Abstract
This paper attempts to look at the selected developmental tendencies of the history of German Protestant theology in connection with the wider historical events of the 20th century, bounded by the 1918-1989 period, which is called "short" compared to the more comprehensively definable 19th century. The relevance of the outlined relation is illustrated by a few exemplary remarks, first with regard to so-called dialectic theology, whose crisis, as well as the need for a radically new beginning caused by the shock of the individual self-determining will of the modern subject (permeated by the entire spiritual climate of Germany in the early 1920s) is noticed in its second part.
The last part is devoted to the theological contexts of the German evangelical theology after World War II, for which it is difficult to find a common denominator, but it does recognize three decisive developmental tendencies in particular for the period classified since the beginning of the 1960s - the emancipation of ethical theology from dogmatism, the re-historicization of theological consciousness, as well as a rethinking of anthropological themes advancing to fundamental theological sciences, and traditional confessional fixations going beyond the expected horizon with the intention of newly grasping the usual themes in the global perspective of ecumenical Christianity.