Ein Jahrzehnt der Hoffnungen. Reformgruppen in der bayerischen Landeskirche 1966–1976 (review)

Speaking in 1971 to the Synod of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), Bavarian Protestant state bishop Hermann Dietzfelbinger warned his colleagues, “we stand today in a faith struggle compared to which the church struggle of the Third Reich was merely a skirmish” (p. 12). In the eyes of many traditional Lutherans in the Bavarian State Church—and, indeed, across Germany—it seemed that the influence of modern theology, popular culture, and left-wing student politics posed a dire threat to the integrity of the church and its historical mission. Many young pastors and laypeople, for their part, felt an equally urgent need for church reforms that would promote democracy, a more equitable structure, and political reorientation, thus saving the church from irrelevance in the increasingly secular modern world. Yet for all of the controversy that surrounded these conflicts during the late 1960s and early 1970s, historians have only recently begun to examine them in much depth. Historical scholarship on Protestants in postwar West Germany lags far behind the state of research on postwar German Catholicism, not to mention work on the churches under both the Nazi and East German dictatorships. For this reason, Angela Hager’s new book is a welcome foray into relatively uncharted territory.

Focusing on the period 1966–76, Hager examines the role of three reform groups that sought to transform both the structure and the broader culture of the Bavarian state church: the Arbeitskreis Evangelische Erneuerung, a broad, reform-oriented circle of clergy and laity; the Vereinigung Bayerischer Vikare, an organization founded to represent the interests of vicars (pastoral interns); and the Landeskonvent bayerischer evangelischer Theologiestudenten, a group representing Bavarian Protestant theology students. The first major section of the book examines the founding and organization of these groups in the context of the larger cultural, political, and theological movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The second goes into more detail on the groups’ major actions and goals, including in-depth examination of several specific controversies in which they were engaged. These include the push for ratification of the Leuenberg Concord, which opened full communion between most of Europe’s major Protestant churches; advocacy for the ordination of women; criticism of traditional understandings of the pastorate and the local parish; efforts to broaden pastoral training to include more engagement with humanistic and social scientific learning; and support for greater (left-of-center) political and social engagement by the churches. The third major section analyzes oral and written interviews with important figures in these movements in an attempt to understand how they viewed (and view) their own role in the movements and events under examination.

The book provides an excellent general background on Germany’s Protestant churches during the 1960s and 1970s, concisely summarizing recent research in the field. It also draws attention to several interesting controversies in the Bavarian church. These include the fight over the “Engagement Paragraph” in Bavarian church law, which required pastors and theology students to submit background information on potential spouses for the approval of the church hierarchy, and the “Ordination Dodger” (Ordinationsverweigerer) controversy, in which several vicars, already licensed to administer the sacraments, refused to undergo full ordination as a symbolic protest against the hierarchical structure of the church. It also examines Bavarian church debates on larger issues such as 1970s-era changes in West German relations with the Eastern Bloc (Ostpolitik) and reactions to the controversial Program to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches. Despite these strengths, the book is written for a relatively narrow audience of specialists and is unlikely to have great appeal to those not already well versed in German Protestantism.