerium). Karl vom Stein zum Altenstein was appointed as minister. The Reformed churches and the Lutheran church were thus administered by one department within the same ministry. The ministry introduced the preaching gown (german: link=no, Talar) as the usual clerical clothing.

On 27 September 1817, Frederick William announced, through a text written by Eylert, that Potsdam's Reformed court and garrison congregation, led by Court Preacher , and the Lutheran garrison congregation, both of whom used the Calvinist Garrison Church, would unite into one Evangelical Christian congregation on Reformation Day, 31 October, the 300th anniversary of the Reformation. Already the day before Lutherans and Reformed Christians celebrated the Lord's Supper together in Berlin's Lutheran St. Nicholas' Church.

On 7 November, Frederick William expressed his desire to see the Protestant congregations around Prussia follow this example, and become ''Union'' congregations. Lutherans of the Lutheran state church of Nassau-Saarbrücken, and Calvinists in the southerly Saar area had already formed a church united in administration on 24 October (). However, because of the unique constitutive role of congregations in Protestantism, no congregation was forced by the King's decree into merger. Thus, in the years that followed, many Lutheran and Reformed congregations did follow the example of Potsdam, and became merged congregations, while others maintained their former Lutheran or Reformed denomination.

Especially in many Rhenish places, Lutherans and Calvinists merged their parishes to form United Protestant congregations.Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß" Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992: Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here p. 17. When Prussia finally received a parliament in 1847, some church leadership offices included a seat in the first chamber of non-elected, but appointed members (succeeded by the House of Lords of Prussia as of 1854).

A number of steps were taken to effect the number of pastors that would become Union pastors. Candidates for ministry, from 1820 onwards were required to state whether they would be willing to join the Union. All of the theological faculty at the Rhenish Frederick William's University in Bonn belonged to the Union. An ecumenical ordination vow in which the pastor avowed allegiance to the Evangelical Church was also formulated.

Quarrels over the union

In 1821, the administrative umbrella comprising the Protestant congregations in Prussia adopted the name Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian Lands (german: link=no, Evangelische Kirche in den Königlich-Preußischen Landen).Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here p. 13. At Christmas time the same year, a common liturgical agenda was produced, as a result of a great deal of personal work by Frederick William, as well by the commission that he had appointed in 1798. The agenda was not well received by many Lutherans, as it was seen to compromise the wording of the Words of Institution to the point that the Real Presence was not proclaimed. More importantly, the increasing coercion of the civil authorities into church affairs was viewed as a new threat to Protestant freedom of a kind not seen since the Papacy.

In 1822, the Protestant congregations were directed to use only the newly formulated Agenda for worship. This met with strong objections from Lutheran pastors around Prussia. Despite the opposition, 5,343 out of 7,782 Protestant congregations were using the new agenda by 1825. Frederick William III took notice of , who had become his subject by the annexation of Royal Saxon territory in 1816, and who had helped the king to implement the agenda in his Lutheran congregations. In 1823, the king made him the Provost of St. Petri Church(then the highest ranking ecclesiastical office in Berlin) and an ''Oberkonsistorialrat'' (supreme consistorial councillor) and thus a member of the Marcher Consistory. He became an influential confidant of the king and one of his privy councillors and a referee to Minister Stein zum Altenstein.

After in 1818, 16 provincial synods – in German parlance a synod is a church parliament rather than the district it represents – had convened. Minister Stein zum Altenstein and the King were disappointed over the outcome, especially after the Marcher provincial synod, disliking the whole idea of parishioners' participation in church governance.Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here p. 18. The king then preferred a rather top-down organization and introduced the ecclesiastical leadership function of general superintendents, which had already existed in some provinces before the reform.

In 1828, Neander was appointed first General Superintendent of the Kurmark (1829–1853). Thus Neander fought in three fields for the new agenda, on the governmental level, within the church, and in the general public, by publications such as ''Luther in Beziehung auf die evangelische Kirchen-Agende in den Königlich Preussischen Landen'' (1827). In 1830, the king bestowed him the very unusual, title of honorary bishop. The king also bestowed titles on other collaborators in implementing the Union, with the honorary title of bishop, such as Eylert (1824), (1832), and (1836).

Debate and opposition to the new agenda persisted until 1829, when a revised edition of the agenda was produced. This liturgy incorporated a greater level of elements from the Lutheran liturgical tradition. With this introduction, the dissent against the agenda was greatly reduced. However, a significant minority felt this was merely a temporary political compromise with which the king could continue his ongoing campaign to establish a civil authority over their freedom of conscience.

