Evangelische Reformationsgeschichtsforschung nach 1945

Directly after the Second World War, the teaching staff of theology faculties for the subject of church history was largely replaced. More and more theologians whose academic careers had been partially held up during the »Third Reich« because of their commitment to the Confessional Church were hired. After 1945, the most influential theological ideas on this subject, which was seen by most of the experts in this field mainly as a theological discipline, had originated in the Weimar era and were connected above all with the names Karl Barth and Karl Holl. The advocates of dialectical theology as propounded by Ernst Wolf regarded Holl's interpretation of Luther as a continuation of theological liberalism, which they believed was partly responsible for the »catastrophe« in Germany. After 1945, new ideas for the exploration of the Reformation were mainly the result of an increased interest in humanism. The continuity of the subjects and methodological preferences continued to have an effect up into the 1960s.