GustavuE-Adolplius Society {Gustav-Adolf- Vereui), a union of members of the Evangelical Pro- testant Church of Germany ^or the support of their persecuted or suffering brethren in the faith. It orig- inated as follows. On the occasion of the second sec- ular anniversarj' of the battle of Liitzen (won by Gustavus Adolphus [q. v.] at the cost of his life, Kov. G, 1632), held in that city Nov. 6, 1832, Schild, a mer- chant of Leipzig, proposed that a memorial should be erected to the champion of Protestantism. By the in- fluence of Dr. Grossmann it was afterwards resolved that, instead of a monument of stone or brass, an insti- tution should be formed in honor of the Protestant hero, having for its oliject the succor of the Protestant com- munities suffering from persecution in Roman Catholic countries. An association was soon formed at Dres- den and another in Leipzig, and the two were united in 1834. The society thus formed was very popular in Saxony and Sweden. Its funds were chiefly the
GUSTAVUS-ADOLPH. SOCIETY 1037
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fruit of house and church collections. On the anni- versary of the Keformation in 1841, Dr. Zimniermann, of Darmstadt, issued an appeal to Protestants through- out the world to unite in forminy an association for the support of such Protestant communities as required and were worthy of help. In order to effect this, and to incorporate in it the Leipzig and Dresden associa- tions, a preparatory meeting was held at Leipzig Sept. IG, l.Sl'2, and " The Eoangelical JSociet/j cfthe Gustuvus- Adolphus Institution" was formed. A general assem- bly was held at Frankfort Sept. 21 and 22, 1813, in -which twentj'-nine societies were represented.
According to the rules adopted at tliis meeting, the object of the association is to succor all Protestants, either in t)r out of Germany, who stand in need of help, be thej' members of the Lutheran, Iteformed, or Union churches, or any other who have given proofs of their adherence to the principles of the evangelical Church. The means are furnished partly by the income of the permanent funds of the association, partly by dona- tions, endowments, yearly collections, etc. The local societies send to the superior association their annual collections. In everj' state (and for large countries in every province) there is a chief association, with -which the others are connected as auxiliaries. The receipts are divided into three parts : one third is un- der the absolute control of the society which collects it : one third is sent to the central society, with direc- tions as to the application of it, or is even sent direct to its destination ; and the remaining third is placed at the disposal of the central society. The central asso- ciation consists of twenty-four members, elected by the members of the chief associations ; nine of them (in- cluding the president, treasurer, and cashier) must be residents at Leipzig, the other fifteen must be non-res- idents ; every three jears one third of the members go out of office. This central associaton represents the whole union, manages the general fund, and, when occasion presents, appoints a committee to inquire into the case of parties applying for assistance, and reports on it to the chief associations. In the general assem- blies, which are held in different parts of Germany, the state of the association is discussed, the accounts adjusted, questions of general interest settled, etc. In 184(3 there were thirty-nine chief associations, viz. eight in Prussia, two in Saxony, three in Hanover, and in the other states each one, except in Bavaria. The government of Bavaria, on Feb. 10, 1844, forbade the formation of branch associations, as well as the re- ception of gifts from the society ; but this prohibition was annulled Sept. 16, 1849, and representatives of Bavaria appeared at the general assembl}'^ of 1851. Austria permitted the establishmsnt of societies by the " Protestantenpatent" of April 8, 1851. At the gen- eral assembly held at Nuremberg in 18G2, two central societies {IlaiqUvereine) of Austria, Vienna and Medi- asch, were received, the first embracing the German provinces and Gallicia, and the latter the German part of Transylvania. The organs of the association are the Bote der Ecangelischen Vereins d. G. A. F., published by Zimniermann and Grossmann. Darmstadt, since 1843, and similar ones for Thuringia and Brandenburg. Numerous occasional sheets, reports, etc., are issued by the association.
The society has not been entirely free from internal troubles. While some of its members have sought to confine its operations within the strict limits of the evangelical confession, others have desired to see it based upon humanitarian principles, and thus to re- ceive even Jews and Roman Catholics into member- ship. The most important difficulty occurred at the general meeting of 184(1, at Berlin, where tlie delegates refused, I))' a vote of thirty-nine against thirty-two, to recognise Dr. Kupp as the delegate of Konigsberg, on account of his having seceded from the national Church. Great excitement spread throughout Ger- many, and for a moment endangered even the exist-
ence of the association. The question was settled in the Assembly of Darmstadt in 1847, when it -vvas re- solved that the assembly should have the right of de- ciding upon the credentials of all delegates. The strict Lutherans have generally kept aloof from the association on account of its support of Reformed and Union churclies. The means of the association have been steadily increasing. L^p to 1841 the receipts amounted to 14,727 thalers. In 1858 the society ap- propriated 1(J7,(5G6 thalers to 379 communities (224 in Germany and 155 in other countries). From 1843 to 1868 the central and branch associations received leg- acies and donations amounting to 50,000 thalers. Swe- den and the Netherlands (where the first Gustavus- Adolphus Society was instituted in 1853) have joined the German association, and helped to swell its funds. According to the report for the financial year 18G3-(>4, the expenditures amounted to $195,000, liy which 723 poor congregations were supported (400 in Germanj', G in North America, 10 in Belgium, 27 in France, 7 in Holland, 3 in Italy, 2015 in Austria, 43 in Prussian Poland, 4 in Portugal, 4 in Switzerland, and 17 in Turkey). At the general assembly held at Dresden in 18G5 it was announced that the society, since its foundation in 1842, had expended in the sujiport of Protestant churches two million thalers, the first mil- lion from 1843 to 1858, the second from 1859 to 18G4 ; that since its beginning the societj'- had defrayed, either wholly or partly, the expense for tlie building of 229 new churches. The receipts for the year 1865- ii^ were reported at the Assembly of Worms (18G7) to amount to 177,226 thalers, a slight decrease, caused by the war of 186G. During the year 18GG-C7, according to the report made at the general assembly at Halber- stadt in 18G8, 175,197 thalers were distributed among 783 congregations. The twenty-fourth general assem- bly of the association was lield at Bayreuth in August, 18G9. The receipts of the last year were stated to be 194,000 thalers. The number of congregations sup- ported by the society amounted to 904 ; of these, 12 were in America, 348 in Prussia, 301 in Austria, 39 in France, 8 in Belgium, GO in Rumania, 16 in Holland, 4 in Italy, 5 in Russia, 6 in Switzerland, and 1 in Spain. The total amount expended by the society from its beginning to the close of the financial year 1867-68 in supporting new and poor Protestant congre- gations amounts to 2,325,879 thalers. Aside from its external efficiency, the society has also been beneficial to its own members by furnishing a common centre of Christian activity for the national Protestant Church of Germany. Its appropriations are made as much as possible in a form to give permanent rather than tem- porary relief to weak churches. See Zimniermann, D. Gustnvus-Adolphus Verein (Dannstadt, 1857); All- gem. Real-Eiicykl. vii, C7.