Evangelical Social Congress Explained

The Evangelical Social Congress (German: Evangelisch-Sozialer Kongress, ESK) was a social-reform movement of German evangelists founded in Whitsuntide in 1890.

Various groups were united in the Congress, although, in the end, the Congress failed to set forth a united programme of "Christian socialism" (more so because people like Friedrich Naumann and Adolf Stoecker would depart from the Congress).

The Congress never carried a large membership, and was only marginal compared to the Verein für Socialpolitik, an organization that currently still exists.

Associated people

• Otto Baumgarten
• Paul Gohre
• Adolf von Harnack (longtime president of the Congress)
• Friedrich Naumann
• Martin Rade
• Paul Rohrbach
• Gerhart von Schulze-Gävernitz
• Walter Simons
• Adolf Stoecker
• Max Weber

Further reading

• Book: Harry Liebersohn. Religion and Industrial Society: The Protestant Social Congress in Wilhelmine Germany. December 2007. American Philosophical Society. 978-1-4223-7450-4.
• Max Maurenbrecher. Max Maurenbrecher. The Evangelical Social Congress in Germany. 1903. American Journal of Sociology. 9. 1. 24–36. 10.1086/211193. 143256562.
• Max Maurenbrecher. Max Maurenbrecher. The Moral and Social Tasks of World Politics ("Imperialism"). 1903. American Journal of Sociology. 6. 3. 307–315. 10.1086/210978. 145616543.