Auguste Zeiss-Horbach's detailed study of the processes that led to the introduction of the ordination of women in the Protestant Church of Bavaria (ELKB) traces the discussion from 1919, when the first female student was admitted to study at a Bavarian theology faculty, to 1996, when the ‘veto-paragraph’ allowing male pastors to block the appointment of woman to a parish was removed. She considers the discussions during the 1920s and 1930s as to the career paths that the Church might make available to young female theologians; the ELKB's decision in 1941 to define the office of Vikarin (‘female curate’); the regulations, enacted in 1944, which defined that ministry and distinguished it from that of the ordained (male) parish minister; and the subsequent discussions which led to the admission of women to the pastorate and their ordination in 1975. Particular attention is paid to the theological arguments which shaped these discussions, and Zeiss-Horbach also places developments in Bavaria in the wider German context of the other regional Churches (Landeskirchen) and their different associations. The resulting study shows the importance of a range of factors: political (especially the influence of National Socialism and of the Second World War), ecclesiastical, theological and personal. Underlying this account is a profound shift in theological attitudes, not only towards the ministry of women, but also towards the relationship between women and men.

After an introductory chapter, Zeiss-Horbach opens with a survey of the regulation of the ministry of female theologians – that is, women who had studied theology at university level, following the same course as that taken by men who were training to be pastors – across Germany. The discussion of women's ministry was triggered by the admission of these female students to theological faculties, and subsequently to church examinations, which then raised questions about the Churches’ responsibility to find employment for the women whose qualifications they had certified. In the 1930s these initial considerations became influenced by the National Socialist ideology of gender. The church policies of that regime tended to restrict the role of women; in contrast the Confessing Church and some Landeskirchen began to ordain – or at least recognise – women as ‘emergency pastors’ in parishes where male clergy had been called up. In 1943 the Church in Thüringen admitted women to the pastorate. After the Second World War, calls to admit women to the ministry of word and sacrament became more widespread, although this was largely understood as a ministry sui generis rather than leadership of a congregation. Each Landeskirche made its own decision about the ministries to which women were admitted and whether they were ordained or commissioned. Most required female theologians to be unmarried, and in general it was not until the 1970s that women were admitted to the pastorate on the same basis as men. The last Protestant Church in Germany to ordain women, Schaumburg-Lippe, made that decision only in 1991.

Bavaria largely fits this pattern, but women only received limited permission to preach and administer the sacraments in 1970 and until 1975, when full equivalence between men and women in ministry was achieved, its regulations were amongst the most conservative. Zeiss-Horbach traces this process in five chapters. She begins, in chapter iii, with the developments which, in 1944, led the ELKB to implement legal regulations for women's ministry, the revision of these in 1954, and the reception of these regulations in the period to 1970. Chapter iv explores the experiences of the women who ministered during this period, their motivation and their theological approach. Surprisingly, the ELKB was quick to allow women to take theological examinations: Hedwig Sanwald, the first female theology student in Bavaria, matriculated at the University of Erlangen in 1919, and took the Church's qualifying examinations in 1922 to become an RE teacher. Sanwald obtained a full post, but many of the first generation of female theologians struggled to find suitable work, finding posts as catechists or teachers, or in youth or women's work or in church administration, and not in parishes, as most had wished. In 1935, under the influence of National Socialism, the ELKB barred women from its theological examinations, although this decision was reversed in 1938. The discussions were characterised in Bavaria by the conviction – shared by the majority of the Vikarinnen themselves – that their ministry must be proper to their gender and that a woman should not be entrusted with running a congregation; nor should she preach or administer the sacraments.

A woman's office was defined as that of assistant to a pastor; the Vikarinnen were expected not only to complete the same studies as the men, but also to gain expertise in music, typing and stenography. The few women who found themselves in positions of leadership in a congregation were forced into constructions such as defining the worship that they led as ‘prayers’ rather than ‘divine service’ and the words that they spoke as an ‘address’ rather than a ‘sermon’. Zeiss-Horbach shows the difficulties which this caused for Lydia Schröder, who had taken her first theological examination in Mecklenburg, in the Confessing Church, and her second in Hanover, in 1940, where she had had responsibility for a parish. In 1943 she found herself an evacuee in Austria, in Klein Walsertal, where a community of evacuees from Rhineland and Westphalia came under the ELKB's care. Schröder was given responsibility for this community under the direction of a male pastor who could rarely visit. The first pastor with whom she worked was supportive; the second sought to restrict her ministry and questioned the care that she had taken to abide by the ELKB's restrictions on women's ministry. Schröder's case illustrates poignantly the tension between the women's experience and understanding of their vocation, and the sense of some male pastors that the Vikarinnen were seeking to claim authority for themselves. Zeiss-Horbach's discussion of the motivation and self-understanding of the Vikarinnen highlights their focus on the proclamation of the Gospel through word and deed, their sense of how the sacraments support this proclamation, and their understanding of their ministry as distinct from that of deaconesses. The Vikarinnen increasingly came to see the need for a ministry as partners alongside their male colleagues, and not as subordinate to them. Their experiences in ministry contributed to a revision of the theological understanding of the relationship between men and women.

The remaining chapters consider post-war developments. Chapter v analyses German-wide developments, specifically the failed attempts of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany to persuade its member Churches to take a united approach to the ministry of women. After renewed discussion in the 1960s, the ELKB passed new regulations in 1970 which satisfied no one: Vikarinnen could now apply to be admitted to the ministry of word and sacrament, but on the same basis as Prädikanten (lay preachers) who had little theological training. This was insulting to the highly trained Vikarinnen, but still displeased those who believed that women could not exercise this authority. The inconsistency across German led to complex situations. Fairy von Lilienfeld, ordained in the Church of Saxony in 1962, in 1965 became professor of the History and Theology of the Eastern Churches at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (the first woman to be appointed to a German professorship in theology). Until 1975 she was not permitted to preach or preside at university services. Women were finally admitted to the pastorate in the ELKB in 1975, with the provision of a veto by male clergy, and, initially, congregations who were opposed to the appointment of a woman. Chapter vi discusses the opponents of women's ordination, their role, and their reasons. Successive bishops were opposed to the ordination of women, and the significance of Hermann Dietzfelbinger, Bavarian Landesbischof 1955–75, in determining the ELKB's course cannot be underestimated. The study concludes with an account of the removal of the veto-paragraph in 1996 and a final resumé.

This is a fascinating study, which draws on an impressive range of archival sources. The main account is complemented by a CD-ROM including a further 155 pages of primary source materials. This is potentially a very useful resource, although its presentation as a PDF makes it difficult to access; it would have been helpful if the footnotes of the main text could have cross-referenced to the collection. There is much in this account that will resonate with the experiences of other Churches in Germany and elsewhere. However, there are notable differences. Zeiss-Horbach believes that for the German Churches the ordination of women brought with it a rethinking of theological anthropology. This has not been the case in, for example, the Church of England. One of the strengths of this work is its weaving together of theology and history: this is a study of historical theology as well as of church history. It is a study which leaves me deeply aware that a great deal of work needs to be done if the stories of the pioneering women in other Churches are not to be lost.