German Catholics (Ger. Deutschkatholiken) is the name given to a body in Germany that separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1844. Whatever might be the deeper causes of the schism, the immediate occasion of it was the exhibition of the Holy Coat at Treves (q.v.). In 1844 Bishop Arnoldi appointed a special pilgrimage to this relic. This proceeding called forth a protest from Johannes Ronge (1813-87), a priest in Silesia, who, having quarrelled with the authorities of his church, had been suspended. Ronge addressed a public letter to Bishop Arnoldi in which he characterised the exhibition of the coat as idolatry. A short time previously, Czerski, a priest at Schneidemühl, in Posen, had seceded from the Roman Catholic Church, and had formed a congregation of 'Christian Apostolic Catholics.' Czerski and Ronge were naturally drawn into confederacy. Ronge addressed an appeal to the lower orders of the priesthood, calling upon them to use their influence in the pulpit and everywhere to break the power of the papal curia, and of priestcraft in general, throughout Germany; to set up a national German Church independent of Rome, and governed by councils and synods; to abolish auricular confession, the Latin mass, and the celibacy of the priests; and to aim at liberty of conscience for all Christians.
The first congregation of the new church was formed at Schneidemühl, and took the name of 'Christian Catholic.' The confession of faith, which was drawn up by Czerski, differed little in point of doctrine from that of the Catholic Church. The confession drawn up by Ronge for the congregation at Breslau, on the other hand, completely departed from the doctrine and ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. The Scripture was laid down to be the sole rule of Christian faith, and no external authority was to be allowed to interfere with the free interpretation of it. The essentials of belief were restricted to a few doctrines: belief in God as the Creator and Governor of the world, and the Father of all men; in Christ as the Saviour, in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting. Baptism and the Lord's Supper were held to be the only sacraments, though confirmation was retained. At the first council of German Catholics, held at Leipzig in 1845, the principles of the Breslau Confession were substantially adopted; and by the end of the year there were some 300 congregations.
But German Catholicism was destined soon to find enemies both within and without. To say nothing of orthodox Catholics, conservative Protestantism began to suspect it as undermining religion. And, as the movement fell in with the liberal tendencies of the times, the governments took the alarm, and set themselves to check its spread. Saxony took the lead, and Prussia soon followed, in imposing vexatious restrictions upon the 'Dissidents;' in Baden they were denied the rights of citizens, while Austria expelled them from her territories. It was more, however, internal disagreements than state persecutions that checked the prosperity of German Catholicism. Czerski and his adherents held closely by the doctrines and ritual of Rome; while Ronge's party approached nearer and nearer to the extreme Rationalists, and, leaving the province of religion altogether, occupied themselves with freethinking theories and democratic politics. When the great storm of 1848 burst, Ronge was active in travelling and preaching, and, although his freethinking and political tendencies were repudiated by numbers of the body, they predominated in many places. After the political reaction set in, strong measures were taken against the German Catholics. The early enthusiasm of the movement apparently died out, and after the dissolution of the Frankfurt parliament Ronge retired to London (in 1861 he returned to Germany, and lived successively at
Breslau, Frankfort, Darmstadt, and Vienna). In 1850 a conference was held between the German Catholics and the 'Free Congregations' (Freie Gemeinden), an association of freethinking congregations which had been gradually forming since 1844 by secession from the Protestant Church, and with which an incorporate union was effected in 1859. Six years later the council refused to commit itself to belief in a personal God. From a membership of 13,000 in 1867 in Prussia and Saxony, the body has gradually dwindled to almost total extinction. The Old Catholics (q.v.) may be regarded as having superseded the German Catholic movement. See Kampe's Geschichte des Deutschkatholicismus (1860).