Lietuvos vokiečių ir lietuvių santykiai Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčioje 1918–1940 m.
Relations between Lithuanian Germans and Lithuanians in the Evangelical Lutheran Church (1918–1940)

Summary/Abstract: Straipsnyje, remiantis gausia archyvine medžiaga, nagrinėjami Lietuvos vokiečių ir lietuvių santykiai Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčioje 1918–1940 m.: atskleidžiamas šių evangelikų grupių statistinis pasiskirstymas šalyje, abiejų religinių grupių požiūris į Lietuvos evangelikų liuteronų konsistoriją, siekiai įgyti didesnę įtaką evangelikų liuteronų bendruomenėje ar net jai net vadovauti. 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.

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