1. Ritter, Gerhard, Frederick the Great: A Historical Profile, trans. Paret, Peter (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968), p. 167.Google Scholar

2. The following important studies of administration do not consider ecclesiastical reform or reformers: Gillis, John R., The Prussian Bureaucracy in Crisis, 1840–1860: Origins of an Administrative Ethos (Stanford, 1971);Google ScholarKoselleck, Reinhart, Preussen zwischen Reform und Revolution: Allgemeines Landrecht, Verwaltung und soziale Bewegung von 1791 bis 1848 (Stuttgart, 1967);Google ScholarRosenberg, Hans, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Autocracy: The Prussian Experience, 1660–1815 (Cambridge, 1958).Google Scholar

The following books do include information on ecclesiastical issues in separate chapters or volumes but do not integrate that material into the broader questions of the goals of official reformers: Heffter, Heinrich, Die deutsche Selbstverwaltung im 19. Jahrhundert: Geschichte der Ideen und Institutionen (Stuttgart, 1950);Google ScholarHuber, Ernst Rudolf, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789, I–III (Stuttgart, 1957–1963);Google ScholarSchnabel, Franz, Deutsche Geschichte im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (Freiburg, 1947–1950).Google Scholar

There are important exceptions to my generalization. Fischer's, Fritz biography, Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg und der Protestantismus (Berlin, 1938),Google Scholar shows clearly the importance of ecclesiastical concerns in Bethmann-Hollweg's career. Another biography that shows the political implications of religious issues is Wendland's, WalterDie Religiosität und die kirchenpolitischen Grundsätze Friedrich Wilhelms des Dritten in ihrer Bedeutung für die Geschichte der kirchlichen Restauration (Giessen, 1909).Google Scholar

A few historians argue for the importance of ecclesiastical issues in more general way. Two include radical religious movements of the 1840's in the political fevers of those years: Holden, Catherine Magill, “A Decade of Dissent in Germany: An Historical Study of the Society of Protestant Friends and the German-Catholic Church, 1840–1848” (unpub. diss., Yale University, 1954);Google ScholarRosenberg, Hans, “Theologischer Rationalismus u. vormärzlicher Vulgärliberalismus,” Historische Zeitschrift, CXLI (1930), 497–541.Google ScholarHintze's, Otto article “Die Epochen des evangelischen Kirchenregiments in Preussen,” Historische Zeitschrift, LXXXXVII (1906), 67–118,Google Scholar places ecclesiastical issues within the broader political and administrative development of Prussia.

The most useful books on ecclesiastical issues in the Prussian Vormärz are usually found in the libraries of theological schools. Among the most important for this work are: Geppert, Walter, Das Wesen der preussischen Union (Berlin, 1939);Google ScholarKissling, Johannes B., Der deutsche Protestantismus, 2 vols. (Münster in Westf., 1917);Google ScholarNigg, Walter, Geschichte des religiösen Liberalismus (Zurich and Leipzig, 1937).Google Scholar

3. Das allgemeine preussische Landrecht, ed. Grotefend, G. A. (Düsseldorf, 1879), pp. 510–74.Google Scholar Although the Code separated clerical officials and professors from civil and military officials, Robert M. Bigler has observed that in it canon law was considered part of administrative law and that after 1815 higher officials of the state church were generally considered a branch of the civil service. Bigler, Robert M., The Politics of German Protestantism (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), pp. 6, 39–40.Google Scholar

4. Koselleck, p. 226.

5. This summary of the tradition of official reform is based upon Koselleck, pp. 153–332, especially 153–62; Huber, I, 95–313; Heffter, pp. 84–103; for reform before 1806 see Hintze, Otto, “Preussische Reformbestrebungen vor 1806,” Historische Zeitschrift, LXXVII (1896), 413–43.Google Scholar

6. Kissling, I, 20; Schnabel, IV, 320–26; for the state church before the nineteenth century see Dorwart, Reinhold August, The Administrative Reforms of Frederick William I of Prussia (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 96–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Because the Hohenzollerns were Calvinist kings of Lutheran provinces it is not surprising to discover that interest in unifying the branches of Prussian Protestantism began long before the Era of Reform, possibly with the Great Elector. See von Thadden, Rudolf, Die brandenburgisch-preussischen Hofprediger im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1959), pp. 130–39,Google Scholar and, for the years immediately preceding the Era of Reform, Wendland, p. 73.

