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Towards Secularisation

Under the impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, the territories were reorganised with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (1803), particularly through secularisation, that is, the loss of the Church’s property. The consequence was the internal dual denomination within political units and the separation between citizenship and religious affiliation. As a result, the Jewish population was granted the right to hold citizenship, a right it had previously been denied. However, the legal status of people belonging to independent Protestant Churches, voluntary associations that developed in the 19th century remained uncertain at the time, Protestant churches continued to function as State churches (Landeskirchen) controlled by the Princes as Summepiscopats. Indeed, the power of the State became stronger and this is evident through the union declared between the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia (1817).

D 19 July 2012    AMatthias Koenig

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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