Abstract

The religious history of Bremen includes many impressive figures. Probably the most enigmatic figure of Bremen's church life around 1900 was the pastor at St. Martini, Albert Kalthoff. However, his impact reached beyond the borders of local religious history: He was important for the history of the Protestant culture of piety as well as for a religious historical analysis of reform attempts within Protestantism in Imperial Germany. Kalthoff was part of the leftist reform movement within German Protestantism. Furthermore, he can be said to have had certain sympathies for the free thinker movement. This article wants to situate Kalthoff and his public works and goals in religious history with regard to the religious-confessional, cultural-religious, and cultural-political tendencies of his time. His example delineates the contours of a transitional space between Protestantism and the free thinker movement.