8. Quoted in Christian von Bunsen, Carl Josias Baron, Signs of the Times: Letters to Ernst Moritz Arndt on the Dangers to Religious Liberty in the Present State of the World, trans. Winkworth, Susanna (New York, 1856), p. 503.Google Scholar For evidence of Eylert's authorship see Wendland, p. 110.

9. Sack, Karl Heinrich, Für die Vereinigung der lutherischen und der reformirten Kirche: Wider die 21 Letzten der 95 Sätze von Claus Harms (Berlin, 1817), pp. 3, 5, 28.Google Scholar

10. Bunsen, pp. 502–3.

11. vom Stein, Freiherr, Briefe und Amtliche Schriften, ed. Hubatsch, Walther, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1957–1970), II, part II, 991.Google Scholar

12. Ritter, Gerhard, Stein: Eine politische Biographie, 2 vols. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1931), I, 448–49.Google Scholar

13. Bunsen, p. 504.

14. Schleiermacher, Friedrich, Aus Schleiermachers Leben in Briefen, ed. Dilthey, Wilhelm, 2nd ed., 4 vols. (Berlin, 1860–1863), IV, 220–21.Google Scholar

15. Allegmeine Kirchenzeitung, Jan. 14, 1834, p. 65.

16. Simon, Walter M., The Failure of the Prussian Reform Movement, 1807–1819 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1955);Google Scholar Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, p. 208; Walker, Mack, German Home Towns: Community, State, and General Estate, 1648–1871 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1971), p. 344.Google Scholar

17. Kissling, I, 25.

18. Wendland, pp. 130–34.

19. Schleiermacher's writings against the Agende and in support of a synodal ecclesiastical constitution take up a large portion of the fourth volume of his letters. See, for example, “Vorstellung der zwölf Protestirenden gegen die weiteren Schritte des Consistoriums bei dem Minister der geistlichen Angelegenheiten von Altenstein,” IV, 459–70, esp. p. 464.

20. Richter, Aemilius Ludwig, Die Verhandlungen der preussischen Generalsynode: Übersichtliche Darstellung nach der amtlichen Ausgabe der Protokolle (Leipzig, 1847), pp. 35–37,Google Scholar lists names of participants; identification of them as reformers rests upon the evidence given in the following footnotes and, whenever identification of speakers in the above Verhandlungen is possible, in the proceedings of the synod.

21. See, for example, Theologische Studien u. Kritiken, ed. Ullmann, C. and Umbreit, F. W. C. (Hamburg), IV (1831), 181–88.Google Scholar A young theological student who observed Nitzsch's work in the 1840's later wrote his biography: Beyschlag, Willibald, Karl Immanuel Nitzsch (Berlin, 1872).Google Scholar

22. Sack's writing in support of ecclesiastical reform includes, in addition to the above-mentioned 1817 work in support of the Union, Einige Bemerkungen über Synodalverfassung mit Bezug auf die Äusserungen der Evangelische Kirchenzeitung über diesen Gegenstand (Bonn, 1832);Google ScholarDie Kirche von Schottland: Beiträge zu deren Geschichte und Beschreibung, 2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1844–1845).Google Scholar Sack and Nitzsch collaborated in the founding of a journal, Monatsschrift für die evangelische Kirche der Rheinprovinz und Westfalens, whose advertised purpose was to show the advantages of the settlement reached in 1835. Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, Jan. 19, 1843, p. 94.

23. Dorner's support of reform is verified in a letter collection: Martensen, H. L. and Dorner, Julius A., Briefwechsel zwischen H. L. Martensen und J. A. Dorner, 1839–1881, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1888);Google Scholar in his History of Protestant Theology, trans. Robson, George and Taylor, Sophia, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1871);Google Scholar and in public letters written in 1848: Sendschreiben über Reform der evangelischen Landeskirchen im Zusammenhang mit der Herstellung einer evangelisch-deutschen Nationalkirche: an Dr. C. J. Nitzsch in Berlin und Julius Müller in Halle (Bonn, 1848).Google Scholar

