LOS-VON-ROM MOVEMENT

Literally "away from Rome," a term often applied to a number of modern movements whose purpose was to lead Catholics out of the Catholic Church. Its specific reference here is to a movement in the German regions of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after 1897 that sought to encourage disaffection among Catholics because of the Church's indifference to nationalistic political goals.

As national tensions mounted in Austria and Bohemia, many Germans were fearful that they were threatened by a coalition of the monarchy, the Catholic Church, and the Slavs. A coalition of German clericals and Slavs had been the basis of the Taafe government (1879–93) and was held responsible for the passing of Count Kasimir Badeni's language ordinances in 1897 that required parity between Czechs and Germans in Bohemia. In the face of this blow to German pride and prestige, demonstrations took place, and during one of them in Vienna a medical student, Theodor Rakus, proclaimed the slogan, "Los von Rom."

The Pan-German movement of Georg von Schönerer was quick to adopt it as a part of its program in the hope that a weakening of Catholicism would increase the chances for Anschluss with Germany. Protestant missionary organizations in the German empire, especially the Evangelical Union and the Gustavus Adolphus Union, actively encouraged Catholics to become converts to Protestantism. Churches were built in Austria, missionaries were sent from Germany, and a lively propaganda developed, with the newspaper Die Wartburg as the movement's chief organ after 1902.

Although the Los-von-Rom movement originated as a political protest, it eventually included a number of people for whom the terms "German" and "Protestant" were identical. An effort to encourage a similar movement among the Czechs by an appeal to their Hussite traditions broke down because of animosity between Czechs and Germans. The movement failed to become widespread; yet 76,000 or more Catholics deserted their Church and joined the Protestants or old catholics between 1897 and 1914. The movement led many others into religious indifference.

During World War I the movement diminished; but it revived under the First Austrian Republic as a form of protest, often without religious overtones, against political Catholicism. German nationalistic feeling was largely responsible for Los-von-Rom, but other factors were involved, such as the huge size of dioceses; the relative scarcity of German priests, which meant that Czech priests often served in German and mixed parishes; and the weakening of adherence to Catholicism among the middle class and the students. Catholic-Protestant relations were strained by this movement. Interaction between churches was not as close to the heart of the movement as was the conflict between one form of European nationalism and a supranational Church.

Bibliography: l. albertin, Nationalismus und Protestantismus in der österreichischen Los-von-Rom Bewegung um 1900 (Cologne 1953). f. lau, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Tübingen 1957–65) 4:452–455. k. algermissen, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 6:1153–55.

[w. b. slottman]