Neuburg upon the Danube

In the early 1520s, already the first reformatory congregations could be found in the principality of Palatinate-Neuburg. However, they did not rise in the capital of Neuburg, but in the rural towns such as Lauingen or Weiden. In Lauingen, the prior of the Augustinian monastery, Caspar Amman (d. 1524) needs to be mentioned above all, since his sermons in favour of the new doctrine even led to a report to the counts of the Palatinate and to a court case in Augsburg.

Counts Palatine Ottheinrich (1502–1559, count palatine 1505–1559, from 1556 also elector of the Palatinate) and Philip (1503–1548, count palatine 1505–1548) reacted to the new doctrines with two religious mandates in 1524 and 1526, in which they still rejected the new doctrine. The close ties with the Bavarian dukes, who were Ottheinrich’s brothers-in-law, also played a role.

It was not until 1539 that Ottheinrich turned to the Reformation and took part in the Ratisbon Religious Disputation of 1541 during which he held talks with the reformers present. This participation may have contributed to his decision to convert to the Protestant confession.

In 1542, the Reformation was implemented in consultation with the Nuremberg reformer Andreas Osiander (1498–1552). Osiander also wrote the new order of worship. The exterior sign of the Reformation was the pictorial decoration of the chapel of Neuburg Castle which had been erected shortly before 1543 and thus became the earliest Protestant church building in Germany.

In the Schmalkaldic War of 1546/47, Palatinate-Neuburg became an imperial possession, accompanied by a temporary return to the Catholic faith. Only with the return of Ottheinrich in 1552 was the Reformation re-established and, in 1554, new church regulations were published.