24. Müller's polemical skill was greater than Nitzsch's, Sack's, or Dorner's. In addition to writing one of the major reports of the 1846 synod (Richter, pp. 276–311), he wrote the following books: Die nächsten Aufgaben für die Fortbildung der deutsch-protestantischen Kirchenverfassung (Breslau, 1845);Google Scholardie erste Generalsynode der evangelischen Landeskirche Presussens und die kirchlichen Bekenntnisse (Breslau, 1847);Google Scholar and Die evangelische Union, ihr Wesen und gottliches Recht (Berlin, 1854).Google Scholar

25. Snethlage was a historian as well as superintendent and wrote a history of the synod as developed in the western provinces in which he used historical arguments to justify its extension to the east: Die älteren Presbyterial-Kirchenordnungen der Länder Jülich, Berg, Cleve, und Mark, in Verbindung mit der neuen Kirchenordnung für die evangelischen Gemeinden der Provinz Westfalen und der Rhein Provinz, 2nd ed. (Bielefeld, 1850).Google Scholar Evidence that Ritschl was a reformer rests upon Ritschl, Albert, “Georg Karl Benjamin R. Ritschl,” Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 56 vols. (Leipzig, 1875–1912), XXVIII, 661–64 (hereafter cited as ADB).Google Scholar On Neander see Krabbe, Otto Carsten, August Neander (Hamburg, 1852), pp. 5–6, 55–58.Google Scholar

26. Fischer, Bethmann-Hollweg, pp. 108, 136–43, 157–59, 326–28. I have not used the nobiliary prefix in the text because, since Bethmann-Hollweg was ennobled only in 1840, like most other reformers he was not of noble origin.

27. Although Eichhorn was dismissed in 1848 and has not fared too well with historians, his appointment in 1840 was welcomed by reformers, for he had been a reformer and did in fact carry out a program of synodal reform until stopped by his king. See Meiendorf, Petr Kazimirovich, Ein russischer Diplomat an den Höfen von Berlin und Wien. Politischer und privater Briefwechsel: 1826–1863, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1923), I, 123;Google Scholar Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, p. 213; and Martensen, I, 170.

28. Klee, Émile W., Die allgemeine christliche Kirche oder das Princip der Reformation zu Feststellung des Begriffs der Evangelischen Kirche und ihrer Beziehung zu Staat und Wissenschaft (Berlin, 1847). This book was an expanded version of one written in 1839.Google Scholar

29. In addition to editing the proceedings of the synod in a way that revealed his bias in favor of reform, Aemilius Richter, like Snethlage, wrote a historical study to show the pervasive tradition of synodal government in Germany: Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Weimar, 1846).Google Scholar

30. On Sydow see his book: Die schottische Kirchenfrage mit den darauf bezüglichen Dokumenten: Ein kirchliches Rechtsgutachten (Potsdam, 1845).Google Scholar Like Sack he found the Scottish situation a useful parallel to the Prussian. Like Nitzsch and Sack he worked in the 1840's on a journal, the Monatsschrift für die unirte evangelische Kirche, that advocated a synodal constitution.

31. Schwerin and Auerswald appear throughout the proceedings as advocates of reform. See also: Granier, Herman, “Maximilian Heinrich Karl Anton Graf von Schwerin,” ADB, XXXIII, 429–35,Google Scholar and Bardeleben, R. v., “Alfred v. Auerswald,” ADB, I, 642–44.Google Scholar

Schwerin's and Auerswald's position as county councillors (Landräte) makes it difficult to place them by function. Since they were nominated for their posts by the estates, Lamberti, Marjorie argues in “The Rise of the Prussian Conservative Party 1840–1858” (unpub. diss., Yale University, 1966), p. 11,Google Scholar that county councillors should be considered ständische, not bureaucratic, officials. Gillis, on the other hand, argues that the position of Landrat was a bureaucratic one, since final appointment was by the state, not the Kreistag, and since the councillor was “accepted socially as part of the higher bureaucratic elite” (p. xiv). Though it is true that administrative reforms did not extend to the county level and that, therefore, one has a right to expect that Junker officials at that level would remain unreconstructed, Gillis may be right in his assessment. These two Junkers, at any rate, were clearly not patrimonial in their concern and shared the national perspective of the other officials with whom they worked. Further study of the impact of official reform on the county level is probably needed. For a brief but interesting summary of the situation on the county level before Bismarckian times see Berdahl, Robert M., “Conservative Politics and Aristocratic Landholders in Bismarckian Germany,” Journal of Modern History, XLIV (1972), 7–9.Google Scholar

32. For the text of the settlement in 1835 see either Snethlage, Die älteren Presbyterial-Kirchenordnungen, pp. 173–208, or Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, November 8–12, 1835.

