from January 2013 the two Provinces of Germany merged into one province called
German Province
The earliest extant Constitutions of the Carmelite Order, those of 1281, already show a German Province, eighth in precedence of ten Provinces. By 1294 it had been divided into the Lower and Upper German Provinces. During the first half of the 14th century the two Provinces were several times reunited and divided, probably because of the differences between Louis of Bavaria and the papacy, but in 1348 the division became definitive. The Province of Lower Germany extended over the Rhineland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
The Province with its principal convent in Cologne suffered less from the Reformation than its sister Province, and in Eberhard Billick, its Provincial, it provided the Church with an outstanding champion of the Catholic faith. The Thirty Years War delayed the revival of the Province, but at the cessation of hostilities it became possible to introduce the Stricter Observance, especially through the efforts of Antonin de la Charité, of the province of Touraine. By 1660 the Province had become completely reformed.
The sixteen convents of this flourishing province vanished without a trace in the Napoleonic suppression of 1803 and subsequently. Only in 1924, when the Province of The Netherlands repossessed our ancient church in Mainz, did a Carmelite presence return to these regions. Other foundations followed, and in 1969 the Lower Germany Province again became a reality. It has a mission in Camerun.
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from January 2013 the two Provinces of Germany merged into one province called German Province click here to know more about the German Province
In the earliest extant Constitutions of the Carmelite Order the German Province ranks eighth of ten Provinces. By 1294 it had been divided, probably only recently, into Lower and Upper Germany. In the first half of the 14th century this division was several times rescinded and renewed and became definite in 1348.
The Upper German Province extended over a vast territory comprising not only Eastern Germany but Bohemia (Czech Rep.), Austria, Hungary and Poland. This unmanageable mass was reduced in 1411 when the Province of Bohemia was constituted from the convents in Bohemia, Poland, Prussia, Hungary, Saxony and Thuringia. However, the Hussite wars disturbed this arrangement. In 1440 the houses remaining in Bohemia and those in Poland and Hungary reverted to the Province of Upper Germany. The houses in Saxony also became a separate Province. In 1462 the Province of Poland and Bohemia was reconstituted.
Of the two German Provinces Upper Germany suffered the most from the Protestant Reformation. Fourteen of its twenty-six convents were lost; the four Hungarian convents fell victim to the Turks after the battle of Mohacs (1526). The suppression of religious Orders by Napoleon in 1803 left only the house of Straubing, where the surviving religious were allowed to remain as long as they lived. Only Peter Heitzer remained when King Louis I of Bavaria in 1841 permitted the convent to be re-opened. From this single vocation the Province gradually revived and was again constituted in 1922. In 1951 the Province undertook an apostolate in Paranà, Brazil. This Province is also responsible for the Indian foundation which has seven convents founded during these last 20 years.
