Protestantenverein

Protestantenverein, an association of Protestant ministers, professors, and others belonging to the 'liberal' or advanced school of theology in Germany, formed in 1863 to promote what its members insisted was the spirit of true Protestantism in opposition to what they regarded as reactionary and obscurantist. By the orthodox and conservatives the association was denounced as rationalist or infidel; and though since 1867 it has held annual meetings in various towns throughout Germany, and has several organs in the press of the Fatherland (including the Protestantische Kirchenzeitung and a Jahrbuch), it and its members have been treated with marked disfavour by the ecclesiastical authorities, membership in the association being, it is alleged, practically a bar to appointments or preferments. See Schenkel, Der Deutsche Protestantenverein (new ed. 1871).