Birstein - Religion

Religion

A high percentage of the population of greater Birstein is Protestant (evangelical Lutheran). In addition to the five Protestant churches, there is currently one Roman Catholic church and other religious communities.

Originally Roman Catholic, Birstein began to move toward Protestantism in 1530, when the minister Johannes Henkel began to preach in favor of Martin Luther in Unterreichenbach. In 1544, Count Reinhard of Isenburg, the ruler of the region, converted to Protestantism. On August 7, 1597 Count Wolfgang Ernst I of Isenburg announced the conversion of the region itself. The 200-year-old Protestant church in Birstein burned to its foundations on January 7, 1913; the current church was built on the same site and consecrated on April 19, 1914.

In 1840, a small Catholic house of worship was built. A larger Catholic church, Mariä Heimsuchung (Church of the Visitation) was built in 1912-14. The current Count of Isenburg, Franz Alexander, is also Catholic. While his ancestor Karl V of Isenburg was raised a Protestant in the family tradition after his father's early death, he converted to Catholicism, the religion of his mother Princess Maria Crescentia zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, on May 2, 1861. Four years later, he married the Catholic princess Marie Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany, and since then all the ducal family have remained members of this faith. The church has been the site of many Isenburg weddings, most recently that of Princess Katharina of Isenburg to Archduke Martin of Austria-Este in 2004.

Princess Katharina's younger sister, Princess Sophie of Isenburg, married Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, in August 2011. This wedding, however, had to take place in Potsdam as it involved the highest branches of German aristocracy.

A Jewish community existed in Birstein from the 17th century on, with the first mention of a Jewish inhabitant in 1549. A Jewish cemetery was founded in 1679, while a synagogue built in 1749 was rebuilt and expanded in 1866. A Jewish school was built in 1849 and operated until 1936.

In 1925, Jews composed 10.4% of Birstein's population. A majority of these were forced to emigrate in the first years of the National Socialist regime, and the Jewish community was officially dissolved in 1937. Although Birstein did not take part in the violence of Kristallnacht, the cemetery was vandalized. At least 26 Jews who were born and/or lived in Birstein died in concentration camps.