German Nationalism and Its Influence on the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland 1917–1939

Abstract

The roots of German nationalism among members of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland are bound with the activity of German authorities who tried to separate the German community in the occupied Kingdom of Poland during the First World War. German nationalism of the era was based on religious, social, and political factors, such as the idea of a unified German nation both within and outside of the German Reich. According to this idea, the German state was to be the defender of the German people worldwide. Such ideas woke the separatist tendencies inside the Augsburg Church. The political situation in the Second Polish Republic and spread of the national socialist ideology in the 1930s increased the separatist tendencies in the Church and led to a conflict with its pro-governmental Consistory and the General Superintendent, later Bishop Juliusz Bursche.

Keywords

• church
• lutheran
• poland
• german nationalism
• nazi movement
• second polish republic
• kościół
• luterański
• polska
• niemiecki nacjonalizm
• ruch nazistowski
• ii rzeczpospolita