In June 1829, Frederick William ordered that all Protestant congregations and clergy in Prussia give up the names ''Lutheran'' or ''Reformed'' and take up the name ''Evangelical''. The decree was not to enforce a change of belief or denomination, but was only a change of nomenclature. Subsequently, the term ''Evangelical'' (german: link=no, evangelisch) became the usual general expression for Protestant in the German language. In April 1830, Frederick William, in his instructions for the upcoming celebration of the 300th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession, ordered all Protestant congregations in Prussia to celebrate the Lord's Supper using the new agenda. Rather than having the unifying effect that Frederick William desired, the decree created a great deal of dissent amongst Lutheran congregations. In 1830, Johann Gottfried Scheibel, professor of theology at the Silesian Frederick William's University, founded in Breslau the first Lutheran congregation in Prussia, independent of the Union and outside of its umbrella organisation Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian Lands.

In a compromise with some dissenters, who had now earned the name '' Old Lutherans'', in 1834 Frederick William issued a decree, which stated that Union would only be in the areas of governance, and in the liturgical agenda, and that the respective congregations could retain their denominational identities.Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here footnote 11 on p. 27. However, in a bid to quell future dissensions of his Union, dissenters were also forbidden from organising sectarian groups.

In defiance of this decree, a number of Lutheran pastors and congregations – like that in Breslau  – believing it was contrary to the Will of God to obey the king's decree, continued to use the old liturgical agenda and sacramental rites of the Lutheran church. Becoming aware of this defiance, officials sought out those who acted against the decree. Pastors who were caught were suspended from their ministry. If suspended pastors were caught acting in a pastoral role, they were imprisoned. Having now shown his hand as a tyrant bent on oppressing their religious freedom, and under continual police surveillance, the Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian Lands began disintegrating.

Old Lutheran schism

By 1835, many dissenting Old Lutheran groups were looking to emigration as a means to finding religious freedom. Some groups emigrated to the United States and to Australia in the years leading up to 1840. They formed what are today the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (the second largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S), and the Lutheran Church of Australia, respectively.

With the death of Frederick William III in 1840, King Frederick William IV ascended to the throne. He released the pastors who had been imprisoned, and allowed the dissenting groups to form religious organisations in freedom. In 1841, the Old Lutherans who had stayed in Prussia convened in a general synod in Breslau and founded the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Prussia, which merged in 1972 with Old Lutheran church bodies in other German states to become today's Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church (german: link=no, Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, or SELK). On 23 July 1845, the royal government recognised the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Prussia and its congregations as legal entities. In the same year the Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian Lands reinforced its self-conception as the Prussian State's church and was renamed as the Evangelical State Church of Prussia (german: link=no, Evangelische Landeskirche Preußens).

Protestant churches in Prussia's new provinces

In 1850, the predominantly Catholic principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, ruled by Catholic princely branches of the Hohenzollern family, joined the Kingdom of Prussia and became the Province of Hohenzollern. There had hardly been any Protestants in the tiny area, but with the support from Berlin congregational, structures were built up. Until 1874, three (later altogether five) congregations were founded and in 1889, organised as a deanery of its own. The congregations were stewarded by the Evangelical Supreme Church Council (see below) like congregations of expatriates abroad. On 1 January 1899, the congregations became an integral part of the Prussian state church. No separate ecclesiastical province was established, but the deanery was supervised by that of the Rhineland. In 1866, Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover (then converted into the Province of Hanover), the Free City of Frankfurt upon Main, the Electorate of Hesse, and the Duchy of Nassau (combined as Province of Hesse-Nassau) as well as the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein (becoming the Province of Schleswig-Holstein), all prevailingly Lutheran territories, where Lutherans and the minority of Calvinists had not united. After the trouble with the Old Lutherans in pre-1866 Prussia, the Prussian government refrained from imposing the Prussian Union onto the church bodies in these territories. Also the reconciliation of the Lutheran majority of the citizens in the annexed states with their new Prussian citizenship was not to be further complicated by religious quarrels. Thus the Protestant organisations in the annexed territories maintained their prior constitutions or developed new, independent Lutheran or Calvinist structures.

Foreign commitment of the Church

At the instigation of Frederick William IV the Anglican Church of England and the Evangelical Church in the Royal Prussian Lands founded the Anglican-Evangelical Bishopric in Jerusalem (1841–1886). Its bishops and clergy proselytised in the Holy Land among the non-Muslim native population and German immigrants, such as the Templers. But Calvinist, Evangelical, and Lutheran expatriates in the Holy Land from Germany and Switzerland also joined the German-speaking congregations.

