Lietuvos vokiečių ir lietuvių santykiai Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčioje 1918–1940 m

Abstract

The relations between Lithuanian Germans and Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans have not been thoroughly covered in historiography. The studies of German historian Arthur Hermann, who among other things gives a general overview of the activities of the Consistory of Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans and German Evangelical Lutherans, their relations with Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans and other similar issues, make an exception. The activities of the Faculty of Evangelical Theology in Kaunas in 1925–1936, the interior conflict in the Kaunas Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1918–1940 and Kaunas Evangelical Lutheran Parish in general in 1919–1953 have also captured the attention of historians. Whereas the studies accomplished to this day do not provide a comprehensive view of the relations between Lithuanian Germans and Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans during the analyzed period, a decision was made to bring this publication to life in the attempt to fill the existing gaps in historiography. The aim of the article is to reveal the relations between Lithuanian Germans and Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans from 1918 to 1940. Abundant archival data, which for the most part is kept in the Lithuanian State Central Archives (LSCA), helped to reveal the topic under discussion. The data stored at the fund of the State Security Department (f. 378) of the said archives (monthly reviews and reports prepared by the political police) on the activities of Germans residing in Lithuania is especially valuable. The documents kept at the fund of the Ministry of Interior (f. 377) and other funds of the archives, as well as periodical press of that time were also used. According to the Lithuanian census of 1923, the religious distribution of local Germans (excluding those from Klaipėda Region), whose population at that time amounted to 29,231, was as follows: Roman Catholics – 207, Jews – 1, Evangelical Lutherans – 28,671 (it accounted for as much as 98.08 % of the total Lithuanian German population), Orthodox – 26, Evangelical Reformers – 212, Baptists – 48, Evangelical Methodists – 43, Free Evangelicals – 18, non-believers – 1, Adventists – 4. This census revealed that the counties of Tauragė, Vilkaviškis, Šiauliai, Kaunas, Šakiai, Marijampolė, Biržai were the largest centres of Evangelical Reformers in Lithuania. The research revealed that in the first decade of independence the domination of Germans in the Lithuanian Evangelical community was determined by the leading positions held for a long time by the representatives of this nationality in the Church of the Evangelical community of the country and the monopoly held by German Evangelical Lutheran priests in preaching the doctrine to believers (in the first years of independence the numbers of Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran priests were very scarce), as well as a quantitative advantage of the German community (in 1923 Germans made up 43.06 %, Lithuanians – 33.51 %, Latvians – 20.36 % of the overall Evangelical Lutheran community, while the remaining small part of Evangelical Lutherans consisted of other nationalities and foreigners). However, in 1930s Germans lost their leading positions in the Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran community. It was due to the strict position of the leadership of the Consistory of Lithuanian Evangelicals in their fight against Germanization among Evangelical Lutherans, the growth of the number of Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran priests and the growing awareness of Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans themselves in the struggle with German Evangelical Lutherans for their equal rights and the leading role in the aforementioned religious community.