The Freie Gemeinde: A Manifestation of European Liberalism in St. Louis
The Freie Gemeinde (the Free Congregation in English) was a religious organization, founded in Germany between 1840 and 1846. It was created in opposition to orthodox religious practices that demanded ignorance of society’s growing knowledge of nature and science, and acceptance of the church’s theological principles. An insight into its history can be found in a translated transcription of its first meeting that lays out a series of resolutions decided on by its members. Firstly, they address their community’s urgent need for a “good German school” and vote to establish one, alongside a church. A church, they add, would provide religious education for adults, financial security for the school, and build credibility in the eyes of parents, who trust it with their children. Their resolutions conclude with the decision to exclude religion from their curriculums and a plan for the purchase of a building.
The meeting was finished with a decision that an invitation to the next meeting would be extended to “all friends” of their organization and an abstract of the meeting’s transcript would be published in local German newspapers. This group of German immigrants, had arrived with a more radical political identity than their predecessors, and was more eager to spread it throughout their new country. Education, the press, and religion were common paths of this spread. It became a way for them to shape a cultural identity in the US and deepened divisions between the Forty-Eighters, more conservative Germans, and nativist Anglo-Americans.
At the time of this meeting, in 1850, an influx of German immigrants had flooded St. Louis after failed revolutions against European monarchies in 1848. As a result, the Forty-Eighters were “infected by the fever of revolution” and brought radical political and ethical ideas to Missouri. Before the arrival of the Forty-Eighters, German immigrants lived quieter lives in the social and political landscapes of St. Louis. The Forty-Eighters championed initiatives like the abolition of slavery and puritanism. The urgent need expressed by the Freie Gemeinde for a “good German school” suggests that the organization was led mostly by Forty-Eighters. They were unwilling to send their children to Anglo-American schools that didn’t center around the German cultural identity and incorporated religion where they felt it was unnecessary.
The earlier generation of German immigrants was more willing to accept the existing institutions of the US and adapt to them, instead of pushing for change. The anti-clerical ideals of the Forty-Eighters align with Freie Gemeinde’s resolutions and attitudes about religion. The organization believed that religion was individual and that each person should have the right to choose which elements to adopt into their personal belief system. They also believed that integrating science and reason into religion was an essential part of this individualization. The hierarchy of church authority was viewed as an obstacle to one’s access to religion as well, so they opted for an election-based system for the appointment of their church leaders. The resolutions passed in their first meeting, reflect the ideas of religious liberalism held by many Forty-Eighters.
The St. Louis school system that the Freie Gemeinde entered was advanced for its time. The first free public school in St. Louis was opened in 1838. Many Forty-Eighters considered their move to the US to be temporary or hoped that they would establish a “German Utopia” in Missouri, free from the monarchy that had plagued them in Europe. If parents planned on returning to Germany, once the revolution was successful, they must have wanted to keep their children in an environment that prepared them for the world they would reenter upon their return to Europe. They didn’t want their children to experience any of the “Americanization” that Anglo-Americans saw as inevitable and necessary. They wanted their children to speak primarily German, and to have an education free from religious and governmental regulations, like those previously forced upon them. Whether they were planning to return to Europe or not, it was important for them to preserve their German heritage for their children by establishing a school that would reflect their own identity and ideas on religion.
In 1870, the St. Louis Public School system adopted instruction in German and removed religion from its curriculums. The formal Freie Gemeinde school was dissolved, and most of its building was leased to the city. The organization did not disband, but they saw their community’s need for a “good German school” met. This suggests that they valued German language instruction and exclusion of religion in education over their children’s separation from Anglo-Americans and the avoidance of “Americanization”. While the Forty-Eighters were more resistant to adopting the existing institutions of the US than the German immigrants before them, they were not opposed to integration as long as their principles were adhered to.
