Lutherans, Reformed and Catholics - a Contribution to the Religious History of the Old Prussian Army

An important source for a description of the internal conditions of the Old Prussian Army are surviving regimental books. These extensive bundles of lists, in addition to the usual muster and transfer rolls, generally include additional tabular compilations that provide information on many important details (e.g. the soldiers' height, age and service-age groups, national composition, number of married men, capitulants, soldiers' sons, etc.). The inspection and statistical evaluation of the personal data of military personnel at the regimental level was necessary to ensure the conformity of conditions in the regiment with the applicable norms and to be able to answer precisely, at the annual review concluding the exercise period, the questions of the king or the Inspector General.

From original regimental books¹ and other printed sources we learn more about the denominational composition of the following formations:

The above numerical material demonstrates a typical pattern: members of the Reformed Church therefore always constituted only a fraction of the headcount. The Reformed (Calvinists) also represented only a minority in the overall state. The ruling house of the Hohenzollerns had converted to the Reformed confession in 1613/14, but could not, despite the resistance of the Lutheran majority, impose the dominance of the energetic Calvinists. Frederick William I., weary of the endless ecclesiastical disputes, tried in vain to induce Lutherans and Reformed to a union.

The bulk of the soldiers was, corresponding to the denominational structure in Prussia, Lutheran. Even when recruiting foreigners, attention was paid to confession: Protestant Alsatians and Hungarians were regarded as "good and reliable." When incorporating prisoners of war into their own service, Protestant soldiers were preferred; Catholics were not fully trusted. The artillery was even expressly forbidden from recruiting Catholic recruits; affiliation with the Evangelical confession as a hiring prerequisite also applied there to natives. This led to the paradox that the Protestant foreigner was preferred to the Catholic native ³.

Nevertheless, the Catholic proportion in the Old Prussian Army was not insignificant; according to Heinrich it is said to have already amounted to almost 25% under Frederick William I.⁴. Because hardly any numerical data exist from before 1740, this statement cannot be verified. It is also unlikely, because the foreigners, who made up the bulk of the Catholic soldiers, did not constitute more than one third of the Old Prussian army around 1740 and many of them were inevitably Lutherans. If at all, certainly only a few formations displayed a significant Catholic element, such as the "Potsdam Giant Guard" (No. 6). Around 1736/31 the number of Catholics in this guard unit had increased to make up more than half, i.e. they dominated. For this reason the Soldier King had a new and more spacious church built in Potsdam (consecration: 21.09.1738) and in 1738 had a Catholic instruction, prayer and hymn book printed, multilingual, since many of the "tall fellows" were foreign-language foreigners. Since 1722 Father Below was responsible for the Catholic element in this elite formation. When he fell seriously ill and died in 1731, the Dominican Father Raimundus Bruns became his successor.

We owe to him an informative diary which vividly describes his difficult work as pastor of the "Potsdam Giant Guard" (1731–41). Already in 1722 Frederick William I. had entrusted another Dominican father named Dominicus Torck with Catholic pastoral care for the garrisons of Berlin, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Nauen and occasionally Stettin. Torck continued to serve under Frederick the Great. After the father's death in 1755 he was succeeded by the Dominican Amandus Jennes. Catholic spiritual care was also tolerated in other garrisons. Larger Catholic regions only came under the Prussian state under Frederick the Great: Upper Silesia in 1740 and West Prussia in 1772. In the residence Berlin, however, there was a numerically strong Catholic colony; around 1800 there were said to be about 8,000 Catholics, of whom 5,000 were military persons.

For members of the Greek Orthodox religion in the King's Regiment (No. 6, mostly Russians) a dedicated priest (Vassili Scherbatzki) and four Russian singers were employed from 1733. Services were held in the years 1733–37 in an annex (chapel) behind the long stable. This was, however, converted into a theatre(!) in 1756; thereafter the "Greeks" were assigned a room in the town hall. As late as 16.11.1748 Frederick the Great had ordered that for the soldiers of Greek-Orthodox confession in the Potsdam garrison a Russian priest should be appointed twice a year for eight days each.

The Huguenots, from the time of the Soldier King on, played no quantitative role in the army. Jews did not generally serve in the Old Prussian Army; they and their sons were exempt from canton duty under § 28 of the canton regulation of 12.02.1792. However, they were not allowed to acquire canton-obligatory hearths, otherwise they became liable for service. Among the leadership cadres of the Old Prussian Army there was at least one general of Jewish descent: Konstantin Nathanael von Salemon. Mennonites, the brother communities that immigrated from Bohemia and Moravia, and various Protestant colonies established in Silesia were also exempt. A patent of 17.10.1713 freed the former from any duty and quartering, and the cited provision of the canton regulation of 1792 confirmed this privilege.

