[German Version]

The Wöllner Edict was the most significant edict on church affairs of the late 18th century in Prussia. Johann Christoph Woellner (not Wöllner; May 19, 1732, Döberitz – Sep 10, 1800, Groß-Rietz, near Beeskow) studied theology at Halle; in 1755 he became pastor in Groß-Behnitz, where he soon began to work the Itzenplitz estate, the management of wich he assumed in 1762. In 1766 he married the Itzenplitz daughter Amalie, a marriage disapproved of by Frederick the Great. Wöllner, a s…