A number of congregations of Arabic or German language emerged in Beit Jalla (Ar.), Beit Sahour (Ar.), Bethlehem of Judea (Ar.), German Colony (Haifa) (Ger.), American Colony (Jaffa) (Ger.), Jerusalem (Ar. a. Ger.), Nazareth (Ar.), and Waldheim (Ger.).

With financial aid from Prussia, other German states, the , the , and others, a number of churches and other premises were built. But there were also congregations of emigrants and expatriates in other areas of the Ottoman Empire (2), as well as in Argentina (3), Brazil (10), Bulgaria (1), Chile (3), Egypt (2), Italy (2), the Netherlands (2), Portugal (1), Romania (8), Serbia (1), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), United Kingdom (5), and Uruguay (1) and the foreign department of the Evangelical Supreme Church Council (see below) stewarded them.

Structures and bodies of the ''Evangelical State Church of Prussia''

The Evangelical State Church of Prussia stayed abreast of the changes and was renamed in 1875 as the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces (german: link=no, Evangelische Landeskirche der älteren Provinzen Preußens). Its central bodies were the executive Evangelical Supreme Church Council (german: link=no, Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat, EOK, est. in 1850, renamed the Church Chancery in 1951), seated in Jebensstraße # 3 (Berlin, 1912–2003) and the legislative General Synod (german: link=no, Generalsynode).

The General Synod first convened in June 1846, presided by Daniel Neander, and consisting of representatives of the clergy, the parishioners, and members nominated by the king. The General Synod found agreement on the teaching and the ordination, but the king did not confirm any of its decisions. After 1876 the general synod comprised 200 synodals, 50 laymen parishioners, 50 pastors, 50 deputies of the Protestant theological university faculties as ex officio members, and 50 synodals appointed by the king.Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here p. 19.

The Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces had substructures, called ecclesiastical province (german: link=no, Kirchenprovinz; see ecclesiastical province of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia), in the nine pre-1866 political provinces of Prussia, to wit in the Province of East Prussia (homonymous ecclesiastical province), in Berlin, which had become a separate Prussian administrative unit in 1881, and the Province of Brandenburg (Ecclesiastical Province of the March of Brandenburg for both), in the Province of Pomerania (homonymous), in the Province of Posen (homonymous), in the Rhine Province and since 1899 in the Province of Hohenzollern (Ecclesiastical Province of the Rhineland), in the Province of Saxony (homonymous), in the Province of Silesia (homonymous), in the Province of Westphalia (homonymous), and in the Province of West Prussia (homonymous).

Every ecclesiastical province had a provincial synod representing the provincial parishioners and clergy, and one or more consistories led by general superintendents. The ecclesiastical provinces of Pomerania and Silesia had two (after 1922), those of Saxony and the ''March of Brandenburg'', three – from 1911 to 1933 the latter even four – general superintendents, annually alternating in the leadership of the respective consistory.

The two western provinces, Rhineland and Westphalia, had the strongest Calvinist background, since they included the territories of the former Duchies of Berg, Cleves, and Juliers and the Counties of Mark, Tecklenburg, the Siegerland, and the Principality of Wittgenstein, all of which had Calvinist traditions. Already in 1835, the provincial church constitutions (german: link=no, Provinzial-Kirchenordnung) provided for a general superintendent and congregations in both ecclesiastical provinces with presbyteries of elected presbyters.

While this level of parishioners' democracy emerged in the other Prussian provinces only in 1874, when Otto von Bismarck, in his second term as Prussian Minister-President (9 November 1873 – 20 March 1890), gained the parliamentary support of the National Liberals in the Prussian State Diet (german: link=no, Landtag). Prussia's then minister of education and religious affairs, Adalbert Falk, put the bill through, which extended the combined Rhenish and Westphalian presbyterial and consistorial church constitution to all the ''Evangelical State Church in Prussia''. Therefore, the terminology is differing: In the Rhineland and Westphalia a presbytery is called in german: link=no, Presbyterium, a member thereof is a ''Presbyter'', while in the other provinces the corresponding terms are ''Gemeindekirchenrat'' (''congregation council'') with its members being called ''Älteste'' (''elder'').

Authoritarian traditions competed with liberal and modern ones. Committed congregants formed ''Kirchenparteien'', which nominated candidates for the elections of the parochial presbyteries and of the provincial or church-wide general synods. A strong ''Kirchenpartei'' were the ''Konfessionellen'' (''the denominationals''), representing congregants of Lutheran tradition, who had succumbed in the process of uniting the denominations after 1817 and still fought the Prussian Union. They promoted Neo-Lutheranism and strictly opposed the liberal stream of , promoting rationalism and a reconcialition of belief and modern knowledge, advocated by Deutscher Protestantenverein.Claus Wagener, "Die evangelische Kirche der altpreußischen Union", p. 24.

