List of the bishops of Schleswig

The List of the Bishops of Schleswig contains the names of the bishops of the see in Schleswig (Danish: Slesvig, English: Sleswick) in chronological order. Also Lutheran bishops, who officiated after 1542, superintendents and general superintendents are listed.

Note

Danish dioceses in the Middle Ages

Between 947 and 948 Archbishop Adaldag of Hamburg-Bremen founded the three suffragan dioceses of Schleswig, Århus, and Ribe (Ripen). In 1104 the Schleswig see was redeployed in ecclesiastical hierarchy to become a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Lund.

Since 1542 the bishops were Lutherans, partially even lacking theological qualification but only collecting the prebends from the episcopal estates. Therefore, they were assisted by Lutheran (general) superintendents for the pastoral care. Most parishioners adopted Lutheranism too. After 1624 nobody was invested as Bishop of Schleswig any more. General superintendents fulfilled the pastoral functions as to Lutheran faithful. Between 1854 and 1864 the Lutheran church in the Duchy of Schleswig was reorganised as the Slesvig Stift led again by a cleric titled bishop.

In 1868, two years after the Prussian annexation of Holstein and Schleswig as the Province of Schleswig-Holstein the Lutheran churches in Holstein and Schleswig formed the Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche Schleswig-Holstein (literally in English: Evangelical-Lutheran State Church of Schleswig-Holstein). By the separation of state and religion after 1918 the privilege of the Prussian monarch as summus episcopus (i.e. supreme governor/bishop of the church) was abolished.

Thus in 1925 Schleswig-Holstein's Lutheran church body assumed the title of bishop, one officiating for the Holstein area, seated in Kiel, and one for Southern Schleswig, seated in Schleswig. The new offices as bishops replaced the prior general superintendents and continued also after the Schleswig-Holstein church body merged with three neighbouring church bodies in the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1977. In 2008 a merger of the offices did away with the office Bishop of Schleswig.

For the very few remaining, immigrating or converted Catholics pastoral functions were provided first by the Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern Missions (as of 1667; reduced by most South-Elbian regions renamed into the Vicariate Apostolic of the North in 1709), and later by the Prefecture Apostolic of Schleswig-Holstein (as of 1868). After 1920 Northern Schleswig became part of the Vicariate Apostolic of Denmark, which transformed into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen on 29 April 1953. In Southern Schleswig the rest of the Prefecture Apostolic of Schleswig-Holstein was assigned to the Diocese of Osnabrück in 1929, which had to cede this extension again in favour of the new founded Archdiocese of Hamburg in 1994.

Catholic bishops and administrator

Lutheran bishops and superintendents

After Ulrik's death no more Bishop of Schleswig was invested until 1854.

General superintendents for the royal shares of the Holstein and Schleswig duchies

The general superintendents were then first seated in Flensburg, since 1693 in Rendsburg. There were also general superintendents for the Duchies of Holstein (ducal share) and of Schleswig (ducal share).

General provosts in Duke John's share of the Holstein and Schleswig duchies

General superintendents for the ducal shares of the Holstein and Schleswig duchies

The general superintendents were seated in Kiel. Their competence comprised until 1713 the ducal shares of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig. The Danish king as liege lord of the dukes of Schleswig deposed them in 1713 (confirmed in 1720), thereafter ducal co-rule was restricted to the Duchy of Holstein.

Then Theodor Dassov, who had served earlier already in Schleswig royal share, and his successors took on.

Bishop and general superintendents for Schleswig

Lutheran bishops of Schleswig within the Evangelical-Lutheran State Church of Schleswig-Holstein

Lutheran bishops of Schleswig within the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church

In 2008 the offices of bishop of Holstein and of Schleswig were merged as Bishop of Schleswig and Holstein.

Notes

  1. ↑ Stemann (Copenhagen, 27 June 1629–20 May 1689, Glückstadt) only officiated as general superintendent for the Duchy of Holstein (1688–1689). Stemann was preceded by Hermann Erdmann (also Herrmann; 1631–1687) as general superintendent for Holstein royal share (1684–1687). Cf. Johann Heinrich Bernhard Lübkert, Versuch einer kirchlichen Statistik Holsteins, Glückstadt: Johann Wilhelm Augustin, 1837, p. 57.
  2. ↑ Königsbüll and Bupsee (aka Bopsee) and much of Strand island, and many more places, were completely drowned and eroded in the Burchardi flood in 1634, their former locations are now covered by the North Frisian Wadden Sea.
  3. ↑ His successors as general superintendents for Holstein ducal share were Georg Hinrich Reimarus (1733–1735), Anton Caspar Engel (1736–1748), Gustav Christoph Hoßmann (1749–1766) und Friedrich Franz Hasselmann (Haßelmann; 1766–1784). In 1773 the ducal House of Gottorp and the royal House of Oldenburg exchanged Holstein ducal share for the Danish-held County of Oldenburg, thus ending the royal ducal condominium. So with Hasselmann's death in 1784, there was only one general superintendent for all of both duchies.
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