(German: Los-von-Rom-Bewegung) was a religious movement founded in Austria by the Pan-German politician Georg Ritter von Schönerer aimed at conversion of all Roman Catholic German-speaking people in Austria to Lutheran Protestantism or, in some cases, an Old Catholic Church.
Only since Emperor Joseph II enacted the Patent of Tolerance in 1781, the exercise of religion was granted again to Reformed Christians and Lutherans.
In reaction, the ultra-Nationalists promoted an oppositional movement that called for secession from Catholicism and resistance to its allegedly "alien" influence.
Many of them were due to a general dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Church, which was largely viewed as monarchist and anti-progressive.
The Catholic Church was at first hesitant to react, but from 1902 onward, large press campaigns were undertaken, and administrative measures were enacted to slow down the conversion movement.
As a result from the "Away from Rome" movement, the Protestant churches in Austria fell to an extent under the influence of Pan-German nationalists and anti-Semites.