A third ''Kirchenpartei'' was the anti-liberal ''Volkskirchlich-Evangelische Vereinigung'' (VEV, established in the mid-19th century, ''People's Church-Evangelical Association''), colloquially ''Middle party'' (german: link=no, Mittelpartei), affirming the Prussian Union, criticising the Higher criticism in Biblical science, but still claiming the freedom of science also in theology. The middle party's long-serving president and member of the general synod (1891–1915) was the known law professor ( DVP), who co-authored the Weimar Constitution.Eckhard Lessing, "Gemeinschaft im Dienst am Evangelium: Der theoligische Weg der EKU", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 29–37, here p. 36.

By far the most successful ''Kirchenpartei'' in church elections was the anti-liberal '' Union'',Eckhard Lessing, "Gemeinschaft im Dienst am Evangelium: Der theologische Weg der EKU", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 29–37, here p. 32. being in common sense with the ''Konfessionellen'' in many fields, but affirming the Prussian Union. Therefore, the ''Positive Union'' often formed coalitions with the ''Konfessionellen''. King William I of Prussia sided with the ''Positive Union''. Before 1918 most consistories and the ''Evangelical Supreme Church Council'' were dominated by proponents of the ''Positive Union''. In 1888 King William II of Prussia could only appoint the liberal Adolf von Harnack as professor of theology at the Frederick William University of Berlin after long public debates and protests by the ''Evangelical Supreme Church Council''.

The ever-growing societal segment of the workers among the Evangelical parishioners had little affinity to the Church, which was dominated in their pastors and functionaries by members of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. A survey held in early 1924 determine that in 96 churches in Berlin, Charlottenburg, and Schöneberg, only 9 to 15% of the parishioners actually attended the services. Congregations in workers' districts, often comprising several ten thousands of parishioners, usually counted hardly more than a hundred congregants in regular services.Claus Wagener, "Die Vorgeschichte des Kirchenkampfes", p. 33. William II and his wife Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, who presided over the Evangelical Association for the Construction of Churches, often financed church construction for poor congregations and promoted massive programmes of church constructions especially in workers' districts, but could not increase the attraction of the State Church for the workers. However, it earned the queen the nickname ''Kirchen-Juste''. More impetus reached the charitable work of the State Church, which was much carried by the Inner Mission and the diaconal work of deaconesses.

Modern anti-Semitism, emerging in the 1870s, with its prominent proponent Heinrich Treitschke and its famous opponent Theodor Mommsen, a son of a pastor and later Nobel Prize laureate, found also supporters among the proponents of traditional Protestant Anti-Judaism as promoted by the Prussian court preacher Adolf Stoecker. The new King William II dismissed him in 1890 for the reason of his political agitation by his anti-Semitic Christian Social Party, neo-paganism and personal scandals.

The intertwining of most leading clerics and church functionaries with traditional Prussian elites brought about that the State Church considered the First World War as a just war. Pacifists, like Hans Francke (Church of the Holy Cross, Berlin), Walter Nithack-Stahn ( William I Memorial Church, Charlottenburg part of today's Berlin, and Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze (Evangelical ''Auferstehungsheim'', Friedensstraße No. 60, Berlin) made up a small, but growing minority among the clergy. The State Church supported the issuances of nine series of war bonds and subscribed itself for war bonds amounting to 41 million marks (ℳ).

Territorial and constitutional changes after 1918

With the end of the Prussian monarchy in 1918 also the king's function as ''summus episcopus'' (Supreme Governor of the Evangelical Church) ceased to exist. Furthermore, the Weimar Constitution of 1919 decreed the separation of state and religion. Thus its new constitution of 29 September 1922Eckhard Lessing, "Gemeinschaft im Dienst am Evangelium: Der theologische Weg der EKU", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 29–37, here p. 35. the ''Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces'' reorganised in 1922 under the name Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union (german: link=no, Evangelische Kirche der altpreußischen Union, EKapU or ApU). The church did not bear the term ''State Church'' within its name any more, taking into account that its congregations now spread over six sovereign states. The new name was after a denomination, not after a state any more. It became a difficult task to maintain the unity of the church, with some of the annexing states being opposed to the fact that church bodies within their borders keep a union with German church organisations.

