Landeskirchen

Landeskirchen, were introduced at the Diet of Speyer (1529, see Speyer, Reichstag zu), and from 1555 (see Augsburger Religionsfriede) became evangelical state churches. The constitutional and legal position of the Landeskirchen, which varied in different states, has been reorganized since their foundation, especially during the 19th c. and after 1945. From 1969 the Confederation of the Evangelical Church (Bund der evangelischen Kirche) in the DDR (see Deutsche Demokratische Republik) was independent of the Evangelical Church in West Germany.