33. Mar. 18/30, 1841, Meiendorf, I, 168–69.

34. Gillis, pp. 18–66.

35. Bigler, pp. 55–57, 122–23. See also O'Boyle, Lenore, “The Problem of an Excess of Educated Men in Western Europe, 1800–1850,” Journal of Modern History, XLII (1970), 473.Google Scholar

36. On the Society of Protestant Friends (Lichtfreunde) see Nigg, pp. 176–202; Rosenberg, “Theologischer Rationalismus”; and Holden.

37. Martensen, I, 110.

38. Klee, p. 195.

39. As the conservative Evangelische Kirchenzeitung contemptuously described their goal on July 22, 1846, p. 502.

40. On the circle of the Crown Prince see Meinecke, Friedrich, Cosmopolitanism and the National State, trans. Kimber, Robert B., intro. Felix Gilbert (Princeton, 1970), pp. 160–96;Google Scholar and Schoeps, Hans Joachim, Das andere Preussen, 1st ed. (Stuttgart, 1952), pp. 22–40.Google Scholar On the development of romantic conservatism see Neumann, Sigmund, Die Stufen des preussischen Konservatismus (Berlin, 1930), pp. 68–112;Google Scholar and Stillich, Oscar, Die politischen Parteien in Deutschland, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1908), I, 86–89.Google Scholar For interesting literary evidence of the late development of estates in Germany see Mohl, Ruth, The Three Estates in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (New York, 1933), pp. 82–95.Google Scholar

41. Frederick William set out his plans for the church in a letter to Bunsen in 1840 that is found in von Ranke, Leopold, Aus dem Briefwechsel Friedrich Wilhelm IV. mit Bunsen (Leipzig, 1873), pp. 46–75.Google Scholar

42. Bunsen in Bonwetsch, G. Nathanael, Aus vierzig Jahren deutscher Kirchengeschichte, 2 vols. (Gütersloh, 1917), I, 33.Google Scholar For the work of the National Synod see this author's dissertation, “Prussian Ecclesiastical Reform: A Study of Official Reformers in the Vormärz” (unpub. diss., University of Connecticut, 1971), pp. 86–127.Google Scholar

43. von Gerlach, Ernst Ludwig, Aufzeichnungen aus seinem Leben und Wirken (1795–1877), 4 vols. (Schwerin, 1903), II, 452.Google Scholar

44. Ranke, p. 336.

45. Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. Wright, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York, 1958), p. 197.Google Scholar

46. Of 76 members, I have found only one who left state service. Adolf Sydow quit his job and became the pastor of a free congregation in Berlin. , M. G., “Karl Leopold Adolf G. Sydow,” ADB, XXXVII, 277.Google Scholar

47. Meiendorf, I, 344.

48. Beyschlag, Willibald, Aus meinem Leben: Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen jüngeren Jahre, 2 vols. (Halle, 1896), I, 260–61.Google Scholar

49. Sydow, p. xix.

50. Gillis, pp. 49–66.

51. Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, July 16, 1846, pp. 913–16.

52. Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, June 20, 1846, pp. 787–88. See also Sept. 10, 1846, pp. 1199–1200.

53. Ludwig, Karl Augustvon Ense, Philipp Varnhagen, Tagebücher, 2nd ed., 8 vols. (Leipzig, 1863), III, 359;Google Scholar Richter, pp. 59–61.

54. Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, Oct. 17, 1846, pp. 721–25.

55. Ibid., July 15 and 18, 1846, pp. 481–88, 489–96.

56. Stahl, Friedrich Julius, Der Protestantismus als politisches Princip (Berlin, 1853).Google Scholar

57. Die politischen Reden des Fürsten Bismarck, ed. Kohl, Horst, 14 vols. (Stuttgart, 1892), I, 24–25,Google Scholar as quoted in and translated by Snyder, Louis L., The Blood and Iron Chancellor: A Documentary-Biography of Otto von Bismarck (Princeton, 1967), p. 69.Google Scholar

58. Hintze, “Die Epochen,” p. 118.

59. Gills, p. 84.

60. Ibid., pp. 70–85.