Viktor Glondys (7 December 1882 – 28 October 1949) was a theologian and Lutheran bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania. Born in Austria-Hungary and of ethnic German origin, he became active in Czernowitz and then present-day Romania, notably within the region of Transylvania after its union with Romania in 1918.
Born in Bielsko in then Austria-Hungary to an ethnically German family, Glondys initially studied philosophy before having a crisis of faith in 1903 that motivated him to convert to Lutheranism; he then started studying evangelical theology instead. His first pastoral assignment was as a vicar in Eisenau. He then became a personal vicar in Czernowitz in 1909. In 1910, he was officially ordained and inaugurated there, before in 1912 becoming pastor following the previous one's retirement. As a pastor, he led the congregation there through multiple Russian occupations during World War I before eventually being forced to flee to Upper Austria. He then advocated for a pro-Austria view during the war and was a refugee pastor. He later endorsed the Union of Bukovina with Romania after the fall of the Russian Empire. In 1922, he was elected city parish priest of Brașov. During his tenure, he was known for his extensive lectures on theology sponsored by the Gustav Adolf Association. In 1930, during the Great Depression, Glondys was appointed a priest. Soon after, in 1931, he delivered one of his most famous speeches on the Good Samaritan, which rejected völkisch interpretations of it and advocated for the universal commandment of love. He was attacked by the self-help movement (a pro-Nazi movement) for this speech, which eventually led him to state it was a "misunderstanding".
In 1932 he became bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession. He quickly started addressing the matters of autonomy for the church and school institutions. He eventually allowed Nazis to be accepted into church leadership. In 1934, during a meeting of the volksrat, or a People's Council of ethnic Germans, a fallout happened between him and the Nazis, upon which he revealed the existence of their plans to undermine the church. After a split in the self-help movement, Glondys started supporting the moderate factions of the Nazis in a concordat. By 1938, the Nazis gained a majority in the consistory, upon which Glondys immediately shifted to aligning himself with völkisch rhetoric and joining the National Renaissance Front. In 1939, he made another controversial decision against the Nazis, stating that he alone made ecclesiastical decisions and that no party disciplined the church. This eventually led to the new Volksgruppenführer of Romania, Andreas Schmidt, pressuring him to withdraw from the church, which he did in 1941. After this, he went to work at the Lutheran Academy and started promoting anti-Nazi works and interpretations of the bible, but in 1944 the Romanian coup d'état happened and the Nazi consistory was overthrown. It was agreed upon that Glondys would return to the post of bishop. During this brief period as bishop, Glondys tried to push a viewpoint to the government that the ethnic Germans were forced to, under moral duress, to cooperate with the Nazis, including in memoranda. However, the Soviet Control Commission demanded that Glondys be removed from office for being sympathetic toward Hitler, and so he was again forced into retirement in February 1945. From then on, he kept a relatively minor profile before dying in 1949.
Early life Viktor Glondys was born on 7 December 1882 in Bielsko, which was then part of the Duchy of Teschen in Austria-Hungary. He was the son of Joseph Glondys (1834–1906), the master baker of the town, and Johanna Glondys (née Klimecki; 1848–1938). Both of his parents were Catholic and ethnically German, and together they had four other children. While his father was ethnically German, he considered himself an Austro-Hungarian citizen first and then German, which led him to join the pro-Austrian forces against advocates for pan-Germanism among the German ethnicity.
Glondys first attended a German primary school in Biała until 1893, and then from 1894 to 1901 attended the state humanist grammar school in Bielsko, where he completed his matura. Afterwards, he entered the University of Graz studying philosophy. In 1903, while studying at the university, he had a crisis of faith. After his exposure to philosophy without any theological commitments, he started to question the Catholic Church's dogmas and customs and became increasingly estranged from the church. This was probably influenced by philosopher Alexius Meinong, whom he studied under at the University of Graz, who focused on epistemology and logical theory that took an analytical approach, which encouraged Glondys to examine the church's religious dogma. Although Away from Rome! (Los-von-Rom-Bewegung) was influential during this time in converting Germans to Lutheranism, he was not affiliated with the movement and instead probably converted to Lutheranism in part because of Meinong's logical approach.
Due to his conversion, Glondys decided to start studying evangelical theology in Vienna, Marburg, and Strasbourg. He entered the candidate house in Bielitz, a residential facility for seminary students and clergy, in August 1906. He passed his ministerial examinations as a Protestant clergyman in Vienna in 1907.
