Parish of Kaunas Evangelical Lutherans in 1919-1953

Straipsnyje analizuojamas Kauno evangelikų liuteronų parapijos gyvenimas 1919-1953 m. Taip pat apžvelgiamas parapijos įkūrimas ir gyvenimas iki 1919 m. Analizuojami Kauno evangelikų liuteronų santykiai su valstybe. Pagrindinis dėmesys skiriamas lietuvių ir vokiečių santykių raiškai.In 1919-1953, the Evangelical Lutheran church of Kaunas Germans was an integral part of Kaunas community life. The Evangelical Lutheran church, being the dominant German religion, was especially important for local Germans. According to the census of 17 September 1923, 5759 Evangelical Lutherans lived in Kaunas County; they constituted approximately 3,01 percent of total Kaunas county residents. More than half of Evangelical Lutherans were of German nationality (i.e. 2975 people). The research revealed that in 1919-1953 Kaunas Evangelical Lutheran church was equally important for Lithuanians. In the 20th century, the number of Lithuanian Evangelical Lutherans considerably increased. The struggle for domination and leadership in the church caused conflicts between German and Lithuanian communities. The conflict between Lithuanian and German Evangelical Lutherans started after the First General Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the independent Lithuania. The two groups, based on nationalistic elements, strived for the domination in Evangelical Lutheran church. The conflict prolonged until mid-1930s. During the conflict two separate Evangelical Lutheran parishes (Lithuanian and German) operated in Kaunas. The Lithuanian Government issued a legal act joining the parishes. At the beginning it was hard for both groups to cooperate jointly, but in 1936-1939 the cooperation can be assessed as close. Though, this period was quite short, it gave nevertheless a lot of benefits for spiritual and material condition of the parish. After the repatriation in Spring 1941, Kaunas Evangelical Lutheran parish was operational for more than a decade, but on 29 March 1953 Soviet government finally shut down the parish