BAUMGARTEN, MICHAEL. – Protestant theologian, born in Haseldorf (Holstein) on 25 March 1812 and died in Rostock on 21 July 1889. Throughout his life he distinguished himself by his uncompromising advocacy of tolerance in religion and opposition to that caesarism in the Church which—as in ancient Byzantium—had taken root in Lutheranism.
In support of these concerns he wrote, among other works, Liturgie und Predigt (1843) and Theologischer Kommentar zum Pentateuch (2 vols., 1843–44). Because of this uncompromising advocacy and his militant programme of action in favour of spirituality in the Church, in 1858 he had to leave his chair in Rostock. Paradoxically, between 1874 and 1881 he then found himself representing the Liberal Party, which also included rationalistically inclined figures, in the German Reich.