The Impact of the Decrees of the President of the Republic on the German-speaking Church Structures - The Case of the German Evangelical and the Old Catholic Church
2015
Abstract
The paper describes the situation of the German Evangelical and the Old Catholic Church immediately after the end of Second World War. Both churches were composed of a large majority of German-speaking believers (around 95 %) and their structure was heavily damaged by the Decrees of the President of the Republic.
Their different fate - the German Evangelical Church was abolished, but the Old Catholic Church was allowed to continue after a fictive reorganization as a Czech church with most of its original possessions - proves that the repressive legal norms were not applied systematically and in the degree of application also non-legal influences played a role, like personal contacts and political influences.