By the way, a unit of predominantly Muslim origin also belonged to the Old Prussian Army, namely the Bosniaks (H 9) established in 1745.

That the denominational composition of a regiment was of interest is shown not only by the existence of the "religion lists," which regularly form part of the regimental books, but is also documented by other contemporary sources — thus we read in the memoirs of an Old Prussian officer about the annual reviews: "Frederick II loved quick answers and it was therefore better to give him a wrong number than to falter. Thus it happened that he asked a captain: 'How many Catholics has he?' — 'Thirty, Your Majesty.' — 'How many Lutherans?' — 'One hundred and ten.' — 'How many Reformed?' — 'Five!' — 'Thirty and one hundred and ten and five, that makes one hundred and forty-five; seventeen men are missing, who are they?' — 'These have no religion at all, Your Majesty,' answered the captain, and the king smiled and was satisfied"⁵.

Military personnel were subject not only to special jurisdiction, but were also ecclesiastically separated from the civilian parishes and formed special, independent military parishes (regimental, battalion, garrison and institution parishes). Active soldiers (officers, non-commissioned officers and ranks), officials and family members (wives, children and servants) of a regiment or battalion belonged to the regimental or battalion parish, and only the responsible field preacher was charged with their pastoral care. The garrison parish also included soldiers on leave and retired soldiers together with their families, according to their "status militaris," which also survived retirement.

Each infantry, cavalry and hussar regiment had an Evangelical-Lutheran field preacher, who belonged to the lower staff and received 15 Thl. per annum as pay⁶. For the pastoral care of Reformed and Catholic soldiers in peacetime a few civilian clergymen were authorized; in wartime special Evangelical-Reformed field preachers and Catholic field fathers were appointed. Thus there was a Catholic field father in the Prussian auxiliary corps of 1734; in 1758 the Prussian army, according to Schild, counted three Reformed and three Catholic staff field preachers⁷, and in 1805 the mobile army included eight Catholic field preachers⁸.

The Evangelical-Lutheran field preacher also had the claim to the fee for parochial acts for Catholic military persons. In practice the Catholic clergyman therefore had to either forego the fees, rely on voluntary offerings, or the soldiers were doubly burdened with the fees.

The duties of the field clergy were of course primarily ecclesiastical. The regulation of 1743 stipulated: "The lads shall be kept to all church order of the religion they are, as is customary"⁹. On all Sundays, feast and penitential days there should be twice "church parade" in the garrisons. The regulation of 1743 determined: "All officers shall go to church, and together with the soldiers shall not leave the church before the forenoon, the priest from the pulpit and in the afternoon the church is entirely out"^10_.

A subaltern officer garrisoned in Stettin adds: "Every Sunday there was church parade. We had to march in ranks to the respective church to which each belonged according to his religion, and enter it, whether one wanted to or not; communion was often administered, which, because of the prevailing silence and devotion among a large number of warriors, was very edifying to me and a blessing. Whoever was once in the church was not allowed to leave again without urgent necessity, for as soon as the church had been filled with soldiers a guard of non-commissioned officers was placed before the doors who allowed no one to pass"¹¹.

For Catholic soldiers it applied: "In a garrison where there is a Catholic church, the Catholic soldiers shall be sent there with a non-commissioned officer from each company." Soldiers of French nationality who were not proficient in the German language were given the opportunity to attend any existing French church. In the churches superiors had to maintain discipline; "noise, horseplay and similar scandals" were severely punished.

Also §§ 1 ff. of the articles of war of 12.VII.1713, 31.VIII.1724 and of 16.VI.1749 contained religious instructions and threatened drastic punishments for misconduct. The articles of war of 20.III.1797 required that "every soldier ... lead a Christian and virtuous life" and "diligently perform the duties incumbent on him according to his religion."

In addition to military services, daily prayer hours in the field, catechism sermons, catechizations (since 1720) and public edification hours, as well as baptism, confession, communion, marriages etc. of members of the military parish belonged to the remit of the field preachers; military church registers are an eloquent record of their activity. The field clergy also had an educational role: in regimental schools not only the Junkers as future officer replacements were taught, but also soldiers' children; furthermore soldiers and soldiers' wives received instruction in reading and writing.

The superior of all military clergymen (in wartime also of the Reformed and Catholic field clergy) was the field provost. This office was created in 1717 by King Frederick William I. From that time the military church system was organizationally separated from the state church. The field provost was a permanent member of the military consistory¹², had to examine and ordain candidates for field preacher posts, who had to have studied in Halle¹³, and he supervised all garrison and regimental preachers. At the same time the field provost was field preacher of the Guard.

Since the appointment of Lampertus Gedicke in 1717 he was followed over time by Johann Kaspar Carstedt (from 1736), Johann Christoph Decker (from 1742), Karl Andreas Friedrich Balck(e) (from 1758) and Johann Gottfried Kletschke (from 1779) as field provosts.

