Diaconal Work in the Immediate Aftermath of World War II, during the Period of Nationalisation and Afterwards

Reorganising diaconal work in a changed political context

Abstract

After World War II, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary became part of a social system whose official ideology was atheism. During the consolidation of the socialist state order, between 1945 and 1951 all social and church organisations were dissolved and banned. According to a tradition going back to the Reformation, diaconal work was carried out by congregations, later by deaconess associations and other societies and foundations up until this point. After the banning of deaconess communities, Gábor Sztehlo was commissioned by the church to organise and supervise diaconal work. He shaped the church’s new diaconal organisation, bringing together different areas of social work. It was a particular course of church politics that allowed the church to keep its institutions and transfer the diaconal work from church organisations that were still in operation into its own care.