Entstehung und Entwicklung des Präsesamtes in der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen

The study examines the historical development and constitutional structure of the office of Präses in the former ecclesiastical province of Westphalia. Based on a description of the development from the early synodal traditions there to a leadership system mixed with consistorial elements from 1835 onwards, the study highlights the tensions between the synod's claim to leadership of the church, the leadership claims of the consistorial administration and episcopal aspirations, especially since the restructuring of the church leadership in autumn 1933, which violated the law and was motivated by the National Socialist Führer principle, which sought to replace synodal leadership with authoritarian episcopal leadership. After 1945, the new confessional leadership of the now independent Evangelical Church of Westphalia implemented the idea developed in December 1933 of constituting the office of Präses as the highest office in such a way that it is responsible for synodal, spiritual and also administrative leadership. The analysis shows how theological, church political and contingent institutional dynamics have shaped the current form of the office. It thus provides a basis for debates on restructuring the office of Präses nowadays.