Early pastoral ministry
Early 1910s and World War I Glondy's first pastoral assignment was as a vicar in Eisenau, a small village in the region of Bukovina now known as Vama in Romania, which functioned as a branch of the Iacobeni parish. He first started distinguishing himself during this time through his sermons and religious instruction. He also became known for founding an evangelical preaching station in Kimpolung (Bukovina), which had previously had denominational fragmentation. He led his inaugural service in May, which countered contemporary skepticism of Christianity. On 15 November 1909 he passed his second theological examination before the Galician-Bukovinian superintendency in Biała. Due to him also having previously sat for his Examen pro candidatura at the University of Vienna's evangelical theological faculty, and passing in March, he was thus appointed as personal vicar to Josef Fronius in Chernivtsi (then known as Czernowitz). On 9 October 1910 he officially arrived at the church in Czernowitz, and was ordained and officially inaugurated by Fronius and Preacher G. Derer, where he gave his first speech on John 3:17.
In October 1911, Fronius announced his intentions to retire from service and move to Baden. On 15 October, elections were held for a candidate to succeed Fronius, and Glondys was elected with 313 of the 318 votes in a near-unanimous election. However, he was the sole candidate and the other 5 votes were ineligible (the parish council did not invite external preachers to stand as a candidate in the election). On 1 January 1912 Glondys officially took up the post in a de facto position until 18 February, when he was meant to be formally inaugurated, with Fronius giving his farewell sermon on 24 January based on Psalm 20. He was formally inaugurated in this position on 25 February, which was conducted by Konsenior Deder. During the second occupation of the city by the Army of the Russian Empire in the midst of World War I, he led a sermon where he viewed the Russian occupation with apprehension, noting the panic it led among the local population even through the troops were orderly and enforced strict censorship and patrols. However, despite many fleeing, he stayed in the city, stating that he was a spiritual caregiver.
Glondys briefly took personal leave to Graz, where on 25 March he was awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Graz's Faculty of Philosophy. He passed the main philosophical examination with a doctoral dissertation which explored Baruch Spinoza and his metaphysicial ideas, including Spinoza's key concepts of modes, substance, and attributes, to determine whether Spinoza's philosophical system was internally consistent, excluding external philosophers' later interpretations of Spinoza's works. Glondys developed the central idea that attributes were "existence modes of substance". The thesis received general distinction; however, the faculty did note in their remarks approving it that he limited his subject by focusing solely on immanent observation and criticism, which led to less rigorous elaboration, but due to his having to flee Czernowitz due to the Russian invasion, he had less access to literature on the subject. He returned to Czernowitz on 2 April. A few months later in June 1916, he came back to the city during the third occupation by the Russians. He was marked for deportation to Siberia, and so he fled the city by foot, going from Vienna to Ödenburg, eventually making his way to Haag am Hausruck in Upper Austria during a brief exile. He then advocated for a pro-Austria view during the war, and was recognized for his "merits" in promoting war bonds. Meanwhile, he was also listed in records as a refugee pastor for evacuated Bukovinians in upper Austria. He endorsed the Union of Bukovina with Romania in late 1918 alongside Alois Lebouton as a representative in the General Congress of Bukovina.
In 1919 Glondys became a doctor habilitate lecturing in epistemology and the history of philosophy at Chernivtsi University after returning to the city following its annexation by Romania. He also continued to write during this time, notably focusing on the topic of Bessarabian Germans, which he published through the Sibiu Deutsche Tagespost. He also held a series of summer courses in German at Hermannstadt during the summer, focusing on the problem of the psychic and the pursuit of truth while balancing exact science.
Priest of Brașov and interwar period
In June 1922 Glondys was elected city parish priest of Brașov (in German Kronstadt), arriving in the city on 7 June and being officially inaugurated the following day. He was addressed by District Dean Reichart-Zeiden, and his first pastoral act as priest was a benediction following the ceremony's end. During his time as parish priest, he continued to deliver scientific lectures, especially on determinism as a pedagogical problem. His lectures were sponsored by the Gustav Adolf Association, including at least one on Luke 17:5, where he probed and asked the congregation if prayer was still needed, whether they should pray this way, and if people even wanted it. He was also invited by the (German-Völkisch Continuing Education Association) to deliver sermons and lectures across Germany including at Leipzig, Halle, Berlin, and Dresden during 1924.