The territory comprising the ''Ecclesiastical Province of Posen'' was now largely Polish, and except of small fringes that of West Prussia had been either seized by Poland or Danzig. The trans- Niemen part of East Prussia ( Klaipėda Region) became a League of Nations mandate as of 10 January 1920 and parts of Prussian Silesia were either annexed by Czechoslovakia ( Hlučín Region) or Poland ( Polish Silesia), while four congregations of the Rhenish ecclesiastical province were seized by Belgium, and many more became part of the Mandatory Saar (League of Nations).

The Evangelical congregation in Hlučín, annexed by Czechoslovakia in 1920, joined thereafter the Silesian Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession of Czech Silesia. The Polish government ordered the disentanglement of the ''Ecclesiastical Province of Posen'' of the ''Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces'' – except of its congregations remaining with Germany. The now Polish church body then formed the (german: link=no, Unierte Evangelische Kirche in Polen, pl, link=no, Ewangelicki Kościół Unijny w Polsce),Wilhelm Hüffmeier, "Die Evangelische Kirche der Union: Eine kurze geschichtliche Orientierung", in: ''"... den großen Zwecken des Christenthums gemäß": Die Evangelische Kirche der Union 1817 bis 1992; Eine Handreichung für die Gemeinden'', Wilhelm Hüffmeier (compilator) for the Kirchenkanzlei der Evangelischen Kirche der Union (ed.) on behalf of the Synod, Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1992, pp. 13–28, here p. 22. which existed separately from the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland until 1945, when most of the former's congregants fled the approaching Soviet army or were subsequently denaturalised by Poland due to their German native language and expelled (1945–1950).

The ''United Evangelical Church in Poland'' also incorporated the Evangelical congregations in Pomerellia, ceded by Germany to Poland in February 1920, which prior used to belong to the ''Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia'', as well as the congregations in Soldau and 32 further East Prussian municipalities,Konrad Müller, ''Staatsgrenzen und evangelische Kirchengrenzen: Gesamtdeutsche Staatseinheit und evangelische Kircheneinheit nach deutschem Recht'', Axel von Campenhausen (ed. and introd.), Tübingen: Mohr, 1988 (=Jus ecclesiasticum; vol. 35), p. 96; simultaneously Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 1948. . which Germany ceded to Poland on 10 January 1920, prior belonging to the ''Ecclesiastical Province of East Prussia''.

A number of congregations lay in those northern and western parts of the Province of Posen, which were not annexed by Poland and remained with Germany. They were united with those congregations of the westernmost area of West Prussia, which remained with Germany, to form the new Posen-West Prussian ecclesiastical province. The congregations in the eastern part of West Prussia remaining with Germany, joined the ''Ecclesiastical Province of East Prussia'' on 9 March 1921.

The 17 congregations in East Upper Silesia, ceded to Poland in 1922, constituted on 6 June 1923 as (german: link=no, Unierte Evangelische Kirche in Polnisch Oberschlesien, pl, link=no, Ewangelicki Kościół Unijny na polskim Górnym Śląsku). The church formed an old-Prussian ecclesiastical province until May 1937, when the German Polish Geneva Accord on Upper Silesia expired. Between 1945 and 1948 it underwent the same fate like the ''United Evangelical Church in Poland''. The congregations in Eupen, Malmedy, Neu-Moresnet, and St. Vith, located in the now Belgian East Cantons, were disentangled from the ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'' as of 1 October 1922 and joined until 1923/1924 the ''Union des églises évangéliques protestantes de Belgique'', which later transformed into the United Protestant Church in Belgium. They continue to exist until this very day.

The congregations in the territory seized by the Free City of Danzig, which prior belonged to the ''Ecclesiastical Province of West Prussia'', transformed into the Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig (german: link=no, Landessynodalverband der Freien Stadt Danzig). It remained an ecclesiastical province of the ''Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union'', since the Danzig Senate (government) did not oppose cross-border church bodies. The Danzig ecclesiastical province also co-operated with the ''United Evangelical Church in Poland'' as to the education of pastors, since its Polish theological students of German native language were hindered to study at German universities by restrictive Polish pass regulations.

The congregations in the ''League of Nations mandate of the Klaipėda Region'' (german: link=no, Memelgebiet) continued to belong to the . When from 10 to 16 January 1923 neighbouring Lithuania conquered the mandatory territory and annexed it on 24 January, the situation of the congregations there turned precarious. On 8 May 1924 Lithuania and the mandatory powers France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom signed the Klaipėda Convention, granting autonomy to the inhabitants of the Klaipėda Region. This enabled the ''Evangelical Ch