In the value system of the 18th century religion held an immensely high status, as contemporary letters, diaries and memoirs sufficiently demonstrate. Ordinary soldiers, non-commissioned officers and also many officers were deeply religiously motivated up to the testified piety of such famous generals as Belling, Saldern, Schwerin, Winterfeldt and Zieten. In particular the religious revival movement of Pietism, protected by Frederick William I., had a great influence and formed before 1740 in the Old Prussian officer corps, alongside the two antipodes of the Anhalt and Schwerin schools, its own intellectual current, which mitigated the harsh maxims of the professional soldiers.

Originating from August Hermann Francke (1663–1727) and the strongholds of Pietism Halle and Königsberg, since the days of this ruler — rightly called "Prussia's greatest internal king" — Pietism and the Hohenzollern state had entered into a partnership. The ideas of the Enlightenment and principally its church-critical approaches were effective only among the educated bourgeoisie and in parts of the nobility. The strong religious element was also a not-to-be-underestimated factor in the Silesian Wars, for in the wake of Electoral Saxony Prussia was now considered the North German protector of Protestantism and a counterbalance to the Catholic Habsburg crown. The Protestant character of the Prussian state is undeniable and against this background the ambivalent to hostile attitude of the Hohenzollern princes towards the Catholic religion must also be seen.

A by-product of this negative attitude was certainly the neglected pastoral care of Catholic soldiers. On this sector the guard formations were privileged; for the line formations — as already mentioned — only a few Catholic military clergymen were appointed in case of war. That there were not already Catholic field preachers with the regiments in peacetime was of course primarily lamented by the commanders of units that had a considerable Catholic proportion, such as Infantry Regiment No. 58 in Goldap (Silesia). Mostly, however, the creation of corresponding positions failed due to the state's lack of willingness, the company commanders' reluctance, or the (Catholic) church's inability to bear the follow-up costs on a lasting basis.

Thus the pastoral care of Catholic soldiers in the late 18th and the beginning of the 19th century in Berlin, Stettin, Goldap and Münster (after the Prussian occupation) and the respective provinces is probably rightly described as insufficient and therefore unsatisfactory. Although the significance of religion as a stabilizing element was recognized and the lack of spiritual care was even held responsible in official reports for the desertion of Catholic soldiers, nothing was done to remedy this deficiency. Despite this blemish, the principle of religious tolerance in the Old Prussian state was legally guaranteed and traditional practice, a novelty in the 18th century. Freedom of religious practice was expressly assured to the soldiers by the king on multiple occasions. The state-sanctioned plurality of confessions is reflected in the sober numbers of the religion lists.

Literature: (selection)

Carstedt, Samuel Benedikt, Atzendorfer Chronik. Edited by Eduard Stegmann, Magdeburg 1928.

Fickert, K. R. (ed.), The Diary of the Field Preacher

J. F. Seegebart ... Breslau 1849

Haeckel, Julius, Die Potsdamer Riesengarde, Potsdam 1913.

Heinrich, Gerd, Religious Tolerance in Brandenburg-Prussia. Idea and Reality, in: Preußen. Beiträge zu einer politischen Kultur, p. 61 ff. (Vol. 2 of the catalogue to the Prussia exhibition, 1981).

Hermann, Willibald (ed.), The Diary of the Dominican Father Bruns from Halberstadt, the Pastor of the Potsdam Giant Guard (1731–1741), Breslau 1925.

Jany, Curt, History of the Prussian Army from the 15th Century to 1914, Vol. I–III (reprint Osnabrück 1967).

Langhäuser, Julius, The Military Church System in the Kurbrandenburg and Royal Prussian Army. Its Development and Current Form, Metz 1912.

Loebell, v., Under the Prussian Eagle. Experiences of a Courlander in Frederickian Army and during the Wars of Liberation, Potsdam 1936.

Pohl, Heinrich, The Catholic Military Chaplaincy of Prussia 1797–1888. Studies on the History of German Military Church Law, Stuttgart 1926.

Prittwitz und Gaffron, Youth Memories of Christian Wilhelm v., Under the Flag of the Duke of Bevern, Breslau 1935.

Schild, Erich, The Prussian Field Preacher. Pictures from the Church Life of the Older Prussian Army, Eisleben 1888.

Schild, Erich, Origin and First Form of the Prussian Field Preacher Office, Supplement to the Militär-Wochenblatt 1880.

Stahr, Johann Adam, From the Records of a Prenzlau Field Preacher, in: Communications of the Uckermärkisches Museum ..., Vol. IV, 3rd issue, p. 161 ff. (1910).

Taeglichsbeck, The Fusilier Regiment Prince Henry of Prussia (No. 35) 1740–1806, Berlin 1891.

Wachholz, From the Diary of General Fr. L. v. Brunswick 1843.